Brave New World: Aldous Huxley's Sexual Attitudes

Comparing Sexual Attitudes in Brave New World to Today’s Society

After reading Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World I was confounded by how accurate Huxley’s prediction of modern day sexual attitudes was. Huxley’s portrayal of Lenina Crowne is especially profound, because Lenina represents the exact opposite woman of Huxley’s time, but a woman that could be found in modern society. Lenina is a free spirted nurse who works in the hatchery, immunizing embryos. When Lenina is not at work she can be found hanging off the arm of the man she plans on taking home that night, probably high on soma. A similar type of sexual revolution has taken America by storm, starting in the 1960’s. Advances in contraceptives as well as birth control for women as opposed

to strictly condoms as well as the development of abortion, a process in which a fetus is physically removed from the uterus, led women to become more open to the idea of increased sexuality. Women also started fighting for more civil rights like workplace equality and equal pay, legitimizing women as equals among men. This combination of equality and advance in technology sent American women into a new sexual mindset that only Huxley could have predicted.
Before World War I sexual attitudes in America were very uptight, with things like skirt length and divorce looked upon with a sharp eye.

According to Murstein “the length of skirts was standard at a few inches above the ground” (Murstein, 419) which speaks to just how important small facets of women’s lives were pertinent to their sexuality. Huxley’s description of Lenina’s jumpsuit would only be coming into style and acceptance at the time of him writing the book. Her clothing is first referenced while in the changing room, “pulling at her zippers—downwards on the jacket, downwards with a double-handed gesture at the two that held trousers” (Huxley, 42) noting that she was not wearing a skirt at all, which at the time was unheard of. According to Delores Monet’s article “Women’s Fashion During WWI: 1914 to 1920” women did not traditionally wear trousers throughout the era. Instead they opted for a long narrow skirt or dress. Monet says, “In 1915 hemlines rose

to
mid-calf and traditionalists complained of immodesty” which
leads a person to believe that they would be even more
opposed to the tight-fitting trousers that Huxley describes.
Even later in the book Huxley describes Lenina wearing a
jumpsuit, a fashion that is unheard of for women of Huxley’s
day, but is not uncommon in today’s fashion, especially with
the popularity of the Romper.
Something that Huxley also touches on in Brave New World is how women of the future will take “pregnancy substitute” a medicine to stop them from getting pregnant.

This is a direct reference to birth control pills that women of today take. Although Huxley was not perfectly accurate in the way in which he describes birth control, as “to be taken three times daily… Placentin: 5cc to be injected intravenally every third day” compared to a simple pill that is taken once daily or an IUD, or intrauterine device, which is placed into the uterus to release hormones that prevent an egg from being released by the ovary. Birth control was a leading cause of the sexual revolution, coming into popularity around the time of Brave New World’s writing. It was not legitimized, however, until the Supreme Court ruled that birth control could be prescribed in 1936, a few years after Brave New World was published. Once women had access to personal birth control they became apt to use it, with rates going up steadily until peaking in 1995 with 18.9 percent of women using at least the pill form, according to the Center for Disease

Control.
The biggest push towards sexual freedom came from changing ideology as women started to value themselves more and more, pushing for equality in the workplace as well as equal pay as compared to their male counterparts. This enlightenment period drew attention from women away from men back to themselves, causing women to compare themselves to men in a rivalry of sorts. According to the article “The 1960’s-70’s American Feminist Movement: Breaking Down Barriers for Women” “’Consciousness-raising groups’ became an effective way to [protest]; in small groups in local communities, women explored topics such as family life, education, sex, and work from their personal perspectives. As they shared their stories, they began to understand themselves in relation to the patriarchal society they lived in, and they discovered their commonalities and built solidarity; as one said, ‘[I began to] see myself as part of a larger population of women. My circumstances are not unique, but...can be traced to the social structure’”, (Helgesen) which shows how women rallied together to form new ideas and opinions on many things, especially sex. This newfound confidence is displayed well by Huxley in Lenina’s ability to chase after men. She only finds trouble sleeping with Jon Savage, and the only reason behind that is because he sees her as a whore, a perception straight out of Huxley’s time. Lenina is viewed by other men in a much different way, and sought after by many of them simply because of her sexual promiscuity. This is extremely fitting of a society much like ours today, where men seek women almost solely on the premise of sex. Lenina is a good representation of modern day “one night stand culture” where men and women will spend one night together, have sex and then never speak again.
Huxley’s portrayal of Lenina hits the nail on the head when compared to modern day society. Her clothing is something that one could see on any street on any day now, but never would have seen at the time Huxley wrote Brave New World. The birth control that Lenina uses in Brave New World only came of age a few years after Huxley originally penned the book, and her attitudes and opinions towards sex would have had to wait another thirty years more.