Sexuality, Class and Role in 19th-Century America

Author(s): Charles E. Rosenberg

Reviewed work(s):
Source: American Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 2 (May, 1973), pp. 131-153
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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CHARLES E. ROSENBERG
ofPennsylvania
University

Sexuality,Class and Role in

19th-Century America

ANY HISTORICAL CONSIDERATION OF SEXUALITY NECESSARILY INVOLVES A

problemin method.Most would-bestudentsare concernedwithbehavior,
but mustsatisfythemselveswiththe materialsof mythand ideology;such
scholarsmust somehowextrapolatea relationshipbetweenthe contentof
thisideologyand thebehaviorit,presumably,reflectedand legitimated.
This difficultymanifestsitselfin a particularlyintractableformto those
attempting to understandthe 19thcentury.'Historiansand social scientists
stilltendto see mid-and-late-19thcenturysexualityas peculiar;Victorianis
still a synonymfor repressive.The few social historiansconcernedwith
sexualityhave writtenin emotionaland intellectualconsistencywithim-

'Among the more important,and characteristically diverse,recentattemptsto deal with

thisgeneralproblemare: Peter T. Cominos,"Late-VictorianSexual Respectabilityand the
Social System," InternationalReview of Social History,8 (1963), 18-48, 216-50; Steven
Marcus, The Other Victorians.A Study of Sexualityand Pornographyin Mid-Nineteenth-
CenturyEngland (New York: Basic Books, 1966); Stephen Nissenbaum, "Careful Love:
SylvesterGraham and the Emergenceof VictorianSexual Theoryin America, 1830-1840,"
Diss. Universityof Wisconsin 1968; Graham Barker-Benfield, "The Horrors of the Half
KnownLife: Aspects of the Exploitationof Womenby Men," Diss. Universityof California,
Los Angeles,1968;NathanG. Hale Jr.,"American'Civilized'Morality,1870-1912,"in Freud
and theAmericans.The Beginningsof Psychoanalysisin the UnitedStates, 1876-1917 (New
York: OxfordUniv. Press, 1971), pp. 24-46; David M. Kennedy,"The Nineteenth-Century
Heritage:The Family,Feminism,and Sex," in BirthControlinAmerica. The Career ofMar-
garet Sanger (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1970), pp. 36-71. I have been particularly
influencedby theworkand suggestionsof mywife,Carroll Smith-Rosenbeig,whohas shared
pages willem-
researchand ideas at everystage in the gestationof thispaper. The following
phasizemale attitudesand problems;she is completinga parallelessay on femalesexualityin
19th centuryAmerica. Her emphasis on gender role and role conflictas an appropriate
analyticmodehas been particularly importantto me. See, forexample,herarticles,"Beauty,
theBeast and theMilitantWoman:A Case StudyinSex Roles and Social Stress inJacksonian
America,"AmericanQuarterly,22 (1971), 562-84; "The HystericalWoman: Sex Roles and
Role Conflictin 19thCenturyAmerica,"Social Research,39 (1972), 652-78; C.S. and Charles
E. Rosenberg,"The New Woman and the Troubled Man: Medical and BiologicalViews of
Woman'sRole in Nineteenth-Century America,"JournalofAmericanHistory(Sept. 1973).

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132 American Quarterly

mediatelypost-Victorian reformers of sexual behaviorwhoperpetuatedthe

vision of a "neurotic" or, perhaps more accurately,pathogenic 19th
century(at least forthe middleclass), a periodin whichthesexual impulse
was systematically repressedand deformed.
Such diagnoses are necessarilysuspect. One cannot solve problemsof
historicalinterpretation by describinga whole society,or a major class
groupingwithinit, as thoughit were some poorlyadjustedindividual.We
mayfindmanymid-and-late-19th centuryattitudestowardhumansexuality
both alien and alienating;but it is quite anothermatterto characterize
theseideas as simplyand inevitably dysfunctional.'
But perhapsthisis not quite accurate; foron one level,thatof the total
society,historianshave begunto assume thatthisrepressiveideologywas
indeedfunctional. Theyhave,thatis, arguedthatsexual repression(and im-
pulse deferralin general) served the needs of an increasinglybureauc-
ratizedsocietybyhelpingto create a social disciplineappropriateto a mid-
dle class of managers,professionalsand small entrepreneurs.But such
viewssimplyreinforce a traditionalirony;foron theindividuallevel,we still
tend to see these ideologicaljustificationsforrepressionas dysfunctional,
indeedpathogenicin theirstifling of basic humanneeds.3
Should one simplyassume thisironyand elaboratea chasteningdiscon-
tinuity betweentheneedsof societyand thoseoftheindividualswhomakeit
up? I thinknot,if onlybecause it is too simple;one mustdistrustany ap-
proachwhichfailsto recognizethathumanbeings,in any culture,come in
assorted psychologicalshapes and sizes. No analytical strategywhich
assumes thatthe behaviorof groupscan be explainedby consideringthem
as undifferentiated individualswritlarge can proveintellectuallysatisfac-
tory.(Especially whenour understanding of individualpsychodynamics is
farfromdefinitive, and our understanding of the relationship
betweenindi-
vidualand groupprocessesmoretenuousstill.)
The discussionof sexualitywhichfollowsis based on theassumptionthat
all individualshave peculiarneeds and "choose" particularconfigurations
of roles appropriateto these needs. Though all individualsmust play a
numberof such roles simultaneously, all are necessarilyinterrelated with
2We have come to thinkin such termsas a resultof our tendencyto impose individual
psychodynamic models upon a total culture,thus allowingthe convenient"diagnoses" of its
modal ills. For an early criticism of this position, see Erwin H. Ackerknecht,
"Psychopathology,PrimitiveMedicine and PrimitiveCulture," Bulletinof the Historyof
Medicine, 14 (1943), 30-67, reprintedin Ackerknecht,Medicine and Ethnology.Selected
Essays (Baltimore:JohnsHopkinsPress, 1971).
3An importantquestion,bothforhistoricalmethodon the one hand and psychiatrictheory
on the other, relates to whethersuch discontinuitiesbetwveen the contentof a particular
ideologicalset and certainirreduciblehumanneeds can be explicitlyand absolutelypatho-
genic, or whetherit is simplythe immediateoccasion for conflictin individualsotherwise
predisposed.At themoment,analysisin thisarea hingesinevitably on questionsofvalue.

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 Sexuality,Class and Role 133

each otherand witheach individual'spatternof sexual behavior.The paper

beginswithan evaluationof one elementrelativelydiscerniblein historical
materials:formalprescriptions of sex and genderroles.A secondand more
tentativeportionof the argumentsuggestssome of thewaysin whichthese
rolesmayhave relatedto theactual expressionofsexuality.
To delineaterole prescriptionsis, of course,not to describebehavior;no
particularindividualneed have lived hisor herlifein accordancewiththese
projected values. On theotherhand, one neverescapes thementirely;every
memberof a particulargenerationhas somehowto findan individualac-
commodationwithrespectto theseideal prescriptions. Even thosewho re-
ject a life entirelyconsistent with such ideals cannot elude them com-
pletely fortheyconstitutea parameter which helps define the natureand
contentof theirdeviance. In the series of choices which can be said to
describegrowth,optionsrejectedas well as those accepted form a partof
one's self-image,become an elementin theconfiguration of emotional reso-
nancewhichultimately defines
individuality.

A recentcritichas suggestedthatthe fundamental literaryreflectionsof

Victoriansexualitywere"pornography and expurgation."5 This mayindeed
be trueof belles lettres.There do exist,however,a class of materialsthat
attemptto explain,rationalize,somehowcome to termswiththe sexual im-
pulse. Most are medical and the pages whichfolloware based upon such
writings.
The medicaland biologicalliteraturerelatingto sexualityin 19thcentury
America is a mixed and surprisingly abundantlot, rangingfromearnest
marriagemanuals to the insinuating treatisesof quacks advertisingtheir
abilityto treat venereal disease or procure abortion. It includes careful
academic monographsand cheaplyprintedpaperbackguidesto midwifery
and domesticmedicine.It is a genre complex,disparateand ambiguous.6
And as suchit reflectstheneeds and attitudesof almostall elementsamong

4The strategyof examiningrole optionsin termsof theiremotionalmeaningto the indi-

vidualswhochooseto embracethemis,ofcourse,notlimitedto sex and genderroles.It is even
moreeasilyappliedto certainadult roles;thepresentauthor,forexample,recentlycompleted
a collectivebiographicalexaminationof a numberof American scientistswho studiedin
Germanyin the mid-19thcenturyin an effortto explainthe emotionallogic whichled these
mento embraceso "deviant" a social role. Charles Rosenberg,"Science and Social Values in
Nineteenth-Century America: A Case Study in the Growthof ScientificInstitutions,"in
EverettMendelsohnand ArnoldThackray,eds., Science and Values,(in press).
5The phraseis froma reviewbyRobertAckermanin VictorianStudies, 14 (1970), 108.
6Manyof these materialsare rare. I have used the excellentcollectionsat the National Li-
braryof Medicine,Bethesda,College of Physiciansof Philadelphia,and theCountwayLibrary
of Medicine, Boston and would like to thankJohnB. Blake, L. M. Holloway and Richard
Wolfeof these institutionsfortheiraid and courtesy.There is no adequate bibliographical
withthe exceptionof the appropriatesubjectcategoriesin the Index-
guide to such writings,

