Abstract

Working men in the industrial north of England enacted their masculinity in differing, often contradictory ways and (a happy) marriage, children and a traditionally masculine job did not always preclude sexual and emotional relationships with other men. Traditional industrial jobs such as those in the mine or steelworks created a specific social and cultural environment in which men formed their identities and a particularly working-class interpretation of ‘good character’ flourished. This chapter will explore the emotional and sexual landscape of northern working-class men before the Second World War and offer an alternative way to understand how such men experienced friendship, love, sex and work and how these facets of a man’s life were often both inextricably linked and dependent on each other.