studying feminism in england

madilyn. wgss major. 2 week faculty-led study abroad in london, england with brighton, england and paris, france as side adventures :) [archived]

[dailylgbtq]

CHELLA MAN for GAY TIMES 500th issue photographed by Ryan Pfluger

“After eighteen years of internalized struggles with my gender/disability/race due to harmful societal constructs, I now feel comfortable and cemented with my identity. Having reached this newfound certainty, I am eager to experiment and push the boundaries identity further.”

[feministanglophile]

Breeding Tolerance in London (with Mixed-Income Housing)

While on a Rock N’ Roll Tour of London with Dr.Bruce Cherry, you will see a lot of sights of familiar musicians and artists like Queen’s Freddie, Elton John, Amy Winehouse, and The Beatles. But before all that, before you step off the bus and venture onto the streets, Bruce gives you a history of London, a city he loves. “You scratch London, it bleeds history,” he reminds you as he points to where old pubs and clubs were that is now a fast-food restaurant or a café. When pulling into neighborhoods, filled with townhouses like all look eerily similar to each other, except maybe the color of the door. Bruce gestures to each side of the street and mentions that some streets have mixed-income housing. They try to put affordable housing (public) on one side of the street and higher-priced housing (private) to avoid ghettos. Bruce calls this London’s plan to ‘breed tolerance’. While this is all interesting, London is known for being one of the most expensive places to live in, with affordable housing not being as affordable as one would hope. But London is working on creating more neighborhoods based on ‘mixed-income housing’ plans to have the city be more accessible. 

Mixed-Income Housing: a diverse type of housing units, like apartments or single-family homes located in a neighborhood with a diverse economic demographic. Mixed-income housing can include more expensive homes to houses specifically built for low-income families; private housing combined with public housing (Joseph, et al 371). The production of mixed-income housing comes from the societal need to create sustainable homes for low-income families where they are not locked out of the inner cities due to affordability issues. 

The focus on mixed-income housing is placed in several U.S. cities like Chicago, St. Louis, etc. but the U.K. has been dealing with the same issues as the States for just as long. The hopes of creating mixed-income neighborhoods are to avoid creating more societal barriers between the wealthy and poor populations in the greater London area (Berube 3). In James Gleeson’s 2017 report of the housing in London, there has been significantly more population growth in Inner London [roughly 17% growth] compared to Outer [roughly 13%] since the 1980s, with the majority of the cause being more births than deaths in the area and the influx of migration to the capital (Gleeson 17). The residential population of London is 8.136 million with the number of yearly tourists being around 10 million, and the majority of those coming into London are moving into private housing. The U.K. government is in charge of placing those in need of housing, in housing. If someone is on the brink of homelessness, they are placed in public housing and pay as much as they can, with the government meeting them with the rest. This public housing opportunity is temporary, only available until the household is able to move into a more permanent residence (Spinks). 

What mixed-income housing is planning on doing for the population of cities like London is to create an affordable living situation for those both coming to the city and those trying to branch out of their current living environment. Unlike several cities in America, London lacks what is popularly known as a ghetto, which is a “quarter of a city in which members of a minority group live especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure” (Merriam-Webster). In just three years from 1998 to 2001, England worked to lower the percentage of poverty in the country faster than the United States and other European countries. In fact, by 2004, the U.K. focused on providing financial aid to families with children, which helped 500,000 households (Berube 3). What England has done that other countries have lacked is not only the acknowledgment that the housing problems exist, but they are continually battling it not only at the local level but in legislation. Social Housing Law Association [SHLA] is an organization created to help keep social housing (council housing, etc.) in the political sphere and help support social landlords or Housing associations who run the council housing (SHLA). Having these support systems have impacted the housing economy because they [SHLA] own the majority of new houses for rent.

