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Protective PracticesA History of the London Rubber Company and the Condom Business |
eBook Available
Innovation, competition, and intrigue in the birth control industry.
From humble beginnings wholesaling at a small tobacconist-hairdresser shop in 1915, the London Rubber Company rapidly became the UK's biggest postwar producer and exporter of disposable rubber condoms. A first-mover and innovator, the company's continuous product development and strong brands (including Durex) allowed it to dominate supply to the retail trade and family planning clinics, leading it to intercede in the burgeoning women's market.
When oral contraceptives came along, however, the company was caught in a bind between defending condoms against the pill and claiming a segment of the new birth control market for itself. In this first major study on the company, Jessica Borge shows how, despite the "unmentionable" status of condoms that inhibited advertising in the early twentieth century, aggressive business practices were successfully deployed to protect the monopoly and squash competition. Through close, evidence-based examination of LRC's first fifty years, encompassing its most challenging decades, the 1950s and 1960s, as well as an overview of later years including the AIDS crisis, Borge argues that the story of the modern disposable condom in Britain is really the story of the London Rubber Company, the circumstances that befell it, the struggles that beset it, the causes that opposed it, and the opportunities it created for itself.
LRC's historic intervention in and contribution to female contraceptive practices sits uneasily with existing narratives centred on women's control of reproduction, but the time has come, Borge argues, for the condom to find its way back to the centre of these debates. Protective Practices thereby re-examines a key transitional moment in social and cultural history through the lens of this unusual case study.
When oral contraceptives came along, however, the company was caught in a bind between defending condoms against the pill and claiming a segment of the new birth control market for itself. In this first major study on the company, Jessica Borge shows how, despite the "unmentionable" status of condoms that inhibited advertising in the early twentieth century, aggressive business practices were successfully deployed to protect the monopoly and squash competition. Through close, evidence-based examination of LRC's first fifty years, encompassing its most challenging decades, the 1950s and 1960s, as well as an overview of later years including the AIDS crisis, Borge argues that the story of the modern disposable condom in Britain is really the story of the London Rubber Company, the circumstances that befell it, the struggles that beset it, the causes that opposed it, and the opportunities it created for itself.
LRC's historic intervention in and contribution to female contraceptive practices sits uneasily with existing narratives centred on women's control of reproduction, but the time has come, Borge argues, for the condom to find its way back to the centre of these debates. Protective Practices thereby re-examines a key transitional moment in social and cultural history through the lens of this unusual case study.
Details
306 Pages, 6 x 9
57 photos, 22 tables
ISBN 9780228003335
September 2020
Formats: Cloth, eBook
"This empirically rich, deftly researched, and intriguing survey of the commercial and cultural aspects of the trade in protectives, through the lens of the London Rubber Company, offers a pathbreaking account of the evolution of male contraceptives in twentieth-century Britain. Speaking authoritatively into enduring debates about modernity, permissiveness, the vibrancy of interwar feminism and varied contraceptive practices before (and after) the advent of the pill, Jessica Borge's book will become the definitive study of the production, promotion, and market positioning of an unmentionable and its surprising history." Alana Harris, senior lecturer in Modern British History, King's College London
"Protective Practices is a wonderfully rich, eye-opening book about the British condom business, a tale of automated production, monopoly profits, near full-spectrum dominance of contraceptive techniques, and complex corporate skulduggery. In its pages the history of the secretive London Rubber Company is evocatively brought to life to create an unusually satisfying business and medical history." David Edgerton, Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, King’s College London
"Protective Practices is a must-read for anyone interested in the intertwined histories of contraception, technology, and the personal product business. Jessica Borge clearly illustrates the economics, material science, and strategic decision-making that gave London Rubber a near-monopoly in barrier contraceptives in Britain for decades. Borge provides original and critical insight into the behind-the-scenes work of manufacturing, marketing, and selling contraceptives from their association with illicit sex in the 1910s to their rebranding as a standard health product in the 1980s and 1990s." Donna J. Drucker, Technische Universität Darmstadt and author of Contraception: A Concise History
"This deeply researched and engagingly written study of the London Rubber Company not only tells the fascinating story of a significant and dynamic business, it also shines fresh light on the changing sexual culture of twentieth-century Britain. This is highly recommended for anyone interested in the production, advertising, and retailing of that controversial and sought-after item: the condom." Adrian Bingham, University of Sheffield and author of Family Newspapers? Sex, Private Life, and the British Popular Press 1918-1978
"Protective Practices is a wonderfully rich, eye-opening book about the British condom business, a tale of automated production, monopoly profits, near full-spectrum dominance of contraceptive techniques, and complex corporate skulduggery. In its pages the history of the secretive London Rubber Company is evocatively brought to life to create an unusually satisfying business and medical history." David Edgerton, Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, King’s College London
"Protective Practices is a must-read for anyone interested in the intertwined histories of contraception, technology, and the personal product business. Jessica Borge clearly illustrates the economics, material science, and strategic decision-making that gave London Rubber a near-monopoly in barrier contraceptives in Britain for decades. Borge provides original and critical insight into the behind-the-scenes work of manufacturing, marketing, and selling contraceptives from their association with illicit sex in the 1910s to their rebranding as a standard health product in the 1980s and 1990s." Donna J. Drucker, Technische Universität Darmstadt and author of Contraception: A Concise History
"This deeply researched and engagingly written study of the London Rubber Company not only tells the fascinating story of a significant and dynamic business, it also shines fresh light on the changing sexual culture of twentieth-century Britain. This is highly recommended for anyone interested in the production, advertising, and retailing of that controversial and sought-after item: the condom." Adrian Bingham, University of Sheffield and author of Family Newspapers? Sex, Private Life, and the British Popular Press 1918-1978
Jessica Borge is digital scholarship manager at Archives & Research Collections, King's College London, and a visiting fellow in digital humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London.
Figures, Tables, and Map ix
Foreword by Lesley A. Hall xiii
Preface xvii
Acknowledgments xxi
Introduction 3
1 Rise of the Condom 15
2 Rise of London Rubber 32
3 To Be Seen, or Not? 69
4 London Rubber and the Family Planning
Association 89
5 All Change: Into the 1960s 109
6 The Consumer Speaks 135
7 The Public Relations Game 155
8 Feminor: The London Rubber ‘Pill’ 174
9 Later Years: 1965-2001 (and Beyond) 190
Conclusion 216
Appendices 225
Notes 237
Index 289
Foreword by Lesley A. Hall xiii
Preface xvii
Acknowledgments xxi
Introduction 3
1 Rise of the Condom 15
2 Rise of London Rubber 32
3 To Be Seen, or Not? 69
4 London Rubber and the Family Planning
Association 89
5 All Change: Into the 1960s 109
6 The Consumer Speaks 135
7 The Public Relations Game 155
8 Feminor: The London Rubber ‘Pill’ 174
9 Later Years: 1965-2001 (and Beyond) 190
Conclusion 216
Appendices 225
Notes 237
Index 289
