Barbro Bang Alving
(1909-1983)

Let me tell you about this wonderful woman

Star reporter

Defender of women's rights

Pacifist

Bisexual

Unwed mother

The reason Sweden's biggest feminist magazine is called Bang

She started off writing fluffy mood pieces. Then she got sent to do fluffy mood pieces from the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Largely, she stuck to the job description, though no-one reading could have escaped her low opinion on Nazi Germany.

The readers loved her pieces, which gave her the leverage she needed to get heavier assignments.

She asked to be sent to Spain next, to cover the civil war.

The newspaper told her no, it was too dangerous.

So she went anyway, freelance.

The next year she went again, only this time she was six months pregnant.

Which she hadn't told anyone, because she didn't want to scare them.

Oh yeah, the pregnancy.

She had a short fling with cartoonist Birger Lundquist and got pregnant.

I don't have to tell you the attitude towards single mothers in the 1930s.

But Barbro decided to be happy about her baby.

After she returned from Spain, she marched up to her boss and asked for a raise and a change of title to Mrs. This was granted.

Her daughter Ruffa was born in early 1938.

The public took it in stride and didn't even inquire about the father.

Barbro commented, It's like they think an emancipated woman like Bang can make a baby all on her own.

Babies born out of wedlock became known as Bang-babies.

Of course, caring for a child as an international reporter isn't easy.

Fortunately, Barbro met Loyse Sjcrona.

She became Barbro's life partner and Ruffa's second mother.

In the lighter newspaper columns Barbro wrote between the heavy stuff, Loyse is known as Viran.

The columns are completely open with the fact that the family consists of two women and a child (and sometimes a housekeeper).

In the years that followed, Barbro wrote articles from most of the world.

Hiroshima after the bomb.

India, having an interview with Gandhi among other things.

Hungary during the Communist takeover.

The Vietnam war.

Meanwhile, she was also required to write fluffy humour columns.

Most of the time, she could juggle the two duties.

At one point, though, she telegraphed home from India:

Sorry, lost all sense of humour.

Her work in warzones confirmed her belief in pacifism.

Her newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, advocated for a Swedish atom bomb.

Even though the paper was like home to her, this was more than Barbro could take, and she quit.

At one point, she was sent to prison for refusing civil defence duties.

She made good friends with some of the inmates and kept in touch afterwards.

One of them referred to her as granny.

A couple of quotes (in my poor translation):

(On experts talking about nuclear war) He elegantly proved that a person so and so far away from impact won't decease. The man said decease. The audience got a calm and cozy feeling that the person in question, who hadn't deceased, instead turned on their heel and went home to read a good book.I doubt that's what they did in Hiroshima.

(On men who like children) Of course the young fathers of our time existed earlier, behind the beards. I don't think anyone believes that masculine care, pride, and tenderness for small children are some sudden natural development soming into existence right now.They speak of how horrible it used to be for women, locked in by conventions that men had created, forbidden from becoming bigwigs in society. And it's true, that was the case.But I think it was even worse for the bigwigs. They were locked out. By conventions they had created themselves.