Regulated and liberated bodies of schoolgirls in a Finnish short film from the 1950s

Abstract

This article focuses on the bodies of schoolgirls as visualised and represented in a short film of Finnish secondary schools for girls in the 1950s. The film, Oma tyttökouluni (My Own Girls’ School) was released in 1957 and was screened in cinemas in advance of feature films. Although the short film was made in a documentary style, it also includes some filmic elements of a fictionalised narrative. This article explores the representations of schoolgirls’ bodies in the visual narrative of the film and examines how the imagery is interwoven with the social contexts and atmosphere of the 1950s and the tradition of Finnish short film production. The paper discusses how the filmic elements create an image of everyday life in schools and the visualised bodies of the schoolgirls. It examines how the film’s representations of female bodies and girlhood in the school context construct the imagery of middle-class values, acceptable appearances, and manners. In addition, the film depicts the sites where the female bodies were liberated from the choreography of schooling and the normative rules and routines of the school. The paper argues that the harmonious style of the film lacks contradictions and contains the ideological connotations and middle-class values of the Finnish postwar secondary schooling that girls received.

Keywords:

• Body
• films
• schoolgirls
• grammar schools
• gender

Notes

¹ Jari Sedergren and Ilkka Kippola, Dokumentin utopiat. Suomalaisen dokumentti- ja lyhytelokuvan historia 1944–1989 [Utopias of Documents. History of Finnish Documentaries and Short Films] (Helsinki: SKS, 2015), 39. For Ylen Elävä arkisto, see: http://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2013/05/30/helsinkilaisten-tyttokoulujen-arkea-1957 (accessed August 14, 2017).

² See Peter Cunningham, “Moving Images: Propaganda Film and British Education 1940–45,” Paedagogica Historica 36, no. 1 (2000): 289–406.

³ Paul Warmington, Angelo Van Gorp, and Ian Grosvenor, “Education in Motion: Uses of Documentary Film in Educational Research,” Paedagogica Historica 47, no. 4 (2011): 457–72.

⁴ Secondary education is here referring to Finnish grammar schools.

⁵ Josephine May, “A Field of Desire: Visions of Education in Selected Australian Silent Films,” Paedagogica Historica 46, no. 5 (2010): 623–37.

⁶ On the tensions and pressures in the Finnish secondary education of the 1950s, see Kyösti Kiuasmaa, Oppikoulu 1880–1980 [Secondary Schools in Finland 1880–1980] (Oulu: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Pohjoinen, 1982), 398–400, 402–5.

⁷ Warmington, Van Gorp, and Grosvenor, “Education in Motion,” 457–72; Catherine Burke and Helena Ribeiro de Castro, “The School Photograph: Portraiture and the Art of Assembling the Body of the Schoolchild,” History of Education 36, no. 2 (2007): 213–16; Catherine Burke, “Editorial,” History of Education 36, no. 2 (2007): 165–71; Geert Thyssen, “Visualizing Discipline of the Body in a German Open‐Air School (1923–1939): Retrospection and Introspection,” History of Education 36, no. 2 (2007): 247–64.

⁸ Sedergren and Kippola, Dokumentin utopiat, 11–16.

⁹ Warmington, Van Gorp, and Grosvenor, “Education in Motion,” 467.

¹⁰ Sedergren and Kippola, Dokumentin utopiat, 34.

¹¹ Cf. Bruno Vanobbergen, Ian Grosvenor, and Frank Simon, “Jean Vigo’s Zéro de conduite and the Spaces of Revolt,” Paedagogica Historica 50, no. 4 (2014): 443–59. See also Warmington, Van Gorp and Grosvenor, “Education in Motion,” 467.

¹² Niskanen’s first long feature film (Pojat [Boys]) was awarded best Finnish film of the year in 1962 and he also received an award for best director. The film is characterised as one of the best debut films in Finnish film production of all times. See Kari Uusitalo, Suomen Hollywood on kuollut. Kotimaisen filmin ahdinkovuodet 1956–1963 [Finnish Hollywood is dead. The Difficult Years of Domestic films 1956-1963] (Helsinki: Suomen elokuvasäätiö, 1981), 263–64.

¹³ Sedergren and Kippola, Dokumentin utopiat, 419–20; Sakari Toiviainen, Tuska ja hurmio. Mikko Niskanen ja hänen elokuvansa [Anxiety and Rapture. Mikko Niskanen and his films] (Helsinki: SKS, 1999), 271.

