King's College London

When Humanae Vitae (the Vatican’s encyclical banning the contraceptive pill) was released in July 1968, it was the culmination of years of intense speculation and well-founded anticipation of a change in papal teaching on birth control. This article explores the gendered ambiguities embedded within this watershed document and its role as a touchstone for, paradoxically, both progressive and conservative interrogations of Catholic masculinities. It argues that the encyclical was a catalyst for refashioned lay understandings of married love and sexual intimacy throughout ‘middle England’ and thereby offers a new perspective on longstanding debates about the sixties, permissiveness and secularization in Britain.