sexual taboos in america: a generational progression
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A brief and off-the-cuff summary of societal sexual taboos in American culture from the Victorian era to the present … based on my entirely non-thorough readings and personal conversations.
Victorian Times: Everything. Female orgasm was medically known as "hysterical paroxysm", and a "cure" for the uniquely female disorder of hysteria was to have a qualified physician administer stimulation until "hysterical paroxysm" was achieved. The advent of the electro-mechanical vibrator was a huge advance in this endeavor. Yes. That means, basically, Victorian women got jacked off by their doctors when they got moody. I don't even know where to start with a list of taboos for the Victorians. Deep breathing was probably on the list by the looks of those corsets.
The Jazz Age: Heavy petting. Oh yes. Those sinful, naughty flappers. With all their short hair and short dresses. Wearing bloomers may have been shocking in the Victorian era … but these wild women dropped the bloomers, picked up cigarettes and martinis, and made out with boys! Apparently they blamed it on automobiles. It sounds so quaint, doesn't it? Personally, I can only think of one situation where I "made out" with someone and didn't automatically have sex afterwards … oddly it all felt a bit more naughty that way … Go flapper girls!
1940s-50s: Pre-martial sex. Ooh, those bad girls, you know the ones. The ones who let the boys get past "heavy petting" in the back seat at the drive-in. Shocking, really. Let's blame it all on "colored music" and James Dean, shall we? Or maybe the "one last fling before Johnny goes off to die in the war" thing in the 1940s loosened things up a little for the 50s … women figured they didn't need to wait for Johnny's imminent demise before they had some fun. Either way, girls who fucked risked their eternal reputations and souls by doing it, and the brave things still soldiered on. Hurrah!
The Sexual Revolution: Oral sex. OK, most everyone admitted premarital sex happened by now. Fucking no longer automatically made a girl the talk of the town in the more cosmopolitan areas of the country. So, once you admit sex happens, where to go from there? Finally, America took its first tentative steps into the realm of widespread, admitted sodomy. *collective gasp* Paving the way for cinematic classics like Deep Throat, those wild hippie girls were sucking cock, and word has it that some of them even enjoyed doing it. Go team!
Generation X: S/M and sex toys. Now we're getting into my time period, and both premarital and oral sex were pretty blasé. The idea of "saving yourself" until marriage was about as odd as buying a car without taking it for a test drive, and if you were sexually active, oral sex was just part of the game. However, judging from the look on my (very 'liberated') mother's face when she found out I owned a riding crop for non-equestrian reasons, I'd say those of us who cheerfully welcomed inanimate accessories into the bedroom were rather on the bleeding edge of common sexual mores. Viva la revolución!
The '90s babies: Anal sex. My best guess for the current up-and-coming banner in the ongoing march to break down sexual taboos is heterosexual anal sex. It's not that people aren't already doing it … certainly my friends and I were doing it back in the 90s, but unlike our bondage and dildos, we definitely weren't talking about it (except in slightly hushed tones, during one-on-one conversations with our very closest and most sexually liberal friends). But really, in a world where you can buy a Baby Jesus Butt Plug, can open admission of the joys of anal stimulation really be far behind?
Now, this is all very well and good, and rather interesting, but the real question in my mind is … after all of human history has passed leading up to the year 2007, why in the hell is any of this still taboo?! We have had thousands of years' practice putting our body parts together in every possible sticky jigsaw-puzzle configuration, and in the absence of toys, human sexuality is really a limited sum game. We've all got the same appendages, and the same orifices, and one runs out of possible combinations rather quickly.
I can understand why toys, being a relatively modern development, might still be a bit "woo-woo", but they're really not. So how is it that anal sex, for which every couple on earth is naturally equipped (even lesbians, if you're including manual stimulation), is still quite the conversation killer … even if you were talking about porn and bondage in the first place?
*baffled*
