The British Popular Press and Venereal Disease During the Second World War

Datos Bibliográficos

ID22644470
AutoresAmie Bingham (0000-0002-2256-9260, Institute of Contemporary History, autor de correspondencia), Adrian Bingham
Año2005
Volumen48
Número4
Páginas1055-1076
Fecha de publicación2005-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Historical Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0018246x05004917
OpenAlexW2106299915
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8

This article examines the role of the British popular press in the campaign against venereal diseases during the Second World War. Concern about the rapidly rising incidence of syphilis and gonorrhoea prompted the Ministry of Health to ask the press to carry a series of informative advertisements about VD, but the Newspaper Proprietors' Association refused to publish them until they had been made less explicit. A major controversy erupted in Fleet Street as the two most popular dailies, the Mirror and the Express , took opposing views about the suitability of ‘family newspapers’ educating the public about sexual health. While the Express refused to print even the edited VD advertisements, the Mirror broke away from the popular press's tradition of evasiveness on this issue and discussed the problem in unusual detail. The Mirror 's bold approach won widespread public support, with investigations by Mass-Observation and the Wartime Social Survey finding that information about VD was, in general, gratefully received by a public hungry for more knowledge about sex. Although many editors continued to treat the subject very cautiously, the article argues that the campaigns run by the Mirror and the Ministry of Health marked an important moment in the public discussion of sex and encouraged the belief that all citizens should be sexually informed.

Censorship · Christian ministry · Economic history · Family medicine · Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) · Library science · Mass media · Media studies · Newspaper · Political science · Politics · Popular history · Public health · Public opinion · Publication · Sociology · Subject (documents) · Syphilis · European history and politics · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Medicine