Gender and sexuality

Abstract

The history of gender and sexuality in Britain from the turn of the twentieth century to the present day brings together the history of the public and private sphere and the history of the social and of the intimate. In the most basic fashion, gender and sexuality have been deeply interwoven with the changing sense twentieth century and twenty-first century Britons have had of their own identity, belonging and freedom, whether this is within the family, in the community or as individuals. But it can trace some outlines in the history of gender and sexuality in twentieth-century Britain and raise some questions about their relationship to other historical developments. What this chapter suggests is that the story of gender and sexuality since 1900 has been about the displacement or deconstruction of dominant ideas about gender and sexuality. Similarly, the family and sexuality have been detached from a certain connection to heterosexual marriage or, indeed, to heterosexuality.