From Genius of the Home to Party Princess

The data for this article consist of alcohol-related advertisements published in seven Finnish women's magazines from 1967 to 2006. We are interested in finding out what kind of alcohol-related subject positions these magazines have created for women audiences from the 1960s onwards, to see how those positions have changed and what these changes tell us about the changes that have happened in the cultural position of drinking in Finland. Our analysis applies semiotic and discourse analytical methods. It shows that in the advertisements from the 1960s, women were placed in the subject position of full-time mother responsible for taking care of the heterosexual relationship. Women's drinking was associated with the private space of the home, with eating meals and socialising with family and friends. Women's subject positions in the 1970s and 1980s were still largely the same, but they also took on slightly new features. The 1990s and 2000s saw the emergence of the active woman who appears in public places, and drinking was associated with women's own time, enjoyment and pleasure. During the period under review we see the emergence of a drinking, self-assertive woman who is a responsible and distinctive consumer, a consumer who toys with stereotypes, and a partying consumer.