Jillian Dachman
History 392, Dr. Lapsley
3.30.14
The years between 1890 and 1930 witnessed fundamental changes in sexual mores and practices, the reorientation of marriage toward companionate relationships, the emergence of distinct sexual taxonomies, and a shift from Victorian silence about the body and sexuality to the emergence of a new psychological language about sex. Despite the prevailing social attitude of sexual repression in the Victorian era, the movement towards sexual emancipation began towards the end of the nineteenth century and brought with it profound shifts in the attitudes towards women’s sexuality, homosexuality, pre-marital sexuality and the freedom of sexual expression. New norms of pleasure exposed a rhetoric of regulatory conceptual frameworks posited by “sexologists” who delivered psycho-medicalized sexuality to the masses of largely uninformed readers, thirsty for information and explanation. Men and women, reading the work of sex theorists such as Havelock Ellis and Sigmund Freud had different views on sex than had their parents before them. Victorian sexual counterculture contributed to the awareness of radical change that became the social matrix of sexual liberalism. Sexual liberation, then, can be seen as an outgrowth of a process which witnessed the significant loss of power by the values of early nineteenth century moral tradition, and the rise of a more socially and sexually permissive society. Tolerant attitudes of greater sexual freedom and experimentation spread, and were captured in the concept of modernization.
New venues for leisure where men and women could meet and engage in unrestricted social interaction, brought a shift in the average American’s experience of courting and sexuali...
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...am Victorian society, sexual liberalism transformed the ways in which people arranged their private lives. Shifting from a Victorian environment of production, separate sexual spheres, and the relegation of any illicit extramarital sex to an underworld of vice, the modern era found itself in a new landscape of consumerism, modernism and inverted sexual stereotypes. Sexuality was now being discussed, systemized, controlled, and made an object of scientific study and popular discourse. Late nineteenth-century views on "natural" gender and sexuality, with their attendant stereotypes about proper gender roles and proper desires, lingered long into the twentieth century and continue, somewhat fitfully, to inform the world in which we live. It is against this cultural and political horizon that an understanding of sexuality in the modern era needs to be contextualized.
Judith R. Walkowitz is a Professor Emeritus at John Hopkins University, specializing in modern British history and women’s history. In her book City of Dreadful Delight, she explores nineteenth century England’s development of sexual politics and danger by examining the hype of Jack the Ripper and other tales of sensational nature. By investigating social and cultural history she reveals the complexity of sexuality, and its influence on the public sphere and vice versa. Victorian London had upheld traditional notions of class and gender, that is until they were challenged by forces of different institutions.
In the essay, Late Victorians written by Richard Rodriguez discusses an extremely controversial topic about homosexuality in San Francisco, California during the nineteenth century. Rodriguez begins his essay with a captivating perspective about human unhappiness as he writes, “Human unhappiness is evidence of our immortality,” (Rodriguez 121). This gripping statement conveys the meaning that happiness or forever happiness is an illusion, therefore it cannot exist in the individual's life. The main idea of the essay Late Victorians draws out numerous opinions because of the historical impact of this specific era. For example, the limitations of sexuality or thoughts about sexuality for women, and homosexuals. The reoccurring theme appears to be stereotypes of
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...
Then came the sixties and the sexual revolution. The restraints against sexual intercourse for unmarried women gave way as the Pill [oral contraceptive] finally freed them from the fear of unwanted pregnancy. Seduction became abbreviated and compressed, oftentimes bypassed altogether, as women, reveling in their newfound liberation, sought the sexual freedom that had for so long been ‘for men only.’ The assumption of the era was that she wanted sex as much as he did, the only question being whether or not they wanted to do it with each other. Young people lived together openly, parading their sexuality before their parents’ outraged and bewildered gaze (13).
Essay #1: Sexual Politics It has been said that “Society has always defined for us what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman, what a man should be like and what a woman should be like, and these traditional definitions of gender roles have limited and even harmed individuals”. The theme of sexual politics comes to mind in this quote. One can define sexual politics as the relationship of the sexes, male and female, regarding power. Society’s definition of this can limit an individual in their gender role and restrain a person from being themselves.
