Tomboys and bachelor girls : a lesbian history of post-war Britain 1945-71 / Rebecca Jennings.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jennings, Rebecca, (Gender historian), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lesbians--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Lesbians.

Great Britain--Social conditions--1945-.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (209 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

Paperback edition.

Place of Publication:

Manchester, UK : Manchester University Press, 2007.

Summary:

This book examines the ways in which women were able to deploy ambiguous concepts such as the 'career woman' and the 'bachelor girl' to simultaneously indicate and mask a lesbian identity. Contemporary anxieties about female same-sex desire which attached to these figures offered the opportunity to deploy them as an indication of potential sexual deviance. But their very ambiguity simultaneously afforded a protection from censure which more explicit terms such as 'lesbian' did not. These cultural connections between 'deviant' and 'normative' models of sexual identity have become the focus of considerable attention by queer theorists and historians in recent years. Queer historians have sought to analyse the institutional practices and discourses which produce sexual knowledge, and the ways in which these organise social life. They have concentrated their research on the binary opposition of homosexuality and heterosexuality as the dominant epistemological framework of knowledge about sexuality. The book seeks to explore the connections between space and cultural practices in lesbian history and is therefore concerned with the material world of post-war Britain. Identities such as 'tomboy' were invested with specific meanings in particular spatial contexts. As a child in rural Essex in the early 1950s, Nina Jenkins could use the term 'tomboy' to explain and excuse her desire to climb trees and be part of a boys' street gang.

Contents:

1. Tomboys, crushes and the construction of adolescent lesbian identities

2. The 'all-out career woman' and narratives of lesbianism at work

3. Lesbian domesticity: relationships and the home

4. The Gateways club and the emergence of a post-war lesbian subculture

5. Arena Three and the articulation of a collective lesbian identity.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 10 Apr 2026).

Includes bibliographical references (pages 183-204) and index.

ISBN:

1-5261-3028-9

OCLC:

1085617429