Background
She also wrote a book about her mother, who was beaten to death by a man she had had a brief relationship with, entitled Att komma till ro medical det allra värsta (Coming to terms with the worst).
She also wrote a book about her mother, who was beaten to death by a man she had had a brief relationship with, entitled Att komma till ro medical det allra värsta (Coming to terms with the worst).
She has an Master of Arts in Social Anthropology (University of Stockholm), and is a doctoral student at Lund University. In the 1980s Östergren helped launch a feminist self-defense movement in Sweden. She was involved with the National Organisation for Women's Shelters and Roks.
She is the author of Slå tillbaka!: Handbok i självförsvar (Fight back!.
A handbook of self-defence) published in 1993. Her involvement with teaching men self-defence made her a controversial figure with radical feminists, and the rift became complete when she published an article in Bang magazine in which she questioned whether all pornography was essentially misogynous.
In particular she has challenged their views on sex, violence and power, pointing out that violence in lesbian relationships did not differ significantly from that in heterosexual relationships. From its origin, Östergren was one of the few people who publicly challenged the radical feminist position on prostitution which culminated in the sexköpslagen (Sex Purchase Acting) 1999.
She has been an advocate for the decriminalisation of prostitution.
In 2006 she published Porr, horor och feminister (Pornography, whores and other feminists), an analysis of three decades of Swedish policy on pornography and prostitution, and a critique of radical feminist sexual politics. s Research Synden ideologiserad. Modern svensk prostitutionspolicy som identitetsoch trygghetsskapare. Master of Arts Thesis Department Anthropology, Stockholm University 2003.
Her research is titled "The State of Feminism". Östergren is considered a major critic of radical feminism in Sweden. In 2008 she published an edited volume F-ordet: Mot en ny feminism (The F -word: Towards a new feminism), bringing together writers and commentators to provide new perspectives on old feminist issues.
Mot en ny feminism, Alfabeta, 2008.
She was active as an instructor in the organisation Pandora kvinnligt försvar (Pandora Women"s Defense) and ran the Kung Fu club in the kajukenbo style in an effort to help women defend themselves against sexual assault.