Finns ain’t what they used to be

The conventional wisdom is that people from Nordic countries are the world’s most easy-going and contented. Apparently, they enjoy the good things in life more than anywhere else, from health and wellbeing to work-life balance. Finland, in particular, scores by far the best on these things, coming top in almost everything the OECD regards as good, from living standards to employment, education to life expectancy. Finns are, in general, happier with their lives than the OECD average. This even extends to civic engagement: voter turnout, a measure of participation in the political process, was 67% during the country's last general election, an estimated three-quarters of the country’s top 20% earners voting, and even 62% of the bottom 20% casting their view.

Perhaps this explains why a brouhaha has erupted after Finland’s impressive young prime minister Sanna Marin appeared in a magazine profile wearing a very tasteful black blazer with - SHOCK! - nothing underneath but a vintage necklace. Despite the ensemble appearing no racier than a deep-cut ballgown, some social media users went nuts, accusing Marin’s outfit of being “inappropriate”, and that it “eroded” her credibility. In her defence, thousands of supporters countered the outrage, rightly accusing it of being highly sexist, and sharing pictures of themselves (including hairy-chested men) wearing identical jackets and necklaces, accompanied by the hashtag #imwithsanna. Some highlighted the misogyny of the fuss by posting pictures of male leaders exposing their chests, including Vladimir Putin fishing shirtless and one of former Finnish president Carl Gustaf Mannerheim…erm…posing naked on horseback.

What is ridiculous about the whole affair is that the pictures, which accompany a cover feature in the women’s magazine Trendi, are perfectly tasteful, and you’d have to have a particularly skewed moral bent to find them anything less. Inevitably the socially conservative nature of the photo’s criticism is directed at the 34-year-old Marin’s youth and somewhat alternative background. 

In the interview she makes the case for people to focus on her policies rather than her appearance. Unfortunately, the “plunging” (Daily Mail™) picture has had the opposite effect. The magazine’s editor, Mari Karsikas, responded by saying, very sensibly, that the comments about Marin’s picture said more about those making them than the prime minister herself,  adding that it was hard not to interpret the criticism as anything other than misogynistic. Finnish actor Kiki Kokkonen wrote on her Instagram account: “Everyone should be allowed to live in such a way that their character, dignity and professional skills are not determined by clutching at irrelevant straws.”

Still, this didn’t stop entrepreneur Aki Pyysing criticising Marin for “attention-seeking” in a blog post that attacked her economic policies and even mocked the dimensions of her barely visible cleavage in the apparently offending photograph. The post was tweeted by centre-right opposition party MPs Elina Lepomaki and Juhana Vartiainen, though their tweets were later deleted, with Lepomaki admitting: “My mistake. I shared it carelessly and did not read the entirety of the text, which got personal and mocked the prime minister’s appearance.”

Marin’s rise to the top in Finland - when elected in December she became the world's youngest serving head of government (a title conceded in August when 34-year-old Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz returned to power) - has been accompanied by inevitable attention to her youthful image, a point accentuated by her prolific use of social media, especially Instagram. Observers claim that she knowingly would have chosen the outfit for the Trendi shoot…but if so, why should that be a problem? Theresa May’s Amanda Wakeley leather trousers for a Sunday Times interview four years ago was seen as an otherwise dull politician trying to look more interesting, but no more, and yet the fact that the strides cost £995 was enough to generate a vacuous news cycle for days.

Picture: Austin Hargrave/Sunday Times Magazine

Anu Koivunen, Professor of Gender Studies at Tampere University in Finland said the social media storm over Marin’s outfit wouldn't have come as a surprise: “These politicians know very well what kind of discussions they are starting. They are very media savvy. Marin's actions are done with full cognisance.” During her pregnancy, Marin used her Instagram account to chart progress, posting selfies of her baby bump and even a candid breastfeeding shot once her daughter Emma was born. In August she married her long-term partner Markus Raikkonen at Kesäranta, the Finnish prime minister’s official residence, with Hello!-grade pictures of the couple posted to her account. Again, hard to fault a 34-year-old woman doing that, highly progressive prime minister or not.