The female image in journalism during the Khrushchev thaw period (based on the magazine "Motherland")

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The female image in journalism during the Khrushchev thaw period (based on the magazine “Motherland”)

Fisenko T.V

National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Politechnic Institute”

Hilenko O.I.

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

The research paper deals with the reflection of the female image in journalistic writings of the Khrushchev thaw period. The most stereotypical images were highlighted and quantitative analysis was conducted to investigate the semantic load of the female image in the essays. The research methodology is based on the results of the content-analytical studies: 60 essays in the “Motherland” magazine (1953-1964) were explored to calculate the quantitative characteristics of using different female images. Most often, the authors refer to the images of female workers in the description of Soviet women. Such traits as modesty, diligence, patriotism, etc. are positive characteristics. Images of specialists and even mothers have identical accents. The latter is often identified with the homeland, parallels are drawn - children's love for their Motherland as a mother. In contrast to Soviet women, foreigners are not so exaggerated, they look like materialistic natives of Western countries. They are interested in fashion, beauty, specifically women's roles in society, not hard physical labor. In the description of their images there are accents related to appearance, beauty, work on vocation, and not because of the duty to serve the country. Unlike Soviet women, the issues ofpatriotism and the social basis of their daily lives are hardly raised.

Based on the publications of the periodical, the image of a woman from the period of mid- 50 's - first half of the `60s of the XX century is covered. The influence of the country liberalization during the Khrushchev Thaw on the creation of the female image in periodicals is to humanize the images of women workers and professionals who combine the traits ofpatriots with sensitivity andfriendliness. A conclusion is made regarding the characteristics of the image of a woman, which was reflected on the pages of the “Motherland” magazine.

Key words: gender, woman, journalism, essay, Khrushchev thaw, “Motherland”.

Фісенко Т.В., Гіленко О.І. ОБРАЗ ЖІНКИ У ПУБЛІЦИСТИЦІ ПЕРІОДУ ХРУЩОВСЬКОЇ ВІДЛИГИ (НА ПРИКЛАДІ ЖУРНАЛУ «БАТЬКІВЩИНА»)

Стаття присвячена дослідженню відображенню жіночого образу в публіцистичних творах періоду хрущовської відлиги. Було виділено найбільш стереотипні образи та проведено кількісний аналіз для дослідження смислового навантаження жіночого образу в публіцистиці. Методологія дослідження базується на результатах змістовно-аналітичних досліджень: досліджено 60 нарисів у журналі «Батьківщина» (1953-1964) для розрахунку кількісних характеристик використання різних жіночих образів. Найчастіше в описі радянських жінок автори посилаються на образи робітниць. До позитивних характеристик належать такі риси, як скромність, працьовитість, патріотизм тощо. Образи фахівчинь і навіть матерів мають однакові акценти. Останні часто ототожнюються з батьківщиною, проводяться паралелі - любов дітей до Батьківщини як до матері. На противагу радянським жінкам, іноземки зображені не так звеличено, вони виглядають як матеріалістично налаштовані уродженки країн Заходу. Їх цікавить мода, краса, питомо жіночі ролі у суспільстві, а не важка фізична праця. У описі їхніх образів є акценти, пов'язані із зовнішнім виглядом, красою, роботою за покликанням, а не через обов'язок служіння країні. Майже не порушуються питання патріотичності, соціального підґрунтя їхньої повсякденності, на відміну від радянських жінок..

На основі публікацій періодичного видання висвітлено образ жінки періоду середини 50-х - першої половини 60-х років ХХ ст. Вплив лібералізації країни під час хрущовської відлиги на створення жіно-чого образу в періодичних виданнях полягає в гуманізації образів робітниць і професіоналок, які поєд-нують риси патріотки з чуйністю і доброзичливістю. Зроблено висновок щодо особливостей образу жінки, який знайшов відображення на сторінках журналу «Батьківщина».

Ключові слова: стать, жінка, журналістика, нарис, хрущовська відлига, «Батьківщина».

The problem statement

The historical period of the country always has an impact on gender images formation and stereotypes. Particularly illustrative are the examples of countries that do not currently exist in the former membership, such as the USSR, which split into 15 countries. The postwar years became a new heyday in the history of the then socialist state when there were attempts to reform it in the direction of liberalization, relative democratization, and humanization of political and social life. female image journalism khrushchev

The period of significant changes in the postwar USSR history is considered to be the so-called “Khrushchev thaw”, the beginning of which is associated with the death of Stalin in 1953, and the end - with Brezhnev coming to power in 1964.