This is not to say that London is perfect in terms of equal housing opportunities. If that was the case, there wouldn’t be a generation of young adults that still live with their parents. Around 23% of young adults (aged 20 - 34) still live with their parents (Gleeson 21). If they are not living with their parents, they are living with one or more roommates. According to Stylist.co.uk, between 2010 and 2015, there has been a rise of 186% in people aged 35-44 that are living or looking for houseshares (Beaty). Young people are being cornered into living in large shared spaces in order to survive in the big city. Fewer people are buying houses, due to price increases and while it’s probably less expensive outside of the city, there are fewer job opportunities the further out you go.

These problems are affecting cities all over the world with the global population growing every day, but if cities like London are focused on the equality and equity of creating affordable and mixed-income neighborhoods, we might be able to survive a little longer. The journey to cities creating neighborhoods to avoid ghettos and ‘breed tolerance’ is already in the works, like Dr.Bruce Cherry mentions on his Rock N’ Roll Tour of London.

Cited Sources

Berube, Alan (2005). Mixed Communities in England. Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 3. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/20050527_Mixedcomm.pdf

Gleeson, James (2017). Housing in London 2017. Greater London Authority, 17-21. Retrieved from http://www.iut.nu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Housing-in-London-2017.pdf

Joseph, et al (2007). The Theoretical Basis for Addressing Poverty Through Mixed-Income Development. Urban Affairs Review, 43 (1), 371. Retrieved from https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.proxy.library.oregonstate.edu/doi/pdf/10.1177/1078087406294043

ghetto. 2019. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ghetto

SHLA (2019). Social Housing Law Association. Retrieved from https://www.shla.org.uk/

Spinks, Rosie (2019). What if the future of housing means accepting that a home isn’t permanent? Quartz. Retrieved from https://qz.com/1542887/london-provides-low-income-housing-in-modular-shipping-containers/

Beaty, Zoe (2019). Generation rent: Stylist investigates the rising popularity of houseshares. Stylist. Retrieved from https://www.stylist.co.uk/life/houseshares-pros-cons-having-flatmates-generation-rent/258346

[feministanglophile]

The Growth of the Gay Soho Scene

Soho is one of the most well-known LGBTQIA+ neighborhoods in London. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Soho has been a well-loved and visited destination for the LGBTQIA+ community to flock to, with the majority of gay vendors located on Old Compton Street, where “British rock n’ roll and the popular music industry” was ‘born’ at the 2i's Coffee Bar. Today, Old Compton Street is home to several LGBTQIA+ businesses such as restaurants, bars, and cafés. On the surrounding streets, you will find yourself sex shops for all types of customers. Pride flags fly freely throughout the neighborhood. Same-sex couples are featured on murals on the buildings in full view to everyone. Drag queens strut down the streets in full garb, on their way to a performance or just on a walk throughout the neighborhood. Soho is bustling with gay energy and the freedom to be whoever you want. Soho has always been a safe haven for gay folks, but the city of London didn’t always have that title.

In England, the biggest threat to the heteronormative agenda was one thing and one thing only: gay men! Sodomy, anal or oral copulation with a member of the same or opposite sex (Merriam-Webster). Sodomy was mainly focused on the male gender and their same-sex partners. Female same-sex acts were deemed unmentionable and didn’t bring the same panic because people assumed women didn’t enjoy sex. The history of sodomy in England began with the Buggery Act 1533 passed by Henry VIII and ended in 1835 with the execution of James Pratt and John Smith. In 1885, the Labouchere Amendment was passed by Parliament in order to punish gay men committing assumed acts of sodomy, aka men who were caught with same-sex partners but it wasn’t obvious whether they had anal intercourse. A popular punishment of the Labourchere Amendment was two years of hard labor. Most famous for his flamboyant behavior, Oscar Wilde was committed to two years under this amendment in 1895. Alan Turing, known for decoding the Nazis' messages which led to their defeat in WWII, was arrested and put through chemical castration, to kill his libido. Homosexuality, as an identity and lifestyle, was banned in England until 1967.

