Bethan Downs

Thesis title:

�Here and wet for you!�: Sadomasochist lesbian feminism in Britain, 1980-2000

This thesis examines the S/M dyke scene in 1980s-1990s Britain, with a focus on the politics of belonging, community and identity. Through an exploration of the feminist ‘sex wars’, this thesis will pick at the language used in these debates to establish the instability of categories of sexual and political identification, even in the recent past. The hope, in doing so, is to open up the feminist positions that can be held on topics like S/M, and to demonstrate the critical role community played in identity construction during the sex wars.

Research Area

Cultural History
History

Conferences

North American Conference on British Studies Annual Meeting (Montreal, 2025)
- ''What makes us lesbians': Lesbian sex and desire in Quim magazine' - panel 'Transgressive sexuality in twentieth-century Britain'
Urban History Group: Rights and Citizenship in the City from the Medieval to the Modern (University of Leicester, 2025)
- 'Rebels in the City: S/M exclusions in the London queer scene, 1980s-1990s'
Birmingham Research Institute for History and Cultures PGR Workshop (University of Birmingham, 2025)
- 'Lesbian London writes back: Politics and community during the sex wars'
Modern British Studies Queer Seminar Series (University of Birmingham, 2024)
- Postgraduate Research Forum - 'Progress, methodology and challenges in my research so far'

Public Engagement & Impact

Teaching:

PGTA: The Making of the Contemporary World - first year undergraduate History module (Spring term, 2025)
Course assistant: From Suffragists to Ladettes: Feminisms and the Women's Movement in Modern Britain - second year undergraduate History module (Autumn term, 2025)
Course assistant: Britain from the Margins (Spring term, 2026)

Placements:

Editorial Assistant: Manchester University Press (Summer 2025) - funded by M4C

Other:

Peer reviewer for the Rosetta Journal

Memberships

NACBS and Journal of British Studies

Additional Activities

In the summer of 2024, I was awarded funding to attend the University of Manchester's Sexuality Summer School. Here I had the opportunity to attend lectures, seminars and roundtables on the theme of 'Queer Friendship and Other Intimacies'. The Summer School allowed me to develop my research through a week of intense and rigorous academic discussion and debate, and through meeting other researchers in my field.

I was awarded funding at the beginning of 2024 to complete my Oral History training course, provided by the Oral History Society in collaboration with the British Library. This ensured I had the necessary training to complete the oral history interviews I am conducting for my project.