Four years ago, then-prosecutor Paulina Brandberg wrote a post on Twitter in which she stated that she suffered from a phobia of bananas.
Little did she know then, that a minor drive in the media several years later would be about her fear of the yellow fruit.
But possibly she can gain from it in the long run.
Against stupidity even the gods fight in vain, my old grandmother used to say. The dumbing down of media reporting around the bananas is possibly proof that she was right. I’m a journalist – I recognize the giggle value in the story. It’s quirky, it’s funny and it’s a joke. Something you talk about in the coffee room. For each top politician who speaks out on the issue, the story also grows. Of course, some of them would rather talk about bananas – than about real problems.
The Minister for Equality suffers like tens of thousands of other Swedes from a phobia. Paulina Brandberg’s phobia is bananas. She is afraid of them. Don’t want to see them, let alone eat them. She simply has a morbid fear of bananas.
Of course just bullshit
The minor media frenzy about bananas began when SVT’s comedy program Svenska Nyheter drew attention to Equality Minister Paulina Brandberg’s phobia of bananas. After that, Expressen picked up the story and dug further. After requesting documents from the government office, the newspaper was able to reveal how staff are forced to “banana-proof” premises that the Minister for Gender Equality is to visit. On a trip to New York, the assistant to a disabled person was forced to climb 46 flights of stairs to secure a room.
It really took off when the Social Democrats’ legal policy spokesperson Teresa Carvalho expressed support for her political opponent, and admitted that she too suffered from banana phobia. A while later it was reported that Finance Minister Svantesson raged against the media reporting, and also the Liberal party leader Johan Pehrson expressed support for his party colleague. The reporting has been going on for a few days and has escalated during Thursday. But of course it’s all just nonsense.
Brandberg can win
There is no political conflict. No one from the opposition has directed objective criticism at the minister. On the contrary, they seem to agree that the phobia of bananas is troublesome. There is no editorial board that has published any evidence that the phobia affected the minister’s ability to perform his profession. There is also no evidence that it is Paulina Brandberg who personally instructed someone to make the rooms banana-proof. It is more likely an ambitious employee.
During the day, Paulina Brandberg has put the lid on and does not answer questions about bananas from the media. Presumably, she would rather talk about what she wants to do about honor oppression, and how she intends to fight men’s violence against women. There is, of course, relevant criticism to be directed at politics and questions to be asked – instead, today everything is about bananas.
But possibly Brandberg can win at the printers in the long run. Former left-wing leader Gudrun Schyman, after a number of articles in the 90s, finally came out and talked about her alcoholism. Schyman became popular. Phobias and other mental illness, like alcoholism, are truly nothing to play with for those affected. Many people know how hard it is. By telling about personal weaknesses that many can relate to, politicians can be perceived as human. Possibly, Paulina Brandberg can gain trust by telling about her weakness.