4 ms·

I've recently watched some films from the 1950s, and sex then was so incredibly different from the 1990s it's astonishing and disorienting. I don't think the ti

I've recently watched some films from the 1950s, and sex then was so incredibly different from the 1990s it's astonishing and disorienting. I don't think the timeline is unrealistic. John Paul II's theology of the body is the only cogently and fully articulated philosophical opponent to this development (that I know about) and most Catholics have never heard of it.

misthop 11y ago
The _representation of sex on film_ was different in the 50s and the 90s. The act of sex was largely identical.
- panglott 11y ago
  Sexual culture on average really was quite different in the 1950s and 1960s. Public norms were certainly very different before the sexual revolution, and public norms can certainly influence private behavior. There were norms against public discussion or depictions of sex, norms against oral sex (especially by men), norms against same-sex relations, norms against premarital sex, norms against childbirth out of wedlock, norms against female expression of sexual desire, denial that marital rape is possible, general denial of rape accusations, &c., &c. In the 1940s and 1950s, people had very fuzzy and wrong ideas about things like female orgasm and sexual orientation—the Kinsey Reports really were a huge shock. At the margin, all of these norms can shape average sexual experience and behavior. Look back to the 19th century, and if you look at the number of brothels in even small towns in the US, it's just astonishing: in 1880 or 1890 IIRC, my midwestern hometown was a small town of two thousand people that had more than a hundred brothels advertising. Women had limited legal rights outside of marriage and very limited employment opportunities, and with the example a very large community of sex workers, women had very real incentives to avoid even the hint of a threat to their "marriagability" (ie., virginity and "modesty"). 1890 is just three generations removed from 1950. Remember it was in the 1950s that people fought major free-speech fights to print and distribute "obscene" books that had been banned for decades, like Lady Chatterley's Lover and Tropic of Cancer. In the 1930s, censorship was upheld in the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act due to the threat of reading the obscene parts on the Senate floor. These days pornography is omnipresent, and there are bestselling books by women about how great anal sex is.
  - misthop 11y ago
    All correct, but again, most of this is towards the outward cultural expression of sex. The Kinsey Reports were about sexual practice, and while they may have been a huge shock, my point was that the practice of sex was largely similar in the 50's and the 90's. I grant that the extent of some practices may have been lesser, but sex itself was not so incredibly different (parent poster's words)
  - jazzyk 11y ago
    Have you seen the frescoes in the well-preserved brothels in Pompei or browsed through the Kamasutra book? If yes, you would know that there is really nothing new under the sun...
- daodedickinson 11y ago
  _the act of sex was largely indentical_ If studies are accurate, oral sex, anal sex (especially between man and woman, duh) and many other sex acts are far more common now. But I guess maybe people just lied about it until more recently.

misthop 11y ago

The _representation of sex on film_ was different in the 50s and the 90s. The act of sex was largely identical.

panglott 11y ago
Sexual culture on average really was quite different in the 1950s and 1960s. Public norms were certainly very different before the sexual revolution, and public norms can certainly influence private behavior. There were norms against public discussion or depictions of sex, norms against oral sex (especially by men), norms against same-sex relations, norms against premarital sex, norms against childbirth out of wedlock, norms against female expression of sexual desire, denial that marital rape is possible, general denial of rape accusations, &c., &c. In the 1940s and 1950s, people had very fuzzy and wrong ideas about things like female orgasm and sexual orientation—the Kinsey Reports really were a huge shock. At the margin, all of these norms can shape average sexual experience and behavior. Look back to the 19th century, and if you look at the number of brothels in even small towns in the US, it's just astonishing: in 1880 or 1890 IIRC, my midwestern hometown was a small town of two thousand people that had more than a hundred brothels advertising. Women had limited legal rights outside of marriage and very limited employment opportunities, and with the example a very large community of sex workers, women had very real incentives to avoid even the hint of a threat to their "marriagability" (ie., virginity and "modesty"). 1890 is just three generations removed from 1950. Remember it was in the 1950s that people fought major free-speech fights to print and distribute "obscene" books that had been banned for decades, like Lady Chatterley's Lover and Tropic of Cancer. In the 1930s, censorship was upheld in the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act due to the threat of reading the obscene parts on the Senate floor. These days pornography is omnipresent, and there are bestselling books by women about how great anal sex is.
- misthop 11y ago
  All correct, but again, most of this is towards the outward cultural expression of sex. The Kinsey Reports were about sexual practice, and while they may have been a huge shock, my point was that the practice of sex was largely similar in the 50's and the 90's. I grant that the extent of some practices may have been lesser, but sex itself was not so incredibly different (parent poster's words)
- jazzyk 11y ago
  Have you seen the frescoes in the well-preserved brothels in Pompei or browsed through the Kamasutra book? If yes, you would know that there is really nothing new under the sun...
daodedickinson 11y ago
_the act of sex was largely indentical_ If studies are accurate, oral sex, anal sex (especially between man and woman, duh) and many other sex acts are far more common now. But I guess maybe people just lied about it until more recently.