4. …from Modernizing Finland
5. The composition of the thesis
As stated above in this introduction, the three elements around which the whole study is based on are perception, control and self-perception. (The question: “How male same-sex intimacy was perceived, controlled and lived through in Finland during the twentieth century?) The thesis follows the established paradigm of “homosexual becoming species” in a Finnish context, although contesting the theory with empirical source material and a micro-historical approach and with a queer-study approach. The long time-span analysis benefits from a great deal of previous research done in the field in Finland. Thus the purpose is to fill the gaps and find continuities and contextualization to the earlier findings in the historiography. In the study, Finland is not viewed as an independent unit and thus the Finnish developments are compared with research done in other parts of Europe. When analysing the policies and control mechanisms, comparison is made to other countries, and the theories of masculinity, heteronormativity and biopolitics are employed in the analysis.
Because of the transformation of Finnish society and the transformation of the perceptions given to male same-sex practices, this thesis is divided to three parts, set in chronological order. Each of the three parts starts with an introduction, which introduces to the themes of the part by showing the central changes in the Finnish society and in tension of control over male same-sex practices. The parts are:
PART 1 focuses on the early decades of the twentieth century showing that male same-sex relations were not defined as problems in Finland. The first chapter will show through the story of Juhani, (who was a school teacher in the eastern Finnish countryside and who had sexual relations with his
126 JULKUNEN, RAIJA. “Suomalainen sukupuolimalli -1960-luku käänteenä”. Naisten hyvinvointivaltio. Edited by Anttonen, Anneli et. al. Vastapaino, Tampere 1994:184-185.
schoolboys, with his male servants, and with men of his own social position), that the criminal law was not easily employed in these rural communities, even though illegal sexual relations existed.
Boys were not considered victims of sexual crimes, and sexual practices were not problematized. It shows that the rural poor were in an ignorant position regarding their legal rights as Juhani had had strongly abusive sexual relations over several decades with many of the villagers. Indeed, only alongside the political awakening of the Finnish poor did they dare to open a case against their long-tolerated teacher. The second chapter focuses on the 1920s urban sphere through the case of Tuomas, who was an unemployed bootlegger and ex-Red-prisoner of the Finnish civil war. The case shows that in the urban sphere same-sex relations became visible to the police only sporadically, and that the police were rather at a loss about what to do with men who had sex with each other. The story shows that the only type of same-sex intimacy the police were able to acknowledge were the random relations practiced by working-class men in public places. At the same time male love was appreciated in upper class circles, but this remained as uncontrolled as the upper-class alcohol consumption during the prohibition law. The case of Tuomas shows that same-sex intimacy was thought of being a result of immoral nerve-damaging same-sexual behavior. All in all, the first two chapters draw a picture of Finland where same-sex sexual actions were not culturally acknowledged, where sexual autonomy as well as possibilities for sexual identity were very dependent on one’s social position.
PART 2 focuses on the period from 1930s to the end of the Second World War, which was the period in which same-sex relations started to be noticed by authorities and common people in different arenas of society. Sexual relations between males started to be defined especially as a sickness called homosexualism that was transmittable through seduction. The 1930s was the time of the economic depression, which made the issue of a healthy and strong nation more topical. The Second World War at the turn of the decade concretized the meaning of population policy. In Part two the increased knowledge over same-sex relations is examined in three different arenas: the depression and the social class, medical circles and the establishment of population policies, and the military environment and the making of the modern man. The third chapter shows through Aapo’s story how the Great Depression increased visibility of same-sex relations because many young men practiced same-sex relations for survival purposes. Further, the chapter shows how implications of same-sex relations were dependent upon social class. Aapo, as an educated older man who had travelled around Europe and had experienced the Romantic nationalist era had a homosexual identity that he as a nationalist anyhow was ashamed of. At the same time the poor youngsters who engaged with same-sex relations were not ashamed at all, as for them, sex with rich men was an
easy way of earning money. Moreover the third chapter shows that Helsinki police had started to be more aware of homosexual cases, which were scandalized in working class newspapers because they underscored the immorality of the upper-class. The fourth chapter discusses abnormality through the case of Simeoni, who was one of the men who was castrated because of his being
“homosexualist”, the treatment that was made possible by the 1935 sterilization law. Firstly, the case shows the increased knowledge in medical circles regarding same-sex relations, labeled homosexualism that had feminine connotations. The case also reveals the narrowed definitions of normality as well as reduced tolerance towards differences. Simeoni’s story is a sad story of a man who flitted around Finland with his ‘homosexual secret’. He never found a kindred spirit, tried to commit suicide, and, in the end, consented to be castrated. The fifth chapter discusses through the case of Timo the perceptions of same-sex relations in the Finnish Second World War and in the military system. It shows that the war was a space where new knowledge about same-sex intimacy increased, but, where, at the same time the attitude towards it became increasingly hostile. This hostility was caused by the hierarchical military structure and by the tightened definitions of masculinity and manhood. However, there are many accounts found in post-war court records, court-martial records as well as from previous research that tells that military was also a place where same-sex relations could develop between soldiers. All in all, Timo’s story shows how in the military system the different perceptions of male sexual relations were mixed and how the knowledge about such relations increased in military male communities and marked an end to the undefined and unimportant, let us say “innocent” same-sex practices.
PART 3 starts from the post-war period and ends with the decriminalization of the homosexual acts in 1971. In this period homosexuality started to be a well-defined quality of some people, not only an action, and it started to be explicitly controlled and discussed in the media. This coincided with the building of the foundations of the Finnish welfare state. In the sixth chapter we deal with urban male-sex culture that started to interest the police especially in Helsinki. Through the case of Lauri, I show that male sexual relations were viewed as a threat to society in three fields. First, it was against family policy that required an increase in birth rates. Secondly, it seemed that homosexual behavior was about to increase in Finland because of homosexual seducers, and therefore they had to be eliminated. Thirdly, homosexuals were strongly connected to child molesting crimes, meaning that every homosexual was seen as a possible child molester. The comparison with Finland and other Nordic countries show that Finland had a different perception of homosexuality as a transmittable disease that had not yet reached other Nordic countries. The chapter shows that despite the general attitude against homosexuality manifested in newspapers and in police activity,
the Helsinki city court had a relatively liberal view on homosexuality that resulted in arrests not leading to accusations and where convictions were given with probation. The seventh chapter concentrates on the homosexual emancipation and decriminalization process through Eero’s story from late 1960s Helsinki. Eero was a pioneer in the Finnish homosexual emancipation movement.
He was “proud to be gay” and openly discussed the issues related to homosexuality in the media.
The new gay identity was built through reading foreign gay magazines and in subcultures that had been established in some restaurants and parks. After the sexual liberation of the late 1960s any western country, if desiring to belong to the developed western world, had to modernize their attitudes towards sexual freedom in legislation, a pressure Finnish politicians felt too. Within this development the church felt its position to be endangered and it started to promote very conservative sexual morals. In this connection homosexuality was labeled as a sin, a label it had not previously had.