The Origins of Sex: A History of the First Sexual Revolution [Hardcover]

When thinking of the sexual revolution in the subtitle, one might leap to the 1960s, but of course the story goes back a few hundred years before then, making it not so much a revolution as an evolution, albeit one which began with revolutionary ideas.
The book is a fascinating and thorough academic look at the development of western views of sex and sexuality. It begins in earnest in the 17th century, when new ideas about sex emerged, in particular ideas that sex was not a matter for the church or the state to rule over, that lust was an innate Human trait, and that sexual morality could not be imposed.

The book is literate, academic and serious, but it is certainly not dull. Given the subject matter and the vast number of historical events, court cases and social changes that it encompasses, it offers plenty on every page to enlighten and surprise the reader. It delves into stances taken by governments and courts, religious authorities, royalty, and society at large, through the centuries, and shows their consequences on the lives of everyone through those centuries.

What struck me most in reading this book is how much the events of the last five hundred years have shaped current society, the legal system, and moral thinking. For example, adultery (and mistresses), prostitution, polygamy and homosexuality have been variously reviled and accepted through the ages, and for many reasons. There is also the important matter of media coverage of such subjects, which has often been at the cutting edge of change, challenging moral opinions, society's rules, and the laws of states and churches.

I must say I take issue with the jacket blurb: "We publicize and celebrate sex; we discuss it endlessly; we are obsessed with the sex lives of celebrities." I am not the slightest bit interested in any of that. Why should I care what a celebrity does in bed? I am, however, interested in the development of sexual politics, law and society, as discussed in this book. I found it an enjoyable and enlightening read. It takes a subject rife with trivia, sniggering nonsense, and myth, and presents a thoroughly researched work on the subject.

This book is a fascinating account of a neglected topic of history: the sexual revolution that occurred in the late 17th century and its subsequent consequences for society as a whole.

It opens with the period prior to the late 17th century, when all forms of sex outside of marriage were condemned as a sin against God. If God's wrath was not sufficient to persuade people, then there was also the law. A married (unmarried) woman was the property of her husband (father), so adultery was theft of property, one of the foundations of society. Moreover, should the liaison result in a child, a husband could not be sure that it was his and hence inheritance, another foundation of society, would be undermined. Not surprisingly, penalties were harsh, frequently death.

The author explains how all this changed with the Enlightenment, and its challenge to religious doctrine, resulting in a rapid increase in sexual freedom. Ingenious arguments were constructed to show that sexual liberation would increase the wellbeing of society, rather than harm it. Moreover, it was said that God's manifest unwillingness to strike down the transgressors, showed that He did not disapprove of greater sexual freedom. Some advocated extreme views: the absolute right to change sexual partners at will; total freedom for prostitutes; and even the abolition of marriage. But for others this was too far. Dr Johnson thought there whereas male adultery was `nothing', female adultery risked undermining `all the property in the world'. Even in the new enlightened age, publication on some subjects was still `off limits'. Jeremy Bentham, the leading enlightened philosopher of his age in England, in private advocated all forms of sexual freedom, including sodomy, even suggesting that Jesus himself likely had a sexual relationship with St John the Apostle. But he never published his views, and as late as 1830 male homosexuals in England were still being hanged for sodomy.

There remained the question of equality of sexual desires. Historically, it was said that women had the greater `unnatural, insatiable lust' and that they were the ones who tempted men. Later it was fashionable to view men and women equally as naturally promiscuous. But by the middle of the 18th century it was taken for granted that men were naturally more libidinous than women, who were naturally more sexually passive. The author shows that the origin of this view is to be found in the rise of the novel and the `cult of seduction'. The importance of the latter was reflected in the rapid rise in illegitimate births and the dramatic fall in marriages amongst the more wealthy classes. It even led to a serious national debate about the advantages of polygamy.

