Chapter Broadcasting Communist Morality: Sex Education in Soviet Latvia

Mass media was an important technology of sexual enlightenment in the Brezhnev-era USSR. In the Latvian SSR, sex education materials positioned medical experts working within the state healthcare system as the chief authority on matters related to both sexual health and sexual morality. Expert knowl...

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Մատենագիտական մանրամասներ
Հիմնական հեղինակ: Hearne, Siobhán
Ձևաչափ: Online
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Հրապարակվել է: Bloomsbury Academic 2024
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Առցանց հասանելիություն:https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/92128
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author Hearne, Siobhán
author_browse Hearne, Siobhán
author_facet Hearne, Siobhán
author_sort Hearne, Siobhán
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description Mass media was an important technology of sexual enlightenment in the Brezhnev-era USSR. In the Latvian SSR, sex education materials positioned medical experts working within the state healthcare system as the chief authority on matters related to both sexual health and sexual morality. Expert knowledge was entangled with broader political programs, as doctors lent their authoritative voices to further state goals, such as prosecuting those who transmitted VD ‘maliciously’ and addressing declining fertility. In this context, medical experts played a key role in the articulation of specificspecificspecificspecific ideas about sexual health that aligned with the pro-natalist priorities of the Soviet government and addressed demographic decline in the western republics of the USSR. The role assigned to doctors at the Latvian Republican VD Dispensary required them to step outside their area of expertise (venereology) and discuss a broad range of issues related to sexual morality and sexual behaviour. Despite the push for mass sex education with the goal of reducing rates of VD, the messages pushed in articles, brochures, lectures, radio broadcasts, and films were often in conflict with the broader public health outcomes that state official officials set out to achieve. In casting syphilis and gonorrhoea as illnesses contracted primarily by amoral and antisocial individuals and constantly reminding their audience about the criminalisation of VD transmission, the sex education materials prepared by staffstaffstaff at Latvia’s Republican VD Dispensary disincentivised seeking treatment within the state healthcare system and likely contributed to high rates of venereal infection
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1404022024-07-12T04:05:23Z Chapter Broadcasting Communist Morality: Sex Education in Soviet Latvia Hearne, Siobhán Sex education; Soviet Latvia; mass media thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBC Cultural and media studies::JBCT Media studies thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBF Social and ethical issues::JBFW Sex and sexuality, social aspects Mass media was an important technology of sexual enlightenment in the Brezhnev-era USSR. In the Latvian SSR, sex education materials positioned medical experts working within the state healthcare system as the chief authority on matters related to both sexual health and sexual morality. Expert knowledge was entangled with broader political programs, as doctors lent their authoritative voices to further state goals, such as prosecuting those who transmitted VD ‘maliciously’ and addressing declining fertility. In this context, medical experts played a key role in the articulation of specificspecificspecificspecific ideas about sexual health that aligned with the pro-natalist priorities of the Soviet government and addressed demographic decline in the western republics of the USSR. The role assigned to doctors at the Latvian Republican VD Dispensary required them to step outside their area of expertise (venereology) and discuss a broad range of issues related to sexual morality and sexual behaviour. Despite the push for mass sex education with the goal of reducing rates of VD, the messages pushed in articles, brochures, lectures, radio broadcasts, and films were often in conflict with the broader public health outcomes that state official officials set out to achieve. In casting syphilis and gonorrhoea as illnesses contracted primarily by amoral and antisocial individuals and constantly reminding their audience about the criminalisation of VD transmission, the sex education materials prepared by staffstaffstaff at Latvia’s Republican VD Dispensary disincentivised seeking treatment within the state healthcare system and likely contributed to high rates of venereal infection 2024-07-12T04:05:22Z 2024-07-12T04:05:22Z 2024-07-11T13:18:04Z 2023 chapter https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/92128 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/140402 eng open access image/jpeg Attribution 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/92128/1/Bookshelf_NBK601391.pdf Bloomsbury Academic f75587da-2374-4722-9d42-9fffa7fa3f92 Technologies of Mind and Body in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc f6fcd900-36e2-4bc9-939e-ad820802e21f d859fbd3-d884-4090-a0ec-baf821c9abfd Wellcome 15 Wellcome Trust Wellcome 10.13039/100010269 open access
spellingShingle Sex education; Soviet Latvia; mass media
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBC Cultural and media studies::JBCT Media studies
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBF Social and ethical issues::JBFW Sex and sexuality, social aspects
Hearne, Siobhán
Chapter Broadcasting Communist Morality: Sex Education in Soviet Latvia
title Chapter Broadcasting Communist Morality: Sex Education in Soviet Latvia
title_full Chapter Broadcasting Communist Morality: Sex Education in Soviet Latvia
title_fullStr Chapter Broadcasting Communist Morality: Sex Education in Soviet Latvia
title_full_unstemmed Chapter Broadcasting Communist Morality: Sex Education in Soviet Latvia
title_short Chapter Broadcasting Communist Morality: Sex Education in Soviet Latvia
title_sort chapter broadcasting communist morality sex education in soviet latvia
topic Sex education; Soviet Latvia; mass media
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBC Cultural and media studies::JBCT Media studies
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBF Social and ethical issues::JBFW Sex and sexuality, social aspects
topic_facet Sex education; Soviet Latvia; mass media
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBC Cultural and media studies::JBCT Media studies
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBF Social and ethical issues::JBFW Sex and sexuality, social aspects
url https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/92128
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