A Brief History of Sexual Norms: The Roots of the Sexual Revolution
How wars, philosophers, "scientists," and popular media set the stage for the 1960s
It is clear that the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 70s caused a huge shift in sexual morals and practices in the Western world, but where did it come from? We always need to remember that no historical movement happens in a vacuum. Rather, there are always various philosophical and historical forces that lie behind these shifts. In a previous post I noted how Sigmund Freud created the notion of the sexual identity and gave his views a scientific cast. Then in the early to mid-20th century, a series of developments paved the way for the explosion of the sexual revolution.
The World Wars
First, it is hard to overstate the effects that wars have on morality. Since the premise of war is to violate the clearest form of natural law, namely, to not kill, it cannot help but have a hardening effect on those who participate in it. Even though a Christian may serve as a soldier, and in doing so may legitimately kill an enemy,[1] that does not mean that doing so does not take a toll on the individual. It is well documented that war often leads to other atrocities as men get hardened. Furthermore, when men are living with the reality of death, there is also a tendency to throw off other constraints and seek more hedonic pleasures. This combination of hardening and hedonism that came out of the First World War helped lead to the “Roaring 20s,” which some have even dubbed “the first sexual revolution.”
Following the Second World War, at first glance it seems that this trend did not continue, as the returning soldiers and sailors settled in to lives of domesticity and outward respectability. The GI Bill enabled record numbers of men to pursue higher education, church memberships swelled, and these men married and literally fathered the Baby Boom. However, even behind this there was a continuing undermining of sexual morality. Consider how it was this generation that a few decades later ushered in no-fault divorce laws.
The Philosophical Assault on Sexual Morals
However, much of the movement towards the sexual revolution continued to be top-down. Psychologist and follower of Freud, Wilhelm Reich built upon Freud’s notions of sexuality but also pushed them to extremes. Even Freud considered Reich as an obsessive sexual maverick, who was “a worthy but impetuous young man, passionately devoted to his hobby-horse who now salutes the genital orgasm the antidote to every neurosis.”[2] It was Reich who connected sexual identity with oppression, arguing that those who held alternate sexual identities were being oppressed by the greater society. Reich went as far as to argue that strict moral principles negate sex and therefore negate life and therefore the primary political task should be to negate sexual codes.[3]
Another attack on morality came from the new philosophy of Existentialism. Existentialism, as propounded by the likes of Jean-Paul Sartre, argued that there is no objective morality. Rather, each person needs to make their own authentic choices, and the authenticity of one’s choices is the only thing that makes it a correct action. A good example of Existential ethics is found in how those in favor of abortion refer to their position as “pro-choice.” This implies that it does not matter what one chooses, rather the act of choosing is what makes either decision moral.
While Sartre and other existentialist philosophers helped loosen the bonds of sexual morality by making all actions, if authentically chosen, equally moral, one who has had a larger influence in some ways was Sartre’s lover, Simone de Beauvoir. Beauvoir was a bisexual feminist who applied existentialist philosophy to the roles and life of women. In her magnum opus, The Second Sex (1949), Beauvoir first posited the idea that biological sex and gender are different things. She goes as far as to argue that biology is a form of tyranny, because it is an alienating external authority that oppresses women, particularly in terms of childbearing. Beauvoir, therefore, called for the development of reliable birth control so that women can indulge their sexual desires without the risk of pregnancy.[4]
Simone de Beauvoir helped shift the feminist movement from “First-wave feminism” towards “Second-wave feminism.” In the first wave, equal rights and women’s suffrage were the primary goals of the movement. Then in the second wave, usually dated from 1963-1980s, the movement turned towards the rejection of traditional gender roles and discrimination based on sex. While this occurred well after Beauvoir, it could not have happened without her laying the groundwork. Beauvoir was the first to posit that there is nothing inherently feminine (gender role) about a biological woman, rather, it is a construct that is foisted on the woman by society.
