Gender Representations of Twelve Mid-Twentieth-Century Women Accused of Murder

Abstract

By the 1950s in Britain, perceived ‘masculinity’ in women was associated with lesbianism or ‘female homosexuality’. Jennings (2007b) argues that post-war discourses of lesbian identity were variously constructed in medical texts, popular psychology, magazines and newspapers and by lesbian women themselves. For the cases explored in this section, medical and psychological representations of female homosexuality are particularly relevant, as these understandings shaped the portrayal of the women in question as ‘masculine’ in the criminal justice system. According to many psychiatric and popular psychological explanations for ‘female homosexuality’, lesbians were immature, emotionally stunted women, who were ‘unable to develop equal relationships and prone to angry outbursts and alcoholism’ (ibid., p. 3). They were destined for unhappy, tragic relationships with other women, which, it was believed, could not be properly fulfilling (see Bergler, 1958). Female homosexuality was also understood to be related to heightened aggression and masculine traits (Magee and Miller, 1992).