Men ’ s emotional inexpressivity Advertising for psychotropic drugs in Scandinavian medical journals

Introduction Sociological research on the use of and the advertising for psychotropic drugs has primarily focused on women, and for obvious reasons: women constitute a majority of the users and the key focus of the gender portrayals in psychotropic drug advertising (Ettorre & Riska 1995). The overrepresentation of women has been given two sociological interpretations. One is based on sex-role theory, which assigns women the emotional attributes easily recognized as needing medical attention (Cooperstock 1971). Another is derived from the medicalization thesis, which suggests that women’s everyday concerns and anxieties are medicalized, i.e., viewed as medical problems, and therefore to be medicated by means of psychotropics. A corollary to these assumptions is that medicalization serves as a means of the social control of women and of keeping them in a subordinate social position vis-à-vis men, within the family and in society at large (Pugliesi 1992; Riessman 1992). THOMAS HEIKELL ELIANNE RISKA Men’s emotional inexpressivity Advertising for psychotropic drugs in Scandinavian medical journals We would like to thank Jan Wickman, Elina Oinas, and Katherine McCracken for their comments on an earlier version of this paper. This study has been financed by a grant from the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters. T. Heikell & E. Riska: