At the turn of the 19th century Americans faced a multitude of cultural changes, involving contraceptive acceptance, sexuality changes, and modernism acceptance. Contraceptives were illegal in the early 1900s and posed many relationship problems between married couples since they wanted to be intimate. New ideas about sexuality and affection changed the views on appropriate erotic practices to indulge in within single people typically around college age. Women and men didn’t wait until marriage before having some type of sexual relation, which caused family problems and government intervention because of the negative views of being promiscuous. Modernism ideals developed with the introduction of new sciences and the argument of evolution …show more content…
versus the religious teachings of the Protestant faith. Scholars began to argue the dynamics of traditional conservative views with the discovery of new information. There were people that opposed tradition and conservative laws because they limited the freedoms of people and subjected them to an old way of thinking.
Amongst these people are Margaret Sanger, Paula S. Fass, and Edward J. Larson, who contented the natural order of things during the early 19th century and fought for alterations for laws and social …show more content…
norms. Typically women were considered to be ready for laboring children around the age of 13, which was when they were married off and got pregnant almost instantly. These women faced tremendous hardship since they lived in poverty with a partner who didn’t make much money from factory employment. Between the age of 13 and 30 these women would have up to 11 children or more, have back to back pregnancies with little recovery, suffer from malnutrition and disease, and bear the responsibility of raising these children alone. (Sanger, Margaret Sanger Seeks Pity for Teenage Mothers and Abstinent Couples, 1928 1956) Having an overwhelming amount of children proved to be very taxing to women and families because of low income and the inability to raise multiple little kids alone. Women faced this daunting responsibility because they had to please their husbands, loved their husbands, and wanted to share intimacy. The implications the government placed on these families by making contraception illegal really put a significant burden on them and created an unhealthy cycle of reproduction with extremely high risks of mortality during child birth. Although women were getting married at a very young age, changes in society allowed for the youth to experiment with a new way of interacting with the opposite sex. People began to enjoy the freedom of socializing with friends and started this new process of dating in order to find a compatible partner instead of being forced into arranged marriages from their families. Dating became a new ceremonial collaboration of erotic experimentation from the new found privacy, and the desire to find the most compatible mate. (Fass 1977) From these experiments fondling became a mutual deed amongst the youth in order to satisfy lustful desires, but still gave the assurance they remained in costume with the old Victorian way of life. It’s important to note that female sexuality greatly manifested into the lives of many women during the 1920s and established new social norms for what women did in order to take control of their bodies and practices. Women became empowered and felt more equal to men just from simple actions like shortening their hair, wearing skirts, committing acceptable sexual actions, and by using cosmetics. (Fass 1977) This empowerment women strived for underwent much scrutiny because it went against traditional expectations of women maintaining innocence and virginity until marriage. Other social factors like smoking amongst friends, dancing, and drinking contributed to this new found exploration of freedom between young men and women. With this new age of change came the idea of modernism which completely challenged traditional ideals from conservative religious people.
Fundamentalists and modernists went through confrontations over the new philosophies of Professor Bryan and the allegations they had Darwin’s theory. His quarrels condemned Darwin’s hypothesis for lacking credible evidence and challenged the idea of evolution. (Larson 2012) The ideas brought for by modernists angered fundamentalists which viewed them as sacrilege to the Christian faith. Fundamentalists Organizations were formed in order to combat these ideals and provided education and a means to band together in order to oppose them. These fundamentalists decided to ban together and oppose the modernists with an anti-evolution movement in order to preserve traditional convictions and resists the notions of teaching the theory of evolution in an academic setting. (Larson 2012) More importantly through this conflict between modernists and fundamentalists Darwin’s theory was portrayed as an evil entity were the strong prey on the weak and comparted its notions to the devastations caused by World War I. Nobody could understand how Christian nations could systematically kill so many people and create so much destruction upon each other for the sake of power. (Larson
2012)
Sexual regulation of women did not rise and fall with the American Empire. Rather Briggs carefully traces the transnational developments between empires and colonies that provided the foundation of future U.S. policies from the nineteenth century British Contagious Disease Acts passed by Britain to the segregated districts of American cities in the early decades of the 20th century. In
At the beginning of the 1900s, there was a “sexual revolution” in New York City. During this time, sexual acts and desires were not hidden, but instead they were openl...
With the clash of the cultures increasingly challenging our way of living, we must fight even harder to keep our families practicing good morality and traditional values. The census of the 20s shows us that more and more Americans are making the move to the big city and for reasons I don’t quite understand. There are many that embrace the new modern world, but my family members are plain old country folk that enjoy rural living, living on farms or in small towns. And marriage should be considered sacred and children should be considered a blessing from God, not a burden or imposition. In the essay entitled “Birth Control,” by Ella K. Dearborn, written for the Birth Control Review in March 1928, Dearborn opposed certain women having children
This essay will analyse whether the iconic representation of the roaring twenties with the woman's new right to sexuality, was a liberal step of progression within society or a capitalist venture to exploit a new viable market. Using Margaret Sanger's work in comparison with a survey conducted by New Girls for Old, the former a more mature look at the sexuality and ownership to a woman's body and the second a representation of girls coming of age in the sexually "free" roaring twenties. Margaret Sanger is known as "the mother of planned parenthood", and in the source she collates a collection of letters to speak of the sexual enslavement of motherhood through the fulfilment of the husbands desires. While Blanchard and Manasses of New Girls for Old suggests the historical consensus that the flapper is a figment compared to the reality where promiscuity was largely condemned.
Modernists accepted change and even embraced; they accepted evolution. Some modernists still believed in God but they also accepted evolution. The fundamentalists in Inherit the Wind feared modernism because it challenged the social order and posed a threat to those at the top of the social order. The fundamentalists were quite narrow-minded and rejected Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Many people feared the topic or term of evolution because they thought if someone is talking about evolution in a scientific way than it was against their religion. Many people have different views or opinions on evolution, in the 1920’s many people immediately associated the term evolution and automatically related it in biblical terms of evolution. Most people when someone would talk about evolution and relate it to science they would get offended because they believed differently because of their religion. “By the 1930’s most of the urban churches of America had been able to reconcile Darwin's theory with the Bible,but rural preachers preferred a stricter interpretation (The Monkey Trial).” The people who got offended about people talking about evolution in another way than the bible also thought it was against their religion to teach or talk about evolution in a fear that it could affect how their children thought about their religion.”In the years that followed his 1859 declaration America's churches hotly debated whether to accept the findings of modern science continues following the teaching of ancient scripture (The Monkey Trial)”. Many parents feared that if their child or children were taught evolution that then that would influence their religion. Multiple parents were very upset that their children were taught Darwin's theory of evolution. “By 1925, Bryan and his followers had succeeded in getting
The Roaring Twenties were known as a time of economic boom, pop culture and social developments. This was a time when women began to break norms, they acted rebelliously such as wearing releveling clothing, smoking, and drinking. These women were known as “flappers” who wanted to change their roles in the 1920’s. Birth control activist, Margaret Sanger sought to change the world where women had access to a low cost, effective contraception pill. In “The Morality of Birth Control” Sanger battled opponents who claimed that contraception would cause women to become immoral. The author uses rhetorical devices such as ethos, pathos, and fallacies to back up her claim while touching on issues in the church, advancements of women, and the source of disease in the world.
Many couples in the United States idealize the myth of a “tradition family”. The idea that a woman can spend quality time with her child while maintaining an effective sexual life with her partner seemed to have caused a lot of stress during the 1950s. Coontz’s says “this hybrid idea drove thousands of women to therapists, tranquilizers, or alcohol when they tried to live up to it.” (Coontz, 569). Which explains that it is merely impossible to try to mold a family to be “ideal.” Many families still strive for a traditional life, which they define as life “back in the day.” They need to forget the past and start living in the 21st century. “Two-thirds of respondents to one national poll said they wanted more traditional standards of family life.”(Coontz, 582). Which goes to show that many families want to change to what once used to be perceived as an “ideal family” but “the same percentage of people rejected the idea that women should return to their traditional role.”(Coontz, 582). Families want to take bits and pieces from what used to be “traditional families” over time and create their own i...
It may not be a 1960s sexual revolution but Americans' attitudes toward sex have certainly taken a dramatic turn toward sexual irreverence. American culture has lost all sense of discretion. We have no boundaries or sense of anything being a private matter. After we cruised through the conservative 50’s; we chanted and swayed through the sexual revolution of the 60’s. But we didn’t stop there. Now we’re riding the fiber optic wave of immediate and impersonal self-gratification. American culture is getting more accepting of provocative messages and behavior with each passing decade. What caused the drastic shift in attitudes from the 1950s to the 1960s? Do we owe today’s epidemic of casual sex to any one thing?
"Sex & Sexuality in the 19th Century." Victoria and Albert Museum, Online Museum, Web Team. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Jan. 2014.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, literature changed and focused on breaking away from the typical and predicate patterns of normal literature. Poets at this time took full advantage and stretched the idea of the mind’s conscience on how the world, mind, and language interact and contradict. Many authors, such as Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, and Twain, used the pain and anguish in first hand experiences to create and depict a new type of literature, modernism. In this time era, literature and art became a larger part of society and impacted more American lives than ever before. During the American modernism period of literature, authors, artists, and poets strived to create pieces of literature and art that challenged American traditions and tried to reinvent it, used new ways of communication, such as the telephone and cinema, to demonstrate the new modern social norms, and express the pain and suffering of the First World War.
Modernism is defined in Merriam-Webster's Dictionary as "a self-conscious break with the past and a search for new forms of expression." While this explanation does relate what modernism means, the intricacies of the term go much deeper. Modernism began around 1890 and waned around 1922. Virginia Wolf once wrote, "In or about December, 1910, human character changed." (Hurt and Wilkie 1443). D.H. Lawrence wrote a similar statement about 1915: "It was 1915 the old world ended." (Hurt and Wilkie 1444). The importance of the exact dates of the Modernist period are not so relevant as the fact that new ideas were implemented in the era. Ideas that had never before been approached in the world of literature suddenly began emerging in the works of many great authors. Two of the pioneer Modernist writers were Joseph Conrad and T.S. Eliot. The tendencies to question the incontestable beliefs embedded in all thinking and to focus on the inner self dominated. Old viewpoints were tossed aside to make way for the discovery of modern man's personal spirituality. Two works that are considered important forbears in the Modern period are T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
"People and Events: The Pill and the Sexual Revolution." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 12 May 2014.
A lot of history has been made throughout the many years of exploration and education throughout the world. The years of exploration have contributed to the knowledge that we have today and the modern technology that has been developed from simple things that may have been made during or after the 19th century. In America during the 19th century, life had been very different less populated compared to how America is today. The 19th century lasted from the year 1801 to 1900. During the 19th century life had been mostly separated and rural.