The British are famed for both their prurience and their sexual reserve, a stereotype which, though exploited within many British cultural forms (Merchant/Ivory ‘heritage’ cinema, for example), probably derives less from contemporary cultural attitudes than from England’s former role in the global imposition of repressive middle-class norms and values. It is certainly true that British censorship laws are still stricter than in many other European states, and that it is one of the few countries in which a govern-ment minister will be forced to resign over a minor sex scandal. But in other respects attitudes are fairly liberal. The shift towards so-called
‘permissiveness’ is associated with ‘swinging London’, the explosion of British youth culture and the legalisation of homosexuality, abortion, birth control, and divorce reform in the 1960s. The trial under the Obscene Publications Act of 1960 in which it was finally decided that 1111
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D. H. Lawrence’s sexually explicit but critically acclaimed novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover would be made available to the British public is gener-ally regarded as something of a watershed, dividing prudish ‘Victorian’
Britain from permissive, contemporary Britain.
However, while the majority of permissive legislative reforms date from the 1960s (when the number of registered marriages actually increased), the social effect of this legislation was not really felt until the 1970s and even 1980s, by which time permissiveness had begun to acquire a pejorative meaning, denoting the collapse of moral authority and the traditional family unit. Aside from concerns about single mothers, absentee fathers, and rising divorce rates, the backlash against permissiveness was given a new impetus by the Aids crisis, with much attention focused on the British gay community.
Britain’s first official Aids-related death, that of Terrence Higgins, occurred in 1982 and led to the establishment of what remains Britain’s biggest Aids/HIV education and advice service, the Terrence Higgins Trust.
The British government, however, was much slower to respond to the crisis.
This reluctance was not only due to its disinclination to mount costly HIV prevention campaigns, but also related to the problems of censorship which preventative education created. Addressing the problem of HIV transmis-sion necessitated the acknowledgement of a range of sexual practices and an extent of extra, and premarital sexual activities which a ‘family-orientated’ administration did not want to be seen to endorse. Only when the heterosexual risk factor became very apparent did the Department of Health launch a full-scale, five-million-pound television, cinema, poster, and house-to-house leafleting campaign in 1987. Although the Health Department’s ubiquitous slogan was ‘Aids: don’t die of ignorance’, preven-tative education tended to be both oblique and alarmist, stressing promiscuity as a central factor, despite overwhelming medical evidence that viral transmission was related to particular sexual practices rather than sheer numbers of partners.
The early years of the crisis produced a wave of anti-gay hysteria, exacerbated by the popular press, who were quick to identify Aids wrongly as an exclusively homosexual ‘plague’. Many British newspapers actually went so far as to support such draconian measures as the recriminalisation of sodomy or the forced quarantine of those suffering from the disease. For example, speculating on the predicted growth in HIV infection, Auberon Waugh’s knowingly provocative 1985 Daily Telegraph column asked why
‘No one has mentioned what might seem the most obvious way of cutting down this figure (of 1 one million by 1990) – by repealing the Sexual Offences Act of 1967 and making sodomy a criminal offence once again’.
British rates of infection have not reached these initial predictions, and in the twenty-first century such attitudes as those implied by Waugh’s speculation
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are less common, though this is perhaps because the discussion of Aids has been backgrounded in recent years, not least because sex has become the essential ingedient of any marketing campaign. Surveys continue to indicate that, while ‘safe’ sexual practices have been widely adopted within the gay community since the mid-1980s, the majority of heterosexuals do not regard themselves as significantly at risk, despite the fact that new cases of HIV reached a high of 3,500 in 2000. Furthermore, the climate of homophobia created by the initial burst of Aids scare stories did much to undermine growing acceptance of the gay community. In Britain, it has never been illegal for a man actually to be a homosexual, only to participate in homo-sexual acts, while lesbianism has not been recognised by the law, supposedly because Queen Victoria refused to acknowledge its existence.
