When studying the relationship between science and social policy, many of the biggest issues revolve around sex. Eugenicists seek to change who has sex, opponents to birth control believe contraception promotes sex outside of marriage, and the controversies over homosexuality and apotemnophilia focus on whether these titles are descriptions of identity or sexual perversions. For many people in present day, sex is something that is between consenting adult partners and that policy is not, or should not be, involved. This has not always been the common notion, however, as even today there are policies that are influenced by or have influence over sexual relations and orientation. The main reasons for this are because sex is the method of human
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The idea is that most, if not all, traits are heritable and so by encouraging people with more “desirable” traits and discouraging people with less desirable traits to reproduce, the human race as a whole could improve. Positive eugenics is the attempt to have people with desirable traits marry and have sex so they then produce desirable offspring. Negative eugenics is the prevention of undesirable people from reproducing. “[Negative] eugenicists attempted to improve the quality of the nation’s citizenry by reducing the birth rate of individuals they considered to be ‘feebleminded,’ a term early twentieth-century reformers used to refer to people they considered too physically or mentally deficient to resist ‘inappropriate’ activities, such as chronic masturbation, rape, child molestation, and ‘crimes against nature’—a euphemism for homosexual acts” (Largent 190). One way eugenicists reduced the birth rate of the feebleminded was to institutionalize these individuals. If feebleminded individuals were isolated in institutions, they would hopefully be unable to have sex and thus unable to reproduce. When institutionalizing large numbers of people became too costly, however, eugenicists pushed for states to sterilize those who were deemed feebleminded. The eugenicists recognized that it was far more difficult to police the ability of feebleminded individuals to have sex …show more content…
In the 19th century, sex was supposed to be solely for reproductive purposes. “By promoting the desirability of non-procreative sex, the contraceptive market tacitly endorsed the subversive notion that intercourse could be ‘just for fun’” (Tone 17). Women, especially, were subverting nature by using birth control because it was considered that their primary role was as mothers. “Doctors warned women that contraceptive use could induce cancer, sterility, insanity, or ‘deranged’ bladders and rectums” (Tone 18) and, while it was true that some contraceptive of the time carried health risks, most doctors did not distinguish between methods of birth control and some alleged that simply avoiding pregnancy was dangerous to the health. Contraceptives also carried with them a connotation of obscenity and promiscuity, which was part of Anthony Comstock’s argument to make them illegal. “[W]hat Comstock and his cronies found so threatening was the prominence of contraceptives in the vice trade—a robust and increasingly visible commerce in illicit products and pleasures that seemed to encourage sexual license by freeing sex from marriage and childbearing” (Tone 15). The availability of contraceptives, and so sex without pregnancy, seemed to many people to threaten traditional values. Contraceptives were associated with
The idea is that most, if not all, traits are heritable and so by encouraging people with more “desirable” traits and discouraging people with less desirable traits to reproduce, the human race as a whole could improve. Positive eugenics is the attempt to have people with desirable traits marry and have sex so they then produce desirable offspring. Negative eugenics is the prevention of undesirable people from reproducing. “[Negative] eugenicists attempted to improve the quality of the nation’s citizenry by reducing the birth rate of individuals they considered to be ‘feebleminded,’ a term early twentieth-century reformers used to refer to people they considered too physically or mentally deficient to resist ‘inappropriate’ activities, such as chronic masturbation, rape, child molestation, and ‘crimes against nature’—a euphemism for homosexual acts” (Largent 190). One way eugenicists reduced the birth rate of the feebleminded was to institutionalize these individuals. If feebleminded individuals were isolated in institutions, they would hopefully be unable to have sex and thus unable to reproduce. When institutionalizing large numbers of people became too costly, however, eugenicists pushed for states to sterilize those who were deemed feebleminded. The eugenicists recognized that it was far more difficult to police the ability of feebleminded individuals to have sex …show more content…
In the 19th century, sex was supposed to be solely for reproductive purposes. “By promoting the desirability of non-procreative sex, the contraceptive market tacitly endorsed the subversive notion that intercourse could be ‘just for fun’” (Tone 17). Women, especially, were subverting nature by using birth control because it was considered that their primary role was as mothers. “Doctors warned women that contraceptive use could induce cancer, sterility, insanity, or ‘deranged’ bladders and rectums” (Tone 18) and, while it was true that some contraceptive of the time carried health risks, most doctors did not distinguish between methods of birth control and some alleged that simply avoiding pregnancy was dangerous to the health. Contraceptives also carried with them a connotation of obscenity and promiscuity, which was part of Anthony Comstock’s argument to make them illegal. “[W]hat Comstock and his cronies found so threatening was the prominence of contraceptives in the vice trade—a robust and increasingly visible commerce in illicit products and pleasures that seemed to encourage sexual license by freeing sex from marriage and childbearing” (Tone 15). The availability of contraceptives, and so sex without pregnancy, seemed to many people to threaten traditional values. Contraceptives were associated with