“Scientific” rationales for sexual liberation
One of the first people to act upon the desires that Beauvoir voiced to develop reliable forms of birth control and thus free women from the tyranny of unwanted pregnancies was Margaret Sanger. Sanger, in fact, predated Beauvoir by about 30 years and may have influenced Beauvoir’s thought. Margaret Sanger had served as a nurse among the poor in New York and therefore worried about the plight of those in poverty who bore numerous children. Her answer was to advocate for birth control, and she eventually founded Planned Parenthood.[5]
In her publication, The Woman Rebel, Sanger announced that women had the right “to be lazy … to be an unmarried mother … to destroy … to create … to love …” and “to live.”[6] In her publication, Sanger flouted the laws prohibiting the distribution of information about contraception; however, often the information contained was not accurate.[7] Sanger also joined her movement with the then popular and “scientific” eugenics movement.[8] Ever since, Planned Parenthood has sought to develop the medical procedures that can enable people to engage in sexual activity without having to face the normal consequences of their actions.
Another individual who had a major impact on our society’s views of sexuality, particularly deviant sexuality, was Alfred C. Kinsey who was a professor at Indiana University and founded the Institute for Sex Research. Kinsey and his team of researchers released two books, known together as “The Kinsey Reports.”[9] These reports, and other research from Kinsey, gave a scientific veneer to various sexual practices. However, it has since been clearly demonstrated that not only was their work deeply flawed and biased, but also that the whole “research” environment within Kinsey’s lab was really one of sexual libertinism and even abuse. Kinsey described homosexuality as more prevalent than is true, thereby giving it a veneer of normalcy. The worst, however, has to be how their “research” on child sexuality was done by getting reports from pedophiles on their exploits![10] However, by these reports being presented by academics and scientists, the public was duped into thinking that various sexual proclivities are more normal than is true.
Sex in popular culture
There can be little doubt that the person who did the most to bring these libertine attitudes into popular culture was Hugh Hefner. Hefner is reported to have labeled himself “Kinsey’s pamphleteer.”[11] Hefner, with his creation of Playboy Magazine, managed to legitimize pornography by packaging it in a well-produced magazine that also included serious interviews with cultural leaders.[12] In doing so, pornography, as well as a casual view of sex, was presented as a sophisticated, enlightened perspective. Hefner shrewdly used movie star Marilyn Monroe as his first nude model, thereby using the star-power and popular status of Hollywood to launch his magazine and promote his worldview.
Following the moral upheaval of the World Wars, society was weakened in its commitment to traditional morality. Then through the threefold assault of philosophers arguing against sexual morals and then giving it a scientific veneer and finally making it popular through Playboy and movies, the stage was set for the tearing down of traditional sexual morality in the Sexual Revolution.
[1] “The Augsburg Confession” article XVI, Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 48.
[2] Elisabeth Roudinesco, Freud in His Time and Ours, trans. Catherine Porter (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016), 340 quoted in Carl R. Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2020), 243.
[3] Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, 240–42.
[4] Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, 257–59.
[5] Edwin Black, War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2003), 126–27, http://www.librarything.com/work/8524/details/171707017.
[6] “On Picket Duty,” Rebel Woman (1914): 3 quoted in Daniel J. Flynn, Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas (New York: Crown Forum, 2004), 145, http://www.librarything.com/work/332073/details/171707466.
[7] Flynn, Intellectual Morons, 149.
[8] Black, War Against the Weak, 128–32.
[9] Alfred C. Kinsey, Wardell B. Pomeroy, and Clyde E. Martin, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (Philadelphia: Saunders, 1948); Alfred C. Kinsey, Wardell B. Pomeroy, and Clyde E. Martin, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (Philadelphia: Saunders, 1953).
[10] Flynn, Intellectual Morons, 34–49. I would caution against looking too much into the work of Kinsey if you have a weak stomach, as it is positively revolting.
[11] Flynn, Intellectual Morons, 35.
[12] Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, 281.