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134 AmericanQuarterly

thosewhocould,or hopedto,considerthemselvesmiddleclass, thatis from

the educated and economicallysecure to the shopkeepers,skilledworkers
and clerkswhosoughtthissecureidentity.
Yet one can, I think,identifya numberof characteristicaspects. The
firstis a tone of increasingrepressivenesswhichmarks muchof the ma-
terialwrittenin the twogenerationsafterthe 1830s;by the 1870sthisem-
phasis had moved fromthe level of individualexhortationto that of or-
ganized effortsto enforcechastityupon the unwilling.7 Closely relatedto
this themeof repressivenessis a virtualobsessionwith masturbation;the
tract on "secret vice" became a well-definedgenre in this period.8Not
surprisingly,sexual activityin youthand adolescencewas explicitlyand em-
phatically discountenanced.Almost every one of these themes was
expressedbeforethe 1830s;it is clear, nevertheless,thattheywereintoned
withincreasingintensity and frequencyafterthisperiod.
A secondgeneraltraitis thatof ambivalenceand inconsistency; notonly
withinthe genreas a whole,but withinthe same articleor treatise even
within a single paragraph facts casually assumed are directly
contradicted.A third theme, one not unrelated to the second, is the
persistenceof an older, male-orientedantirepressivebehavioral ethos.
Thoughtheevidenceis less explicit,theexistenceofthisvariantnormis un-
deniable.A finalqualityof these argumentsis theiremployment of a com-
mon vocabularyand store of images, a kindof lingua francaof scientific
authorityand metaphordoing service as scientificfact. Let me briefly

Catalogue of the Libraryof theSurgeon-General'sOffice(Washington:G.P.O., 1879-).The

bibliographiesin Nissenbaum, "Careful Love," and Norman Himes, Medical Historyof
Contraception(Baltimore:Williams& Wilkins,1936), providevaluable supplementaryma-
terials.
7As personifiedin the career of AnthonyComstock most conspicuouslyand in the social
puritymovementmoregenerally.For an importantdescriptionofthismoralreform,see David
J. Pivar,"The New Abolitionism: The Quest forSocial Purity.1876-1900,"Diss. Universityof
Pennsylvania1965.
8A recentstudenthas emphasizedthe 18thcenturyoriginof thissubgenre,butthemid-19th
centurysaw a proliferation of such tracts and pamphletsso distinctas to constitutea more
thanquantitativechange. Robert H. MacDonald, "The Frightful Consequences of Onanism:
Notes on the Historyof a Delusion,"Journalof theHistoryof Ideas, 28 (1967), 423-31. S. A.
Tissot's (1728-97) widelyread and influential tracton onanismwas, significantly,
notreprinted
in the UnitedStates until1832,almosta halfcenturyafteritsoriginalpublication.The anony-
mous Englishpamphlet"Onania" was, so faras is known,reprintedonlyonce (1724) before
1820 and apparentlyin a relativelysmall edition,since a singlecopyonlyis knownto survive.
See entry 1435, Robert B. Austin, Early American Medical Imprints.... 1668-1820
(Washington,D.C.: G.P.O., 1961),p. 152. Englishbooks dealingwithmasturbation, however,
almostcertainlydid circulatein the earlynationalperiod.Probablythe mostwidelyread was
Samuel Solomon's A Guide to Health; Or, Advice to BothSexes, in Nervousand Consumptive
Complaints. . . (n.p., n.d.). The imprintson this famousquackish tract are all deliberately
vague, butone copy at the CountwayLibraryof medicineis inscribedwiththedate 1804in a
contemporary hand. In regardto Solomon,see also R.S.H. Fosterto JamesJackson,Sept. 21,
1838,JacksonPapers,CountwayLibrary.

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 Sexuality,Class and Role 135

elaborate each of these tendenciesand thenattemptto explain some of

theirpeculiar characteristicsin termsof contemporaryclass and gender
roles.
The trendtowardrepressiveness, notsurprisingly,correlatesin timewith
the activistmillennialismof the generationfollowingthe Second Great
Awakening,thatis, thedecades following the 1830s.Authoritiesof the 18th
and early 19thcenturiesroutinelyindicted"sexual excess"; yet theirin-
junctionshave a calm, even bland tone. These writersaccepted sexual
activityafterpubertyas both normaland necessary;thoughall assumed
that an intrinsicallylimited quantityof vital force mightbe depleted
throughexcess, all assumed as well thatphysiologicalfunctionsunfulfilled
could be pathogenic.Thus the not infrequentadvice that marriagemight
cure hysteria,thatmasturbationcould be curedonlythroughsexual inter-
course, that maidenhoodand celibate bachelorhoodwere unnaturaland
potentially
disease-producing states.
Beginningwiththe 1830s,however,theritualizedprudenceof thesetradi-
tional admonitionsbecame sharpened and applied far more frequently,
whilefor some authorssexualitybegan to assume an absolutelynegative
tone.9Thus, forexample,thedangersof sexual intercoursewithinmarriage
became, forthe firsttime,a subjectof widespreadcensure.Such warnings
applied,moreover,to bothsexes: onlytheneed forpropagatingthespecies,
some authorscontended,couldjustifyso dangerousan indulgence.Even if
the femaledid not sufferthe physical"drain" that ejaculationconstituted
forthe male, she sufferedan inevitableloss of nervousenergy."With the
male, excessive indulgencefrequentlycauses general debility,weakness,
and lamenessof theback, dyspepsia,impotency,and a predisposition to al-
most innumerablediseases, by renderingthe system susceptibleto the
actionof other causes of disease. In the female,such excesses frequently
cause uterine inflammation,and ulceration, leucorrhoea, deranged
menstruation, miscarriage,barrennessas well as debility,hysteria,and an
9As in parallel fashion,the rationalisticand pragmatictemperancereformof the late 18th
centuryhad been metamorphosedin the same period into an uncompromising crusade for
teetotalism.The connectionof bothinstancesof activist-even punitive-moralismwiththe
pietisticenergiesof the Second Great Awakeningwhichimmediatelyprecededit seems clear
enough,but difficult to specifyin termsof precise relationships.The tendencytowardsuch
repressivenesswas nowhere as clearly marked during the years of the Second Great
Awakeningitself.One possibleexplanationforthe tone of intrusivemoralismwhichmarked
the generationsafterthe 1830s centerson the possibilitythat childhoodsocializationwas al-
tered duringthe years of the Awakeningso as to create a peculiar collectiveexperiencefor
manyof those broughtup in these years,and later to become prominentin social and moral
reformmovements.Certainlythe attitudetowardchildhoodsexualitymight,forexample,be
seen in this context;such an explanationwould also help explain the sudden concernwith
masturbationin mid-century and succeedingdecades. But such suggestionsare, of course,
speculative;thatthecoolingardorsof pietismwere succeededbya morerigidand formalmor-
alismis, however,unquestionable.

