Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Abbreviations
Table of Statues
Table of Reported Cases
1. Introduction 1.1 What is lesbianism?1.1.1 Anachronism1.1.2 Definitions1.1.3 (Not) defining individuals1.2 Silencing1.2.1 Legal silencing1.2.2 Why silencing for women but not men?1.3 Making lesbian legal history1.3.1 Sources1.3.2 Methodology1.4 Arrangement of chapters
2. Mary/Charles Hamilton: eighteenth-century female husband prosecutions2.1 Mary/Charles Hamilton, female husband2.2 Female husbands and silencing2.3 Identities and perceptions2.3.1 Motivations for marriage2.4 Wives2.5 Sexual offences and the Bloody Code2.6 Why were female husbands prosecuted?2.6.1 Social change2.6.2 Changing medical theories2.6.3 Changes in the criminal justice system2.6.4 Why were female husbands punished?2.7 Conclusion: silencing and the dildo
3. Louise Mourey and the 'Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon'3.1 Louise Mourey 3.2 The development of indecent assault 3.2.1 Indecency 3.2.2 Age of consent 3.3 Social and legal context 3.3.1 Female husbands in the nineteenth century3.3.2 Attitudes to gender and sexuality 3.3.2 Sexuality and insanity 3.3.3 The criminal justice system 3.3.4 The sexual double standard3.4 Louise Mourey and silencing3.5 Conclusion: the (lack of) impact of Mourey
4. 'Gross indecency between females': the 1921 Parliamentary debates4.1 The 1921 debates 4.1.1 Why was the issue of lesbianism chosen?4.2 Lesbianism and women's sexuality 4.2.1 Sex and danger in the First World War 4.2.2 New parallels to male homosexuality 4.2.3 Lesbian sex4.3 Social change 4.3.1 Social class and race 4.3.2 Feminist diversity and resistance 4.3.3 Women and lawmaking4.4 Conclusion
5. Victor/Valerie Barker: sexology and challenges to silencing5.1 Victor/Valerie Barker5.2 The rise of sexology and the female invert5.2.1 Criminality and female inversion5.2.2 Sexology in legal and popular understanding5.2.3 Sexology and silencing5.3 Female husbands and class5.4 Comparison with earlier cases5.5 Aftermath: renewed silence5.6 Conclusion
6. The Wolfenden Report: a shift in silencing6.1 The Wolfenden Report6.2 Changing law: legislators and sexual offences legislation6.2.1 From moralism to liberalism?6.2.2 Silencing the lesbian comparator6.2.3 Limiting political claims6.2.4 Articulating the lesbian comparator6.3 From congenital inversion to medicalised homosexuality6.4 Cracks in the wall of silence?6.4.1 Wartime regulation6.4.2 The post-war lesbian marriage-breaker6.4.3 The post-war unnatural friendship6.4.3 Rights claims and an emerging movement6.5 Conclusion
7. Allen: sexual offences prosecutions in the late twentieth century7.1 R v Allen 7.2 A new social context7.3 A new legal context7.4 Court attitudes7.4.1 Jennifer/Jimmy Saunders7.4.2 Perversion and corruption7.4.3 Questioning as harm7.4.4 Lesbianism as embarrassment 7.4.5 Sentencing comparisons7.5 The Sexual Offences Act 20037.5.1 Liberal principles7.5.2 Key offences