1. Brian Haines
‘The sexual melee of 1900 was tamed in the twentieth century’ (Leif Jerram). Do you agree?
(2500 words)
Thisargumentdisputes Leif Jerram’sconclusion,arguedinhisworkSex and theCity, and instead
proposesthatthe sexual melee(ameleebeingafightora scuffle whichshowscontrastsinsociety)
remainedand openeduptowards the mid-1970s.As forwardedby writersandphilosophers suchas
Grant Allen(1848-1899), EdwardCarpenter(1844-1919) and HavelockEllis(1859-1939), there
existedstringentcontrolsandconservative beliefsatthe endof the Victorianeraandthroughthe
Edwardianperiod inregardstodifferentformsof sexuality. Thissexuallyconservative society
evolvedintoahighly more liberal andexceptingerabythe time of the late-1960s and mid-1970s.
Jerram’sworkon sexuality contraststopiecesdone previouslybyhistorians, suchasRoy Porter, in
that itsconclusionrejects andchallenges the long-established argumentof the early-twentieth
centurybeinga traditionalisticplace with‘Victorianvalues’:illustratingsocialignorance of sexual
themes. Beginningwithadragqueenshow in1900s Berlin,andlookingatfurthercasesof
homosexuality inthe twentieth century,includingsex between meninpublictoiletsandthe growth
of gaybars, Jerrampresentsanimage of an openand stronggay culture inEuropean,particularly
London,society. Additionally,Jerramarguesthatthisrelative opennesswassuppressedduringthe
course of the century, especially afterthe SecondWorldWar,whenthere wasa move backtowards
the traditional familyideal,andagreaterinvolvementof the state in the sexual livesof people.
The major deficiencyin Sex and theCity isthat it solelyfocusesuponhomosexualityand‘camp’
events,usingthese tomake aconclusionwhichregards tothe whole of sexuality. Thisessay,inthe
lastsection,discusseshomosexuality,butalsoincludes otherformsof sexuality, firstlylookingat
publicsexual understandingand itspromotion indifferentforms; secondlythe changinguse of
contraceptioninthe twentieth century. Like Jerram’sarticle,thisessayistoreferdominantlyto
Britain,specificallyLondon,butalsoincludesotherEuropeannations.
Ignorance inregardsto sexual knowledge wasprevalentinthe Edwardianperiod,butslowly
diminished overthe nextsixty years.This argumentisfirstly supportedby Marie Stopes,anadvice
writeronsexual knowledge in 1920s England.Stopeswrote thatmany of the people whowrote to
herat the time,andmostsurprisingthisincluded menof biological expertise, didnotfinditcommon
knowledge thatthe peniswasthe ‘‘intermittentorganof copulation,withthe ‘functionof conveying
the semenintothe genital passagesof the female...’’1
.ItisnotedthatStopes’testimony,on itsown,
cannot be takento representthe entire Edwardianpublic;Stopesmay have exaggerated forherown
personal benefit. Additionally, evenif she hadtoldanaccurate tale,these people may have been
the extreme casesof society andtherefore not representativeof widerEdwardiansociety.However,
withStopes’ testimonymatchingwithothersof the time,there doesseemtobe ageneral strong
theme of ignorance.In1930s Haxey,England,a womanof forty,whowouldhave beenanadultin
1 Roy Porter & Lesly Hall, The facts of life: The creation of sexual knowledge in Britain, 1650-1950 (Yale
University Press,1995),p.170

2. the Edwardianperiod,isreportedto have gone tothe local vicaron the day afterher wedding,
because she believedthat herhusband hadtriedto do ‘somethingveryrude’2
.Ignorance storiesare
not onlyassociatedwith women butalsowithmen.One manreportedtothe Mass Observation
that, ‘Ineverfoundoutanything[referringtosexual intercourse] till I wentinthe Army1914’3
. The
Mass Observation’s1949 surveyof early-twentiethcenturysexual knowledgefoundthisignorance
coveredlarge partsof the population, one example thatthey thoughtrepresentedthe otherswell
was of a 26 yearoldfemale midwife[in1914] whoadmittedto being‘as ignorantas it waspossible
to be’4
inregards to reproductionandsex.Thislackof sexual knowledgeseemstocontinue post-
FirstWorld War witha statistic, showingonly ‘5percent’5
of individuals havinganysexual
knowledge.
