A Magna Carta for Marriage: Love, Catholic Masculinities and the Humanae Vitae Contraception Crisis in 1968 Britain

TY - JOUR

T1 - A Magna Carta for Marriage

T2 - Love, Catholic Masculinities and the Humanae Vitae Contraception Crisis in 1968 Britain

AU - Harris, Alana

PY - 2019/7/15

Y1 - 2019/7/15

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Contraception

KW - marriage

KW - masculinity

KW - sexuality

KW - sixties

U2 - 10.1080/14780038.2019.1640022

DO - 10.1080/14780038.2019.1640022

M3 - Article

SN - 1478-0038

JO - Cultural and Social History

JF - Cultural and Social History

ER -