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This thesis examines attitudes towards individuals and groups of men who were identified as gender non-conforming in England during the long eighteenth century. This gender non-conformity was assigned or implied because of the domestic inclinations of the men in question. Many men explored here were identified as cotqueans. Those who were not demonstrate a set of domestic identity markers that link them directly to the trope.
The thesis explores the impact of cotqueanary, or domestic gender non-conformity, on elite men’s sense of identity, their experiences of the traditional and chosen family, marriage, fatherhood, their role in public life, and their homosocial life. It demonstrates that domestic gender non-conformity did have adverse repercussions but that, at the elite level at least, this was not absolute. Where negative repercussions are perceived, they stemmed mainly from the secrecy facilitated between men in domestic spaces. This secrecy expedited a range of accusations which included allusions to political plotting and sex between men. Yet this research also demonstrates how men exploited their ancestral lineage, and the structures of the traditional family, to participate in a traditional form of elite male patriarchy.
This project draws together a range of qualitative material which includes life-writing, correspondence, documents from the proceedings of the Old Bailey, plays, poetry, pamphlets, travel writing, art, and newspapers. In so doing, it offers the first examination of Georgian male domestic gender non-conformity, insisting on the emotional significance of the home for men. This moves scholars from the heteronormative ‘separate spheres’ model of home life which continues to dominate the history of the home.
This research poses opportunities for historical interrogation beyond the home, and addresses histories of architecture, material culture, parenthood, the family, violence, and the law. In bringing these elements together, it sets out the terrain of a new, domestic queer history. |
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