¹⁴ Sedergren and Kippola, Dokumentin utopiat, 38–9. In 1957, Finnish film companies produced 21 new long feature films, of which 13 were made by Suomen Filmiteollisuus (The Finnish Film Industry). Kari Uusitalo, Suomalaisen elokuvan vuosikymmenet. Johdatus kotimaisen elokuvan ja elokuva-alan historiaan 1896–1963 [The Decades of Finnish Films. Introduction to the History of Domestic Films and Film Productions 1896-1963] (Helsinki: Otava, 1965), 256–8.

¹⁵ In 1963, the CEO of Suomen Filmiteollisuus (The Finnish Film Industry) sold the company’s feature films and short films to Yleisradio, who still own the rights to the short films. Uusitalo, Suomalaisen elokuvan vuosikymmenet, 23, 67; Sedergren and Kippola, Dokumentin utopiat, 39.

¹⁶ The history of Tyttönormaalilyseo can be traced to the school’s establishing year 1869. The girls’ school was altered in 1969 to become co-educational and in 1974 it changed its name to The Second Teacher Training School of Helsinki University. Tyttönormaalilyseo can be characterised as a school for elite and middle-class girls.

¹⁷ The Annual Report of Tyttönormaalilyseo 1956–1957. D5 Db:10–17. The Archive of Helsingin yhteisnormaalilyseo; Liisa Ketonen, Suomen tyttöoppikoulut itsenäisyyden aikana peruskoulujärjestelmään siirtymiseen saakka [Finnish Secondary Schools for Girls during the Period of Independence until Transition to the Comprehensive School System] (Helsinki: Helsingin yliopiston kasvatustieteen laitos, 1980).

¹⁸ Cf. Daniel Biltereyst, “Afterword: School Documentaries, Childhood and New Cinema History,” Paedagogica Historica 47, no. 4 (2011): 573–7.

¹⁹ Cf. Angelo Van Gorp, “The Decroly School in Documentaries (1930s–1950s): Contextualising Propaganda from within,” Paedagogica Historica 47, no. 4 (2011): 507–23.

²⁰ See also Jeremy Howard, “Afterword: ‘Screening Schoolhood’,” Paedagogica Historica 47, no. 4 (2011): 559–65.

²¹ Cf. Catharina Martins, Helena Cabeleira, and Jorge Ramos do Ó, “The Other and the Same: Images of Rescue and Salvation in the Portuguese Documentary Film Children’s Parks (1945),” Paedagogica Historica 47, no. 4 (2011): 491–505.

²² Warmington, Van Gorp, and Grosvenor, “Education in Motion,” 457–72.

²³ Annukka Jauhiainen, Työväen lasten koulutie ja nuorisokasvatuksen yhteiskunnalliset merkitykset. Kansakoulun jatko-opetuskysymys 1800-luvun lopulta 1970-luvulle [The Schooling Pathway of Working-class Children and the Social Significance of the Education of Youth. The Question of Continuation Schools for Elementary School Leavers from the Late 1800s to the 1970s] (Turku: Turun yliopisto, 2002), 283–6. The continuation schools for elementary school leavers were converted to civic schools in 1957.

²⁴ Warmington, Van Gorp, and Grosvenor, “Education in Motion,” 457–72. See also Helena Cabeleira, Catharina Martins, and Martin Lawn, “Indisciplines of Inquiry: The Scottish Children’s Story, Documentary Film and the Construction of the Viewer,” Paedagogica Historica 47, no. 4 (2011): 473–90.

²⁵ Sjaak Braster, Ian Grosvenor, and Maria del Mar del Pozo Andreás, “Opening the Black Box of Schooling: Methods, Meanings and Mysteries,” in Black Box of Schooling: A Cultural History of the Classroom, ed. Sjaak Braster, Ian Grosvenor, and Maria del Mar del Pozo Andreás (Brussels: Peter Lang, 2011), 9–18.

²⁶ For a technology of visual persuasion, see Cabeleira, Martins, and Lawn, “Indisciplines of Inquiry,” 473–90.

²⁷ Cunningham, “Moving Images,” 289–406.

²⁸ Warmington, Van Gorp, and Grosvenor, “Education in Motion,” 457–72.

²⁹ Cabeleira, Martins, and Lawn, “Indisciplines of Inquiry,” 473–90.

³⁰ Martins, Cabeleira, and Ramos do Ó, “The Other and the Same,” 491–505.