Since the 1967 Sexual Offences Act, which decriminalised homo-sexual activities in England and Wales (extended to Scotland in 1980 and Northern Ireland in 1979), a lively gay and lesbian subculture has flourished in urban areas of Britain. Soho, for example, famous for its gay-owned shops, pubs, clubs and cafés, has become one of London’s biggest nightlife attractions. Moreover, the widespread adoption of the word ‘gay’, a term denoting positive self-identification, as opposed to
‘homosexual’ or more pejorative terms, suggested a growing acknowl-edgement of gay identity as an alternative lifestyle choice, rather than just a sexual preference. The growing acceptance of gay lifestyles has been apparent on television, from the first ‘lesbian-kiss’ broadcast in Brookside, through the huge popularity of the drama serial Queer as Folk, to the winning of the second series of Big Brother by a gay man in 2001. In terms of cyberspace, following the success of the digitised fantasy-figure of Lara Croft, Gay Times welcomed the announcement in summer 2001 that Tomb Raider’s manufacturer’s Eidos were releasing Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix, featuring ‘Hana and Rain’, the first gay couple to appear in a computerised video game. More importantly, in September 2001 the first ceremonies for gay couples were begun in London, which has started a civil register of gay partnerships. Though the ‘pacts’ have no legal status, they are made formally at a ceremony conducted by an approved Greater London authority officer. Gay rights groups hope that eventually the ceremonies, after wider recognition, will lead to legislation that confers on homosexual couples the same legal rights as married people.
There remains at least one major area of concern, however: an addi-tion to the Local Government Bill of 1987 inserting the notorious Clause (also known as Section) 28. This amendment stipulated that local govern-ment authorities could not ‘Promote homosexuality or publish material for the promotion of homosexuality’ or ‘promote the teaching in any main-tained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship by the publication of such material or otherwise’.
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The Act was eventually passed, but, rather than silencing the gay community, it had the effect of mobilising and reaffirming British gay iden-tity. The annual Gay Pride march – always the biggest, though generally one of the least publicised, demonstrations in the capital – recorded a much higher than usual attendance in the year following the introduction of the clause, and the organisers of what is now called the Gay Pride Mardi Gras in Finsbury Park, which concludes the march from Hyde Park, now aim to make London the gay capital of the world, in which they are supported by the tourist industry, less concerned with gay rights than with attracting the ‘pink’ pound. Ranging from ‘professional’ pressure groups such as Stonewall to more militant organisations such as Act Up (Aids Coalition to Unleash Power) and OutRage! (who sometimes adopt the term ‘queer’
to distinguish themselves from more moderate, assimilationist gay groups), there has been a resurgence of British gay activism since the late 1980s.
Homophobic discrimination in the workplace is still legal, but other issues, those of the age of gay consent and of the forced exposure or ‘outing’ of homosexuals and lesbians, have commanded particularly high levels of public interest and will be examined in turn.
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F I G U R E 3 . 4 Organisers of the Gay Pride Mardi Gras aim to make London the gay capital of the world (© Mirror Syndication International)
Initiatives to bring the gay age of consent (which was twenty-one) in line with that applied to heterosexuals (sixteen), was part of a broader gay equality package drafted by the Stonewall group, and inspired by the European Union’s social charter commitment to ending all forms of discrimination. An uneasy compromise was reached in February 1993 when the homosexual age of consent was changed to eighteen but it was finally lowered to sixteen in November 2000. At the other end of the spec-trum, activists such as Peter Tatchell and OutRage! have adopted the more controversial tactic of outing allegedly gay public figures – specifically those perceived to have lent their support to discriminatory practices. Outing is often associated with the exposure of pop stars and media celebrities, but in Britain (if not in the USA) gay outing groups tend to target more Establishment figures, such as eminent clergymen or Members of Parlia-ment. This has to be distinguished from the routine exposure of gay media celebrities more commonly practised by the tabloid press, who are also, ironically, almost unanimous in their opposition to ‘political’ outing. A recent example was the tabloids’ revelation that Britain’s most popular television comedian, Michael Barrymore, was gay. Despite being front-page news for a full two weeks, the story does not seem to have seriously damaged his career, though that of Michael Portillo was undermined by press and politicians when he ran for leadership of the Conservative Party in 2001: most people believed him to be the front runner for the office but his campaign was perhaps damaged for some members of the Party by alle-gations of homosexual acts. However, Portillo was in no sense politically ruined by the allegations, as his career would once have been and, a par-ticularly vicious, homophobic press campaign can often generate a good deal of public sympathy for its victim. In fact, Britain has a long tradition of camp entertainers, many of whom both exploit and challenge gay stereo-types as a source of comedy. A recent example is that of openly gay comedian Julian Clary, whose bawdy game show – Sticky Moments – takes smutty jokes and gay sexual innuendo to the point of self-parody.