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136 AmericanQuarterly

endless trainof nervousand otherdiseases."'0 A generallywary attitude

towardthe dangersof sexual activitycan also be seen in advice suggesting
the properfrequencyof intercourse.A month'sintervalwas probablythe
mostcommoninjunction,thoughsome moreflexiblewritersconcededthat
even weekly"indulgence" mightnot be harmfulto a "healthylaboring-
man." Almost all such authoritiesstronglyopposed sexual intercourse
duringgestationand lactation periods,it was argued,when nervousex-
citementwoulddivertvital energiesneeded forthe fullestdevelopmentof
thefetusor nursling."1
Logicallyrelatedto theincreasingprevalenceof suchrepressiveattitudes
was a growingconcernwithmasturbation.It was, accordingto scores of
writersbothlay and medical,the"mastervice" ofthe period,the sourceof
a varietyof ills rangingfromtuberculosisto myopia.Many of the tracts
dedicatedto combatingthisevilwere,of course,cynicalappeals to fearand
guilt by business-seekingquacks.'2 Yet the concern demonstratedby
would-be health reformersand phrenologists,as well as the more
specificallyevangelicalindicatesa depthof anxietytranscendingthe indi-
vidual and the cynicallyexploitive.Such widespreadconcerncan onlybe
interpreted as reflectinga moregeneralemotionalconsensus;even thecal-
culatingargumentsofquack physicianscan be presumedto reflecta notun-
sophisticatedevaluationof whereemotionalappeals mightmostprofitably
be made. Perhaps mostalarmingto contemporaries was theuniversalityof
thepractice."This pollutingstreamflowsthroughall gradesof society,. . .
and even the shepherdand shepherdess,who have been surroundedby
everythingthatcouldinspiretheheartwithsentiments ofvirtueand purity,
have desecrated the scene, where Heaven has displayed in richprofusion,
theevidencesofits love and power,byindulgence vice,in viewofwhich
in a
angels,ifpossible,weep,and creationsighs."1' Not eventheyoungestchild
could be presumed immune; one physiciannoted that even infantsof
eighteenmonthshad been taught the "horrid practice."'' Perhaps the
"0John Ellis, Marriage and its Violations.Licentiousnessand Vice (New York: The author,
1860),p. 21. Cf. Nissenbaum,"Careful Love," p. 4.
"1Threeyears mightthusintervenebetweenconceptionand weaning,a periodduringwhich
no sexual intercoursewas to be tolerated.This taboo is relativelycommonin non-Western cul-
tures and its latent functionis generallypresumedto be that of populationcontrol. Im-
pressionisticevidenceindicatesthatfewmid-19thcenturyAmericansobeyedthisinjunction; in
those who urged it most strongly,its functionmust be soughtin the area of individual
psychodynamics.
12Theirtoneof consciousmanipulativeness indicatesthatat least some individualsinthecul-
turedidnotsharethesephobicattitudes.
13JohnFondey,A Briefand IntelligibleViewof the Nature, Originand Cure of Tubercular
orScrofulousDisease ... (Philadelphia:W. C. & J. Neff,1860),p. 45.
14Parents were warnedagain and again thatit was theirresponsibility to "repress the pre-
maturedevelopmentof the passions," "natural instincts"thoughtheymay have been. W. S.
Chipley,A Warningto Fathers,Teachers and YoungMen, in Relation to a FruitfulCause of
Insanity... (Louisville,Ky.: L. A. Civill& Wood, 1861),pp. 169, 174.

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 Sexuality,Class and Role 137

instancesof "furiousmasturbation"whichhad been observedin such in-

fantsdemonstratedthe powerof thisinstinct;but the verystrengthof this
animalattributeonlyunderlinedtheneed forcontrolling it.
Control was the basic building block of personality.To allow the
passions amongwhichsexualitywas onlyone to act themselvesout,was
to destroyanyhopeofcreatinga trulyChristianpersonality. "Self-respect"
was impossibleifmindcould not controlemotion.Sexual healthlay funda-
mentallyin the abilityto "restorethe calm equilibrium of mindand senses;
put down the terriblemastery of passion." One could not relax even
momentarily, forsuch emotionsintrudedthemselves"upon the attentionof
all alike,withmoreor less powerofimpertinent distraction"15This was, of
course,in manyways a traditionalview; the abilityto deal withsuch "im-
pertinent distractions"lay at the emotionalcenterof a time-hallowed male
ideal of Christianstoicism.But as the 19th centuryprogressed,it was
expressed with an intensityalien to the traditionof gentlemanlyvirtue
throughprudent moderation. It was, moreover,oriented increasingly
toward sexualityas such; earlier guides to the good life had always dis-
cussed theinsidiouseffectsof the"passions," butin suchtractsthedangers
of gluttony,anger or envy figuredas prominentlyas those posed by
sexuality.
Consistentwiththe need for self-control was a parallel emphasisupon
the need to represschildhoodand adolescentsexuality.Physicianswarned
with increasing sharpness as the century progressed, that marriage
contractedbeforethe attainmentof fullmaturityresultedinevitablyin the
stuntingof bothhusbandand wife;any childrentheymightconceivewould
embody this constitutionalweakness. Elizabeth Blackwell, for example,
argued that both sexes and especially males -should remaincontinent
until25. Pubertywas assumed to be cruciallyimportant in bothpsychicand
physicaldevelopment;and thus sexual activityduringthislabileperiodwas
particularly dangerous.It was nevertoo early,healthreformers warned,to
trainchildrenin respectfortheSeventhCommandment."In theunformed
immatureconditionof thephysicalsystem,at thedate of thefirstevolution
of the reproductiveinstinct,an unbridledindulgencecould not failto prove
destructiveto the perfectionof the bodilypowers,as well as highlydetri-
mentalto themoraland mentaldevelopment."16 So generallyunquestioned
'5These phrases,typicalof manyscoresof others,are fromWalter Preston,The Sufferer's
Manual. A Book of Advice and Instruction for Young Men ... (Chicago: n.p., 1879), p. 37;
WilliamCapp, The Daughter.Her Health, Educationand Wedlock.HomelySuggestionsfor
Mothersand Daughters(Philadelphia:F. A. Davis, 1891),p. 72.
"6AnHour's ConferencewithFathersand Sons, in Relation to a Commonand Fatal Indul-
gence of Youth (Boston: Whipple& Damrell, 1840), p. 26; Elizabeth Blackwell,Counsel to
Parentson the Moral Educationof theirChildren(New York: Brentano's,1880), pp. 94-95.
Cf. L. N. Fowler,The Principlesof Phrenologyand PhysiologyAppliedto Man's Social Rela-
tions(Boston:L. N. & 0. Fowler,1842),p. 18.

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138 AmericanQuarterl/

was this view that a physicianundertakinga gynecologicalsurveyof the

Oneida Community, wheresexual activityin youthwas accepted,expressed
surprisethatthewomenof the Communityseemedno different fromother
American females: "However repugnantit may be to our sense of
manhood,we cannot resistthe conclusionthat sexual intercourseat this
tender age does not arrest the steady tendencyto a fine and robust
womanhood." 17 Consistentlyenough,traditionaladmonitionsthatwomen
marryearly so as to avoid sexual frustration and its consequentpsychic
dangersbegan to disappearby the generationof the Civil War. Newer hy-
gienicideals urged mentaldisciplineand physicalexerciseas appropriate
modes forthe dischargeof nervousenergy.'8The need in an increasingly
urbanand bureaucratizedmiddleclass to createideologicalsanctionsjusti-
fyingpostponement of the normalage formarriageis obviousenough.Not
surprisingly,thistrendcoincidesboth withstatisticalevidencethat urban
familysize was decreasingand witha growingand acrimoniousdebate over
birthcontroland abortion.
Anothergeneralcharacteristicof thismedicaland biologicalliteratureis
its remarkableinconsistency.Sex was natural, yet unnatural.Children
wereinnocent,yetalwaysat riskbecause of theireverrecurringsexual ap-
petite.Most strikingly,femalesexualitywas surroundedbyan ambivalence
so massive as to constituteone of the central analyticaldilemmasin the
understandingof 19th centurysocial history.One popular writer,for
example,warned that womenwere "not affectedso much by over indul-
gence as by Masturbation.Delicacy not allowingan ardentwoman to tell
her husbandof her needs, she is apt to relieveherselfby this unnatural
practice.There are, however,but fewwomenwho crave sexualintercourse.
The excess is generallyon the part of the man." H. Newell Martin,first
professorof biologyat JohnsHopkins,was able in a widelyused texton the
Human Body to cite on one page the opinionthat fewwomenof the more
luxuriousclasses regardedsexual congressas anythingmore than a nui-
sance aftertheage of 22 or 23, and on thenextpage quote an evenmoreau-
thoritativeopinionnotingthat orgasm is necessaryforthe healthof both
sexes, but especiallyforwomen.'9Similarly,laymenbelievedthat woman
could not conceiveunless she feltsexual pleasure; and some wives,indeed,
soughtto suppresssexual excitement-consciouslyat least-as a mode of

17Ely Van De Warker, "A GynecologicalStudy of the Oneida Community,"Rpr. from

AmericanJournalof Obstetrics,17 (1884), 11.
"8Ashereditarianideas became increasingly plausiblein the secondhalfof thecentury,they
werenaturallymade to underwrite thisargument;the sanctionof individualsinwas reinforced
bythatofpotentialrace degeneration.
'9JamesAshton,The Book of Nature,ContainingInformation for YoungPeople whothink
of GettingMarried(New York: Wallis & Ashton,1861),p. 45; Martin,The Human Body,2nd
ed., rev.(New York: Holt, 1881),appendix,pp. 20-21.

