Rosy cheeks and wide hips tied in tight, green cloth fill Aldous Huxley’s dystopian setting of A Brave New World. It is covered by a deep objectification of women-- causing sexuality and promiscuity to be cornerstones of Huxley’s carefully constructed society. When we compare Huxley’s world with our own, it gives valuable insight into the direction of this trend. Because of the changes to the family unit and increasing promiscuity, we find a harmful lack of intimacy growing in our society, a development mirrored in A Brave New World. Brave New World portrays a society where the family unit has been eliminated entirely and extremely open sexuality encouraged. The controller and head of the regional government, Mustapha Mond, despairs of the
…show more content…
A main character, Lenina, realizes in a lift full of men that she “was a popular girl and, at one time or another, had spent a night with almost all of them” (Huxley 63). This idea does not disgust or despair her, but instead gives her pleasure as she was “popular.” Mustapha Mond believes that this openness allows a healthy, natural release. This implies that a lack of family units and a presence of easy, constant sexual release is beneficial to Mustapha’s goal of societal stability. The government enables this release through conscious and subconscious encouragement of promiscuity. Its effects are clear, as Lenina is criticized by her friend Fanny, who says “you ought to be a little more promiscuous…” after Lenina attempts to procure a sense of intimacy with Henry through exclusive intercourse (48). Encouragement of this promiscuity creates an environment of objectification in which a slap on the butt is the “strictest conventionality” (47). Although the government attempts to suppress intimacy, Bernard Marx grinds his teeth at the objectification of Lenina and Lenina uses drugs to suppress her unmet desire for John, showing us that there is deep sense of dissatisfaction loosely contained by the citizen’s harsh conditioning. This finds climaxes on page 177, where John’s unconditioned view of romance is put into conflict with Lenina’s open sexuality, causing John to berate her conditioned behavior and violently push her away. This event alongside his mother’s death largely contributes to John’s revolt against Soma and society. Brave New World’s totality of sex is a step away from ours, but with growing promiscuity in relationships, media and advertising we move closer and closer in that direction, risking the loneliness and dissatisfaction that the lack of intimacy
A main character, Lenina, realizes in a lift full of men that she “was a popular girl and, at one time or another, had spent a night with almost all of them” (Huxley 63). This idea does not disgust or despair her, but instead gives her pleasure as she was “popular.” Mustapha Mond believes that this openness allows a healthy, natural release. This implies that a lack of family units and a presence of easy, constant sexual release is beneficial to Mustapha’s goal of societal stability. The government enables this release through conscious and subconscious encouragement of promiscuity. Its effects are clear, as Lenina is criticized by her friend Fanny, who says “you ought to be a little more promiscuous…” after Lenina attempts to procure a sense of intimacy with Henry through exclusive intercourse (48). Encouragement of this promiscuity creates an environment of objectification in which a slap on the butt is the “strictest conventionality” (47). Although the government attempts to suppress intimacy, Bernard Marx grinds his teeth at the objectification of Lenina and Lenina uses drugs to suppress her unmet desire for John, showing us that there is deep sense of dissatisfaction loosely contained by the citizen’s harsh conditioning. This finds climaxes on page 177, where John’s unconditioned view of romance is put into conflict with Lenina’s open sexuality, causing John to berate her conditioned behavior and violently push her away. This event alongside his mother’s death largely contributes to John’s revolt against Soma and society. Brave New World’s totality of sex is a step away from ours, but with growing promiscuity in relationships, media and advertising we move closer and closer in that direction, risking the loneliness and dissatisfaction that the lack of intimacy