The nineteenth century brought with it tremendous economic prosperity, prompting vast urban expansion, widespread acceptance of capitalist ideals, and redefinitions of family and sex. The industrial economic boom brought waves of immigrants with new and strange customs, disease and moral disparity. The rapidly growing middle-class fought to enhance its own respectability and distinguish itself from the filth and disease of the lower-class, as well as from the decadence of the upper-class. Middle-class citizens set themselves apart morally, and reinforced their hope for the next generation by imposing strict behavioral limits privately and publicly. Moral reform and social purity movements of this century were extensions of these efforts, and attempted to regulate what was perceived as the source of social degeneration: prostitution, venereal disease and the sexual double standard. The relationship between early nineteenth century socio-sexual moral reform, medical sexual reform and late century social purity movements can be superficially viewed as antagonistic. However, each of them responded to the phenomenon of urbanization and modernization, and the agendas of moral reform and social purity were conclusively in opposition to pestilential classic moralism which assumed that the sexual double standard was an embodiment of natural law based on immutable differences between the sexes. Thus, social purity activists and moral reformists were fighting against common enemies, and that which privileged the white, middle-class heterosexual male in both social and sexual practice.
1990s, when the film was produced, the idea of alternative sexuality carried a still somewhat negative connotation in society, especially within many conservative “family” ...
Unlike sex, the history of sexuality is dependant upon society and limited by its language in order to be defined and understood.
Although Foucault’s idea that there was an upsurge of discourse about sex from the 18th century on may be correct, that does not necessarily negate the concept that there wasn’t still repression of sex. People can still talk and write about sex, but simply having dialogue is not be enough – what is more important is to have productive dialogue that challenges and advances ideas about sexuality. If discourse maintains the status quo of sex, it is not groundbreaking. Foucault uses the medicalization of sex to support his argument that there was increased discourse about sex. However, Alfred Kinsey’s work in the 1950s may show Foucault’s error in thinking that acknowledging a subject necessarily means improving conversations around it. For instance,
Milstein, Susan A. Taking Sides Clashing Views in Human Sexuality. Ed. William J. Taverner and Ryan W. McKee. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.
During the 1960s, American culture took a drastic turn. With the growing availability of birth control and the rise of counter culture, women were finally given the ability explore their sexuality without the intense stigmas that existed decades prior (Brinkley 731). Yet as the sixties led into the seventies, a rapid growth of social conservativism began to eat away at this sexual revolution. Though the conservative views did bring back a negative stigma on sex, it could not bring back the more traditional view of what sex should be. This mix of two cultures gave birth to a double standard for women and their sexualities that exists to this day. In Susan Minot’s short story “Lust,” our narrator, an unnamed teenage girl, brings us through her sexual exploration during a
The LGBTQ community has always existed even if it was called by different words, however the Victorian Era is one of the most important eras in the development of ideas and thoughts on homosexuality. Now one may ask, ‘what does LGBTQ stand for?’ Well do not fret for there will be an explanation soon. LGBTQ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer and/or Questioning depending on who is asked. ‘How does this relate to the Victorian Era?’ one asks again. The Victorian Era is commonly known as a sexually repressed era, but that is not true the era was actually very sexual; there were many affairs and sexual writings during this time, most of it is heterosexual but that does not matter, the focus here is the LGBTQ people.
Before the sexual revolution of the 1960’s throughout the 1980’s, sex was an exciting adventure, done between two persons that every individual looked forward to. It was not done loosely or lawlessly but as a way of expression ones love and affection. The issues of sex were discussed privately and women were taught to preserve their virginity until marriage.
A passionate subject, a cultural and universal practice, a part of the human nature and a divine attribute bestowed upon man by his creator. No culture is superior to another when it comes to sexuality, its acts is everywhere. It doesn’t change the face of any culture or change modernity from moving forward. Sexuality, sexual harassments, sexual dimorphism, sexual orientation, sexual intercourse, gays, lesbians, sexual preferences, sexual rights, sexual selection, sex appeal, being sexy, an endless list of each phrase, briefly coming with one source word; Sex. Sex has been a necessity, even though it is hardly ever discussed. In time past, in every part of the globe, there has always been a universal acknowledgements of the act “SEX”.
The dominant norm in the nineteenth century was a heterosexual monogamous relationship, but during this periods of time many groups of people came out like the gays, lesbians, transgender, and many more, who challenged the social norm . In the 1820’s the transcendental movement began. This movement was compose of a group of activist, who believed that society, religion, and politics prevented people from being and acting how they wanted. Instead this activist believed that people should be independent and self-reliant, when choosing how to live their lives. Then there was the free love movement, which supported casual sexual encounters with little to no commitment. In the twentieth century there where many sexual revolutions began, “Gays and