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 Sexuality,Class and Role 139

birthcontrol." Women, on the one hand, were warned that excessive

sexualitymightcause illness- and,at thesame time,thatsickness,physical
unattractiveness and lack of sexual responsivenessmightwell lead to the
loss of theirhusbands'affectionto "otherwomen."Most men seem to have
desired sexually responsivewives, yet feared that "excessive" sexuality
mightlead eitherto infidelity, or less consciously,to dangerousand de-
mandingimpositionsupon theirabilities to performadequately. As the
centuryprogressed,the term nymphomaniawas applied to degrees of
sexual expressionwhichwould be consideredquite normal today. H. R.
Storer,forexample,a prominentBostonphysician,could refercasuallyto
thecase ofa "virginnymphomaniac."2
As if in response to the mixed emotional cues implicitin these in-
consistentideals of sexual behavior,middle-classAmericans began to
elaborate a syntheticrole, thatof the Christiangentleman.The Christian
gentlemanwas an athleteof continence,notcoitus,continuously testinghis
manlinessin the fire of self-denial.This paradigmaticfigureeschewed
excess in all thingsand, most important,allowed his wifeto dictate the
natureof theirsexualinteraction.A piousfathershouldinstructhis son "as
to a gentleman'sdutyof self-control and respecttowarda lady, and as to
the properoccasions for exercisingsuch self-control in the maritalrela-
tions."22Too frequentintercoursewas physicallydrainingand led to a
striving afterevergreatersensation,to a "constitutional which
irritability"
requiredever morefrequentand diversestimulation; this"sick irritability"
had clearly to be distinguished, publicistsargued, fromthe healthyand
sparing strengthof true manliness. Continence implied strength,not
weakness.23"Reserve is thegrandsecretof powereverywhere.""Be noble,
generous,just, self-sacrificing,continent,manly in all things and no
20Thoughphysicianstriedto scouttheidea throughout thecentury,it seems,significantly,
to
have had a tenacioushold on the popular mind.Cf. Alice Stockham, Tokology.A Bookfor
Every Woman(Chicago: Sanitary,1887), p. 326; FrederickHollick, The Marriage Guide,or
NaturalHistoryof Generation... (New York: T. W. Strong,c. 1860),p. 339; T. S. Verdi,Ma-
ternity. A Popular Treatisefor Young Wivesand Mothers(New York: J. B. Ford, 1870),p.25;
M. K. Hard, Woman'sMedical Guide(Mt. Vernon,Ohio: W. H. Cochran,1848),p. 51.
21Causation, Course,and Treatmentof ReflexInsanityin Woman(Boston: Lee & Shepard,
1871), pp. 211-12; Robert T. Wakely, Womanand her Secret Passions (New York: n.p., c.
1846),p. 92; M. Larmont,Medical Adviserand Marriage Guide ... (New York: E. Warner,
1861),pp. 320-22.
22M. L. Holbrook,ParturitionwithoutPain; A Code of Directionsfor Escapingfrom the
PrimalCurse (New York: M. L. Holbrook,1882),p. 36.
23WilliamAlcott,forexample,was never able to escape the ambiguityinherentin these
contradictory orientations.Sex itselfhe always praised as a giftof God, a necessityforthe
preservation of the species,and sexualvigorhe admiredas a signofhealth.Thus theemotional
logic inherentin his plaintivedistinctionbetween sexual "power," which he could only
characterizeas healthyand admirable,and "excitability,"whichhe saw as "pathological,"as
taintedby loss of control.Cf. Charles E. Rosenberg,Introduction, Alcott,Physiologyof Mar-
riage(1866; rpt.New York: Arno,1972).

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140 American Quarterly

womanworthyof you can help lovingyou,in the best sense of theword."

Yet the majorityof men,most mid-century evangelicallyorientedauthors
had to confess,were still slaves of the "love of domination,ungoverned
passion,grossness,"and "filthinessof habit."24Continenceand manliness
werestillfarfromsynonymous.
Whichsuggestsour thirdmajor theme:theimplacablepersistenceof an
older male-orientedbehavioralethos,one whichplaced a premiumon ag-
gressive masculinity."I regret," a self-consciouslyhorrifiedphysician
recordedin the early 1880s, "to say that I have knownsome fathersto
ticklethegenitalorgansof theirinfantboysuntila completeerectionofthe
littlepenisensued,whicheffectpleases thefatheras an evidenceofa robust
boy."25Obviously,of course,premaritalchastityand maritalfidelity hardly
serveas an inclusivedescriptionof mid-19thcenturybehavior.The prosti-
tution,thevenerealdisease rate,thedoublestandarditselfall documentthe
gap betweenadmonitionand reality.Equally striking evidenceis to be found
in male fears of weakness, impotence and premature ejaculation-
widespreadanxietiesto whichthe century'sabundanceof quack specialists
in "secret diseases" appealed. Insofar, moreover,as particular males
internalizedthe transcendentbehavioralprescriptions embodiedin theidea
oftheChristianGentlemanand thusavoidedpremaritalactivitytheywould
necessarilyexperienceincreased anxietiesas to theirultimatesexual ca-
pacity. Thus the often brutal and impulsivebehavior of husbands on
honeymoons(a universal complaintof would-be defendersof woman's
maritalrights)is most plausiblyexplainedby the husband'sfearof inade-
quacy (in additionto possibleambivalencetowardtheact itself).The mar-
traumaforthepureofbothsexes.26
riagenightwas an institutionalized
This traditionalmasculineethos had its ideologicaljustificationas well;
most prominentamong thesejustifications, as we have suggested,was the
idea thatsexual energieshad somehowto be dischargedifhealthwas to be
maintainedafterpuberty.As late as 1891,a regretful physiciancomplained
that such beliefswere stillfrequentlyused to justifythe double standard:
"There are thoseamongthe males of our generation,who attributeto men
an inherentnaturalneed to gratifypassions,claimingthatthe weaker sex
24A. E. Newton,The Better Way.An Appeal to Men in Behalfof Human Culturethrough
WiserParentage(New York: M. L. Holbrook,1890),p. 29.
25HenryN. Guernsey,Plain Talks on AvoidedSubjects (Philadelphia:F. A. Davis, 1899),p.
25.
26The realityof masculine expectationwas unavoidable; William Acton, for example,
probablythe most widelyquoted Englishadvocate of a chaste sex life,warned that only a
carefulmoral indoctrination in secondaryschools could avert the well nighuniversalsocial
pressureon youngmento experiment sexually."Supportedbysucha publicopinion[theyoung
man] need notblushwhentemptedor jeered bythelicentious.Innocence,or evenignoranceof
vice, will no longer be a dishonoror a jest.. ." cited in Cominos, "Late-Victorian Re-
Americansfrequently
spectability,"p. 40. Actonand like-thinking made thispoint.

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 Sexuality,Class and Role 141

understandit to be necessaryto man's nature,and willingly toleratelustful

ante-nuptialand post-nuptialpractices."27Evangelicalsstillaccused phy-
siciansofbackslappingrecommendations of fornicationas cure formastur-
bationand otherills; to more "realistic" and worldlyphysicians perhaps
individually more committedto the masculineethos masturbationwas a
normal,if not indeedwhimsical,symptomof adolescence,to be cured by
the applicationof copulationin requireddoses. Fathers stillproudlysent
theirsons offto bawdyhouses to establishtheirmasculinity. Perhapsmost
pervasivewere warningsthatmen be assertiveand avoid the slightesthint
offemininity; as one physicianphrenologistexplained,"a womanadmiresin
man true manliness,and is repelled by weakness and effeminacy. A wo-
manishmanawakenseitherthe pityor thecontempt of the fairsex.
"28

A finalcharacteristicof 19thcenturyAmericanand Englishwritingson

sexualityis of a general kind,and relates not so much to contentas to
formalstructure.All these books,pamphletsand articles,no matterwhat
theirparticularorientation,spoke in the same vocabulary,used the same
images,made thesame appeal to suchstandardexpositorymodesas thatof
argumentfromdesign.Even moregenerally,all theseauthorsused disease
sanctionsas theirbasic frameworkfor expositionand admonition;their
hypotheticaletiologiesserved,of course, to shape and sanctionparticular
Almostall these accepted modes of argumentwere,moreover,
life-styles.
so open-endedthatappeals of themostvaryingkindcould employthesame
figuresand analogies.Both sides,forexample,employedargumentsdrawn
fromdesign;liberalsemphasizedthatthe functionimplicitin the secretion
of semen implied expulsion and use; the more repressiveargued that
woman'smenstrualcycleimpliedthe maximumfrequencyforsexualinter-
course. The more evangelicallyorientedsimilarlyemphasizedthat copu-
lationin loweranimalstook place infrequently, onlyat theinitiativeof the
female,and onlyforthepurposeof reproduction. These practiceswerethus
"natural" that is, more primitive and man's comparativelyfrenetic
sexualitya signof civilizeddegeneracy.Lack of control,on theotherhand,
was always seen as animal, as characteristicof a brutal,less highlyor-
ganizedbeing.Like any alphabet,these traditionally accepted modulesof
image and assumptioncouldbe manipulatedintovastlydifferent configura-
tions.29

27PaulPaquin, The Supreme Passionsof Man, Or theOrigin,Causes, and Tendenciesof the

Passions of the Flesh (Battle Creek, Mich.: Little Blue Book, 1891), p. 71; Cf. Elizabeth
Blackwell,The Human ElementinSex ... 3rded. (London:J.& A. Churchill,1884),p. 28.
28S. R. Wells, Wedlock,Or, theRightRelationsof theSexes ... (New York: The author,
1869),p. 44.
29Significantly,
even in writersmost explicitlyevangelicalin theirorientation,purelyre-
ligiousargumentswere employedinfrequently and onlyin an ancillarycapacity; the way in
whichargumentsscientificin form,and dependentfor theirlegitimacyupon the status of