³¹ Inés Dussel, “The Visual Turn in the History of Education: Four Comments for Historiographical Discussion,” in Rethinking the History of Education: Transnational Perspectives on its Questions, Methods, and Knowledge, ed. Thomas S. Popkewitz (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 32.

³² See also Cunningham, “Moving Images,” 289–406.

³³ See Paul Warmington and Ian Grosvenor, “A Very Historical Mode of Understanding: Examining Editorial and Ethnographic Relations in The Primary (2008),” Paedagogica Historica 47, no. 4 (2011): 543–58.

³⁴ Ibid., 543–58.

³⁵ Cabeleira, Martins, and Lawn, “Indisciplines of Inquiry,” 473–90; Cunningham, “Moving Images,” 289–406.

³⁶ Catharine Burke and Ian Grosvenor, “The Hearing School: An Exploration of Sound and Listening in the Modern School,” Paedagogica Historica 47, no. 3 (2011): 323–40.

³⁷ May, “A Field of Desire,” 623–37.

³⁸ See also Warmington and Grosvenor, “A Very Historical Mode of Understanding,” 543–58.

³⁹ Cabeleira, Martins, and Lawn, “Indisciplines of Inquiry,” 473–90; Warmington and Grosvenor, “A Very Historical Mode of Understanding,” 543–58.

⁴⁰ Mervi Kaarninen, “Oppikoulu yhteiskunnan rakentajana,” [Secondary School as a Builder of the Society] in Valistus ja koulunpenkki. Kasvatus ja koulutus Suomessa 1860-luvulta 1960-luvulle, [Enlightenment and School Bench. Education in Finland from the 1860s to the 1960s] ed. Anja Heikkinen and Pirkko Leino-Kaukiainen (Helsinki: SKS, 2011), 409, 425–6; Kiuasmaa, Oppikoulu 1880–1980, 402–5.

⁴¹ Kaarninen, “Oppikoulu yhteiskunnan rakentajana,” 409, 425–6; Kiuasmaa, Oppikoulu 1880–1980, 398–405.

⁴² Although not being silent films, the “Pete and Runt” film characters resembled the famous comedy duo Laurel and Hardy.

⁴³ Toiviainen, Tuska ja hurmio, 43.

⁴⁴ On the technologies of production and the conventions of genre, see Warmington, Van Gorp, and Grosvenor, “Education in Motion,” 457–72.

⁴⁵ Pekka Kaarninen, “Kurittomat sukupolvet vanhoissa suomalaisissa elokuvissa,” [Wild Generations in Old Finnish Films] in Nuoruuden vuosisata. Suomalaisen nuorison historia [The Century of Youth. The History of the Finnish Youth], ed. Sinikka Aapola and Mervi Kaarninen (Helsinki: SKS, 2003), 430; Uusitalo, Suomen Hollywood on kuollut, 133–4.

⁴⁶ Burke and Ribeiro de Castro, “The School Photograph,” 213–16.

⁴⁷ See also Van Gorp, “The Decroly School in Documentaries (1930s–1950s),” 507–23.

⁴⁸ See Leena Koski, “Oppikoulunuoruus 1940–1950-luvuilla,” [Secondary School Youth in the 1940s–1950s] in Nuoruuden vuosisata. Suomalaisen nuorison historia [The Century of Youth. The History of the Finnish Youth], ed. Sinikka Aapola and Mervi Kaarninen (Helsinki: SKS, 2003), 282–313.

⁴⁹ Betty Eggermont, “The Choreography of Schooling as Site of Struggle: Belgian Primary Schools, 1880–1940,” History of Education 30, no. 2 (2001): 129–40.

⁵⁰ See also Koski, “Oppikoulunuoruus 1940–1950-luvuilla,” 282–313.

⁵¹ Inés Dussel, “When Appearances Are Not Deceptive: A Comparative History of School Uniforms in Argentina and the United States (Nineteenth–Twentieth Centuries),” Paedagogica Historica 41, nos 1–2 (2005): 179–95; Stephanie Spencer, “A Uniform Identity: Schoolgirl Snapshots and the Spoken Visual,” History of Education 36, no. 2 (2007): 227–46; Patricia Holland, Picturing Childhood (London: I.B. Tauris, 2004), 88.

