The Long Sexual Revolution: English Women, Sex, and Contraception 1800-1975

Rating:
Summary: Excellent study of sexuality from Victoria to the pill
Review: The Long sexual revolution is one of the best studies of Victorian and early twentieth century sexuality to appear in recent times. Dr Hera Cook, a young scholar at Sydney University, Australia, has carefully reviewed the old debate (ignited by Peter Gay's Education of the senses) about whether the Victorians really were sexually inhibited, or whether they just preferred not to talk about it. With a wealth of new evidence from diaries, surveys, letters and sex manuals, she shows convincingly that the older view is closer to the truth: that if Victorian women were meant to enjoy sex, they did not get very much. This was a matter of both lifestyle choices and the unavailability of safe, effective contraception. To enjoy the benefits of the Victorian economic miracle and fruits of Britain's world-wide trade, middle class couples had to limit the number of their offspring; to do this their main form of birth control was abstinence, and they thus paid a heavy price in sexual denial. Using indicators such as family size and illegitimacy rates, Cook shows that sexual repression reached its peak in the Edwardian era, relaxed slightly after the First World War, and broke down in the 1930s, when the possibility of contraception (particularly in the form of condoms) permitted the gradual decoupling of sex and reproduction - a process not complete, however, until the introduction of the pill in the 1960s. The long sexual revolution sheds a fresh and revealing light on many aspects of sexuality not covered in detail, such as prostitution, venereal disease and the well known Victorian efforts to suppress masturbation among children. It argues that this taboo was an important factor in the growth of sexual inhibition, since children must be allowed to explore and fondle their bodies if they are to acquire the skills and confidence they will need to give sexual pleasure to themselves and their partners later on. Dr Cook does not mention circumcision, but it is significant that the period of sexual repression she identifies coincides exactly with the Victorian vogue for circumcising boys, and her book thus complements such recent studies as David Gollaher's Circumcision: A history of the world's most controversial surgery. (...)