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142 AmericanQuarterly

At thispointa wordof cautionis indicated.We have, thusfar,perhaps

emphasizedthe repressive,even the antisexual.Yet most physicianswho
expressed theirattitudesin regard to such questionsendorseda rather
moremoderateposition.They assumed,thatis, thatthesexual powershad
necessarilyto be exercised but thatmoralityand social policydemanded
that they be limiteduntil marriage. "Although functionis the natural
destinyof organs," as the editor of the BritishMedical Journalnoted
blandlyin 1882,"considerations,bothof moralityand expedience,and even
of health,concurin the advice thatit is betterto holdovertheformation of
a certainhabit untilthe bodilyframeis thoroughly consolidatedand the
practice can be indulged in a legitimate manner."30 Such stolidly
nontranscendent prudencewas as close as the majorityof physiciansever
came to endorsing wholeheartedlythe evangelical attitude toward
sexuality.Few, however,were willingto publiclychallenge the more
intenselyrepressiveformulations routinely offeredthepublicbytheirmore
evangelicallyinclinedcolleagues. Significantly,however,even the handful
of physiciansexplicitly
hostileto theevangelicalviewof sexualitywere con-
vincedthat"intellect"mustalwaysdominate,thatno passionmusteveres-
cape consciouscontrol.31

These, verybrieflyand schematically,are the mostobviouscharacteris-

tics of medical and biologicalattitudestoward sexualityin 19th century
America. I shouldnowlike to suggestsome of thewaysin whichclass and
genderroleshelpedshape and are in turnreflectedinthisliterature.
But firsta minorcaveat. For thepurposesofthisdiscussionwe mustvery
largelylimitour remarksto those Americanswho consideredthemselves
part of the "respectable" middleclass forit is theywho produced the
sourcesupon whichwe mustdepend,and whose needs and anxietiesthese
sourcesmirror.Yet, it mightbe objected,class statusis an extraordinarily
difficult
commodityforthe sociologist,let alone the historian,to measure
objectively.Vocation, income, religion,birth, all play a role, but in

scientific
knowledge,dominatedebate evenin thisculturallysensitivearea impliesa greatdeal
about theprogressof secularizationin 19thcenturyAmerica.For a moreexplicitdiscussionof
this problem,see C. E. Rosenberg,"Science and AmericanSocial Thought,"in David Van
Tassel & Michael Hall, eds., Science and AmericanSociety (Homewood, Ill.: Dorsey, 1966),
pp. 135-62.
$0"AGraveSocial Problem,"BritishMedicalJournal,I (Jan. 14, 1882),56.
31A few radicals did assume an openly criticalstance; all talk of absolutelyinterdicting
adolescentsexualityand limiting it severelyin marriagewas, in thewordsof one such author,
mere"child's talk." For nature,he explained,"is a tyrant";the sexual impulsecould neverbe
suppressedcompletely.Misguidedattemptsto reachthisendwouldresultinevitably in mental
and physical illness. J. Soule, Science of Reproductionand ReproductiveControl. The
Necessityof some Abstaining fromHavingChildren-The Dutyof All to LimittheirFamilies
Accordingto theirCircumstancesDemonstrated(n.p.,c. 1856),pp. 21, 32-34.

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 Sexuality,Class and Role 143

particularconfigurations not always amenable to orderlyhistoricalre-

constitution. At the same time,however,consciousnessof class identity is a
primaryemotionalreality,especiallywhen such identityis marginalor ill-
defined.And status definitionsin 19th centuryAmerica were, contem-
porariesand historianshave agreed,particularly labile and wouldthushave
tendedto make class identification particularlystressfuland problematic.
A good manyAmericansmust,it follows,have been all themoreanxiousin
theirinternalization whichseemed to embody
of those aspects of life-style
and assure class status. And contemporariesclearly regarded overt
sexuality,especiallyin women,as partof a life-style demeaningto middle-
class status.Virtueand self-denial,like evangelicalreligionitself,could be
embracedby any man who so willed and thus serveas transcendentand
thereforeemotionallyreassuringtools in the forgingof a life-styleappro-
priate to assuaging,on the one hand, the expected scorn of established
wealth and breeding,and, on the other,anxietiesof economicinsecurity
symbolizedbytheominousexistenceofthepoor.
In the symbolic categories employed by 19th century writers on
sexuality,the "immoral" rich and the debauched poor equally embodied
"depravity" and license. It was assumed, for example, that domestic
servantswere a source of moral contagion,that they took particular
pleasure in teachingmasturbationand salaciousness generallyto the in-
nocentsplaced in theircharge."It seems," one physicianwailed,"as ifthis
class took special delightin poisoningthe mindsof theyoungand innocent
and initiatingthemintohabitsof vice." For everycase, anotherphysician
charged, in which precocious sexualitywas aroused throughidiopathic
causes, "three to five"were incitedby servants.Such viewscontinuedal-
mostunchangedintothe openingyears of thepresentcentury;in 1910,for
example,a well-meaning femalephysicianwarnedagainstservantsplaying
a rolein the sexual educationof children,fortheir"pointofviewcan hardly
failto be coarse and maybe reallyvicious."32
Servants,it mustbe recalled,were a part of everyhouseholdwithany
pretensionto respectability;as such they representedan intrusiveemo-
tionalreality.The widespreadhostilitytowarddomesticsto whichwe refer
mightwellhave mirroredmiddle-classrepressionof the sexualitywhichthe
lowerorders were presumedto enjoy. However,it may have reflectedas
well at least some measureof reality.The social and psychologicalmeaning
of such behavior whetherreal or fantasied is not at all clear. Servants
may in "seducing" theiryouthfulchargeshave been simplyactingout an

32SydneyElliot,Aedology.A Treatiseon GenerativeLife, rev. ed. (New York: St. Clair,

1892), p. 181; C. A. Greene, Build Well. The Basis of Individual,Home, and National Ele-
vation.. (Boston: Lothrop,c. 1885),pp. 149-50;Caroline Latimer,Girland Woman.A Book
forMothersand Daughters(New York: D. Appleton,1910),p. 141.

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144 AmericanQuarterly

older sexual ethos,one stillnormalin thelowerand ruralclasses. Such se-

ductionscould also have been used to express hostilityand rage toward
their employers.The biological mothermightalso have projected this
hostility-shaded image as one mode of expressingrivalryand ambivalence
towardthe woman who actually cared forher children.It may also con-
ceivablyhave mirroredtheunwillingness of particularindividualsto accept
the roleof theirownparentsin theinevitablesexual contactsbetweenchild
and child-rearer. This almostwhimsicallycomplexcataloguedemonstrates
clearlythedifficulties ofinterpretation in thisarea; thereare simplyno easy
or one-dimensional explanations.
Publichealthadvocates assumedthatsexual licensewas characteristic of
slumlifeand, like drink,one of thosetraitswhichkept the poor poor.The
rich too were, consolingly,seen in these mythiccategoriesas victimsof
sensuality,of a chronicmoral decay. In the United States, perhaps even
morethanin England,the ideal typeof the ChristianGentlemanservedas
one mode of legitimatingthe lives which so many Americans had
necessarilyto lead: lives of economicvirtue,sexual prudence,of a chronic
needto evaluateand reassertappropriatelife-styles.33
I have, thus far,emphasizedthe repressive and in theirintensityand
pervasivenessnovel aspects of 19thcenturyAmericanattitudestoward
sexuality.Yet a great deal of evidencepointsto 19thcenturypatternsof
sexualitynot so muchabsolutelyrepressiveas sharplyvariant.No critical
observerhas failedto note theinconsistency betweena growingideological
discountenanceof sexuality,an increasingand reciprocalemphasisupon
the ideal of domesticity and a behavioral reality which included
widespreadprostitution, birthcontroland abortion.
illegitimacy,
The key, I feel,to this apparentparadox lies in the natureof existing
genderroles. For a primaryrealityto men and womenwas preciselytheir
abilityto act out theirsociallyprescribedrolesas menand women;and 19th
centurygenderroles embodiedand impliedconflict,conflictnot onlywith
thosecharacteristicsassignedthe oppositesex, butwithothercomponents
of contemporary social values (includingprescriptions of class-appropriate
behavior).To be more specific:despite a superfluity of evangelical ex-
hortation,theprimaryrolemodelwithwhichmenhad to come to termswas
thatwhicharticulatedthe archaic male ethos one in whichphysicalvigor,
and particularly aggressivesexual behaviorwas a centralcomponent.There
is, as we have argued,an abundanceof evidencesupportingthe emotional

33Thisdiscussionis not,of course,meantto implythatthe sexual lifeof the "lowerorders"

in mid-l9thcenturywas necessarilyless repressedthanthatof the would-bemembersof the
middleclass. Contemporarydata wouldindicatethatlower-classmembershipneed notimply
greater freedomof expressionin matters sexual. Cf. Lee Rainwater,And the Poor Get
Children(Chicago: Quadrangle,1960).