Because of this history in England, gay men flocked to London to hide within the population of the capital. Neighborhoods like Soho housed pubs, clubs, and cabarets with their main clientele being gay men and women. From Molly Houses in the 1700s to shebeens in the 1900s, London created a home for all those looking to belong. The obliviously obvious scenes of queerness were hidden by the fear of being arrested or outed to their families. Several gay men found their way to London and found their own families. When talking about the queerness of London, Cyril said, ‘I have only been queer since I came to London about two years ago, before then I knew nothing about it’ (Houlbrook). 

Because of the growing population of queer folks in London, the number of both public and private bars were being opened. A safer space for those who went against the heteronomous expectations of the time, the capital was bustling with businesses catered towards homosexuals. The first official “gay bar” that was opened in London was Cave of the Golden Calf, a nightclub opened by Frida Strindberg (Cook). The Cave was only opened for two years, but it gained a reputation of being a hot spot for open minds and open sexuality adventures. The Caravan Club was another popular spot for gay men and lesbians to spend time with potential lovers and friends without being in hiding. Opened in the 1930s, the Caravan was styled like a bohemian getaway with blankets on the floors and walls, cushions all around [Houlbrook]. A lush and comfortable retreat, it’s entry was a behind a hidden gate in an alley. All that is known of what the inside of the Caravan looked like are pictures the police took during the infamous raid of August 1934. The National Archives recreated the layout of the Caravan for an exhibit in 2017 (inspiringcity). 

Soho [and London!] have come a long way from being a hidden sanctuary for LGBTQIA+ folks to having shops with pride flags hanging above their doors, in solidarity of what this city and neighborhood have gone through to get to where they are now. And while there are still struggles coming up for the community, the fact that little positive things like the queerness of Soho exist shows that growth is possible.

Cited Sources

Caravan Club, The. Wikipedia. Retrieved from     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Caravan_Club_(Endell_Street)#Police_interest_and_raid

Cave of the Golden Calf, The. Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cave_of_the_Golden_Calf

Cook, Matt (2003). London and the Culture of Homosexuality, 1885-1914 (Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture).

Houlbrook, Matt (2005). Queer London: PERILS AND PLEASURES IN THE SEXUAL METROPOLIS, 1918-1957

Inspiringcity (2017). A Journey around the Queer City of Soho, its clubs and its culture. Inspiringcity. Retrieved from https://inspiringcity.com/2017/02/27/a-journey-around-the-queer-city-of-soho-its-clubs-and-its-culture/

Segalov, Michael (2017). A Short History of the British Gay Bar. Vice. Retrieved from https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/53n4px/a-short-history-of-the-british-gay-bar

Segalov, Michael (1917). Uncovering fifty years of queer nightlife in London. Huck. Retrieved from https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/photography-2/lgbt-history-dalston-superstore-exhibition/

Sodomy. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sodomy

[feministanglophile]

London, England by Madilyn Sturges

[feministanglophile]

Post-London Depression

I’ve been home for almost an entire week… And I’m ready to go back. Hey Susan, count me in on the Fall 2020 trip just because I need to go back and see the city while studying Women’s studies. My two current loves, London and Feminism - as my URL correctly identifies. The two weeks we spent walking around an ancient city with more history in a road stone than I could fathom. Just last night, I walked up to my roommate, who was sitting at the table doing homework and I must have made some type of noise that made her look up in worry. “I miss London,” I cried and with as much support as she could give me, she pouted in empathy because she’s been dealing with my post-London depression this entire week. 

The entire trip was like a dissociative dream - I felt like I was floating through the tours, the sights, the conversations. I ACTUALLY MISS THE TUBE! How severe is my post-London depression when I miss the hottest, sweatest, and time-consuming activity that is taking the underground?  

I miss the buildings - built hundreds of years ago but now house a Starbucks or McDonalds.