British attitudes towards homosexuality and lesbianism have to be considered in relation to the overall political climate. The Aids crisis increased prejudice, but current attitudes appear to be much more tolerant than before. Amongst younger age-groups in particular, the distinctions between gay and straight culture are more blurred than ever. Gay male dress codes have been widely adopted by heterosexual men, and gay clubs are now more mixed in terms of both gender and sexual orientation.
If gender roles are learnt first and foremost within the family, they are reinforced or challenged in our choice of social activities and leisure pursuits. Indeed, if the family is less central to most people’s lives today, these may provide a greater source of identification. One of the clearest indications of the collapse of polarised gender identities is the slow decline 1111
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of exclusively male or female British institutions such as the Women’s Institute or the working men’s club. Although it is often dismissed as a backward-looking, traditionalist organisation, the Women’s Institute (WI) was formed in 1915 with the intention of informing and broadening the horizons of housewives, many of whom, at that time, received little or no conventional education. In fact, many of the Institute’s early philanthropic patrons, such as the first chairperson, Lady Denman, were inspired by the first-wave feminist movement. But, as women’s educational and career opportunities have increased, the Institute has come to be associated with one particular aspect of its work: the appreciation and preservation of traditional ‘feminine’ crafts such as cookery and needlepoint. Clearly, as the majority of women now work, not only do they have less time to devote to pursuing home-based crafts, but these have become less important as an indication of gender identity. Consequently, membership has fallen from 500,000 in its heyday in the late 1950s and early 1960s to the contem-porary figure of 272,000. The WI is still involved in raising awareness of contemporary women’s health issues, such as breast cancer, or environ-mental risks to children, but as membership is largely drawn from the over-fifties age-group and the Institute has little appeal for younger women, it looks set to fade away in time. Its only recent high-profile moment came when Tony Blair was given a slow handclap in 2000 by a WI meeting because he used the occasion to discuss general policy issues which the largely conservative gathering believed were not addressed to them but to members of the press in attendance.
Like the Women’s Institute, the formation of working men’s clubs harks back to a period in which male identity (particularly that of working-class men) was primarily constituted through the kinds of manual trades and blue-collar occupations which have receded in the post war period. With an annual membership of 350,000 around the country, working men’s clubs are still popular. But most have evolved into mixed social clubs and are now only tenuously linked to the workplace. Only 2 per cent exclude women from the premises, although women are barred from participating in organisational responsibilities in 35 per cent, and as with the WI the clubs now appeal to older people. Amongst the under-twenty-five age-group, leisure activities are becoming virtually indistinguishable. Pubs, still the most popular of all British social environments, are no longer male-dominated territories, although many women still do not feel comfortable visiting one alone.