Inevitably there was a backlash towards the end of the century and religious ideals made a comeback. The view that women were naturally more `refined' and chaste steadily gained ground, but along side this there was a view that there was a strong relationship between education and sexual mores. Arising from this was a remarkable upsurge of philanthropic endeavors aimed to rescue and rehabilitate prostitutes and other women who had been abused by men, often with the false promise of marriage. Prime amongst these were the building of residential institutions where the women would stay for up to two years and would be subjected to a rigorous `reforming' programme of hard work and endless prayers. Not surprisingly, the `failure rate' was as high as 50%, but many women did manage to survive and successfully start a new life. Nevertheless, the problem of prostitution continued to grow and even the most optimistic eventually came to accept that the root cause was economic and not `inherent depravity'.

The late 18th century also witnessed far greater open interest in the personal lives of public figures. This was made possible by an explosion of newspapers and journals that closely followed sexual scandals, provoking uninhibited discussions unthinkable in earlier times. Courtesans contributed by publishing `confessions' (also used to blackmail lovers) and some even became `media stars', with their portraits painted by the greatest artists of the day. By the end of the century, society had moved closer to the age of `celebrity' and `self publicity' we know today.

The book ends with an Epilogue that covers very briefly the period from the Victorian age to the present day. The author acknowledges that his view of evolution of the societal view of sexual behavior is not unique, but argues persuasively that current views on `natural' and `unnatural' sex, pornography and celebrity, morality and class etc., grew from the developments described earlier.

I greatly enjoyed this book. It provides an excellent very readable historical insight into an important aspect of society that is not found elsewhere. My only gripe is with the publisher. The book has its origins in considerable academic research, and like most such books contains an extensive set of references, in this case almost 100 small-font densely printed pages, compared with some 300 or so pages of text. Most general readers (and surely they are the majority) will never explore these in detail, so why not put them on a website and have a shorter book?

Builds on Foucault, Laurence Stone and Nietzsche to undertake a geneology of present day sexual morality. Nietsche looked at the geneology of morality and Foucualt used it to look at how madness was constructed rather than innate. Stone of course was the first to gaze into the social mores of this era.

An accompaniment to Norbert Elias and his work on the the civilising process as the author describes how western sexual morality was formed through the fragmentation arising within the religious wars. The author has excavated an English sense of bodily pleasure; analysing how it arose over the middle ages to the present. In particular he looks at how bodies had become negated, for huge chunks of the medieval era. This was the legacy of the Catholic denial of the body as negating the spiritual. Early religious philosophy drew on the sensory negation derived from St. Paul and Augustine. During this era, the early medieaval world was policed by the neighbour and then overseen by church authorities.

As the world expanded, both through population growth and through discovering other cultures, these simple bonds fractured and then it was the turn of the paid informer. Finally with the wars of religion a different sense of consciousness was born. Sexuality no longer became a sin but a source of pleasure. There are some anomalies such as Chaucer's bawdy tales.

One constant that arises is women being seen as chattels to be patrolled and overseen by families of men. Those who ventured in selling sex were both villified and enriched, as the social mores fought out its internal hypocrisy, in a constant polarity, excitement and villifiation. The result; many women were whipped and paraded through the streets to restore morality. The unlucky ones were rounded up and enslaved, sent off to Barbados to be mixed in with the plantations and interbred, creating the mulatto; a highly prized slave specimen. The world was based on eugenics before the term was scientifically invented.

The author then looks at how the sense of bodily pleasure became a battle with spiritual austerity, a sense of emotional romanticism versus a clean puritan idealism. Puritanism was founded on bodily denial and asceticism, thereby allowing the adherent to concentrate on their relationship with God; a Self Denying Ordinance for the everyday world. Then there the others who wanted to ravish the body and despoil it.

A moral stage was forever set, in the one corner the puritan mind tunnel that wanted to police the moral stage and flog the transgressor, versus the lust of youth. Then latterly the libertine, the man who aimed to despoil the flower and transgress the rules by seeking all bodily enrichment arrived. Sexuality was also bounded by practical concerns; contraception and sexual disease, making it more than just a spiritual issue, expression of sexuality had a practical one as well.

The author has gone back into history to build a narrative, analysing how the body became saved from religious persecution and lived within.

This is a book aiming high, at a literate, critically reflective audience. It is well written, thought provoking and raises, like Nietzsche, many critiques of the religious piety, its double standards and the need for people to express themselves. It also over turns some of his views on the duality of protestantism versus catholicism.

Well worth the time exploring, this should become a standard.