Chapter Two: The Visible People: The Casting and Scripting of LGBTQ+ Social Roles

In the previous chapter, the historical invisibility of present-day ageing LGBTQ+ populations was examined in relation to the overarching social determinants at work in the years following World War Two. This chapter considers the subsequent decades by focusing on how the growing public visibility of LGBTQ+ populations interacted with their invisibility on a population level. The relationships between these two states of being will be explored in Chapters Three to Five, so that a foundational understanding of population-specific social stressors can be ascertained in relation to LGBTQ+ ageing.

The British media has played an influential role in the visibility of populations in this country. Jennings (2007) suggests that the media of the years following World War Two in the UK reinforced the family ideal for women. Popular women’s literature in the post-war period orientated women towards objects conducive with the heteronormative lifestyle, such as the desirability of white goods (Jennings, 2007), and the needs of other heteronormative bodies, such as their husbands and children. Consequently, the visibility of women in society through the media lens was closely allied with normative gender roles, reinforcing their position in relation to phenomenological environments and objects.