The health and fitness culture which has flourished in Britain over the last ten years has also opened up a new range of cross-gender leisure activ-ities. Women are still less likely to compete in team sports and tend to favour fitness classes, but activities such as running, swimming, and weight training are becoming increasingly popular with both sexes. The gym, once a strictly male domain, is now frequented by almost equal numbers of men
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and women. Furthermore, while it is often maintained that women’s partic-ipation in fitness activities is motivated by vanity and men’s by health concerns, there is much evidence to suggest that British men are becoming increasingly preoccupied with appearance and body-shape. This can be understood as part of a more general shift in perceptions of British male identity, largely occasioned by the newer role models such as David Beckham or the television chef Jamie Oliver. British men have often been characterised, perhaps unfairly, as badly dressed and proudly indifferent to common standards of style, taste, and personal grooming. In the 1980s, the expansion and diversification of the menswear retailing industry, coupled with a growth in men’s grooming products, revolutionised atti-tudes towards British masculinity. A new range of fashion and beauty products were targeted at men, and more sexualised male images began to circulate in advertising and in new men’s style magazines, such as Arena, FHM, and GQ.
At other times such images may have carried distinctly gay connota-tions, but their contemporary appeal is ambivalently cross-gender. Male bodies were more crudely objectified in the new women’s porn magazines, and male strippers became a regular feature of the hen party or girls’ night out. It is not surprising that British men are now beginning to develop the kinds of body-image disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, which were once confined to women. As a result of these developments, British men have finally been cajoled into spending a greater proportion of their leisure time engaged in that most ‘feminine’ of activities, shopping, which now takes up a fair proportion of leisure time for both sexes, augmenting more traditional male activities, such as Saturday afternoon football.
Conclusion
Today, the British population comprises 51 per cent female and 49 per cent male subjects. However, the higher numbers of women are heavily concen-trated in the over-sixty age-group and do not reflect the gendered composition of the population as a whole. Recent studies also suggest that male life expectancy is catching up (it is currently about five years lower) and that over the century this imbalance is likely to be reversed in favour of men. Such predictions may be altered if all parents in the future are allowed, as some argue they should be, the right to choose the sex of their children. Either way, the gender composition of the population will undoubtedly affect attitudes towards age, marriage, children, and women in paid employment.
However, the overall picture which emerges at present is one in which gender roles are becoming somewhat more flexible and the two-parent, 1111
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patriarchal family is gradually becoming less dominant. This has produced a variety of responses. Right-wing politicians and many prominent church leaders tend to blame permissive legislation and the new social movements of the 1960s and 1970s (such as feminism and gay liberation) for the decline in traditional family life and conventional gender roles. From this perspec-tive, the nuclear family unit is evoked as a symbol of social cohesion, and its break up is regarded as the root cause of many contemporary social ills, from vandalism to drug addiction. Yet fears about the future of the family cross traditional party lines, and, while the more conservative sectors of society tend to blame liberal reforms, others have argued that, if permis-siveness weakened the family, it was Margaret Thatcher’s right-wing rev-olution that really killed it off. The rampant individualism and consumer greed associated with the 1980s economic boom are, in this version, respon-sible for undermining the moral values necessary to sustain family life.
Lastly, we must consider whether the decline of the traditional family has actually led to a more atomised, alienated society. There is also evidence to suggest that new, more flexible family structures and systems of com-munity support are beginning to take its place. Single mothers, for example, often rely heavily on one another for both childcare assistance and emotional support. Similarly, while children of divorced parents are gener-ally regarded as disadvantaged, it has also been suggested that many actually benefit from drawing on a wider support network of two families.
It is also important to recognise the new range of identities which the decay of the traditional British family has opened up. For women in particular, the decline of the traditional family unit clearly coincides with greater social freedom and status, and increased financial autonomy.
1 What is the difference between a nuclear and extended family? Do you know or can you think of other kinship structures? How do family struc-tures vary according to (a) class, (b) ethnic background? Which, if any, is most commonly represented in popular television film?
2 What is the meaning of the following popular phrases: back to basics;
Victorian values; family wage; white wedding; lie back and think of
Victorian values; family wage; white wedding; lie back and think of