AlanHaines,born in1958s Leicester,therefore growingupinthe 1960s and 1970s, recordsthat
‘thougha slowprocess,whichwashardto recognise,the late 1960s didmark the openingupof
sexual aspects inpublic.’6
Weeks,however, suggestsasignificantcontinuationof conservatismin
regardsto sexualityinthe 1960s, supportinghisclaimwithreportsfrom The Lately Committee on
The Age of Majority.The resultsof thisreport, reveal adesire of 1960s youngmalestomarry, and
secondly apersonal agreementthat if theygot a womanpregnanttheywouldstaywithherthrough
marriage.This,however,doesnothave tomeanconservatisminsexuality.The understanding by
these teenagersthattheycould take arole in reproduction,whencomparedtothe oldersoldierof
1914 discussedabove,showsaclearunderstandingof sexual matters.Secondly,forthiscommittee
to evenbe discussingsexual matterswith these individuals,whohave recentlycome outof
childhood,suggestsagreateropeningupof sexual mattersasthe twentiethcentury progressed.
Historians,suchas JenningsandWeeks,whosuggestaconservative societyinthe 1960s, depend
stronglyon low pre-marital sex figures.Jenningsprovidesdatashowing‘25%’7
of menand‘66%8
’ of
womenremained virginsontheirweddingnight. Whencomparedtothe 2014, these figuresseem
surprisinglyhigh,howeverwhencomparedtothe beginningof the century a differentpicture is
found,anda movementtowardsagreatersexual understanding inthe twentieth centuryappears.
Statisticsshow ‘81%’9
of Edwardian womenremained virginsontheirweddingday.The 1970s seems
to mark a furtheradvancementinthe knowledge and opennessof sexual matterswiththe beginning
of full nudityappearingtothe masses. Bythe 1970s censorshipof soft-core pornography wasbeing
leftat the way-side bythe British, West-German(BRD),andScandinaviangovernments.Moreover,
performances suchas Oh!Calcutta! that included nakedperformers actingoutsexual actsinfrontof
audiences,remained strongthroughoutthe decade,and Oh!Calcutta! evenfaced arevival inthe
2000s. Whentestedagainstthe othersexual themeof sexual knowledge andpromotionitisclear
that Jerram’sconclusionof asexualitybeingtamedthroughoutthe decade isawoundable
2 Roy Porter, The facts of life, p.253
3 Roy Porter, The facts of life, p.249.
4 Hera Cook, The Long Sexual Revolution: English Women, Sex, and Contraception 1800-1975 (Oxford
University Press,2004), p.168
5 Hera Cook, The Long Sexual Revolution, p. 339
6 Interview with Alan Haines,Chelmsford,23 February 2014.
7Rebecca Jennings, 20th Century Britain: Economic, cultural and social change (London, 2007), p.298
8 Rebecca Jennings, 20th Century Britain, p.298
9 Anna Clark,Desire: A history of European sexuality (London, 2008), p.168

3. conclusion.Heterosexual intimateknowledge andpromotionof knowledge onlyincreased
throughoutthe century;bythe 1970s it was part of the mass social entertainment.
So far thisessayhassupportedthe argument thatsexual knowledgewasnottamedduringthe 20th
century:people, thoughtakinguntilthe late 1960s, didstart to understandabouttheirbodiesand
sexuality.Thissecondsectionistoexamineanotherimportantsexualareawhich Jerramfails to
include:the adoption of contraceptioninthe twentieth century. Whendiscussingthe change in
sexual lives,evenwithinadomesticdiscussion, ‘The Pill’of the 1960s seemstoalwaysshow up at
some point,anditssignificance suggeststhisisrightlyso. Bythe year1964 about ‘500,000’10
women
were takingthis contraceptive;by 1989, over‘75%’ of womanborn amid1945-1959 had at some
pointtakenit.These statistics,showingadramaticincrease in‘the Pill’ andamonga vastproportion
of Britishsociety,insuchashort time, providesweighttothe testimonyof Mary Quant,describing
the contraceptionas‘a real revolution...Itwasquite wonderful’11
.AnnaClark,inherbook,aswell as
Quant andHaines, intheirtestimonies,referto the continueddifficultyfor‘unmarriedmothers’,
withthisgroupoftenhavingtopretend tobe married by wearinga borrowedweddingring12
.Yet,
everywoman,withthe openingupof legislationin late 1960s Britainand France,had the
opportunitytobuy thisformof contraception;allowingforwomantoeffectivelycontrol theirsex
lives,the riskof unwantedpregnancy,aswellas startingto weaken the social tabooof sex before
marriage. AngusMcLaren pointsout,that there had beendifferentformsof contraceptionfor
centuries,withappliances,medications,and especially fromthe time of the FirstWorldWar,
condoms13
.Nonetheless,‘The Pill’,withitsnearabsolute effective rate,gave womenadramatically
largercontrol overtheirlives. The importance of ‘The Pill’inthe sexualhistoryof the 20thcentury
shouldnotbe understated. People’ssex lives,andasa resultfamilysize,couldmore efficientlyvary
fromone another,because of thiscontraception,thus ‘The Pill’ provideshuge weightin weakening
the argumentthat the sexual meleeof 1900 wastamedin the twentieth century.
