Intimità, linguaggio e false credenze la salute riproduttiva nei consigli di grazia degli anni 1950-75

Małgorzata J. Lewandowska

doi:10.18290/rh257306.4

Published : 2025-08-05

Vol. 73 No. 6 (2025)

Intimacy, Language, and False Beliefs: Reproductive Health in Grazia’s Advice Columns From 1950 to 1975

Małgorzata J. Lewandowska

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6173-0443

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rh257306.4

Abstract

The article examines the mechanisms through which medical knowledge related to sexuality and reproductive health is transmitted in the advice column of the Italian weekly magazine Grazia. The study’s corpus includes letters from readers, featured in 135 issues of the magazine, published between 1950 and 1975, in a column initially titled “I consigli del medico” and later renamed “La salute”. The correspondence published in Grazia reveals not only the state of the readers’ knowledge concerning their bodies, sexual life and reproductive health, but also the specific nature of the relationship between the senders (the magazine’s readers) and the recipient (the columnist). The findings of the study highlight the presence of prejudices, false beliefs, euphemisms, and infantilisms. Furthermore, the column serves a dual function: it provides solutions to medical problems while also educating women according to the conservative norms of the time.

Keywords:

advice, agony column, health, Grazia, women’s press

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