"There is a prejudice against homosexuals in business", so says Lord
Browne, former head of BP and himself a homosexual, on today's BBC
website. He thinks that the business world is more intolerant of
homosexuality than "the legal profession, the media and the visual
arts". He might well have added politics, religious ministry, armed
services, many other professions and even the sciences.
Lord Browne is correct. It would be more accurate, however, to say
that, in the course of the last century, the large brand-new
additional English wave of homosexuality never grew in business as it
did in all the other occupations which dominated the
establishment. It all started in the early 19th century when the
newly arising industrial wealthy sent their boys to the rapidly
expanding tranche of relatively expensive private boarding schools
where they could acquire the airs and graces of the upper classes. If
industrialists themselves weren't welcome in the highest circles of
19th century England (which they certainly weren't) then at least
their boys would have a chance when they grew up and were "naturally"
able to talk and dress appropriately and to be able to understand the
menus in top-class restaurants.
What precisely went on in detail in the bedrooms and dormitories of
the older schoolboys needn't be described here. Suffice it to say
that, from the boarding schools, the brighter (and often the not so
bright) would proceed to university, preferably to the "top"
universities of Cambridge and Oxford. By the turn of the 20th
century, Cambridge and Oxford Universities were hotbeds of
homosexuality among young men. When, finally, these lusty young men
left for London (usually) and took up a career, then homosexuality
became widely and surreptitiously practised among the highest in the land.
The peak of the additional wave of homosexuality among the upper
classes in England was around the 1920/30s. (It was also the case in
Germany at that time, mainly among the officer class, and for a
similar reason. Bismark had established the first boarding schools in
Germany for the sons of army officers during the 19th century.) From
then onwards, like all fashions, homosexuality diffused downwards.
Pretty well all the 20-class (as I define it for quite different
purposes) became more tolerant and thus, inevitably, the practice
became legally acceptable.
But not entirely socially acceptable. A homosexual couple walking in
the streets daren't exhibit anywhere near the signs of mutual
affection as normal couples do for fear of being spat on or verbally
abused. The reason is that, by the time that homosexuality was
legalized, the peak of the additional wave had already petered out as
it began to lap the upper shores of the 80-class. The normal culture
was beginning to reassert itself.
Coming back to Lord Browne (unsurprisingly, ex-Cambridge
University!), he is clearly worried that homosexuality among
businessmen has never taken on so much as in other sectors. For such
an intelligent man he ought to have been more objective and worked
out the reason for himself. This is that by far the most businesses
are established by entrepreneurs of the 80-class. True, only a very
small proportion of these businesses actually grow large enough for
their founders to graduate into the 20-class, but there's sufficient
heterosexual ventilation from below to blow away the protective
cobwebs that are spun around most other top professions.
More recently, English homosexuals are now making a final heave --
that same-sex marriages should be legalized (as is already the case
in a dozen other countries). It's already meeting a big, and probably
growing, resistance. Whether the campaign will be successful is a
moot point. The declining number of same-sex clubs in our major
cities suggests that homosexuality is now on the decline. The BBC is
not making it acceptable in comedy shows anywhere near as often as it
used to. Although there is still a number of homosexual journalists,
newspapers scarcely give the topic any space at all. Most boarding
schools -- particularly the most expensive -- go out of their way to
ensure that boys are not deprived of girl company, either in the
classroom or in organized social events. Of course, there will always
be an irreducible and very low number of homosexuals who have been a
constant throughout history but the phenomenal Oxbridge-London
fashion of a century ago is now losing its impetus. Homosexual
business leaders of tomorrow are likely to be lonelier than Lord
Browne is today.
Keith
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com
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