The Creation of Animosity

The Creation of Animosity challenges some of the basic assumptions made about society's attitudes towards homosexuality in the period through an analysis of four significant trials - Boulton and Park in 1870-71, the Cleveland Street Scandal in 1889, the trials of Oscar Wilde in 1895 and of Noel Pemberton-Billing in 1918. It also investigates some of the less-famous trials and provides an analysis of all male-male sex crimes recorded between 1870 & 1920. The nature of the interaction between the law, the media and society in the formation of new popular beliefs is the main focus, while there is also a discussion of the awareness of homosexual self-identity amongst those individuals processed by the legal system. The influence of class is investigated as assumptions made over the class-identities of those involved allowed for the use of sexual morality as a weapon of class conflict. Similarly, popular connections between alternative forms of sexuality and foreign nations are considered. The piece assesses the extent to which there was an increase in the level of hostility towards homosexuality, prioritising the reasons for that increase.