Justifiable sensationalism

While prostitution had been a staple of sensational reporting for decades, the explosion of newspaper exposés about vice in London in the late 1940s and the early 1950s is difficult to miss. Taking this sexual sensationalism as its starting point, this article examines the relationship between the press, public opinion and policy change around the subject of prostitution, paying particular attention to the rise in media attention in the mid-twentieth century that is understood to have helped bring the Wolfenden Committee into being in 1954. It argues that while sexual sensationalism can be read as a kind of moral panic and as a tool of moral regulation, looking closely at the narratives and function of sensationalism, as well as its reception by the police, the State and the public, complicates this story. To understand the political impacts of sensational media, we need to look at the conflicts as much as the consensus within the ‘public sphere’, criminal justice and politics. In the formation of policies about commercial sex, public confusion was as important as public opinion and conflict was as central as consensus

The Fixity of Sexual Identities in the Public Sphere: Biomedical Knowledge, Liberalism and the Heterosexual/Homosexual Binary in Late Modernity

This article analyses the persistence of the heterosexual/homosexual binary in contemporary society, by examining the circulation of knowledge-claims concerning the age at which the 'fixity' of 'sexual orientation' is established. It examines how the 'scientific' claims of medical authorities have been utilized in recent debates in the UK over equalization of the age of consent, & argues that such claims have persisted in influence through debates over repeal of Section 28 & legalization of adoption by same-sex couples. The analysis integrates social constructionist & queer perspectives on sexual identities from sociological & cultural theory, perspectives from political theory on contemporary liberalism, & an analysis of biomedical knowledge in late modernity. It is argued that the increasing assertion of claims for equality, citizenship & recognition of cultural diversity in mainstream politics is occurring largely within a persistent 'rationale of containment' which seeks to minimize the prevalence of homosexuality. This draws attention to particular tensions & dynamics operating in the lives of bisexuals & queers, & especially in the lives of young people