I miss Oxford Circus, the shopping was worth the hassling from non-profit initiatives on the streets.

I miss walking from Primark in Oxford Circus, through alleys to Picadilly Circus, to Chinatown, and just wondering around for a bit. 

My favorite game was pretending I wasn’t a tourist and just going about my day like your average Londoner. I think I was genuinely good at this game because of my attention to detail when it came to studying fellow English people (and my history of binging any and all British content from all media platforms).

From day one, I could tell that this city was more socially advanced than the American cities I have been in. Though that’s small (Portland and Seattle), the others in the group who had traveled farther than me agreed: London has it’s sh*t much more together than your average big city in the states. The outward acceptance to all minorities from pride flags in Soho to advertisements in the underground that featured the same number of people of color as they did white folks - and not just for “progressive” brands, but your everyday brands.

That note that Bruce Cherry told us on the London Rock Tour about the housing in London. How if one side of the street had expensive flats and townhouses, the opposite houses were more inclined to be affordable housing. Putting public housing next to private housing to avoid ghettos and “breed tolerance”. This idea that the city has but into reality - of creating a more tolerant environment for people. Even our driver from the airport to the dorms said there wasn’t one place in London that he would tell us to avoid - that the city didn’t have an “unsafe” area for women and young adults tells a lot about a city. In my own small town of 20,000, we have several areas that would be considered “unsafe” and my mom would tell me to avoid. Hell, all of Pearl District in Portland is considered an “unsafe” area for women and young lgbtqia+ people to be. 

That is not to ignore the areas of work London is still working on. Their history may be deeper than the United States, but it still has small bleeding wounds that need fixing. But what makes London a place I so desperately want to go back to is that they have people willing to put forward the effort to fix these wounds - their political agenda of socialism says enough when it compares to where they are in terms of acknowledging their past problems. 

This is starting to come off a little rose-colored-glasses, but I just love London so damn much for how little I spent in it. Ten million people in the city, and it shows with how little people react to someone dressed a little unusual on the tube. I feel insignificant in one of the biggest cities in the world but I’m okay with that if it makes me feel safer and respected. 

God, I love London and I can’t wait to go back. 

[feministanglophile]

Yas Queen (Victoria)

I know next to nothing about the royal family. I get them all confused! Why do they all share the same five names - Charles, Edward, Anne, Victoria, Elizabeth no. 78! Having serious conversations about the royals where I’m nodding my head, hoping to the gods above I can keep their names and history straight is extremely difficult.

That’s not to say I wasn’t moved when I walked into Queen Victoria’s old childhood rooms and felt like a princess myself. Yes, I realize that being royalty back then sucked (and still sucks to this day) but a shallow part of me just wants to be fancy for one second. I come from a life where one of Victoria’s rooms equaled my entire apartment! Does that fact balance out her inability to have a normal childhood? No, just let me be a little jealous of her cute dollhouse and portraits.

Walking through the life of Victoria, I can’t help but be in awe of her strength. The notes on the walls throughout the palace talked about her childhood in the rooms she was born and raised in, her fight to have freedom as a teen, to falling in love with her forever “love” her husband, Prince Albert, to raising their nine children, to her years of mourning after he died. The quotes from Queen Victoria throughout the exhibit to the artwork she had commissioned to show her and her family to the people she governed showed a strong character who, while having the power to get everything, still had to fight for her own life and respect. 

When Queen Victoria became queen at 18, she symbolized a fresh start for the monarchy - she was more “liberal” in a sense and showed an open mind compared to those who ruled before.

“Natives and colored races should be treated with every kindness and affection as brothers not - as alas! Englishmen too often do - as totally different to ourselves, fit only to be crushed and shot down!” - Queen Victoria, 1842 (five years into being queen).

