Following World War II was a period of challenge to homosexuals. Senator Joseph McCarthy, who became famous for trying to purge America of commu­nists, also relentlessly hunted homosexuals. Homosexuals were portrayed as perverts, lurking in schools and on street corners ready to pounce on unsus­pecting youth, and many were thrown out of work or imprisoned […]

There have always been women who protested against the patriarchy of their day, argued that women were as capable as men in the realms of work and politics, and defied their culture’s stereotypes about women. Yet the 20th century saw the most successful feminist movement in history. The women’s suffrage movement of the early 20th […]

Beginning in the early part of the century and increasingly by midcentury, the pioneers of sexual research were beginning to make scientific advances into the understanding of sexuality. Rejecting the religious and moral teachings about how people “should” be­have, researchers brought sex out into the open as a subject worthy of medical, scien­tific, and philosophical […]

In response to high STI rates, a New York physician, Prince Morrow, started a move­ment in 1905 that was a curious mixture of both liberal and traditional attitudes. The social hygiene movement convinced legislators that scores of “virtuous” women were catching STIs from husbands who frequented prostitutes, and so laws were passed man­dating blood tests […]

In a study of 1,000 women born shortly before the turn of the 20th century, 74% used some form of contraception (despite Comstock), most made love at least once a week, and 40% acknowledged masturbating during childhood or adolescence (although others began after marriage; D’Emilio & Freedman, 1988). These statistics reflect the freedom women found […]

The 19th century saw the rise of a number of controversial social movements focusing on sexuality. The free love movement, which began in the 1820s, preached that love, not marriage, should be the prerequisite to sexual relations. Free love advocates criti- cized the sexual “slavery” of women in marriage, often condemned the sexual exploita­tion of […]

Sex in Black America number of males killed in war. White men freely raped female Native Americans, for whites could not be convicted of rape, or any crime, solely on the testimony of a “sav­age Indian.” Similarly, Americans used sexual imagery to criticize the Mexicans they en­countered in the West and Southwest; one writer claimed […]

The church’s power began to wane in the late 1700s, and communities began abolishing church courts, which had previously heard cases of divorce and sexual crimes. The United States entered a period of practical, utilitarian philosophy (as exemplified in Benjamin Franklin’s maxims, such as “Early to bed and early to rise. . . ”), which […]

Instruction and Advice for the Young Bride magine you’re a young woman in the late 1800s getting ready for your wedding. What would it have been like? What would you be thinking as you prepare for your wedding day? Advice booklets and books can provide us with information. Here are some excerpts from an 1894 […]