Intimate Matters

Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America
By John D’Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman

The authors did an excellent job of presenting a descriptive non-judgmental history of sexual practices in the United States from colonial times to the1980s. They covered sexual meanings and language, sexual regulation, and sexual politics.In early America, the main deterrent to premarital sex was the fear of pregnancy and community norms. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth century, reproduction and sexuality were critically linked. Sexuality was not a private matter and family and community roles were ever present.But in the eighteenth century, with the first signs of a decline in marital fertility, we see a foreshadowing of changes that were to come. Reproductive control and growing power of women in the domestic sphere were both factors. Adultery and pre-marital sex did occur and because of the double standard, the repercussions were much more severe for women. And pregnancy still was an ever present possibility for women.Throughout the nineteenth century, the meaning of sexuality balanced between the reproductive side of the past and the romantic leanings of the present. It was during this time that sexuality and romantic love began to merge within the confines of marriage. At the same time, race and sexuality was an area where the political aspects can most visibly be seen. Bans on interracial marriage and fears of race mixing pervaded the south and were major factors in the racial strife to come.
The publication of Alfred Kinsey’s studies in 1948 and 1953 put sex into the public discourse in a brand new way. The studies revealed that the ideal of sex only within the confines of sanctioned marriage was not reality. All kinds of sexuality were much more common that anyone imagined and this included homosexuality.And during the 1960s, sexuality emerged as an issue of power and politics, with both the rise of feminism and the gay civil rights movement. At the same time, the ideal of associating sex with equality was more important than ever before. The sexual revolutions spawned the realization that not everyone could agree on sexual idea. There was a variety in sexual images that had never existed during prior generations.