Book contents
- The Cambridge World History of Sexualities
- The Cambridge World History of Sexualities
- The Cambridge World History of Sexualities
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures in Volume III
- Tables in Volume III
- Contributors to Volume III
- Editors’ Preface to the Series
- 1 Sex in Athens in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries bce
- 2 Sex in Rome in the First Century bce and the First Century ce
- 3 Sex in Constantinople in the Sixth Century ce
- 4 Sex in Chang’an in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries ce
- 5 Sexuality in Baghdad in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries ce
- 6 Sex in Heian-kyō (Kyoto) in the Tenth through Twelfth Centuries ce
- 7 Sex in Iceland in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries ce
- 8 Sex in Florence in the Fifteenth Century
- 9 Sexuality in Tenochtitlan in the Early Sixteenth Century
- 10 Sex in Sixteenth-Century Istanbul
- 11 Sex in Geneva in the Sixteenth Century
- 12 Sex in Eighteenth-Century Edo (Tokyo)
- 13 Sex in Eighteenth-Century Paris
- 14 Sex and Sexuality in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia
- 15 Sex in Nineteenth-Century Cairo
- 16 Sexual Pleasures and Perils in Nineteenth-Century London
- 17 Sex in Manila in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
- 18 Sex in Lagos from the Mid-Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Century
- 19 Sex in Bombay in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
- 20 Sexuality in a Distant Metropolis: Buenos Aires from the Late Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Century
- 21 Sex in Early Twentieth-Century Berlin
- 22 Sex in Sydney in the Twentieth Century
- 23 Toronto the Good, Toronto the Gay: Sex and Morality in the Twentieth Century
- 24 Sex in Shanghai in the Twentieth Century: Intimate Negotiations
- 25 Sex in Twentieth-Century Rio de Janeiro
- Index
- CONTENTS TO VOLUMES I, II, AND IV
- References
22 - Sex in Sydney in the Twentieth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 April 2024
Book contents
- The Cambridge World History of Sexualities
- The Cambridge World History of Sexualities
- The Cambridge World History of Sexualities
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures in Volume III
- Tables in Volume III
- Contributors to Volume III
- Editors’ Preface to the Series
- 1 Sex in Athens in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries bce
- 2 Sex in Rome in the First Century bce and the First Century ce
- 3 Sex in Constantinople in the Sixth Century ce
- 4 Sex in Chang’an in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries ce
- 5 Sexuality in Baghdad in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries ce
- 6 Sex in Heian-kyō (Kyoto) in the Tenth through Twelfth Centuries ce
- 7 Sex in Iceland in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries ce
- 8 Sex in Florence in the Fifteenth Century
- 9 Sexuality in Tenochtitlan in the Early Sixteenth Century
- 10 Sex in Sixteenth-Century Istanbul
- 11 Sex in Geneva in the Sixteenth Century
- 12 Sex in Eighteenth-Century Edo (Tokyo)
- 13 Sex in Eighteenth-Century Paris
- 14 Sex and Sexuality in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia
- 15 Sex in Nineteenth-Century Cairo
- 16 Sexual Pleasures and Perils in Nineteenth-Century London
- 17 Sex in Manila in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
- 18 Sex in Lagos from the Mid-Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Century
- 19 Sex in Bombay in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
- 20 Sexuality in a Distant Metropolis: Buenos Aires from the Late Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Century
- 21 Sex in Early Twentieth-Century Berlin
- 22 Sex in Sydney in the Twentieth Century
- 23 Toronto the Good, Toronto the Gay: Sex and Morality in the Twentieth Century
- 24 Sex in Shanghai in the Twentieth Century: Intimate Negotiations
- 25 Sex in Twentieth-Century Rio de Janeiro
- Index
- CONTENTS TO VOLUMES I, II, AND IV
- References
Summary
Sydney was the original site of British settlement in Australia and its largest city in the twentieth century. With a reputation for hedonism, Sydney’s identity became entangled, to a marked extent, in its sexual cultures. The preoccupation with whiteness ensured that attitudes to birth control were closely related to settler racial aspirations. State regulation of sex work and female sexuality was also connected to concerns about preserving racial vigour, but it helped to secure a powerful role for organized crime and police corruption in the city’s sex industry. Key Sydney sex radicals and reformers took their place in British imperial and, to an increasing extent, global networks. Gay (or ‘camp’) male subcultures emerged in the middle decades of the century and, after a period of greater freedom during the Second World War, attracted repression in the 1950s. Lesbian subcultures emerged more slowly, but were discernible by the 1960s. At the same time as the contraceptive pill was transforming heterosexual relations, Sydney emerged as Australia’s major centre of gay life as well as a place of notable ethnic diversity and sexual variety. By the end of the century the city’s identity was bound more tightly than ever to its sexual cultures.
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- Information
- The Cambridge World History of Sexualities , pp. 465 - 486Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024
References
Further Reading
Allen, Judith A. Sex & Secrets: Crimes Involving Australian Women since 1880. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Arrow, Michelle. The Seventies: The Personal, the Political and the Making of Modern Australia. Sydney: NewSouth, 2019.Google Scholar
Conor, Liz. The Spectacular Modern Woman: Feminine Visibility in the 1920s. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Faro, Clive, with Wotherspoon, Garry. Street Unseen: A History of Oxford Street. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Featherstone, Lisa. Let’s Talk about Sex: Histories of Sexuality in Australia from Federation to the Pill. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2011.Google Scholar
Featherstone, Lisa, and Kaladelfos, A.. Sex Crimes in the Fifties. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Frances, Raelene. Selling Sex: A Hidden History of Prostitution. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Jennings, Rebecca. Unnamed Desires: A Sydney Lesbian History. Melbourne: Monash University Publishing, 2015.Google Scholar
Kirkpatrick, Peter. The Sea Coast of Bohemia: Literary Life in Sydney’s Roaring Twenties. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Matthews, Jill Julius. Dance Hall & Picture Palace: Sydney’s Romance with Modernity. Sydney: Currency, 2005.Google Scholar
Reynolds, Robert. From Camp to Queer: Re-making the Australian Homosexual. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Sendziuk, Paul. Learning to Trust: Australian Responses to AIDS. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Spearritt, Peter. Sydney’s Century: A History. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Ware, Cheryl. HIV Survivors in Sydney: Memories of the Epidemic. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willett, Graham. Living Out Loud: A History of Gay and Lesbian Activism in Australia. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2000.Google Scholar
Wotherspoon, Garry Through the Gay Looking Glass: The Many Lives of Clive Madigan. Sydney: Carlton, 2020.Google Scholar