The study of women in society plays an important role in forming a holistic view of society. Soviet periodicals, aimed at a wide but educated audience, represent, among other things, the ideology that was introduced concerning women. A striking example of such a periodical in Ukraine was the literary magazine “Motherland”, which was published in Kyiv after World War II. In this magazine, unlike other press, the publications touched on the various realities of Soviet life in different republics and portrayed Soviet people in their daily lives.

Analysis of recent research and publications

Ukrainian and foreign researchers in their works touched related aspects of gender issues in history and media. Among Ukrainian researchers, the female topic is studied in various contexts. Thus, the publicist O. Styazhkina in her work [14] touches on the place of women in the cultural space of Ukraine in the second half of the twentieth century. Based on the involvement of a wide source base, the author presents the image of a Soviet woman in the 50's and 80's.

K. Gusarova in her article [8] focuses on the appearance of women in the Soviet-era based on materials from periodicals, brochures, etc. of the Soviet period. Y. Gradskova [7] concentrates on creating the image of a woman based on interviews with women, who lived in Soviet times. Therefore, historians study women in the context of the Soviet era.

The international background of the research is presented by the studies of M. Buckley [3], I. Gewinner [6], L. Atwood [1], and others.

A wide range of issues related to our study has been raised in the book “Women and ideology in the Soviet Union” [3]. The author outlines the fact, that in the postwar years the female question was rediscovered, and sociologists began to research it actively. In particular, they investigate domestic work, the distribution of responsibilities and find a problem in the extremely unequal distribution of labor with a significantly greater burden on women.

Another research paper [6] focuses on the role of women in Soviet society in the 1970s, which was formed by the press. In addition to the function of creating reality through printed images, the magazines focused on the formation and maintenance of the real Soviet woman image. The goal was to form the Soviet stereotype of a worker and a mother, which was based not at all on the need for a sudden egalitarian gender policy on the part of the Soviet government, but on the need for urgent recovery of the country's economy. However, L. Attwood [1] recalls that the Soviet Union was not the only state that faced the confusion of gender roles as a result of the war and industrial revolution.

The research goal is to report the coverage of the female image, which was created in the Soviet press in the mid-50's - the first half of the `60s in the USSR. The work is based on materials presented in “Motherland” - the literary-artistic and sociopolitical magazine of Ukrainian writers.

The research methods used in this study are

a) general theoretical methods, namely analysis, synthesis, and comparison. They were applied to study the journalistic texts, determine their stylistic features, historical context, and realities of the time;

b) the monitoring method allowed to create a sample of publications of the required period; c) content-analysis and quantitative analysis appeared to be effective in an in-depth examination of the journalistic texts

The main purpose of the content analysis of the magazine “Motherland” was to obtain objective information about the specifics of women's issues and gender stereotypes coverage.

Document analysis was used as a method of data collection, quantitative and qualitative methods, as well as techniques of traditional and formalized document analysis were consistently applied at different stages of the research. Data analysis was performed by statistical methods, which included descriptive statistics, statistical analysis of relationships and dependencies. The units of observation were journalistic materials in the issues of the magazine “Motherland” for 1953-1964, with contexts illustrating gender, gender issues and prospects, practices, and stereotypes.

The results and discussion

Most publications that contain female images are identified as positive and balanced, which testifies to the life-affirming spirit of the works in which gender issues are presented. At the same time, many journalistic materials with gender contexts are “embedded” in social issues.

The authors' intentions towards women are relatively calm, such that they do not demand, encourage, warn or discredit. The difference between intentions for an abstract woman or a woman in publications is almost indistinguishable from articulations about a particular woman, the object of the publication. There is a slight difference in the depth of the analysis of the current situation with the “real” woman and the people around her. The authors of the journalistic texts try to shed more light on the problematic meaning of the gender context when it comes to the “alive” female image. For example, G. Komlev's essay “Red fields” [9] depicts the collective image of milkmaids who make mistakes in their work due to ignorance, but later correct themselves because they are interested in achieving high performance by the farm. Milkmaid Maria Kapusta is separated from them, she sincerely loves animals and understands them. Her image is distinguished precisely by the humanization of work duties, which are performed not automatically, but at the call of the heart.

