History II Middle Ages and beyond

Explain the medieval society era?

• medieval society: fall of Roman

Empire [476]Renaissance [1500]

• many Western sexual attitudes

forged during this period

– early Middle Ages, chaotic & harsh

• Church campaign against

licentiousness and paganism

– changes in art

 no longer tolerated any eroticism officially

• rigid code: penances for sexual sins

– sexual pleasure innately sinful

• celibacy as virtue clergy to be

celibate

– procreation only justification for sexual

relations

• monastic ideal vs. real sexual behaviour

of the times

– eroticism persisted despite official position

oilluminated devotional books, carvings

– ancient agricultural festivals with phallic

symbolism incorporated into Christian life

omaypole dance

Describe the middle ages era of sex?

• man-above-woman-below position

– only proper position for the married

omissionary position

• rear-entry position discouraged

– demonic possession

– lowest type of demon engaged in

oral and anal intercourse

• body as shameful

– nudity discouraged even in private

– baths were “dangerous”

o lustful thoughts, deeds

• women not protected by law or

moral opinion could be freely

brutalized / killed

• “witch” trials of the Inquisition

in 1400s

– misogynistic attitudes

 women with “knowledge”

o“uppity” women who needed

to be put in their place

Explain sex during the renaissance time?

• inspiration from ancient Greece and

Rome reshaped Europe [1500s]

• classical ideals and values

– elevated importance of individual

– gradual shift away from religious to the

secular

– wealthy sponsors for the arts & learning

• exuberant sexuality re-emerges

– wealthy indulge sexual appetites

– Church, and some popes, more worldly

oflaunting sexuality, propriety

the artist as the great

cultural hero reflecting

the values of the time

Describe the Reformation & counter-

reformation time for sex?

John Calvin: syphilis as God’s

punishment of the promiscuous

• strong reaction among clergy and

laity to worldliness of Church

– indulgences  pay up front for sins

• Catholic Church resisted reform

– Great Schism leads to Protestantism

• Martin Luther

– opposed celibacy for clergy

osex not inherently sinful in marriage

Describe the The Enlightenment period regarding sex?

• condom

– protection from disease and pregnancy

• sexual tolerance for art reappears

– Rubens, Rembrandt

• rational sexuality in upper-class

– reason controls heart / feelings

– code of decorous adultery

– Age of Reason wanted a “new” kind of

woman

ocombined sex & intellect, but

detached about love

owomen more culturally involved

• back-to-nature theme

popularized by Jean Rousseau

• discovery of cultures of South

Pacific

– Tahitians

natural goodness

sexuality unhampered by

ideas of chastity or

restraints of marriage

Describe the The Nineteenth Century time of sexuality?

• religious & social reformers react to

laxity in 18th century England

• John Wesley: Methodist Church

• the cost was a rigid and

oppressive morality

– smug & pretentious manners

oVictorian morality

• respectable women put on

pedestal of purity and

asexualized

– whores dehumanized

– marital sex as conjugal duty

osuffer with resignation

The Nineteenth Century

• drives sexual enjoyment

underground

– pornographic writing & images

oThe Romance of Lust

– erotic literature of the East

oThe Arabian Nights & The Perfumed

Garden

Describe the The modernization of sex

sexual modernism [20th C]

– reaction to repressive Victorianism

– sex as valuable human asset to be

managed properly

o not a drain on health or morality

• social struggle—the vote for W

– Canada 1918: Federal

o full rights in Quebec 1940

• WW I accelerated change

– anonymity of urban life

Roaring Twenties

– “social freedom”  greater openness about sex for

young

oautomobile

oFreudian theories emphasis on sex

WW II

– “bomb girls” doing M’s

work

– feminism continues after

contributing to war effort

• Kinsey; Masters & Johnson

– academic respectability [sorta]

• contraceptive pill

– integral to the 60s Sexual

Revolution

Describe the Sexual revolution of the 60s

• 50s seen as a period of stability coming out

Depression and WW2 with huge disruption

– people in the 50s simply want a family and a “normal life”

• by the 60s all that changes [really from 1963–1973/4]

– politics  a new radicalism [“The Left”]

primary thesis

– 60s  another fundamental break in historical evolution

of sexual relations

• change in social values comes from

– people believing in the social values

– reinforced by external restraints

oinstitutions [including Governmentlaws, regulations]

religious & sometimes scientific values

opeer pressures can be major force for compliance

• think of stability and change along a continuum

– sometimes society values social order at the expense

of individual freedom, so stability predominates

– sometimes society restless and wants change

othe system has built up walls that inhibit people

they push against regulatory systems, but never

absolutely

hippie movement

– youthful group outside of society

osex, drug, and rock & roll

mid-70s, it all disappeared with the Recession [73]

– boomers became careerists

• starting in 60s, increase in premarital sex and the

number of partners compared to earlier times

divorce extremely difficult to get

• Pill approved [safe/effective] in the US in 1960

• 1961 in Canada, but still illegal to dispense or sell it!