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Sexual Politics (Women's Lib (Britain
Began in London in 1969
…
Sexual Politics
Women's Lib
Britain
- Began in London in 1969
- Targeted social and cultural position of women - porn, education, equal pay
- Growing feminist literature
US
- Continuity rather than waves?
- Many disillusioned by expectations
- 1966 - National Organisation for Women (NOW)
- Consciousness-raising
- Activism through shared experiences
- Personally and politically revolutionary
- 1968 WLM protesting Miss America
- Myth of bra burning from the 'Freedom Trash Can'
All
- Equal pay for equal work
- End of sex discrimination
- End of gendered occupations
- Support for working women
- Strengths
- International
- Impressive change and speed
- Range of issues and increased awareness
- Legal, employment and reproductive rights
- Weaknesses
- Not intersectional - divided by age, race, sexuality, marital status
- Splintering of movements
- Homophobia and racism
- Divided goals
- Ridicule - many resisting based on myths
West Germany
- From 1968 from student movements
- Liberate women from male-dominated perspective
- 1968 Action Council for Women's Liberation - power relationships, discrimination against mothers, day-care centres for working mothers, abolition of abortion ban
East Germany
- Independent movement only started 1980s
- Women objects of paternal policies, art and literature to establish consciousness
- Different issues from East Germany - abortion and free contraception - found it difficult to unite in new Germany
France
- 1968 - creation of MLF - Duchen says May 68 catalyst for women wanting to take charge in male-dominated world
- MLF criticised for being divided
- Allwood - differing aims of class struggle vs patriarchy
- Duchen - 'women's allegiance to her class or her sex'
Context
- Associated with 1960s
- Disagreement on when and to what extent
- Accounts of personal liberation but didn't benefit all - race, class, sexuality, gender intersectionality
- Permissiveness
- Difficult to define
- Liberalisation and tolerance
- Group freedom, individual freedom
- Legal changes, shifting attitudes, media discussion, pressure groups
- Unfinished and ongoing - still not fully achieved
Historiography
- Foucault - sexual revolution didn't bring freedom for everybody, sometimes had opposite effect
- When?
- Short and sharp - 1958-74 - Marwick, Brown
- Giama, Hekma - immediate post-war period time of regression, rise of Stalin and fascism, moral and social reconstruction - young people revolting against it
- Longer view - 1943 onwards - social conditions of post-war period important, not a radical break in ideas - Cook, Eder
- Longer trajectory - 1800s onwards, started with moves towards women's suffrage and education - Mort
- What?
- From below - generational revolt against morals of older generation
- From above - legislative change ahead of public opinion
- eg British LGBT legislation ahead of public opinion, 1991 survey over half said adult same-sex relations always wrong
- Short radical phase followed by backlash to permissiveness, HIV etc
- Giami, Hekma - 'the main influence was the mass of people that wanted to be free from restrictions of the past'
Moral Conservatism - 1940s-50s
- 'Social reconstruction' following war - marriage, nuclear family, domesticity for women
- Britain
- Marriage and home as ideal
- Marriage and family to counter crisis of war and rising divorce rate
- New welfare state based on nuclear families
- US
- A 'new Victorianism'
- Passivity and domesticity for middle-class women
- Obsession with controlling sex and gender
- Liberal consensus - heterosexuality, marriage, male breadwinner, stay-at-home wife and mother
- Outsiders 'deviant' and 'subversive'
- West Germany
- Stable nuclear family, clear division of sexes
- Sexual morality predicated on marriage
- Moeller - anti-communism and Christianity left gender roles unequal
- East Germany
- End of war marked by sexual violence and family upheaval
- Rapes by Red Army, men still in POW camps
- Regime maintained Third Reich's legislation
- Leipzig - demands for abortion rose from 270 in 1963 to 1070 two years later - ban on abortion temporarily lifted
- 1950 Protection of Mother and Child - abortion for risk to health or eugenics
- France
- Catholic influence still strong, Communist party arguing for traditional morality
- Chaperon - liberal views 'caught between moralists on the right and the left'
Persecution and Change
Persecution of Sexual 'Deviance
- Britain
- Intensified persecution of prostitution and homosexuality
- Paranoia that lack of restraint meant bad citizen - pushed by press
- Homosexuality portrayed as threat
- Some pushed for decriminalisation but unsuccessful
- East Germany
- Homosexual acts remained illegal - ignored calls for change
- US
- Intense homophobia - 'sociopathic personality disturbance'
- Lavender Scare - purged from jobs and fired, parallelled Red Scare - fear of blackmail
- 1950s - immigration of homosexuals banned
- Flourishing of LG subculture, bars, cruising
- Sexual habits didn't match ideal - illegitimacy rates didn't go up in 60s
- Kinsey Report (late 40s, early 50s) - argued against binary etc, argued for diverse sexual behaviour
- West Germany