Figure 1. Illustrations to the essay "Nova Kakhovka" [12, p. 161, 171], female laborers

Gender issues, gender contexts, and gender objects are positioned by the authors of journalistic materials mainly as containing a certain problem situation. It seems that the problems of gender asymmetry and discrimination are explicitly or latently based on the plot of the essay. We see a similar example in V. Vrublevsky's essay “Metal of Ukraine” [16], the main conflict of which is connected with the engineer Zoya Kuznetsova. The girl came to work at the factory immediately after graduating from university, so has no experience. Even though the conditions at work are significantly different from the knowledge taught to students, the author constantly emphasizes the unprofessionalism and superiority of the heroine. On the opposite side are her male colleagues, who “did not insult” her and tried to “re-educate”. At the end of the essay, Zoe changes under the influence of factory workers and admits her mistakes.

During the construction of the tools of content analysis, a hypothesis was put forward about the presence of such stereotypical constructions of the female image in “Motherland” magazine: mother, hero, thief, “star”, activist, beauty, professional, expert, housewife, politician, worker.

The results of the quantitative analysis of 60 essays in the magazine (see table 1) showed that the most popular image is a working woman. The main difference between the images of a professional and a worker is their qualification. Although the Soviet Union declared gender equality and access to education for all, women were more likely to stay in low-paid jobs that did not require special knowledge or skills. In addition, the Soviet woman was not freed from the traditional gender roles of wife and mother, although they receded into the background compared to her achievements in the field of labor for the benefit of the country.

A striking example is O. Nosenko's essay “The mighty lighthouse on the Dnieper” [10], which contains portrait sketches of four heroes of socialist labor, three of whom are men. The description of only one heroine, Halyna Bryzhak, shows a striking difference from her colleagues. In one of the first sentences, the author mentions that the woman recently became a mother, and only then retells her career and the path to the title of the heroine of labor.

The story of another professional in P. Orovetsky's essay “Kagarlyk catches up with America” [11] looks opposed, as it depicts a woman involved in the party leadership. It is noteworthy that she holds the position of only the second deputy secretary, which is emphasized at the very beginning of the story. In addition, the plot of the story also differs: it begins with a description of a photo of a beautiful woman in a newspaper, which is not very typical against the background of the further development of the plot around the agricultural achievements of the city of Kagarlyk. The main character, the director Maria Gudz, is depicted as emphasizing the idealized forerunner of production. She solves all work problems easily, she is proud of her land as a patriot.

Table 1

Stereotypes of the female image in “Motherland11 magazine

Despite the secondary image of the mother in comparison with other social roles, the authors sometimes make accentuated digressions, and dedicate quite eloquent sketches to motherhood [5, p. 187]:

“The image of Clytemnestra Eichleruvna becomes a tragic generalization of mothers who pay with the blood of their children for "sung in poems" military "valor" of commanders.”

In contrast to the tragic and heroic image, V. Berezhny [2, p. 155] depicts a touching scene of a mother saying goodbye to her young daughter. His heroine Maria Bilachka has to go to work in the United States to help her family, but instead finds herself in poverty and cannot return. Throughout the essay, the author pays much attention to the experiences of a woman and her longing for her daughter, who grows up without her, graduates, and gets married. The scene of the meeting after 20 years of separation is depicted by the author with special care and emotion:

“She raised her tearful eyes, and her gaze met her daughter's. It was unspeakably native ... Yes, it's her! Although she hadn't seen her for almost twenty years, she would have recognized her anywhere, she would have recognized her among thousands! It is as if her daughter's face appears through the fog. From a small, childish memory that she draws, she becomes an adult in a few seconds. Her eyes, eyebrows, lips ... “My daughter!” “Mother!”. They stood, hugging tightly, clinging to each other, and the years of separation fell at their feet like a withered leaf.”

It should be noted that the authors often intertwine the image of the mother with the image of the Motherland, and even humanize the image of the city, which shelters them, but remains alien [15, p. 188]:

“So, when our boys managed to christen her Yokaga-mama, she just smiled sweetly with her lights from the shore. Moreover, when we left the raid and moored to the berth, the lights, so friendly and desirable from afar, turned out to be a sham cold. Sometimes something insignificant. It may be too subjective, but being on Japanese soil, where figurative thinking is respected, the impression will be left by Yokohama, I will also say in the Japanese style: night Yokohama is a lush flower chrysanthemum in the arms of a boa constrictor.”

