Masculinity, Class and Same-Sex Desire in Industrial England, 1895-1957

by Helen Smith

Masculinity, Class and Same-Sex Desire in Industrial England, 1895-1957 explores the experiences of men who desired other men outside of the capital. In doing so, it offers a unique intervention into the history of sexuality but it also offers new ways to understand masculinity, working-class culture, regionality and work in the period.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

253 pages, Hardcover

First published October 7, 2015

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Dasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this work Smith seeks to investigate the culture that shaped and the relationships that took place in northern Britain between working-class men. Smith does this through five chapters, plus an introduction and conclusion. The second chapter, “Policing and Prosecutions” uses court records to illustrate that in comparison to southern metropolitan places, the number of prosecutions remained rather low until the post-war years. As she expands on in chapter three, the working-class culture cultivated an anti-authority stance among most workers which resulted in men believing that police had no authority over consensual sexual relationships. The fourth chapter, “Work and Family,” highlights how men’s sphere of work remained distinct from home and family life, which allowed for a degree of fluidity in sexual and non-sexual relationships with other men. Chapter five, “Sex,” provides an alternative to the narrative that only urban spaces provided geographies that allowed same-sex activity to flourish. Indeed, men met in public spaces such as pubs, toilets, and streets for homosocial and sexual relations with other men although the sub-culture of these centres looked different, in part due to the language that working-class men used to understand sexuality. This is the topic of chapter six, “Language” which considers the “absence of a language of sexuality” that lasted until the late 1950s which, rather than indicating ignorance, represented a degree of sexual freedom. Through this analysis, Smith argues that class and region played critical roles in shaping understandings of sexuality as demonstrated by northern England’s working-class masculine culture which allowed men to engage with men in sexual manners outside the constraints of labels and binaries which would later restrict men’s sexual fluidity.
Smith combines social and cultural approaches in her research which leads her to use a “diverse range of sources” (p. 15). She also builds her research off of the “New British Queer History” pioneered by researchers such as Matt Houlbrook, Harry Cocks, and Matt Cook move away from histories of sexuality tied to legal and medical documents only by seeking the “personal” (p. 6). Thus, while Smith bases the backbone of her research on court records and police reports, these sources are fleshed out through the use of newspapers, which highlight local culture and public values, and the Edward Carpenter Archive, which provides personal letters and writings between men that highlight differences between class, region, and conceptions of sexuality. She also uses memoirs, diaries, autobiographies, and oral history collections. Finally, social research done during the period of study rounds out Smith’s research.

[C. B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most important queer histories of modern Britain. In showing milieus in which sex between men was common and did not suggest an abnormal identity, Smith leaves us with so many questions about what it means to be queer. The book shows how important it is to interrogate the 'normal'.

I think the book should be read in tandem with Houlbrook's Queer London, which covers much of the same period. Together, these books give us a rich picture of same-sex desire across England at this time, while also hinting at the historiographical shifts which took place between 2005 and 2015.

[lia · Rating 4 out of 5]

hard to rate because it’s academic so i’m not sure how to evaluate it (lol like that isn’t the whole point of my degree) but here were some things i liked and didn’t like:

1. i liked the content and her theory which was FASCINATING very radical suuuups cool love you helen smith
2. i decidedly did not like the data in chap2. it was helpful later on for setting up a base of knowledge/fact smith could build off of, but honestly not spectacular in terms of interestingness (e.g. was bored out of my mind the whole time). however that isn’t actually a good critical reason for dislike so I won’t include that in my essay but goodreads can hear about it.

soz for the terrible review but helen great first try at a book a little repetitive but fun and funny to read(i did laugh out loud at bits). pls write more 📕📖🏳️‍🌈

[Rhiannon Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written and carefully argued exploration of the work-focused and often tolerant culture of the north of England, with nuanced commentary on how it differed from the much more studied London, and even places like Birmingham (see pp.122-23), as well as within the region, with port cities and transient populations identified as different to localised and industrial places where homosocial work and leisure time, resistance to any form of interference in personal life, and a focus on good work as the centre of good character created what Smith calls (p.195) "a surprising number of options" for sexual and emotional expression.