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 Sexuality,Class and Role 145

relevanceof thismasculineethos,as well as ofits prescribingand informing

behavior.
Consistentlyenough,the mosthated targetof mid-19thcenturyfeminist
advocatesof moral reformwas the double standardwhichrecognizedand,
in a sense,legitimatedthemale ethos.Andgradually,as we have seen,male
and female writersextendedthe area of conflictand controlto include
sexualitywithinmarriage;untilwomancontrolledaccess to herown body,
she could not enjoytruefreedom-or physicaland mentalhealth.For the
husbandcame to marriageas one womanphysicianputit,"imbuedwiththe
belief-an iron-cladtraditionof the ages thatmarriagegiveshima special
license,and underthislicenseoftenand oftenhe putsto shame the prosti-
tutionof thebrothel."34Moral reformers notonlydemandedthatmencon-
formto the same standardsof sexual moralityas women,but taughtthat
the best means of achievingthisgoal was throughwoman's controlof the
male child'smoraleducationand the endingof sexual segregationin child-
hood. Such reformers warnedagain and again thatthepolarizationof male
and female traits perpetuatedin this segregationguaranteed that true
sexual moralitywouldneverbe established.35
The depthand significanceof the conflictwhichcharacterizedthispolar-
ization of gender role traits is particularlywell illustratedin the 19th
century'smasturbationliterature-notonlyin its veryexistence,but even
more clearlyin its internalthemes.That of the need for controlis self-
evident;but an equally prominentthemeis the fearof sexual failure.Was
masturbation,afterall, not an ultimateconfessionof male sexual inade-
quacy?Such tractswarnedmelodramatically ofits demeaningand emascu-
latingconsequences.The confirmedonanist'sgenitalsmight,forexample,
"shrinkand become withered,and cases have been known,in which,faded
and entirelydecayed,the littleremainsof themhave disappearedintothe
abdomen." Finallyhe would become impotent,unable to "penetratethe
finestwoman in the world." These threatenedconsequences indicate,
moreover, the emotional centralityof a particular individual's con-
sciousnessof male-femaleorientation.Thus warningsagainst the conse-
quencesof prolongedmasturbation tendedto incorporatepersonalitytraits
associated withthe female role stereotype."All the intellectualfaculties
are weakened. The man becomes a coward; sighs and weeps like a

34AliceStockham,Karezza. EthicsofMarriage(Chicago: Alice B. Stockham,1896),p. 77.

35Maleand female,theyseemedto sense,wereservingas evermoreemotionallychargedpo-
larities,organizingabout themselvesan increasinglyinclusiveassortmentof personalitytraits
and behaviors.Everyaspect of highculture,evenChristianity itself,was shapedbythispolar-
ization."Man," as one mid-century feministputit,"mustbe regeneratedby trueand deep re-
ligiousexperiences,(Religionis feminine),
or by the love and influenceof Woman, . . ." Eliza
Farnham,Womanand herEra (New York: A. J. Davis, 1864),11:44.

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146 American Quarterly

hystericalwoman.He loses all decisionand dignity ofcharacter."36The in-

tonationof such symptomcatalogues assumes a ritualcharacter-and to
some individualspresumablyan expiatoryone. The ideologicalemphasison
secretvice and its consequencesserved,thatis, notonlyto exacerbateguilt
in those seekinga plausible structurein whichto place theirneed to feel
such guilt,but as well to rituallyexpressand thusperhapsallay a subcon-
sciousambivalencein regardto masculineidentification. Onlythetranscen-
dent categories of Christian commitmentcould serve as an adequate
counterto the realityof such behavioraldemands.Thus theneed to impart
theintensityof millennialzeal to thatritualof self-denialwhichunderwrote
thesociallogicoftheChristianGentleman.
Significantly,the masturbator'salleged characteristicsalso served to
projectthevisionof a figureemotionallyand sociallyisolated:"They drivel
away their existence on the outskirts of society; . . . they are at once a dead
weight,a sluggish,inert mass in the paths of this busy, blusteringlife,
havingneitherthewillnorthecapacityto take a partin thegeneralmatters
of life." The demandforeconomicachievement,in otherwords,servedin
synergistic parallelwiththatforsexual achievement;andjust as manymen
were notpreparedto livein termsof theideals demandedbythemasculine
ethos,so manywereuncomfortable withthosecharacteristicswhichtended
in realityto make theself-mademan.37
Admonitions proscribing
femalemasturbationare, notsurprisingly,quite
different in content.Perhaps most obviously,disease sanctionsvaried in
emphasis;failureor inadequacyin childbearingplayed an extraordinarily
prominentrole, though cancer, insanity and tuberculosis were also
frequentlycited consequences of female addictionto "solitaryabuse."38
Even more significantly, male authorsexpress a pervasivedisquietin the
36Thefirstquotationis fromJohnB. Newman, The Philosophyof Generation.... (New
York: JohnC. Wells, 1849), p. 63, the phrase concerningimpotencefromDrs. Jordanand
Beck, Happiness or Misery? Being Four Lectures on the Functionsand Disorders of the
NervousSystemand ReproductiveOrgans(New York; Barton& Son, c. 1861),p. 18,thefinal
quotationfromR. J. Culverwell,Self Preservation,Manhood, Causes of its PrematureDe-
cline.... (New York; n.p., [1830]),p. 28. (The last passage, significantly,
is also to be found-
plagiarized-in WesleyGrindle,New Medical Revelations.Beinga Popular Workon theRe-
productiveSystem,Its Debilityand Diseases (Philadelphia:n.p., 1857), p. 90). Emphasison
the "mortification"of the impotentgroomon his wedding-night was also standard.Cf. A. H.
Hayes, The Science of Life; Or Self-Preservation.... (Boston: Peabody Medical Institute,c.
1868),pp. 180-81.
37Jordan & Beck, Happinessor Misery?,p. 39. A recentpsychiatric historianhas suggested
thatthe archetypicalsymptomsof 19thcenturymasturbatory insanityresemblethoseof the
schizoidpersonality.If truein particularcases, thisinterpretation would not be inconsistent
withtheargumentwe have triedto suggest.E. H. Hare, "MasturbatoryInsanity:The History
of an Idea," Journalof Mental Science, 108 (1962), 9. A wordof caution:despiteour tendency
to see thismasturbationliteratureas characteristicof Anglo-SaxonProtestantism, the three
mostquotedauthoritiesin thelate 1830sand 40s were French-speaking: S. A. Tissot,Leopold
Deslandes and C. F. Lallemand.
38Thissanctionillustratesclearly a characteristic19th centuryemotionalpolarity,that

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 Sexuality,Class and Role 147

presenceof femalesexuality.A centralissue,of course,is stillcontrol,but

in this contextit is not self-control,
but controlof women's sexuality.39
Masturbationis, as a fewofour 20thcenturycontemporaries have argued,
the ultimatein femaleautonomy;to mid-19thcenturyphysicians,perhaps
not coincidentally,it threatenedto result eitherin frigidity or nympho-
mania both modalitiesthroughwhichthe husband mightbe humiliated
(eitherin realityor fantasy).40
Evidenceindicatingmale anxietiesin regard
to femalesexualityare as old as historyitselfand have attractedan elabo-
rate, if dissonant, body of discussion; whatever metapsychologicalin-
terpretationone places upon this phenomenon,its existenceseems unde-
niable. And it is hardlysurprisingthat in the 19thcenturywhengender
roles were particularlyrigidand polarized,when social change may be
presumedto have createdstructuralstrainin suchrolesthattheideological
sanctionswhichhelpeddefineand enforcegenderrolesshouldhave beenin-
tonedwithparticularvehemence.And it is, as a matterof fact,no difficult
matter to locate a group of mid-and-late-l9thcenturyauthoritieson
sexuality whose moral admonitions would document a monolithic
antisexuality.41
It was, such zealots charged,the individualphysician'smoral responsi-

between sexualityand maternity.It should also be noted that althoughvirtuallyall 19th