⁵² See also Vesa Puuronen, “Pihasakeista alakulttuureihin. Nuorten ryhmätoiminta Suomessa 1900-luvun jälkipuoliskolla,” [From Yard Gangs to Subcultures. The Group Activity of the Youth in Finland during the Latter Half of the 20th Century] in Nuoruuden vuosisata. Suomalaisen nuorison historia [The Century of Youth. The History of the Finnish Youth], ed. Sinikka Aapola and Mervi Kaarninen (Helsinki: SKS, 2003), 372–95; On Teddy boys and girls see Holland, Picturing Childhood, 126–7.

⁵³ Laura Kolbe, “Traditio – murros – jatkuvuus?,” in Helsingin II normaalikoulun 125-vuotismatrikkeli (Helsinki: Helsingin II normaalikoulu, 1994), 56.

⁵⁴ Leena Paatero et al., “Keskiluokat V–VI 1957–1959,” [Classes V-VI 1957–1959] in Meidän luokka Tyttönorssissa 1953–1962. Vuoden 1962 IX B -luokan muistelmat [Our Class in the Secondary School for Girls 1953-1962. The Reminiscences of the Class IX B of the Year 1962], ed. Leena Paatero et al. (Helsinki: Kirja kerrallaan, 2012), 76–99.

⁵⁵ The Annual Report of Tyttönormaalilyseo 1956–1957. D5 Db:10–17. The Archive of Helsingin yhteisnormaalilyseo; Kaarninen, “Oppikoulu yhteiskunnan rakentajana,” 426–7; Koski, “Oppikoulunuoruus 1940–1950-luvuilla,” 282–313.

⁵⁶ Paatero et al., “Keskiluokat V–VI 1957–1959,” 91–5.

⁵⁷ Kaarninen, “Oppikoulu yhteiskunnan rakentajana,” 405–29; Koski, “Oppikoulunuoruus 1940–1950-luvuilla,” 282–306.

⁵⁸ See also Cabeleira, Martins, and Lawn, “Indisciplines of Inquiry,” 473–90; Cunningham, “Moving Images,” 289–406.

⁵⁹ Translations from Finnish have been made by the author.

⁶⁰ Koski, “Oppikoulunuoruus 1940–1950-luvuilla,” 282–306.

⁶¹ On performance of tradition and ritualised space, see Holland, Picturing Childhood, 87.

⁶² Émile Durkheim, Uskontoelämän alkeismuodot. Australialainen toteemijärjestelmä [The Elementary Forms of Religious Life] (Helsinki: Tammi, 1980).

⁶³ Statistical Yearbook of Finland 1957 (Helsinki: Central Statistical Office, 1957), 29; The Annual Report of Tyttönormaalilyseo 1956–1957. D5 Db:10–17. The Archive of Helsingin yhteisnormaalilyseo.

⁶⁴ Jukka-Pekka Pietiäinen, “Yksityisoppikoulut vaurastuvassa Suomessa 1944–1977,” [Private Secondary Schools in more Prosperous Finland 1944–1977] in Yksityisoppikoulujen historia 1872–1977 [The History of Private Secondary Schools 1872–1977], ed. Jari Salminen, Jukka-Pekka Pietiäinen, and Jouko Teperi (Helsinki: Painatuskeskus, 1995), 155–238.

⁶⁵ Kolbe, “Traditio – murros – jatkuvuus?,” 57–9.

⁶⁶ The matriculation examination is a nationwide exam taken at the end of upper secondary school.

⁶⁷ Mervi Kaarninen and Pekka Kaarninen, Sivistyksen portti. Ylioppilastutkinnon historia [Gate of Education. History of Matriculation Examination] (Helsinki: Otava, 2002); Mervi Kaarninen, “Kansakunnan toivot. Ylioppilastutkinto käännekohtana ja siirtymävaiheena,” [The Hopes of the Nation. Matriculation Examination as a Turning Point and as a Period of Transition] in Nuoruuden vuosisata. Suomalaisen nuoruuden historia [The Century of Youth. The History of the Finnish Youth], ed. Sinikka Aapola and Mervi Kaarninen (Helsinki: SKS, 2003), 314–24.

⁶⁸ Helena Saarikoski, Kouluajan kivoin päivä. Folkloristinen tutkimus penkinpainajaisperinteestä [The Best School Day. A Folkloristic Study on the Tradition of Celebrating the Last School Day] (Helsinki: SKS, 1994), 36–47; Kaarninen and Kaarninen, Sivistyksen portti. The folk dance tradition in Tyttönormaalilyseo was started in 1934. See Kolbe, “Traditio – murros – jatkuvuus?,” 61–2.

