The poet Louise Halvardsson has a close relationship with the River Assman in Tranemo Municipality in western Sweden. She believed she was asexual, but discovered instead that she was river-sexual. This is reported by Expressen.

“One really becomes embraced from all directions at once, it is an absolutely fantastic feeling.”

Louise moved to Uddebo in Tranemo Municipality in the summer of 2022 and bathed daily in the River Assman. In the evenings, when she was going to bed, she could lie there longing to meet the river again.

“It was something more than simply liking to swim. I noticed that I felt a tingling in my body, that I wanted to feel the water against my skin. That I truly wanted to be close to the river. I felt that bubbling anticipation one feels when one is in love.”

Louise tells Smålands Dagblad that she had not planned to become a year-round bather, but that the river had a strong attraction. She continued bathing even when temperatures were below freezing.

“It is an incredible rush! Better than sex with humans, better than anything. Nothing surpasses the total shock when one enters the water and then, when one comes up again and the blood rushes through the body. One truly feels high from the experience,” she says.

That side of her had been dead for a long time. She had not had a partner for several years and believed she had entered the menopause. That such feelings were over.

“And then it was as though the river simply awakened all these feelings back to life again, so it was absolutely fantastic.”

When she later moved away from the river for a period, the longing became enormous, and she began to think of it as a person. She filled glass jars with water and brought them home.

Then she began to ponder: Is this normal? Can one be in love with and attracted to a river? On Google she found other performance artists with intimate relationships with nature and came across the term “ecosex”.

For her, ecosexuality is no stranger than the existence of other sexual orientations.

“Technically speaking, how one does it, it is very intimate to ask someone how they have sex. It is very individual, and surely varies among ecosexuals as well.”

She describes the relationship as free of demands and non-judgemental, saying that the river allows her to be exactly as she is. But although she is also attracted to other rivers, Assman is number one.

“There is something about the shape, it is rather narrow, but also curved. It has a special attraction, it was love at first sight. There was mystery, a special lustre, that feeling in the water and the tranquillity of the entire place.”

What does she think the river feels about her in return?

“That it is nice to meet me as well, and it feels that way. It feels as though the water is very friendly, enveloping and embracing. One truly feels held in a way that a human being cannot hold you.”

Having ecosex is not something that harms nature, says Louise Halvardsson, but rather a beautiful interaction through which one comes close to nature. She says it makes her care more about it.

“If I make love with my river, then naturally I want it to be clean and have a good pH value and to be well. Then I also become more inclined to find out how the river is doing.”

According to a local environmental strategist, Assman is doing quite well, although there is some mercury in it.

How does she feel about others exposing it to environmentally harmful things that affect it negatively?

“Well, then I become very sad and feel that it is not respectful.”

For Louise Halvardsson, the book “Åsexuell” and her stage art connected to it have been a way of exploring her own sexuality. Among other things, she explores consent and jealousy — which can arise in all relationships.

“I try to be accepting, yet I still feel jealousy when others bathe in the river.”

After previously being interviewed by Borås Tidning, the reactions have been massive.

“Unfortunately, there are some who want to drown me in the river, think I am insane, and want to lock me up in a psychiatric hospital.”

In addition to the hateful comments, she has received much love that has outweighed them. Several people have realised that they are ecosexuals and have wanted to send photographs when they are “spending time with their rivers”.

Will Louise and her river ever break up?

“No, that would probably only happen if it were to die and dry up completely or something like that,” she tells Expressen.