Sexuality In The 19th Century

The nineteenth century is often regarded as being synonymous with sexual repression, this notion is not true, and during this era in American history many diverse views about sex and sexuality were developed. This paper will focus on the diverse ideas about sexuality and gender that were developed and what existing or developing ideologies led to these perspectives.
The first idea that was developed about sexuality was Vernacular sexual culture; it acknowledges sex and desire as vital aspects of life for men and women. Vernacular means that it is outside the discourse of religion, science, and law and was rejected by those in power. Although vernacular culture is largely an oral tradition, passed down through generations, elements of it first
The third framework was developed by freethinkers, people that were encouraging scientific approaches to sexuality. Freethinkers talked openly about sex and sexuality. New ideas about the brain was gathered on how it was the seat of consciousness with nerves that traveled throughout the body and was responsible for many things including perception, knowledge, and sexual desire. The brain was also the source of imagination and new theories about human sexuality were developing because of this. Freethinkers were the pioneers of promoting contraception or birth control. A philosophically minded physician named Charles Knowlton wrote the first book Fruits of Philosophy on contraception in 1832 that was based on empirical science in the United States. This book discussed what was later known as the “douche method” and was responsible for falling birth rates. The book instructed women to use a female syringe, a tool for injecting fluid into the vagina immediately after sexual relations. In order to be successful with this method, women had to put several household chemicals into a solution that would destroy the sperm before it could fertilize the female ovum (egg). This book focused on women's anatomy and reproduction and the title alludes to the philosophy he developed that rejected the many notions of sin and gave a new meaning to the word virtue as the temperate satisfaction of natural