Up until thispoint,thisessayhastestedthe conclusionof Jerram’sconclusionagainstthe broader
sexual themes of sexual knowledge andunderstandingbyWesternsocieties, andthe growinguse of
contraceptionduringthe 1900s. Thisessayhasfoundthat, withthese broaderthemes,Jerramis
inaccurate inarguingthat the sexual melee wastamedduringthe twentieth century.Instead,
sexualityonthe whole openedupbythe late 1960s and early1970s, allowingpeople tohave more
opportunityfora variedsexual experience andunderstanding.Thislastsectionistofocusmore on
Jerram’sworkby placingthe spotlightonhomosexuality.Jerramprovidesaconvincingcase onthe
tamingof homosexualrelationsafterthe SecondWorldWar, providingfiguresthatin1952 there
were ‘607’14
prosecutionsfor‘un-natural offences’,meaninghomosexual acts. In1938 there had
10 Hera Cook, The Long Sexual Revolution, p. 248
11 The Scientific Revolution & Sexual Freedom PowerPoint, from ‘Themes in 20th Century People’s History’
module.
12 Anna Clark, Desire, p.203
13 Angus McLaren, History of Contraception: From antiquity to the present day (New Jersey, 1992), p.199
14 Leaf Jerram, Streetlife: The untold history of Europe’s twentieth century (Oxford University Press,2012),
p.307

4. onlybeen‘138’15
for the same offence.Thisrestrictionpolicypost-1945didnotonlyoccur inBritain,
but alsoinothernations,suchas France,where the government keptthe Vichylawsagainstsame-
sex intercourse andevenbannedmendancingwithothermen.Aswell asinthe BRD,which kept
Nazi-stylelegislation,imprisoningmore homosexuals thantheirNazi predecessors.16
Jerramand
Weeksplace a lackof weightbehindthe British SexualOffencesActof 1967, which legalisedsame-
sex relations.Weeks focusesonthe pointthathomosexuals,eveninthe late 1960s, were still
lawfullysegregated withlegalisation of same-sex relationsonlyextendingtothose twenty-one or
over,incontrast to legal heterosexual sexual relationsextendingtothose sixteen andover.A similar
case occurred inthe BRD. Furthermore,Weeksacknowledgesacontinuednegativeopinionof
homosexualsfrom the public,with‘93%’17
of people polledviewinghomosexualityassome type of
disease thatneededtreatment.This reliabilityof the poll’sanswersis supported bythe LordBishop
of Londonwhoargued that ‘we donot condone homosexualpractices;nordowe regardthemas in
any waylesssinful’,18
andLordRowallanwhoregardedhomosexualityasa‘disability’19
,and
somethingwhichhomosexualscouldovercome withtreatment. Itisacceptedthat, unlike the
previousthemes,homosexuality didkeep amodestsocial stigmabeyondthe 1970s. The BBC
comedysketch, MontyPython:Bruce(1969) showsthis,withthe word‘no poofters’20
repeatedly
beingused,andBBC’sEastenders use of the Mark FowlerHIV case (1990), focusing onthe negative
reactionof the characters presentsaclear representationof,atleastaminority of Britishpeople’s
opiniontowardshomosexualityatthe endof the century.However,thesecasesshouldnot be
allowedtodestroy the importance of the 1967 Sexual OffencesLaw. Fromthisyearhomosexuals
couldfor the firsttime,thoughtheywouldrequiresome confidence,walkdownthe streetsof
Englandwiththeirsame-sexloverandnotfear imprisonment. The same was the case in1969s BRD
and 1972s Norway.Thisargumentacceptsa short-termstricterpersecutionafterthe SecondWorld
War, howeverwhenmatchedagainstthe legalisationof homosexualityinthe 1960s and 1970s,
Jerram’stamingof sexualityinthe late twentieth centuryfindsanotherweakness.
