Sexuality In The 19th Century

Sexuality like all other aspects is an important aspect of life, though it has been neglected at broader level. It surfaced broadly in the late 19th century till then it was regarded as taboo. Sexuality gained so much importance in modern era as it emerged as phenomenon that helps to express a personality partially with respect to sexuality. In this modern era, sexuality classified peopleas per its own categories. Sexuality is shaped as per the social, religious and cultural structure of the society and is linked to class also. There has been a paradigm shift in the treatment radically given to sexuality from past to present era. Though sexuality surfaced in the late 18th and 19th century but it was only in 20th century that it got its
To identify a person and define his personality partially with respect to sexuality. It is not the sex as an activity that has gained so much importance in the modern era. As sex emerged as a phenomenon in this era, hence it is regarded as “Modern Phenomenon”. Sexuality surfaced to a larger extent in the late 18th and the 19th century Europe. The over-response to the concept of sexuality is the cultural negation of the fact for so long. It doesn’t mean that people in the past didn’t practice sexuality but there was radically different treatment given to it as compared to that of the present age. It was and is still a cultural object and regarded as taboo. Up to the 19th century, the concept of sexuality was overt. It takes into account the social meaning and aspect of societies and the way it is looked at, though sex is natural and no human machinery has so far designed it. But sexuality or sexual experiences vary from one culture to another and from period to period. Different time periods have viewed and shaped sense of erotic pleasures. Sexuality is widely shaped by religion and social domains and links it to class, race and social setup especially gender tendencies. In pre-industrial Europe, sexual practices were regarded as oblivion in terms of religious and moral domains and were related to sin. The social transformation as a result of industrial modernization in the late 18th century leads to the emergence of
Sex is actually what God has designed and is not construct of any human mind. The early Sufi’s favored celibacy as they thought marriage, family and all other worldly pleasures are means of distraction from the absolute devotion to God. It is because of Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya that Sufism became God centered, i.e., God as beloved. But marriage is Sunnah and Quran itself rejects monasticism. Imam Al-Ghazali (RA) regards human sexual desire as devastating having potential to cause extreme destruction and needs to be checked through marriage whereas Shaykh Ali al-Hujwiri (RA) felt that marriage isn’t the only means to control lust. According to the Quran, chaste virgins will be at the service of believers; sexual pleasure here on the earth induces men to serve God in order to obtain those pleasures (4:10). Ibn Al-Arabia gives the philosophy of Father - Heaven Mother Earthly dualism which holds that it is the union or marriage of divine spirit (male) with Nature (female) that results in the existence of all living beings. Sex is natural and designed deliberately by God to incarnate human existence on the earth. Marriage is the symbolic representation of union of souls on the earth to which sex is the gateway. Hence sex in other words can be said is the way to symbolize and realize hidden things of God and the nature of union with your beloved and ultimately – the Ultimate One. (Hoffman-Ladd