It’s interesting to look at royalty in the spectrum of feminism. A lot of British royalty features strong women in the background or on the main stage. Women live(d) longer than men and it shows in the royal family as the current Queen of Great Britain is 93 and not quite done yet. I’d want to look more into how royalty differentiated throughout the royal kingdoms that are still in power to this day. We learned about the fact that if a woman of royal blood married, her husband would be named “Prince of…” instead of “King of…” because that would take power from the (future) Queen. Examples include “Queen Victoria and Prince Albert” and “Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles”. Why is King still more powerful than Queen? Shouldn’t it be based on blood or merit and not gender/sex?

Outside of these questions, I have to say the royal family dynamics (not just the British empire, but other royal families in the world) are an interesting thing to study through the eyes of feminism.

Oh and Queen Victoria kicks ass!

[feministanglophile]

Brighton, England (August 29, 2019) by Madilyn Sturges

[feministanglophile]

The “Queerest” community in England - The Queers and Piers tour in Brighton.

We visited Brighton, England on Thursday, our second to last day in England. It was nice to get away from the humid heat for a day, the beachy breeze giving some relief to our clogged lungs from spending hours underground on the tube. I was excited to see the iconic pier along the coast since seeing it in music videos and tourist photos. Brighton is known as the queer hotspot in England being only one hour away from London, a resort heavy city with the idealistic views next to the high-end stores. 

Walking in the steps of history has been a bit disorientating for me. Coming from small-town Oregon USA it can be overwhelming to think that every block of Brighton has held more history than what can even be properly recorded. We took a tour with Ric Morris, who taught us the beachfront history of Brighton, from Oscar Wilde to Dusty Springfield to James Barry (a personal favorite story to hear about). The history stayed mainly rooted in the hotel/resorts on the beachfront because it’s a big part of Brighton’s geographical points and resort towns were known to be “safe havens” for queer folks to be themselves. The colorful buildings (inside and out) were drawing in people of all ages and identities to take pictures and gawk at the beauty of the seaside views.

In English gay history, the only people outwardly prosecuted were gay men, as women’s sexuality was completely ignored. We didn’t dive as deeply into the tribulations of trans folks, but the ones we did look at seemed to “pass” as their preferred gender until death. There seems to be a power struggle in this fact, as men were still taken seriously enough to be targeted for their discrepancies, but the fact they were targeted in the first place based on who they took as lovers/partners is problematic. What does this say to women, that they were able to hide their sexuality because society didn’t take their sexuality seriously? 

The LGBTQIA+ community still struggles with discrimination within it. White gay men and lesbians led the gay liberation in the 1980s, which led to transwomen - Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson -  to step forward and demand leaders call into focus the diversity of the queer movement; the backbone that helped them fight against heteronormativity. Bisexual and pansexual folks are still trying to find footing in the queer community, as they are often pushed away as either being “too straight” by gay folks or being “too gay” by straight folks. Stereotypes of what it means to be a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer hold people back within the community - for example, a gay man who is more sexually deviant will be called a “slut” by others in their own community! 

Going to what can be adequately called the “queerest” community in England, you’d think they would add in the disagreements and negative drawbacks within the community and not just what happened to white queer folks who had enough money and were in a class level that allowed them to come to Brighton and be “themselves” along the sea.

[feministanglophile]

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Sean Holmes (photography by Tristram Kenton)

[feministanglophile]