- Commercialisation of the sexual, published Kinsey findings
- Allensbach report - split over abortion but views on marital sexuality and homosexuality consistent - not much difference between 1949 and 1963 surveys
- France
- 1950s French translation of Kinsey - flurry of books and articles but a lot disagreeing
- Chaperon - 'In the wake of Kinsey, practices that were once considered deviant or pathological ... were re-assessed'
Sexual Revolution? - 1960s-70s
- Abortion
- Britain - 1967 Abortion Act decriminalised abortion but still restricted by decisions of male practitioners
- US - 1965 Supreme Court upholds right for a couple to use contraception; 1973 Supreme Court overrules law making abortion illegal
- West Germany - 1976 legalised for medical and ethical reasons but still limitations of times and decisions
- East Germany - 1950 for medical reasons; encouraged child allowance, pregnancy leave; 1972 first trimester legalisation
- Harsch - East German women may have been less loyal after West German legalisation - decision to legalise political, not sexual revolution
- France - 1965 Mitterrand first presidential candidate to support legal contraception; 1971 Manifesto of the 343, women declaring their illegal abortions
- Homosexuality
- Britain - 1967 decriminalised private 21+ acts but still seen as perversion, only in England and Wales, not equal ages of consent
- US - half of the states repealed sodomy laws by 1980s, all invalidated in 2003
- East Germany - ceased prosecution late 1950s, repealed 1988
- West Germany - same paragraph upheld in 1957, decriminalised 1969
- France - 1974 age of majority lowered to 18; 1982 age of consent equalised
- Gender equality
- Britain - 1970 Equal Pay Act in response to Dagenham march
- US - 1963 Equal Pay Act but less effective; 1974 Equal Pay Act prohibited discrimination of orientation, sex or marital status; 1972 Equal Rights Amendment not approved by all states
- West Germany - 1957 Equal Rights law abolished all laws going against 'Basic Law of the Federal Republic'
- East Germany - 1949 constitution established equality; 1968 New Constitution to make women's advancement binding task
- France - Chaperon - new theories proposed by men, traditional ideas still mostly upheld
Changing Attitudes
- Contraceptive pill
- Turning point? Or too simplistic
- No universal change, often refused to unmarried women, led to idea that women sexually available
- Britain - 1961 for married women, 1966 for all
- US - 1972 became available
- France - 1961 centres open throughout country providing contraception, 1963 providing sex ed courses
- West Germany - used by 200,000 in first three years but nearly 4 million by 1972
- Fewer abortions but sexual promiscuity
- Product of patriarchy? Put pressure on women, unknown health effects, tested initially on poor illiterate women
- France - swinging 60s?
- 1949 law banning publications for under 18s showing crime or immorality
- 1958 reinforced earlier law and included advertising of works harmful to morality
- But conditions improved after detente and decline in Catholicism
Gay Lib
Britain
- 1970 Gay Liberation Front formed at LSE
- Conflict between gay men and lesbians, exclusion of bi and trans people
- Activism from below - Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, Labour enshrined gay rights in manifesto after block vote from NUM
US
- 1969 - Stonewall Riots
- Stonewall Inn, Mafia-owned gay bar
- Change vs continuity
- Led by black trans women and drag queens but left out of modern narrative
- 1969 Gay Liberation Front
- Coming out as personal and political
- Consciousness-raising
- Required consensus at meetings
- Divisions
- Only sought gay rights - elections and rules by majority
France
- 1952-55 - gay magazine Futur
- 1954-82 - gay magazine Arcadie - allied with MLF
- Chaperon - both successful magazines but influence restricted to gay community because of bans on advertising
Conservative Backlash
1980s-90s
- Mobilising against 'permissive society'
- Entrenched traditional ideas, misogyny and homophobia - both men and women
- AIDS crisis - both worsened each other
Britain
- Thatcher's government
- Victorian family values
- Section 28 - worsened AIDS crisis by not allowing gay teens to access information
- Late 1980s second wave of radicalism
- Wave of legalisation in 2000s
- 2001 age of consent
- 2002 adoption
- 2003 Section 28 repeal
- 2005 civil partnerships
- 2013 marriage
US
- Rising backlash 70s-80s
- Threats to overturn Roe v Wade
- Movements seen as conspiracies against American values
- 1980s AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power - ACT UP (cite James! Thanks James)
- 1993 first LGBT activists to meet a sitting president (Clinton)
Source
- Lavender Scare - 'witch hunt' and mass firings, paralleled Red Scare
- Said communist sympathisers and security risks, government 'infiltrated'
- By 1953 reportedly 425 employees fired for allegations
- Followed by Executive Order barring working in federal government - stayed on books until 1995, caused 5000 people to be fired
- Association with Communism as a threat to the 'American way of life'
- More people fired because of sexuality than because of political leanings
- 1957 Crittenden Report said 'no sound basis' and criticised the previous report but was kept secret until 1970s