NEWSPAPER PROBLEM PAGES AND BRITISH SEXUAL CULTURE SINCE 1918

Abstract

This article offers an overview of the evolution of the problem page in British popular newspapers since 1918. It argues that newspaper problem columns and related features were regarded by many readers as an important source of advice and guidance on personal and sexual questions. It identifies three different phases in the development of the modern problem page. In the inter-war period, and into the 1940s, problem pages almost invariably provided staunch defences of conventional morality and portrayed sexuality as a dangerous instinct that needed to be restrained and managed. In the 1950s and 1960s, sexuality was increasingly depicted as positive and pleasurable force that needed to be expressed for personal and psychological well-being. Agony aunts became less concerned with defending the institution of marriage and started to offer some more challenging and opinionated material. Since the 1970s, in the context of a more sexualised and permissive culture, problem pages have developed a more hedonistic approach, and have been presented more overtly as entertainment.