„Verliebt, verlobt“

Mädchenspezifische Diskurse um voreheliche Liebesziehungen im Nationalsozialismus am Beispiel der Zeitschrift Die junge Dame

Abstract

English abstract: The following article explores discourses about the sexuality of heterosexual white middle-class girls and young women during National Socialism using media products targeted at this audience as its primary sources. It demonstrates the normalization of certain premarital sexual acts (kissing, intercourse) for white middle-class girls within this type of media. Readers were promised individual love and happiness on certain conditions: Choosing the right partner, that is racially and eugenically eligible men, and having sex out of love (and not out of lust) within the constraints of a serious monogamous relationship. This set them apart from lower class girls and young women who were generally stigmatized as being promiscuous. These magazines therefore promoted the National Socialist ideologies and contributed to their acceptance.