Society

Question 1

What were the attitudes to homosexuality during this time?

Answer 1

• Changed due to the identification and spread of AIDS, referred to as the ‘gay plague’.
• ## ‘Loony Left’ councils were accused of ‘promoting’ homosexuality by funding support groups.

Question 2

How did the Thatcher government respond to the homosexuality hysteria?

Answer 2

• Section 28, a law banning the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities was passed in 1988

Question 3

What were some examples of homosexual activism and AIDS activism?

Answer 3

• Outrage! used direct action, threading to oust gay MOs and clergy members.
• Stonewall backed cases at the ECHR challenging the unequal age of consent and ban on homosexuals in the armed forces.
• Diana shook hands with AIDS patients to remove the stigma over contact infection.

Question 4

What legislative action happened for homosexuals?

Answer 4

• Age if consent for gay men lowered from 21 to 18 in 1994.

Question 5

What was the concern over family issues?

Answer 5

• Divorce rates hit record highs in the 90s, the percentage of babies born to unmarried parents doubled from 12 to 30%.
• Single mothers and absent fathers were criticised.
• Tory MP Peter Lilley seemed apathetic. So the Child Support Agency was set up in 1993 to ensure absent parents paid child maintenance.

Question 6

What was Mary Whitehouse doing in the 90s?

Answer 6

Still campaigning, coining the phrase ‘video nasty’ and having an influence on the passing of the Video Recording Act 1994, ensuring videos had British film classifications on them.

Question 7

What was the concern over under age sex?

Answer 7

• Victoria Gillick led a campaign against the availability of contraceptive advice to girls under the age of consent without parents knowledge.
• Initially the high court ruling had ruled you need parents consent, but this was overturned in the Lords in 1985.

Question 8

How was the monarchy increasingly criticised?

Answer 8

• Details of royal extra-marital affairs splashed over tabloids as 3/4 of the queens childrens marriages broke down.
• There was public disquiet over the financing of the restoration of Windsor Castle after a fire in 1992.
• Revelations over Diana’s mistreatment and accusations of the Queen not caring about her death reached their climax after the crash in 1997.

Question 9

How was anti-establishment culture seen in the arts?

Answer 9

• The Young British Artists challenged ideas about what art was.
• they created art from things not associated with art like dead animals.
  Xperia- Charles Saatchi was an important patron and the YBA art collection formed the Sensation exhibition held in 1997.

Question 10

How did youth culture challenge the Establishment?

Answer 10

• ‘Acid house’ and psychedelic dance music arrived in the late 80s, 1988 and 89 (The Second Summer of Love) saw an explosion of free raves and parties.
• These were linked to the taking of MDMA and incited a moral drug panic and tabloid backlash.

Question 11

What was the government response to unsavoury youth culture?

Answer 11

• They passed the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act in 1994 giving more police powers to break up raves.

Question 12

How was there a growing environmental movement?

Answer 12

• A series of protests emerged at the Twyford Down M3 extension in 1992 and spread to the Newbury bypass and M11.
• They brought together a wide range of people - locals, middle class, campaigners.
• They protested by delaying or blocking work, climbing and chaining themselves to trees, building tunnels and living underground.
• The Green Party began winning local council seats from 1993

Question 13

What was third-wave feminism?

Answer 13

• Broader than just financial and legal equality - more emphasis on breaking down stereotypes about women.

Question 14

How was progress for women shown in popular culture?

Answer 14

• The underground Riot Grrrl movement: bands like Bikini Hill and Huggy Bear had a punk sensibility about feminist issues.
• The message of ‘girl power’ from the Spice Girls.
• Powerful TV characters like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
• ‘ladettes’ like Zoe Ball and Ulrika Jonsson talked openly about sex and drinking trying to remove gender stereotypes.

Question 15

Thatchers impact on feminism?

Answer 15

• Showed women could achieve highly.
  But: Thatcher herself did little for women, she had only 1 female cabinet minister and said herself ‘I owe nothing to Women’s Lib’

Question 16

Progress for women in prominent positions?

Answer 16

• First female Speaker of the House, Betty Boothroyd, in 1992
• First female head of MI5, Stella Rimmington, also in 1992.

Question 17

Other progress for women?

Answer 17

• First female ordination of priests in the Church of England in 1994.
• Rape in marriage became criminal 1994.
• By 1993, 68% of women of working age were in employment and by 1996, 50% of employees were women.
• Women’s pay improved relatively and married women were taxed separately from husbands.

Question 18

Was there any progress for race relations?

Answer 18

• 4 non-white MPs elected in 1987, all held their seats in 1992.
• Riots that happened in 1991 and 92 mainly included young white men in deprived areas.
• More social cohesion happened with a sharp increase in immigration from asylum seekers and continued New Commonwealth immigrants.

Question 19

Was there a lack of progress in race relations?

Answer 19

• Stephen Lawrence and institutionalised racism in the police - MacPherson Report.
• Tension between British societal values and Islamic beliefs - Rushdie’s ‘The Satanic Verses’ was considered blasphemous by many. He was issued a death threat by the Iranian Ayatollah and went into hiding.