Introduction

Abstract

This collection of essays examines the role of the state in regulating sexual morality at the turn of the century in France, England, and the British Empire (India and Canada). It focuses on trials, both wellknown and obscure, and explores in detail how the disputes were played out in the courtrooms and newspapers of the time. While the cases range from murder investigations to divorce suits to charges of public indecency, all are rooted in differing ideologies of gender and sexuality and are inflected by the cultural and class-specific particularities of their participants. The conflicts documented and analyzed in this collection are symptomatic of changing definitions of gender roles, sexual propriety, and deviance. They shed light on often unexpressed fundamental assumptions of the criminal justice system regarding gender, and thus provide a snapshot of critical moments of social contestation during the era that witnessed the emergence of the New Woman, the New Man, and the Third Sex as social constructs.