Colorful and Bright: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Sean Holmes, was a colorful dream full of hilarious innuendos and diversity of actors! I was a little under the weather before this play and didn’t have much excitement going into attending the production. But two seconds into just the band jamming out I am so happy I didn’t call in sick. This production of a Shakespeare play just ran with the script flying behind them like colorful ribbons. The set design was subtle as the characters carried the story with their playful lines and colorful outfits. The fact that there were more black actors than white was uplifting in itself. I’m a cisgender, white girl and I have never felt so relieved to see that happen. Especially when the last two plays catered to white women and their problems. They were white so the race of the characters/actors wasn’t a problem within the play; it didn’t play a part. But that’s not usually the case for plays with black actors. Their race becomes a personality trait within the story. However, that wasn’t the case within the Shakespearean play. Black actors were playing characters that are normally played by white people so their race didn’t become a prop for them to play off. They had the freedom to play the character as the character and not their own race. After the play, one of our group told us that she felt immense joy seeing so many black actors being portrayed in a play created originally by a white man for white people. I agree with her and add the joy that they were playing characters that weren’t haunted by the color of their skin; it played no part in it. They had more freedom in how they wanted to play the character. I’m not normally into Shakespeare's plays, as the dialogue is hard to follow. But this representation of the play kept me interested in the colors, visuals on the set designs and the outfits! Oh, the outfits! A big part of watching this version of the play is the gender roles being switched. Female actors playing male parts, a queerness underlay in several scenes without having a “no-homo-bro” moment playing across them (Titania/Hippolyta getting with Bottom at the end! And Demetrius and Lysander going from a threesome pile to making out with each other). While the gender stereotypes of the characters were realistic of the time and now seen as troubling, the fact that they were being played by the opposite sex created an almost satire element of the characters' problems. The love triangle-turned-square-turned-into-two-couples throughout the play was a bit confusing but ended up with all four characters getting their happy ending. Hermia and Lysander’s fight to be together from the beginning only to be tempted by Demetrius’ infatuation for Hermia and Helena’s love for Demetrius (can’t forget when Puck made Lysander and Demetrius both fall in love with Helena under a love spell) which causes Hermia and Helena’s strong friendship to crack under the pressure of false assumptions and love spells! It all works out when Demetrius falls back in love with Helena (which was the confusing part as he was so persistent the whole play to marry Hermia, but whatever) and Hermia and Lysander get their happily ever after they deserved! Overall the representation of queerness as subtle character interactions, the loud and proud representation of an overplayed play, and the diversity of cast compared to the original production blew me away. I would see this play over and over again just for the giggles and colors alone!

[feministanglophile]

Nan Goldin’s The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is a visual diary portraying the life of the artist and her friends through the 1970s and 1980s

1. Introduction to Nan Goldin’s work “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency”

2. Skinhead having sex, London 1978

3. Warren and Jerry fighting, London 1978

4. Misty and Jimmy Paulette in a taxi, NYC 1991

[feministanglophile]

[feministanglophile]

Tate Modern Royalty: Nan Goldin, Ellen Gallagher, and Guerrilla Girls!!!!!

[dazeddigital]

Your ultimate guide to Nan Goldin

[feministanglophile]

DeLuxe 2004-5, Ellen Gallagher (60 works on paper, etching, screenprint, lithograph with plasticine, velvet, toy eyeballs and coconut oil)

“The imagery for this print series is based on advertisements found in magazines from the 1930s to the 1970s aimed at African-American readers. Gallagher uses both traditional and digital printing techniques to copy and alter advertisements for wigs, hair pomades and skin bleaching creams - products that are now seen as promoting ‘white’ ideas of beauty. Gallagher cut and layered images and text before adding a range of materials including plasticine, glitter, gold leaf and toy eyeballs. Her interventions exaggerate and question the reinvention promised by these cosmetic products.”

photos taken by madilyn sturges

[feministanglophile]