centurywriterson masturbation notedthatitsdevoteesincludedfemalesas wellas males,this
generallyconceded observationnever seemed to suggest the naturalnessof sexualityin
women.
39A few,clearlyatypical,medical authorswere so dominatedby particularanxietiesthat
theirformulations starklyunderlineemotionalthemesnormallypresentedin termsmorein-
directand ambivalent.A few,forexample,warnedthatartificialphalliemployedby female
masturbatorswould create needs whichno husbandcould ever satisfy.J. DuBois, Marriage
PhysiologicallyConsidered.2nd ed. (New York: Printedforthe Booksellers,1839),pp. 26-27.
(One Scotch physicianeven suggestedthe use of a kindof chastitybelt to guard againstthis
possibility.JohnMoodie, A Medical Treatise; withPrinciplesand Observations,to Preserve
Chastityand Morality[Edinburgh:Stevenson,1848]). A relatedprocedurewas thatof clitori-
dectomyas a radical cure forhysteria,nymphomaniaand allied complaints.Cf. JohnDuffy,
"Masturbationand Clitoridectomy. A Nineteenth-Century View," Journalof the American
Medical Association,186 (Oct. 19, 1963),246-48; Guy Nichol,"The ClitorisMartyr,"World
Medicine(May 6, 1969),59-65; Isaac Baker Brown,On theCurabilityof CertainFormsofIn-
sanity,Epilepsy,Catalepsy,and Hysteriain Females (London: RobertHardwicke,1866).This
procedurewas never widelypracticed. Isaac Baker Brown,the London gynecologistwho
sought to popularize clitoridectomyenjoyed little success and was, indeed, formally
condemnedbytheObstetricalSocietyofLondonas a resultofhisenthusiasm.
40Forrepresentative examplesof the persistenceof such anxieties,see C. S. Eldridge,Self-
Enervation.Its Consequencesand Treatment(Chicago: C. S. Halsey, 1869),pp. 15-17,25; J.
E. Ralph, Seminalia; . . . (New York: Warner, 1865), p. 81; E. Becklard, Physiological
Mysteriesand Revelationsin Love, Courtship,and Marriage (New York: Holland & Glover,
1844),pp. 100-1;JosephW. Howe, Excessive Venery,Masturbationand Continence... (New
York: Bermingham,1883), p. 41; Thomas L. Nichols, Esoteric Anthropology... (London:
Nichols,n.d.),p. 84.
4'The EnglishphysicianWilliamActon was probablythe best knownamong such evangel-
ically oriented authors. (Steven Marcus' Other Victorianscontains a chapter analyzing
Acton's writings;Marcus is, however,ratherarbitrary,in his interpretations.) In the United

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148 American Quarterly

bilityto denouncecasual and "excessive" maritalsex. "All excess in that

directionhe willdiscountenance.... Unmasteredimportunity and too sub-
missivean affectionmust be met by separate beds, by uncommunicating
rooms,and if need be, by strongexpostulation."42Significantly, all em-
phasized the need for limiting,and ideally for absolutelyeschewing,all
sexual activity during pregnancy and lactation. William Alcott, for
example,warned that intercourseduringgestationwas particularlydan-
gerous,especiallyif the mothershouldexperienceorgasm. "The nervous
orgasm," he explained,"is too much forthe younggerm."43Procreation
was the purposeof sexual intercourse;once the childhad been conceived,
everyenergyshould be bent toward nurturingthe younglife. The male
child's oedipal anxietiesand fear of female sexualitywould appear to be
thus neatlyexpressedin Alcott's intellectualideogram the motherdra-
maticallybetrayingthe child withinher in succumbingto the father's
sexuality.
The specificemphasesand emotionaltoneoftheseauthorsfallintoa pat-
ternso consistentthatone is temptedto suggesta commonpsychicfunction
for theirideological commitment.All, for example, tended to deny the
intensityof female sexual needs; all tendedto see sexual relationshipsas
normallyexploitive;all tended to identifywoman with a highermoral
calling.This strongidentification
withwoman assumingthatshe exhibited
the appropriatepassive,asexual and nurturant qualities suggestsnotonly
the possible roots of the author'sown needs, but the ways in whichthe
several dimensionsof behaviorhad come to be seen as rigidlymale or
female.They suggesta familymilieuin whichpowerand autonomy,emo-
tionalloyalty,and identificationwere constantly and in some cases dys-
functionallydefinedin terms of either/or,fatheror mother,male or
female.(A familypattern,it mightbe suggested,in whichnew economic
functionsand ecological realitieshad created new patternsof emotional
These writersconsistentlyassociated woman's sexual in-
identification.)
nocence with her maternal function:Dio Lewis, a popular advocate of
temperanceand health reform"liked," for example, "to thinkthat the
strongpassion of my motherwas the maternal." Men, Lewis continued,
"can hardlyunderstandthe childlikeinnocencein whichthe pure woman
considersthiswholeclass of subjects."44
Beginningwiththe second thirdof the 19thcentury,moreover,a new

States, such enthusiastsas JohnCowan, Dio Lewis, and, to an extent,WilliamAlcott,exem-

plifythepositionof thosesimilarlyfearfuloftheperilsimplicitin theexpressionof sexuality.
42W.Goodell,Lessons in Gynecology(Philadelphia:D. G. Brinton,1879),p. 366.
43Alcott,Physiology ofMarriage,p. 153.
44DioLewis, Chastity;Or, Our Secret Sins (New York: Fowler& Wells, 1894 c. 1874),pp.
117,13.

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 Sexuality,Class and Role 149

sanctionbecame increasingly and I feelrevealingly plausible;thatofthe

primacyof the motherin determining heredityand the need, therefore, to
granther dominionin the structuring of sexual relations."DESTINY IS DE-
TERMINED BY ORGANIZATION," as abolitionistHenryC. Wrightputit, "OR-
GANIZATION IS DETERMINED BY MATERNAL CONDITIONS. 45

We have become accustomedto thinkingof such formulaeas in some

sense ultimatelydysfunctional;we assume as well thatsuchideologicalsets
may have encouraged aggression or other inappropriate deflected-
modes of response.Yet, thisis at best a partialisticway of approachinga
most complexproblem;for such generalizationsare based not onlyon a
transparentlymonolithicview of actual behaviorpatterns,but upon an
equallyschematicviewof humanpsychodynamics. In thefirstplace, many
Americanssimplypaid no attentionto thesepiousinjunctions.46 Some men
ignoredthemat no particularpsychiccost,othersonlyat greatcost. But to
others,it may be argued,these seeminglyunreal and absolutelydysfunc-
tionalviewswerefunctional indeed.For some menat least,theglorification
of denial,withits transcendent justificationin the categoriesof evangelical
Christianity,could well have served as an ideologicaldefenseagainstthe
everpresentdemandsof the masculineethos,demandswhichsome menat
least could not meet (demands, moreover,in conflictwith other social
normsand values).
In VictorianEnglandand America,moreover,the repressionof sexuality
could mean security,the abilityto predicteconomicand social reality in
short,autonomyand social respectability. In a periodwhentheurbanlower
and lower-middle classes had fewenoughareas fortheestablishment ofego
function,the very process of deferringpleasure with its ideological
sanctionin theevangelicalworld-view and social sanctioninitsorganicrela-
tionshipto statusdefinition-provided one mode throughwhichindividuals
of marginalsocial statusmightbeginto findsecurityand dignity.47 Others,
as I have suggested,incapable forindividualreasonsof livingan assertive
sexuallife,couldfindin thisideologyofdeniala sanctionfortheirparticular
disability.Hardlyideal perhaps,but anyoptionis betterthannone,and in
termsof social realitythe uncontrolledexpressionof sexualitywas and
presumablyis hardlyan optionconsistentwithego developmentin many
individuals.In terms of individualpsychodynamics(since membersof a
45HenryC. Wright,The Empireof theMotherover theCharacterand Destinyof theRace,
2nded. (Boston:Bela Marsh, 1866),p. 67.
46Onethinksof the Americanswho consumedtheoceans of whiskeyand brandydistilledin
19thcenturyAmericadespitethezealous admonitions of temperanceadvocates.
47Inwhatis probablythe strongestpassage in Steven Marcus' Other Victorians,theauthor
underlinesthe tragedyinherentin the need of the urban poor to represssexualityas a pre-
requisiteto theachievementofa minimum humandignity(pp. 147-50).

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150 American Quarterly

particulargenerationfall intovariedcategoriesof potentialbehavior)it is

not clear thatall, or even most,Americanswouldhave foundthe freedom
to act out some fundamentalsexual need a healingordinance.Even in the
self-consciously liberated1970s,whenthe expressionof sexualityis some-
times seen as a moral imperative,we seem not to have produced a
generationofpsychicallyfulfilled and sexuallyadequate citizens.
Americansocietyin the past centuryoffered, in otherwords,a varietyof
behavioraloptionsin the area of sexuality.And ifsomeindividualssuffered
as a resultof theconflictimpliedbytheemotionalinconsistencies embodied
in these options, other Americans presumably benefited from the
availabilityof variedbehavioraloptions.Let me be a bit morespecific.For
some individuals,the expressionof aggressivesexualitywouldhave an im-
portantrelationshipto ego functiongenerally;those males, thatis, able to
live out the imperativesof the masculineethoswouldfindin thisvirilitya
sourceof strengthgeneralizableto otherareas of personalitydevelopment.
(Some women,similarly,could findachievementwithinthe traditionalrole
of nurturantwife and mother;otherswould findonly tensionand ambi-
guity.)To certainother Americanmen, internalization of the pietiesim-
plicitin theChristianGentlemanideal (combinedwitha measureofworldly
success) provideda viable framework forpersonalityadjustment,despitea
stressfulambivalencein regardto the imperativesof the masculineethos.
For stillothermen,of course,neitheroftheseoptionsprovidedusable solu-
tions;indeed,the particularneuroticneeds of some could well have found
an ideal focus in the very structureof ambiguitywhichso characterized
availablegenderroles.One mightargue thatit was not so muchrepression
as such whichcharacterizedVictoriansexuality,but rathera peculiarand
in some ways irreconcilableconflictbetween the imperativesof the
Masculine Achieverand the ChristianGentleman.Few males were com-
pletelyimmunefromtheemotionalrealityofboth.
Womanhad also to create an appropriateemotionalbalance betweentwo
conflictingroles; she could retreatto passivityand purity(oftenin theform
of maternity)and reject the male's profferedsexuality,but only at the
expenseof failingwithinthe even moretraditionalroleof femaleas giving
and nurturant; fortruenurturanceimpliedsexualwarmthand availability.
These genderroles mustbe understood,moreover,as a basic variablein
the emotionalstructuring of particularmarriages.The need of the male to
achieve sexually,to act out his frustrations and insecuritiesin the formof
aggressivesexualityin conjunctionwith the female's socially legitimate
"spirituality"providedthe wife with a natural emotionalleverage. The
power to rejectwas the power to control and one of the fewavenues to
such powerand autonomyavailable to womenwithinthe Victorianfamily.
It was, as well,a powernowsanctionedin thenewlyforgedcategoriesofthe

