SEXUAL NORMS THROUGHOUT HISTORY. INTERRACIAL SEXUAL RELATIONS. VICTORIANS
Thursday, March 12, 2009 | 8:01 amInterracial Sexual Relations
Although common, interracial relationships were taboo during slavery. They still carry a social stigma today. After the Civil War, laws were passed in most states against miscegenation—sex, cohabitation, or marriage between people of different races. People who had interracial sex were punished by imprisonment and fines. If a couple left their state to avoid laws against interracial marriage and returned to that state after marriage, they could be prosecuted.
Laws against interracial sexual relations also reflected the sexual and racial double standards of the times. White men could have sex with African-American, Spanish-American, or Native American women and escape unpunished. If white women had sexual relationships with black men, however, they would experience scorn and social stigma and could be sent to jail. Their partners were the targets of mob violence and lynching. Interracial love relationships were commonly characterized as rape in order to uphold the myth of the pure white woman as victim of the predatory black man.
It wasn’t until 1967 that the U.S. Supreme Court overthrew all miscegenation laws in its decision Loving v. the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Named after the reigning Queen of England, the Victorian period extended from about 1840 to 1900. The economic changes of the Industrial Revolution during this time greatly affected the sexual norms of Europe and America. Factory labor required most men to work away from home. Most women were required to stay at home to provide child care and domestic support for their husbands.
Urban industrial life offered increased sexual opportunities for laborers in the cities. In an effort to protect the family from the effects of this potential promiscuity, extreme social pressures were developed to compel women and men to strictly control their sexuality. Once again, sex and sexuality became regarded as dangerous and dirty, and bizarre myths and practices were fostered.
Leading health authorities suggested that married couples should have sex only once every three years, that men were too frail for sex until they reached the age of 30, that women could take no pleasure in sex, and that masturbation caused insanity. The myth that “good girls” and wives were incapable of sexual excitement led men to the habitual use of prostitutes for sexual pleasure. “Virtuous” Victorian families were headed by men whose secret sex lives included regular visits to brothels. As a result, the sexual double standard grew to enormous proportions and sexually transmitted infections became epidemic.
Torturous methods were sometimes employed to preserve the sexual innocence of children and adolescents. Chastity belts were devised for girls and boys. Parents applied ointments to the genitals of their children to make them painful to touch. Surgeons inserted rings into the foreskin of the penis so boys could urinate without touching themselves. Carbolic acid was used to burn the clitorises of girls who masturbated. Castration was used to cure boys of “excessive” masturbation.
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(posted in Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction)
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