Mamma Mia is ABBA’s critical feminist

In my first classes in WGSS, we talked about the influence of pop culture has on our feminism. Specifically, can you enjoy a song that degrades women in a particular way and still be a feminist? Is there such a thing as a perfect feminist? If we were to critic every song we hear that sounds problematic would we have any music left to dance to at parties? Mamma Mia is ABBA’s critical feminist. They take music that when looking at the lyrics have not aged well in the time it’s spent at number 1, and create this female-empowered musical about women acknowledging and taking back their sexuality and freedom from men. Mamma Mia also pushes for the destruction and rebuilding of what constitutes a modern family, as Sophie is raised by her single, working mother, Donna. While looking and hoping to find who her dad is, she is still raised into a smart woman which shows that you don’t need a nuclear, two-parent household to grow up completely well-adjusted. Mamma Mia encourages female friendships whole-heartedly. Donna has her two best friends, who ‘back in the day’ formed the girl group “Donna and the Dynamos”. Sophie’s own best friends, Lisa and Ali are also apart of the play and several musical numbers, showing support to their friend’s plans to find her father. The two trios of the woman show the same playfulness though from different generations. This musical’s focus on female empowerment gives a normally muted microphone to women to talk about what they want in life. Sophie looks forward to her relationship with Sky (though her mom is more against the traditional outlook her daughter has), while Donna has her own hotel/bed and breakfast that she has managed on her own. These two points in life are often controlled by men, but Mamma Mia gives the power to women while their significant others are a back step within the plans (Sky is a big part of Sophie’s dreams, but he was at first against the officiating of the marriage but supported Sophie’s determination to be married). Another important part of the musical is the absence of the word “slut” taped to Donna’s back. While Sophie is frustrated with her mom and her identity when it comes to finding who her father is, she doesn’t label her mom as a promiscuous person. She’s not mad at her mother for sleeping with three men in the course of time where she was unable to figure out who her daughter’s father was, but because her mother did not try to find out who her father was. When the three potential men come to the island and discover the truth of their invitations, they don’t slut-shame Donna. She is not a slut because she had sex with them and left. She was free to do what she wanted the same as them. Even Sam Carmichael, who was one of the men who seemed the most hung up on Donna did not blame her for sleeping with other men. Their falling out was more emotional than physical, which plays out to the end of the play. I enjoyed this musical more than Waitress in terms of representation in gender and class. While there were still the same amount of people of color in this play as Waitress, the representations of sexuality with women were more fleshed out; less adultery and more honest communication between both parties. The friendships between the trio of women, both sets in Mamma Mia verse the trio in Waitress were diverse and each had their own relationships outside of the trio that was shown to the audience. Overall, Mamma Mia creates a more authentic feminist vision for viewers to appreciate compared to Waitress.

[feministanglophile]

The history of ignoring women’s sexuality continues in England with gay rights.

Throughout our trip visiting the most important parts of English history, we are hit in the face with gender inequality involving same-sex relationships. England’s LGBTQIA+ history mainly affected men in same-sex relationships. Men were tried and killed throughout time for even being seen with a man in any compromising positions. 

“Two years with hard labor” is a repeated sentence throughout all our tours.

A popular punishment for committing sodomy was two years of “hard labor”, which was basically torture. Oscar Wilde*, an iconic queer man known worldwide for his provocative writing, was imprisoned for 2 years because of his relationship with his then-boyfriend, Lord Alfred Douglas under the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, which stated that “any male person who, in public or private, commits, or is a party to the commission of, or procures, or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof, shall be liable at the discretion of the Court to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour.” Fun times… 

This all only affected men at the time, as women were seen as having no sexual drive (women only had sex to produce a child for the man of the house). That didn’t mean women weren’t having sex nor enjoying it, but no one in their right mind would acknowledge that! I’m clutching my pearls in aghast! WOMEN ENJOYING SEX!? Women enjoying sex with other women! Good heavens! Women in power like Queen Anne and Sarah Churchill (who had a famously ignored affair) could perform same-sex relationships in secret because of the public’s ignorance of a women’s sex drive during this time in history. Heterosexual women were treated with the same sexual respect as homosexual women, but because they were more closely pushed together, same-sex relationships between women were more often created. A woman could probably go up to a policeman and tell him of her indiscretions only to be dismissed because the general population acted like it didn’t exist. Sucky for gaining the right to marry your lover, but great to avoid two years of “hard labor”.

*https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/07/07/oscar-wilde/