50 Years of Essex Sociology: A seminar sponsored by the Department of Sociology and the Centre for Intimate and Sexual Citizenship

‘The Making of the Modern Homosexual’ Revisited

A discussion between Professor Ken Plummer and Professor Jeffrey Weeks and other contributors chaired by Gregg Blachford; and an update with Dr Róisín Ryan-Flood.

One of the many fields of research in the Department of Sociology has been ‘sexualities’.  In the 1990’s we established the journal Sexualities and in the 2000’s, set up the Centre for Intimate and Sexual Citizenship run by Dr Róisín Ryan Flood. To celebrate the 50^th anniversary, this seminar will take us back to some of our earliest work that helped to create a new field of study – lesbian and gay studies, queer studies and critical sexualities studies – and consider just how it has advanced.

In the 1970’s there was almost no research in these areas and Essex was one of the pioneers.  Mary McIntosh’s The Homosexual Role – which argued that homosexuality was not a universal condition but a variable social role- is often seen as a foundational text. The seminar will be in her memory, discussing her work and highlighting the earliest collective work produced in the department during the 1970’s and published in 1981 as The Making of the Modern Homosexual. This book brought together students and staff, and suggested new directions for research. Most notably it developed a historical sense of same-sex relations; linked it firmly to power, gender and identity; and developed the debate over constructionism and essentialism. While they were innovative then, many now would take these early paradigm shifts for granted as a new vibrant field of ‘sexualities studies’ has emerged over the past twenty years, moved on and developed new concerns.   

The book The Making of the Modern Homosexual was organized into three parts. The first part reprinted the McIntosh article and Mary then discussed its value in an interview with Jeffrey Weeks and Ken Plummer.  It suggested key features of new emerging frameworks. The second part took up three key themes:

• Ken Plummer suggested the fruitfulness of applying stigma theory, labeling theory and ideas of ‘oppression’ to homosexuality
• Jeffrey Weeks puzzled the historiography of homosexuality and its latent essentialism; while Annabel Faraday critiqued the apparent males bias of existing ‘male’ ‘gay’ research and suggested new radical feminist baselines.
• The third part then provided three empirical studies being conducted by graduate students - a first (John Marshall) traced the emergence of the category from the late 19^th century to the 50’s; a second (Dave King) looked at the making of ‘trans’ categories; and a third (Gregg Blachford) looked at the growing significance of ‘masculinity’ in the gay culture. Some of these contributors will be returning for the seminar and meeting again for the first time in over thirty years.

The seminar will take place on Thursday 19 March 2015,from 4.00-5.30pm in room 6.345, and will be followed by a reception.

All are welcome to attend. Further details can be provided if they contact Ken Plummer, plumkessex@gmail.com.