⁶⁹ Kolbe, “Traditio – murros – jatkuvuus?,” 77–82.

⁷⁰ Girls’ secondary education PE was divided into three parts: gymnastics, sports, and health education.

⁷¹ Valtion oppikoulujen liikuntakasvatusohjelma II. Tytöt [Physical Education Program for the State's Secondary Schools II. Girls] (Helsinki: Valtioneuvoston kirjapaino, 1947).

⁷² Cf. Carrie Paechter, “Reconceptualizing the Gendered Body: Learning and Constructing Masculinities and Femininities in School,” Gender and Education 18, no. 2 (2006): 121–35.

⁷³ For example, in one girls’ school during the school year 1956/57, 32 pupils took part in home nursing lessons arranged by the Red Cross: see Annual Report 1956–1957 of Helsingin toinen tyttökoulu. D5 Db:1–2. The Archive of Kirkkopuiston tyttökoulu.

⁷⁴ See Koski, “Oppikoulunuoruus 1940–1950-luvuilla,” 282–306.

⁷⁵ Ilkka Virta, Siirtoväen kansakoulukysymys sotavuosien Suomessa [The Elementary School Question of Karelia Evacuated People during the Wartime Finland] (Turku: Turun yliopisto, 2001), 10.

⁷⁶ Koski, “Oppikoulunuoruus 1940–1950-luvuilla,” 282–306; Kiuasmaa, Oppikoulu 1880–1980, 402–5.

⁷⁷ Saarikoski, Kouluajan kivoin päivä. Folkloristinen tutkimus penkinpainajaisperinteestä, 143–50. See also Kaarninen and Kaarninen, Sivistyksen portti. Ylioppilastutkinnon historia.

⁷⁸ Saarikoski, Kouluajan kivoin päivä. Folkloristinen tutkimus penkinpainajaisperinteestä, 28–30.

⁷⁹ Sedergren and Kippola, Dokumentin utopiat, 11–16.

⁸⁰ Cf. Biltereyst, “Afterword,” 573–77; Warmington, Van Gorp, and Grosvenor, “Education in Motion,” 457–72.

⁸¹ Cf. Van Gorp, “The Decroly School in Documentaries (1930s–1950s),” 507–23.

⁸² On a technology of visual persuasion, see Cabeleira, Martins, and Lawn, “Indisciplines of Inquiry,” 473–90.

⁸³ Cf. Eggermont, “The Choreography of Schooling as Site of Struggle,” 129–40.

⁸⁴ Koski, “Oppikoulunuoruus 1940–1950-luvuilla,” 307.

⁸⁵ Cf. Agneta Linné, “Lutheranism and Democracy: Scandinavia,” in Girls’ Secondary Education in the Western World: From the 18th to the 20th Century, ed. James C. Albisetti, Joyce Goodman, and Rebecca Rogers (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 133–46; Spencer, “A Uniform Identity,” 227–46; Joyce Goodman, “Class and Religion: Great Britain and Ireland,” in Albisetti, Girls’ Secondary Education in the Western World, 9–24; Penny Summerfield, “Cultural Reproduction in the Education of Girls: A Study of Girls’ Secondary Schooling in Two Lancashire Towns, 1900–50,” in Lessons for Life: Schooling for Girls and Women, 1850–1950, ed. Felicity Hunt (Oxford: Blackwell, 1987), 149–70.

⁸⁶ Minna Vuorio-Lehti, “Constructing Firm Faith in Education: Finnish Films in the 1930s and the 1940s,” in Visual History: Images of Education, ed. Ulrike Mietzner, Kevin Myers, and Nick Peim (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2005), 85–107; Koski, “Oppikoulunuoruus 1940–1950-luvuilla,” 298.

⁸⁷ Cf. Joyce Goodman, “A Cloistered Ethos? Landscapes of Learning and English Secondary Schools for Girls: An Historical Perspective,” Paedagogica Historica 41, nos 4–5 (2005): 589–603; Braster, Grosvenor, and del Mar del Pozo Andreás, “Opening the Black Box of Schooling,” 9–19; Ian Grosvenor, “On Visualising Past Classrooms,” in Silences and Images: The Social History of the Classroom, ed. Ian Grosvenor, Martin Lawn, and Kate Rousmaniere (New York: Peter Lang, 1999), 83–104.

⁸⁸ Ruth Watts, “Society, Education and the State: Gender Perspectives on an Old Debate,” Paedagogica Historica 49, no. 1 (2013): 17–33.