History of Sex In The 20th Century
Syed Ahmed
Lone Star College
The 20th century was without a doubt an influx of new ideals, technology, and conservatism, and sex/sexuality was in many ways at the forefront of it all. However, to really understand the documentary we are tasked to review (in the form of a video analysis), one must start at the beginning and try and identify what “Victorian moral/views” refers to, since if this manner of thinking were introduced to us today we would out right shun it and label it as “backwards”. To put it bluntly, the Victorian view on sexuality was limited to procreation and anything outside of it was deemed immoral so homosexuality, birth control, premarital sex among others were deemed …show more content…
Nonetheless, all of this was not without its peaks and valleys, for there were highs as were there lows. Individuals such as Anthony Comstock fought to preserve Victorian views and ideology, which was the cultural norm at the time, and he was very successful doing so resulting in the Comstock Act which was a federal act passed by the United States Congress on March 3, 1873, as the Act for the "Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use". On the other hand, we had Margaret Sanger a nurse who seeked to empower women and their families via birth control and introduced the nation to its first birth control clinic. Nevertheless, it was not always people that shaped the evolution of sex as we have it today, the first world war introduced American men to European women and their views on sex, the roaring 20’s introduced America to the flapper, Prohibition resulted in people socializing more (an unintended effect), the birth of the motion picture served as sex education in many cases in a time there was no sex education, homosexuals living a liberated life style in the 20’s, the birth of Trojan condoms, and other contraceptives and later “the Pill” empowered men and women alike, and the auto mobile (struggle buggy) allowed for young men and women to venture away from the confines of their parents and engage in sexual activity. The introduction of Viagra in the late 90’s resulted in more older people having sex and changing the public discourse about sex along the way as well, and then we have things like Will H. Hays passing down censorship laws for motion pictures in the 20’s. In addition, the Great Depression which took a toll on relationships as men ventured out in search of jobs leaving behind families etc resulting in divorces, after the end of the
Syed Ahmed
Lone Star College
The 20th century was without a doubt an influx of new ideals, technology, and conservatism, and sex/sexuality was in many ways at the forefront of it all. However, to really understand the documentary we are tasked to review (in the form of a video analysis), one must start at the beginning and try and identify what “Victorian moral/views” refers to, since if this manner of thinking were introduced to us today we would out right shun it and label it as “backwards”. To put it bluntly, the Victorian view on sexuality was limited to procreation and anything outside of it was deemed immoral so homosexuality, birth control, premarital sex among others were deemed …show more content…
Nonetheless, all of this was not without its peaks and valleys, for there were highs as were there lows. Individuals such as Anthony Comstock fought to preserve Victorian views and ideology, which was the cultural norm at the time, and he was very successful doing so resulting in the Comstock Act which was a federal act passed by the United States Congress on March 3, 1873, as the Act for the "Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use". On the other hand, we had Margaret Sanger a nurse who seeked to empower women and their families via birth control and introduced the nation to its first birth control clinic. Nevertheless, it was not always people that shaped the evolution of sex as we have it today, the first world war introduced American men to European women and their views on sex, the roaring 20’s introduced America to the flapper, Prohibition resulted in people socializing more (an unintended effect), the birth of the motion picture served as sex education in many cases in a time there was no sex education, homosexuals living a liberated life style in the 20’s, the birth of Trojan condoms, and other contraceptives and later “the Pill” empowered men and women alike, and the auto mobile (struggle buggy) allowed for young men and women to venture away from the confines of their parents and engage in sexual activity. The introduction of Viagra in the late 90’s resulted in more older people having sex and changing the public discourse about sex along the way as well, and then we have things like Will H. Hays passing down censorship laws for motion pictures in the 20’s. In addition, the Great Depression which took a toll on relationships as men ventured out in search of jobs leaving behind families etc resulting in divorces, after the end of the