Personal advertising and dating culture in World War II Finland

Bibliographic Data

ID12447592
AuthorsIlari Taskinen (0000-0002-0188-9273, Tampere University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume29
Issue4
Pages482-505
Publication date2023-12-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe History of the Family (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1081-602X • E-ISSN: 1873-5398
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1081602x.2023.2286959
OpenAlexW4389298532
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited27

I analyze how personal advertising affected marital and sexual culture in Finland during World War II. The practice of seeking intimate company through newspapers was nearly non-existent in Finland before the war, but in wartime grew into a nationwide mass phenomenon due to the gender imbalance caused by men’s departure for the front. Wartime personal advertising was different than that in peacetime. Unlike the typical situation, when advertisements are mostly used by the middle-aged, most of the advertisers during the war were young adults in the prime age of courtship. Their active advertising accounted for the high marriage rates during the war and had a liberating effect on Finnish sexual culture. The active posting of personal advertisements by women was also noteworthy. Traditionally, they were expected to passively await men’s initiatives in the marital market. However, during the war, women advertised in the same numbers as men, indicating that the freedom offered by advertisements was particularly important for them. Nevertheless, the transformation of sexual culture is not explicitly evident in the advertisements. The Finnish personal advertising culture was unique in that even adults undoubtedly seeking serious relationships only expressed wishes for correspondence in advertisements due to the conservative sexual culture of the country. The case illustrates challenges in using personal advertisements in the historical analysis of mate selection

Advertising · Business · Courtship · Marital status · Newspaper · Peacetime · Political science · Population · Sociology · World War II · Demography · European history and politics · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Psychology

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