MASS OBSERVATION ARCHIVE Papers from the Mass-Observation Archive at the University of Sussex Part 12

MASS OBSERVATION ARCHIVE
Papers from the Mass-Observation Archive at the University of Sussex

There are over 80 Topic Collections in the Mass-Observation Archive at the University of Sussex covering issues ranging from Anti-Semitism and Commodities to Leisure and Work. These represent surveys and investigations carried out by Mass-Observation mainly between 1937 and 1949, with some later files for the 1960s and 1970s.

Together with the Worktown Collection these represent the raw material of the Mass-Observation Archive. Some of this was worked up into a polished form in the Publications which appear in Part 1 of this project. Brief details also appeared in the File Reports, some of which have been published in microfiche. But this is the first time that Topic Collections have been published in their entirety, giving scholars an opportunity to re-examine and re-interpret the extensive evidence that was gathered in the form of transcribed conversations, questionnaires, ‘overheards’ (literally overheard remarks), and reports. The files are also an important source of ephemeral evidence as observers gathered many pertinent pamphlets, leaflets, news cuttings and other evidence (including transcribed graffiti).

Coverage of the Topic Collections commenced with Part 4 and 5 of this project, which focussed on social welfare and living conditions, covering: Reconstruction, Family Planning, Health, Day Nurseries, Adult & Higher Education, Post-War Hopes, Public Administration & Social Services in Wartime, Beveridge Report Surveys, Housing, Work, Fuel and Food.

Parts 6-8 offered material on the Home Front During World War II, and topics such as: Evacuation, Youth, Children & Education, Women in Wartime, Anti-Semitism, Air-Raids, Propaganda & Morale, the 1940 London Survey, Conscientious Objection, Pacifism, Forces, Gas Masks and Dogs in Wartime.

Parts 9-11 dealt with life in Britain from 1937 to 1965, covering Shopping & Self-image; Leisure & Entertainment; and Industry & Social Conditions.

This twelfth part makes available Mass-Observation’s surveys of Sexual Behaviour from 1939 to 1950, including the detailed evidence gathered for their controversial ‘Little Kinsey’ report.

“For many years Mass-Observation has been anxious to find out in this country not merely what the mass of people do about sex, but also what they say about it, and it has always believed that the first survey in a field that is almost entirely neglected in Britain should attempt to outline both habit and attitude…”

They explored such taboo topics as masturbation and venereal disease with some trepidation, but generally found members of the public across a wide spectrum willing and ready to talk about sex. Their main 1949 survey asked:

“1(a) Do you think that standards of sexual morality are at the moment in a process of change or not?

“17a Had you already had sexual intercourse with your husband/wife before you were married?

b (IF YES) How usual was it for you to experience a sexual climax in these cases?

c (IF NO) If you wanted to have sexual intercourse with your husband/wife before you were married, what was it that held you back?”

As always, the interest is not so much in the statistical tabulation of such responses, revealing that “women approve of marriage far more than men”, and that “middle-class people tend to be slightly more in favour of divorce, prostitution, extra-marital relationships etc and young people slightly more than older ones”, but much more in the specific responses. These reveal much about individual attitudes to morality and point to the onset of a more secular age.

The clustering together of some of the responses is also revealing. In one box, 120 responses from teachers are followed by 150 from clergymen and 110 from doctors. The pragmatic attitude of many of the doctors who dealt with many of the ensuing problems first-hand is in clear contrast to the aspirational or dogmatic responses of teachers and clergy.

“Well within living memory, it was perfectly possible for a girl to be married in this country without knowing the difference between male and female bodies. It was quite normal, too, for a bride to go to the altar a virgin. … Yet within another decade we were in the hothouse world of the pill and miniskirt, flower power and the Beatles.” (Godfrey Smith writing in The Sunday Times, 4 Sept 2005, on the Little Kinsey Report).