This essay discusses the sexual education manual Mīlestības vārdā (In the Name of Love) (1981), written by the Latvian doctor Jānis Zālītis. A bestseller in both Latvia and the neighboring Lithuania, the book has contributed significantly to the social norms and attitudes towards gender and sexuality in late Soviet societies of the Baltic countries. This essay presents the historical context of the writing and the reception of this book, as well as provides a feminist and queer reading of some of its main ideas. Namely, the essay argues that Mīlestības vārdā, despite its “scandalous” reputation, was essentially a conservative book, which reproduced the predominant patriarchal and heteronormative understandings. The book entrenched the idea that hierarchical gender differences were essential to sustaining stable marriages, and that sexuality could be strictly divided into “normal”, meaning leading towards procreation, and “perverse,” meaning non-procreative and therefore morally wrong and detrimental to Soviet society.
Am 9. Juli 1909 verbreitete sich eine Nachricht aus dem berüchtigten Londoner Frauengefängnis Holloway weit über die britischen Inseln hinaus. Nach 91 Stunden im Hungerstreik wurde Marion Wallace Dunlop, die Anerkennung als politische Gefangene einforderte, vorzeitig entlassen. Ihre einmonatige Haftstrafe wegen unerlaubten Plakatierens endete bereits nach fünf Tagen. In Votes for Women, der Wochenzeitung der militantesten Organisation der britischen Frauenbewegung, Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), hieß es: „At last the Authorities had to give way. [...]