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Membership
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Sex, Sexuality and Reproduction
were influenced during the 18th century by the development of Romantic Love. Just as important was the limiting of family size and the lessening of pressure to have children that is characteristic of virtually all pre-modern culture. Sexuality was becoming, and would continue to become, increasingly separate from the chronic and dangerous round of pregnancy and childbirth for masses of women. (The Transformation of Intimacy, p26). Another big change towards sex came in the early part of the 20th century. Attitudes towards masturbation began to change. It had been understood as a dangerous pathology, one which could weaken a person and lead to all kinds of maladies. During the Victorian period, circumcision of boys was recommended to control their sexual urges. Today, most men and women are understood to masturbate. It is a valuable source of sexual pleasure, and knowing ones own desires. It is another example of how sex and reproduction have become seperate. After World War I birth control became more tolerated as women struggled to control their own reproductive lives. Contraception allowed sexual practice to be separate from the cycle of reproduction. The better and more widespread contraception became, the freer from reproduction sexual life became. With the legalisation of abortion (The Abortion Act 1967) and development of reproductive technologies, sex became even freer from reproduction. Today conception can take place outside a woman's body using IVF techniques, and perhaps one day using artificial wombs. In addition, the genetic input of men will soon be unnecessary once reproductive cloning is safe. Sex is total free from reproduction; the two are essential separate. Choice can bring the two together or keep them apart. For most women, in most cultures, for tens of thousands of years during humanities time on this planet, sexual pleasure was indissolvably bound with fear. Childbirth could easily kill a woman, and high rates of infant mortality have cursed our history. (The Transformation of Intimacy, p27). Today, there is still a link between sex and fear because of AIDS, which does not distinguish between the sexes as childbirth does. But it can be controlled and avoided the same way reproduction can through the use of condoms. Another major change in sexual life is found in the flourishing of homosexuality. Prior to 1967 all male homosexual conduct was illegal. The 1967 Sexual Offences Act brought about the partial decriminalisation of male homosexual behaviour in England and Wales: "the men had to be over 21, fully consenting, and in complete privacy. Homosexuality is another expression of the freedom of sex from reproduction. Also, bisexuals, lesbians and gays have been explorers and experimenters at the forefront of sexual life. They have had to cope without the traditional structure of marriage and do not relate with the same gender inequalities heterosexuals do. As a result, they have been relating in different ways which have foreshadowed the liberating changes we see today. Homosexuality, by default, instantaneously breaks out of all the cultural assumptions about sex and love by the fact that it's not accepted in the same way that heterosexuality is; if it is accepted at all. This rupture occurs because homosexual relationships do not implicitly assume anything about monogamy, polyamory, marriage, co-habitation, children, family, and so forth. This influences potential partners to isolate and discuss these issues consciously and up front, unlike traditional sexual relationships which assume a general dynamic.
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