Claims to (S)expertise in the British Sex Survey, c. 1960s–1990s.

This article examines the development of social science research on sex and contraception in twentieth-century Britain, focusing on the evolution of family planning surveys as key producers of sexual knowledge. It highlights a significant shift from quantitative, medicalized approaches centered on women as contraceptive experts in the post-war period, towards qualitative methods emphasizing subjectivity, individual experience, and the inclusion of men as active contraceptive agents from the 1970s onward. The article also discusses how changing social attitudes, feminist scholarship, and methodological innovations influenced the legitimacy and focus of these surveys, while noting challenges posed by political resistance and public health crises such as HIV/AIDS. Ultimately, it argues that these surveys played a pivotal role in shaping understandings of sexual behavior, expertise, and the heterosexual subject, while simultaneously revealing exclusions and contested boundaries within knowledge production.