Parittomuuden politiikat? : sinkkuus suomalaisessa julkisessa keskustelussa

Abstract

Sinkkujen määrä on lisääntynyt länsimaissa 1960-luvulta lähtien. Ilman vakituista kumppania elävien asemasta ei kuitenkaan juuri käydä yhteiskuntapoliittista keskustelua. Artikkelissa analysoidaan sinkkuutta koskevaa keskustelua suomalaisissa sanoma- ja päivälehdissä. Lähtökohtana on, että julkinen keskustelu osallistuu keskeisellä tavalla sinkkuuden määrittelyyn

The number of people living without a partner is continuing to grow across the world. However, the tenacity of the couple-norm remains unaffected, and despite the demographic shift there is still a paucity of research on singlehood. Our contribution in this article is to analyse the Finnish public debate on singlehood, single people and living alone. Our data consists of media coverage from three Finnish newspapers, Helsingin Sanomat, Aamulehti and Ilta-Sanomat (2017–2018). We approach our data in a discourse analytic framework in order to trace how singlehood is defined in the public debate. Furthermore, we are interested in what kind of conceptions of singlehood are produced, reproduced and challenged. We offer a detailed analysis of the most popular ways of discussing singlehood. In the data analysed, singlehood was often associated with attempts to find a partner, and singles were compared with those who are married or otherwise coupled. One recurrent theme was to report on reality television shows in which singles are either supposed to find a partner or in which their presence is connected with entertaining and sexual elements in order to attract audiences. Politicizing singlehood and addressing singles as a disadvantaged or vulnerable social group was rare. Some individual articles focusing mainly on living alone and housing policy issues drew attention to the unequal treatment of single people. However, some articles covering the experience of single people challenged the couple-norm by voicing positive experiences. To conclude, there is an apparent mismatch between the growing number of singles and the ways in which social issues relating to singlehood fail to fuel any significant political debate.