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

Dados Bibliográficos

ID22644470
AutoresAmie Bingham (0000-0002-2256-9260, Institute of Contemporary History, autor correspondente), Adrian Bingham
Ano2005
Volume48
Fascículo4
Páginas1055-1076
Data de publicação2005-12-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Historical Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0018246x05004917
OpenAlexW2106299915
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas8

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