Histories of ‘a loathsome disease’: sexual health in modern Britain

From Victorian preoccupations with prostitution and degeneration to our present-day problems with antimicrobial resistance and inequalities in access to care, sexual health has been riddled with gendered, racialised, politicised and class-based meanings. Historians writing from within an increasingly diverse collection of subfields have explored how British attitudes towards, and interventions in, sexual health have changed over the past two centuries. In so doing, they have also addressed a wide range of themes in British social life, politics, gender and sexuality. This article surveys this extensive historiography, highlighting important shifts and reflecting on where historians might fruitfully turn next. Inevitably, there are problematic silences in the scholarship. Historians, overwhelmingly reliant on records compiled by health authorities and the state, have tended to write top-down histories of sexual health. The lived experiences of ordinary people, especially those on the margins of society, remain frustratingly elusive. Moreover, the same sorts of inequalities that historically undermined care and denied patients a voice continue to shape health outcomes. As such, this article not only surveys the historiography but also makes the case for the important role that historians can play in supporting positive changes in attitudes towards sexual health and the delivery of healthcare today.