Laura Saarenmaa

Women’s magazines in the Nordic style: Politics, politicians and the welfare state

The article explores the engagement of women’s magazines with the political public sphere in Finland. The material for the study consists of the political content of three long-lived (1968–2008) women’s magazines that are still in existence. Women’s magazines in Finland have supported the rise of women in power from the 1960s onwards. Consequently, women’s magazines are being utilized in political performance in ways that should be put under critical scrutiny rather than bypassed as mere political advertising. Theoretically, the article draws on the debates around the personalization of politics and the emergence of celebrity politics. Furthermore, in studying these women’s magazines, the article highlights the particularity of the Nordic context.

The Cosmopolitan Imagination in the Cold War Context: Finnish Fashion Models and National Fantasies of International Success

Abstract This article explores fashion modeling as an area of interest to the national media. While much research has been done on modeling within fashion theory, my focus is on the role of models in national self-definition, and on the national fantasies and ideals of “making it” internationally that were attached to young women working abroad as models in the 1960s. I address these ideals in the historical context of the postwar modernization process and the geopolitical position of Finland as a neutral territory between the East and the West during the Cold War period. This article extends the existing theorizations on modeling by investigating the notion of cosmopolitanism as a structure of feeling.The research material consists of a collection of interviews published in the Finnish womens magazine Anna between 1963 and 1973.

Candid Conversations: Politics and politicians in playboy magazine

It is a common assertion that Playboy magazine is being ‘read for the articles’. However, there has been relatively little academic interest in what ‘the articles’ in Playboy have actually been about. This paper explores the political content of Playboy magazine, focusing on interviews with politicians, academics and writers discussing politics and current issues between 1963 and 1983. The study material consists of a total of 35 interviews published in Playboy, in the Playboy Interview format, combining an introductory section and a lengthy question-and-answer section. The selection of the interviews is based, firstly, on the interviewees’ role in politics and, secondly, on the subject matter of the interviews. The article illustrates that Playboy magazine provides plenty of material for research purposes other than previously highlighted questions of sexuality, gender and consumption.

Pin Ups and Political Passions: Citizenship Address in Post-War Men’s Magazines

Men’s magazines have mostly been analysed in terms of representations of male sexuality and heteronormative, masculine identity. However, the post-war Finnish men’s magazines of the late 1940s and 1950s have rather been publications with a political agenda. Men’s magazines have participated in the ongoing political debates and addressed their implied male readers as citizens. Moreover, men’s magazines challenged the dominant, negative representations of Finnish men as violent drunks by outlining the idea of “common gentleman”. Theoretically, the chapter draws on Robert Asen’s (Communication Theory 10(4): 424–446, 2000) critical redefinition of Nancy Fraser’s concept of counterpublics. Rather than assuming that counterpublics are limited to race, class, gender or sexuality as a historically dominated or oppressed social category, Asen suggests that counterpublics can emerge in any social context. This chapter argues for the counterpublic functions of men’s magazines in a specific temporal context, post-war Finland. In these turbulent years, men’s magazines provided a forum for male fantasies in terms of sexuality and engagement, as well as politically oriented visions of the future.

Between Sovietism and Americanization

During the Cold War, along with the Americanization of its popular culture, Finland was also heavily exposed to Soviet ideological influences, including in relation to notions of desirable femininity. From the late 1960s onwards, Soviet influences can be seen in Finnish public discourses on fashion and decorative femininity. Soviet ideals are also reflected in the emphasis on gender neutrality and the delayed emergence of second-wave feminism in Finland. This article discusses the conflicting discourses of Soviet and “Western” ideals of femininity through the controversial public persona of Finnish television celebrity and fashion icon Lenita Airisto. It is argued that the hostile attitudes toward Airisto during the 1970s reflect the legacies of pro-Soviet politics, which continue to have relevance in the conceptions of Finnish feminism and ideal femininity today. At the same time, the article shows that a shift towards liberal feminism is clearly noticeable since the 1990s in Finland. Therefore, it is suggested that the Finnish case illustrates the enduring cultural legacies of competing Cold War ideals of femininity, as well as the complexity of negotiating these ideals at the border between the two opposing blocs.