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 Sexuality,Class and Role 151

female-oriented evangelicalview of sexuality.Woman's characteristically

ambivalentsexual role must,thatis, have helped structure if not indeed
occasion-intramaritalconflict.Both husbandand wifewere in this sense
prisonersofthesame ritualpattern.
Sexual adjustment within the urban middle-class family would,
moreover,naturallyreflectany stresspeculiarto the changingsocial envi-
ronmentof mid-l9th century America. Economic or career tensions
affectingthe husband,role anxietiesin the wifewould all have had to find
some expressionifnotresolutionin themarriagebed,thatpotentialcontext
of reassuranceor rejection.Such realitiescan be illustratedconcretelyby
the conflictsurrounding birthcontrol,a demographicfact formany 19th
centuryurbanfamilies.One dimensionof familydecisionsto practicebirth
control(or abortion)was economic. But this was only one aspect of an
inevitablycomplexand ambiguoussituation.Many husbands,forexample,
musthave experienceddeep ambivalence,desiringon theone hand,a small
familyto ease economicburdens,yetregretting theloss ofmale statussym-
bolizedby abundantfatherhood-notto mentionthe controlof his wifeim-
plied by the existenceof numerouschildren.Whetherdecisions to limit
familysize actuallyaffectedsexual intercourseper se depended,of course,
on the means employed,the confidenceof the womanin such means, and
thepersonalityneedsofhusbandand wife.48

There is another aspect of 19th centurysexual prescriptionswhich I

have, thus far, avoided discussingsystematically.This is the ideological
function of theseformulae,theirrelationship,thatis, to themaintenanceof
a particular social order. In examiningthe ideological contentof the
scientificintonationsand disease sanctionswe have been describing,there
are some obviouspointsof structuralreference.Most apparentis theemo-
tional centralityof a fundamentalexpositorymetaphor,one whichmight
best be called "mercantilist."The bodyis visualizedin thismetaphoras a
closed energysystem,one whichcould be eitherweakenedthroughthedis-
chargeofenergyor strengthened throughitsprudenthusbanding.
These omnipresent imagesof controland physiological penurylendcredi-
bilityto interpretations which emphasize the parallelismbetween those
modes of behaviorimpliedby the needs of a developingcapitalismand the
rationalizationand orderingof sexual energiesto thispurpose."The gospel
of continence,"in the wordsof Peter Cominos,the mostforthright recent
advocateof thisposition,"reveals its meaningwhenit is relatedto thedy-

betweenroleconflictand birthcontrolin mid-

4"Foradditionaldiscussionof the relationship
century,see Carroll SmithRosenbergand Charles Rosenberg,"The New Woman and Trou-
bled Man."

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152 American Quarterly

namicqualityinherentin the structureand functioning of the Respectable

Economic System,the compulsionto accumulate and reinvestcapital."49
This ideologyof sexual penurywouldthusbe as functionalto the Western
European bourgeoisieas its equivalentsin those non-Westerncultures
whereecologicalrealitiesdemandthatreproduction be curtailed;one would
normallyexpect in such a culture to finda well-articulatedideologyof
taboo, ritual,mythicconstructs,and disease sanctionsenforcing and legiti-
matingthelogicof sexual frugality.
All well, and possiblyeven good. But the interpretive problemis a good
deal more complex.We are dealingwitha worldof ideologyand behavior
more fragmented,more obviouslyinconsistentthan that characteristicof
mosttraditionalcultures.The attempt,moreover,to associate repressionof
sexualitywiththe creationof an ethos appropriateto capitalismpresents
grave chronologicalproblems. Why, for example, should the mid-19th
century see the efflorescenceof this doctrine? Effortsby the new
bourgeoisieto forgean appropriatelife-stylehad been in process since at
least the 16thcentury;one must,thatis, in attempting to employthislineof
argument,relate this peculiarlyrepressiveideologynot simplyto "capi-
talism,"but witha particularstage in its development the crystallization
of industrialism and its structuralimplicationsin the shape of urbanization,
bureaucratization,a decliningbirthrate and the like. Even so, the con-
nectionbetweenthesethemesand imagesand thesupposedneedsofthisso-
ciety cannot simplybe assumed. Thus, for example, similarideas con-
cerningthe drain of sexual expenditureupon bodilyhealth especiallyin
the case of semen has a long and astonishingly mixed culturalhistory;
Taoism, forexample,in whichsuch ideas figuredprominently, wouldseem
at firstglance and perhapsthe second as well to have littlein common
withthesocial and intellectualworldof 19thcenturyEnglandand America.
The precedingpages have attemptedto suggestone possibleperspective
throughwhichto view sexualityas it was perceivedand acted out by 19th
centuryAmericans:the effectof twobasic social roles,class and gender,in
shapingsexual behavior.Using expressionsof ideologyas indicesto more
fundamentalchange,I have soughtprimarilyto describeand thento sug-
gest possibleformsof interaction,and thus areas forfurther investigation.
What,forexample,was therelationship betweenevangelicalismand thepe-
culiarlystructuredrole characteristicswe have described?What were the
effectsof an urbanbureaucratizedlifeupon the emotionalstructureof the
family?There are no simpleanswersto such profoundquestions,and only
recentlyhave historiansbecome aware that thesewere,indeed,questions.
In pointof fact,we do not now possess a generallyagreed upon model ap-

49Cominos,
"Late-VictorianSexual Respectability,"p. 216.

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 Sexuality,Class and Role 153

propriate to explaining the precise relationshipsbetween structural

change-economic, demographicand technological and themicro-system
ofthefamilyand theindividual.
There is, on the otherhand,a plausibleframework in whichto place the
intellectualand emotionalphenomenawe have soughtto describe. The
pervasiveemphasisupon control,the temporalcorrelationbetweenthese
repressive formulae and a parallel commitmentto the transcending
reassurance of evangelical religion can be seen as acculturation
phenomena mechanismsfacilitating adjustmentto a newsocial discipline.
Yet evenwere thisinterpretation "correct" in thelimitedsense thatso
general a formulation can be termedcorrect it must remainschematic,
usefulonlyin a heuristicsense. Almosteveryelementin thiscomplex,and
largelyimplicit,model remainsstillto be explored,to be made explicit.50
The present paper has sought,in a thus necessarilytentativeway, to
contribute to thisdiscussion,to examinesomeofthewaysinwhichavailable
role prescriptionsmay have functionedin the particularconfiguration of
emotionaland structuralrealitywhichfaced Americansin thelatterhalfof
the 19thcentury.
I have sought,moreover,to avoid the use of certain now-traditional
psychodynamic categories,especiallythe tendencyto interpretsexual be-
haviorin termsof a value laden and one-dimensional polarityof expression
versus repression.I have assumed,on the contrary,thatindividualsvary,
that most manage somehowto growand differentiate, and that the social
and sexual values of the mid-and-late19thcenturywere probablyno more
inimicalto humanpotentialthanthoseof anyotherperiod.Or thatifthey
were,it remainsstillto be demonstrated.Grantingthat certainVictorian
attitudestowardsexualityand thetypesofideal behaviortheseideas legiti-
mated may have imposed costs to particularindividualsperhaps tragic
and irreparablecosts does not compromisethe essential logic of this
position.

50Wemust,forexample,definethe appropriatedemographicand economicrealities-and

thisimpliesthe evaluationof such factorsas changein occupationand familysize, age at tirst
marriageand patternsof internalmigration.The precisedefinition of such parametersmust
precede any finalevaluationof the relationshipbetweenthese structuralrealitiesand the
ideologicalformulationswhichhelp shape the formaland emotionalperceptionsof individuals
ina particulargeneration.

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