While he was a pupil at lancing, Evelyn Waugh tried to start a discussion on the subject of homosexuality. As an editorial in the school newspaper, he published a ficti tious conversation between a visitor and a schoolboy like him. lie wanted to show that passionate friendships between pupils were not necessarily disruptive or corrupting, and that the authorities were wrong to intervene in an area that did not concern them
A few years before, his brother Alec had launched a great offensive against the public schools through his acclaimed novel, The Loom of Youth (1917).?w In a less well-known work, Public-School Life. Boys, Parents, Masters (1922) he gives a very detailed description ol homosexuality in the public schools, defends romantic friendships and denounces the hypocrisy that surrounded the subject. Noting that the system of the public schools is (in this respect) contrary to nature, he says that one must expect results contrary to nature. He calls the time spent in public school a phase of sexual transition; and says that most of the “active immorality in the schools” takes place between fifteen-and sixteen-year-old boys; not, as is frequently imagined, between the younger and older boys.” He says that, like everything else at school, homosexuality has to conform to rules; there arc rules for everything, and friendships, like personalities, must fit the mold. It is the endless talk about homosexuality that keeps interest alive and ensures that the phenomenon will be reproduced.
Waugh also highlights some neglected aspects of homosexual life in the public schools. First of all, having 18 or 19 year old boys in some of the houses can only create a difficult climate, for at this age sexual impulses more definitely demand physical satisfaction. Then, romantic friendships can have harmful consequences for the younger boys. A young one who becomes the friend of an older boy finds himself suddenly propelled to the top of the school hierarchy; he gets to know other boys in the upper forms, and he receives various privileges; boys in Iris own form become jealous or hate him, and he loses contact with reality. When his guardian leaves the school, he finds himself alone and unwanted. Moreover, constantly separating love from sex can cause trouble for the lads later in life. To change this situation, Waugh became an advocate of coeducation; he called for a freer discussion of these subjects, and for better public information:
- There is so much ignorance to dissipate; the ignorance of the mothers, the ignorance of the fathers who have not themselves been in public school, the conspiracy of silence among the pupils, alumni and masters. We make too much of immorality, and at the same time we do not pay enough attention to it. The headmasters assure us that it only crops up occasionally, but their attitude is like that of a doctor who suspects his patient lias a grave illness and simply goes on observing him, looking for signs.
These attempts to start a discussion of homosexuality were not the only ones and it wasn’t only the pupils who were concerned.