However, the authors of the magazine refer to the image of beauty very infrequently, apparently considering this feature unimportant for a Soviet woman. Therefore, more often on the pages of publications, you can find a description of beautiful foreigners, but this image is not always positive [13, p. 184]:

“I mentioned it during a conversation with a blond, clear-eyed girl. Her name was Eileen. She looks a little over twenty years old, works as a secretary-typist in an educational organization in Toronto. Eileen still has a very short biography, and the authorities have already made money imprint on her.”

According to the authors of some essays, women are emotional no matter what social roles they play: socially positive, negative, neutral, balanced, and so on. Images of women are engraved in folk legends and become a demonstration of the dichotomy of their nature. Thus, in the same essay, there are two opposed images - the heroine and the thief [17, p. 105]. The author first describes an island named after a girl:

“Here, near Kiliya, we were shown a legendary green island with a maiden name - Mashenka. Fishermen from Kiliya sang a wonderful song about a Russian girl who was captured by the Turks. The girl decided to choose death rather than captivity. Legend says that in the place where she jumped from janissary's boat into the water, a green island called by fishermen Mashenka rose. People believe that this island infuses a mysterious power to those who love freedom and justice.”

In contrast to the heroine, the image ofthe Romanian girl Mariora, who lost the national avenger Terente, is depicted [17, p. 107]:

“Fishermen told, that someone has sent him a beautiful but treacherous girl Mariora, who discovered the secret that near Mashenka island Terente was omnipotent and invulnerable. She lured him to her house and handed him over to the gendarmes. Terente was executed in Bucharest.”

Foreignwomenwere usuallyportrayedin amuchless favorable position than Soviet citizens. For example, reflections in K. Dembnytsky's essay about Algeria [4, p. 188] end with the following disappointing conclusion:

“Every two stones here indicate the place of eternal rest of a man, and three - a woman; she after death apparently becomes more important than her husband and ruler, whom Allah commanded to take care of his wife, but strictly warned that she should never be equal to her husband. In that case, where is her place? So far, unfortunately, somewhere between a dirty dog that the Arab does not even look at, and a hardworking camel. After all, maybe even a little higher than a camel... However, it's a difficult question.”

Conclusions

Thus, the study of female images during the Khrushchev thaw on the essays of the magazine "Motherland" helped to understand the patterns of social development. Using the methods of monitoring, content analysis, and quantitative analysis, the following images were identified and considered in detail: mother, hero, thief, “star”, activist, beauty, professional, expert, housewife, politician, worker.

According to the results of content-analysis and quantitative analysis of 60 essays, the most popular image was a worker, a mother, and a qualified professional were depicted much less often. However, the image of the mother in the magazine's essays is the most multifaceted, as it is portrayed using a variety of literary techniques and is much more emotional than the images of advanced workers and party ladies.

References

1. Atwood L. The New Soviet Man and Woman. Bloomington, IN : Indiana University Press, 1990. 263 p.

2. Berezhny V. Meeting with the native land. Motherland. 1958. Vol. 2. P 150-161.

3. Buckley M. Women and ideology in the Soviet Union. Ann Arbor, MI : The University of Michigan Press, 1989. 266p.

4. Dembnytsky K. North of the tropics of cancer. Motherland. 1964. Vol. 12. P. 181-190.

5. Gackebusch V. Tragedy is played on the Polish stage. Motherland. 1964. Vol. 4. P 184-192.

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9. Komlev G. Red fields. Motherland. 1956. Vol. 9. P 86-107.

10. Nosenko O. The mighty lighthouse on the Dnieper. Motherland. 1957. Vol. 2. P 141-154.

11. Orovetsky P Kagarlyk catches up with America. Motherland. 1957. Vol. 8. P 128-140.

12. Sheremet M., Sagaidak Y. Nova Kakhovka. Motherland. 1957. Vol. 11. P 157-175.

13. Skofenko V. Canada close up. Motherland. 1964. Vol. 4. P 180-191.

14. Styazhkina O. Women in the history of Ukrainian culture of the second half of the twentieth century. Donetsk : Eastern Publishing House, 2002. 270 p.

15. Tendyuk L. In the ports of the country Olympics. Motherland. 1964. Vol. 12. P 184-194.

16. Vrublevsky V. Metal of Ukraine. Motherland. 1959. Vol. 4. P 143-166.

17. Zabashta L. The Danube fishermen. Motherland. 1953. Vol. 12. P 101-113.

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