Medical Men, Moralists, and the Roots of Sex Education

Abstract

Chapter 1 examines the liberal Protestant roots of the American Social Hygiene Association (ASHA), a clearinghouse for the early sex education movement. ASHA emerged from the combination of two distinct movements: social purity and social hygiene. Liberal Protestantism came to influence sex education through the merging of these strands and the collective realization that scientific information was not enough to influence sexual behavior. This chapter locates the roots of ASHA in social purity groups of the 1870s, many of which were led by Unitarians and Quakers and focused on ridding society of prostitution. The chapter explores their evolving relationship with the physician-dominated social hygiene movement that began in the early twentieth century, demonstrating that liberal religious concerns about sexual morality impacted sex education through the dynamic interactions between purity reformers and social hygienists. ASHA became the organization within which both groups developed a joint strategy for teaching the moral side of sex.