Evenin his‘free’homosexual image of EdwardianEurope,thisessayfindsissues.Jerramonly
providestestimonieswherebymensucceededinhaving homosexual relations andreceivedno
punishment.Instead,itmustbe rememberedthatalongwiththe gay-barsandmen‘cruising’public
transport,people were arrestedandpunishedfortheirsexuality. Toillustrate this point,this
argumentprovidesthe case of a man calledHuttonin1916 whowas imprisonedtwice afterbeing
arrestedinLondon’sWestEnd forhomosexual acts21
. Secondly,Jerrampaystoomuchattentionto
London and the othercapitalsof Europe,whichwithhigherpopulationsthanthe restof their towns,
were guaranteedtohave homosexualswhofoundconfidence toexpressthemselvesmore; seeing
otherpeople withthe same sexual identity.Itwouldbe interestingtofind similarhomosexual events
occurringin smallerandmore rural areas, suchas Cambridgeshire andBavaria.
15 Leaf Jerram, Streetlife, p.307
16 Leaf Jerram, Streetlife, p.293
17 Jeffrey Weeks, Sex, politics & society (London, 1989), p.265
18 Hansard.millbanksystems,from Themes in the twentieth century module guide, Sexual freedom preparation
19 Hansard.millbanksystems,from Themes in the twentieth century module guide, Sexual freedom preparation
20 ‘Monty Python: Bruce’, Youtube videos, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_p0CgPeyA; consulted 5th
March 2014
21 Matt Houlbrook,Queer London: Perils and pleasures in the sexual metropolis, 1918-1957 (Chicago,2006),
p.44

5. Thisessayhas focusedontwo tasks.The firstwasto test the soundnessof Jerram’sconclusion,that
the sexual meleeof 1900 was tamedduringthe course of the twentieth century,againstabroader
contextof sexual knowledgeandthe use of contraception.The secondwastoevaluate the
homosexualitybasedargumentof Jerram. The answerfoundisthatSex and the City isinaccurate;
the sexual meleeof 1900 was nottamedduringthe twentieth century. Sexual knowledgeamong
societyincreasedthroughthe 1900s, beginningwithvastignorance of evenbasicunderstandingof
sexual matters,evenamongacademicsin the Edwardianperiod,developed torelativelyinformed
societiesbythe 1960s andearly1970s. The sexual meleeisalsonottamedwhencomparedwith
contraception,withwomanforthe firsttime able tohave nearabsolute control overtheirbodies
and produce variationintheirsexual lives.Evenwithinhismainfocusof homosexuality,Jerram’s
argumentisflawed.Focusingononlyspecificareasof London andcaseswherebyhomosexuals
succeeded inlivingtheirownlives,he failstoillustrate the more accurate image of fearof
persecution,andthe needforhomosexualstohide theiridentityinthe early1900s. Furthermore, his
tamingof homosexuallifestyle inthe post-1945generation failstorecognise the breakthroughin
homosexual freedomwhichthe late 1960s beganto bring,particularlyinEuropeanlaw.

6. Bibliography:
Primary Sources:
Hansard.millbanksystems, from Themes in the twentieth century module guide, Sexual
freedom preparation.
Interview with Alan Haines, Chelmsford, 23 February 2014.
‘Mark Fowler profile’, BBC Eastenders character profiles,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m86d/profiles/mark-fowler; consulted 4th March
2014.
‘Monty Python: Bruce’, Youtube videos, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_p0CgPeyA;
consulted 5th March 2014.
Secondary sources:
Clark Anna, Desire: A history of European sexuality (London, 2008)
Cook Hera, The Long Sexual Revolution: English Women, Sex, and Contraception 1800-1975
(Oxford University Press, 2004)
Houlbrook Matt, Queer London: Perils and pleasures in the sexual metropolis, 1918-1957
(Chicago, 2006)
Jennings Rebecca, 20th Century Britain: Economic, cultural and social change (London, 2007)
Jerram Leaf, Streetlife: The untold history of Europe’s twentieth century (Oxford University
Press, 2012)
McLaren Angus, History of Contraception: From antiquity to the present day (New Jersey,
1992)
Porter Roy & Hall Lesley, The facts of life: The creation of sexual knowledge in Britain, 1650-
1950 (Yale University Press, 1995)

7. Weeks Jeffrey, Coming Out: Homosexual politics in Britain from the nineteenth century to
the present (London, 1979)
Weeks Jeffrey, Sex, politics & society (London, 1989)