HIST 3800 - Same-sex Love in Modern Britain

Goals: To explore and analyze the contours of and prejudices against same-sex love between men and between women in Britain 1830-1980, and to compare these to the present day.

Content: The nature of sexual and romantic relationships between men and between women in Britain between approximately 1830 and 1980, including laws against sodomy, tensions between repression and thriving subcultures, aestheticism, sexology, cross-class relationships, key scandals and causes célèbres, feminism, the New Woman, butch/femme culture, the Gay Liberation Front, the rise of gay rights movements, lesbian separatism, and the recent popularity of “gender-critical” or TERF politics.

Taught: Alternate years

Credits: 4