Changing Sexual Mores Research Articles

Banned in Kansas: motion picture censorship, 1915-1966

If you caught a movie in through much of the past century, you're likely to have seen a different version than did the rest of America. Theda Bara's depictions of wicked sexuality were off-limits, and a film such as Scarface showed far too much violence for decent folk - a threat to Protestant culture and to the morals of the general population. In 1915, became one of only a handful of states to establish its own film censorship board. The board controlled screen content in the state for more than fifty years, yet little is known about its activities. This first book-length study of state film censorship examines the unique political, social, and economic factors that led to its implementation in Kansas, examining why censorship legislation was enacted, what the attitudes of Kansans were toward censorship, and why it lasted for half a century. Cinema historian Gerald Butters places the Board of Review's attempts to control screen content in the context of nationwide censorship efforts during the early part of the twentieth century. He tells how factors such as Progressivism, concern over child rearing, and a supportive press contributed to censorship, and he traces the board's history from the problems posed by the emergence of talkies through changing sexual mores in the 1920s to challenges to its power in the 1950s. In addition to revealing the fine points of film content deemed too sensitive for screening, Butters describes the daily operations of the board, illustrating the difficulties it encountered as it wrestled not only with constantly shifting definitions of morality but also with the vagaries of the political and legal systems. Stills from motion pictures illustrate the type of screen content the board attempted to censor. As faced the march of modernity, even state politicians began to criticize film censorship, and Butters tells how by the 1960s the board was fighting to remain relevant as film companies increasingly challenged its attempt to control screen content. Banned in Kansas weaves a fascinating tale of the enforcement of public morality, making it a definitive study for cinema scholars and an entertaining read for film buffs.

Sex education, homosexuality, and social contestation in 1970s New Zealand

This essay examines the relationships between homosexuality and sex education in New Zealand during the 1970s. It argues that reading sex education debates and resources provides a useful way of exploring connections between the ontologies and politics of sexuality at that time. In particular, the advent of social movements concerned with sexual issues marked a turning point in homosexuality's appearance within formal and informal modes of sex education. During the 1970s, sex education and related debates became a key site at which various conceptualisations of homosexuality were constructed and contested. By analysing the struggles between radical and conservative perspectives, we can see how same‐sex desire came to symbolise changing sexual mores, as well as broader ideas about social order and social change.

Adultery in Post-war England

Recent histories of twentieth-century heterosexual behaviour have tended to place the practices of young people centre-stage in accounts of social change. Trends in premarital intercourse have been presented as evidence of changing sexual mores: the varied experiences of married people, beyond the realm of fertility, have less often been interrogated. Yet in the years after the Second World War, extended access to fault-based divorce, a state-sponsored determination to remake family life and an increasing emphasis upon the relational aspects of marriage ensured that marital infidelity was prominent in public discussions of sexual and emotional life. This article therefore investigates illegitimate sexual and emotional intimacies involving married rather than single heterosexuals, unpacking the social meanings and significance of adultery in post-war England. It explains why attitudes towards adultery hardened across the period, even as the practice became apparently more common, by exploring the growing centrality of love and sex to discursive constructions of marriage. In so doing this article offers an account which destabilizes a ‘golden age’ characterization of post-war marriage and challenges linear models of sexual and emotional change.

Describing sexual behavior in the era of the internet: a typology for empirical research

ABSTRACT Gagnon and Simon's (1967) groundbreaking work on sexual deviance divided behaviors into normal, pathological, and sociological categories. We reconstruct this typology as a pair of two cross cutting continuums describing the normative status and social organization of behaviors in order to keep pace with changing sexual mores and technology while bolstering its empirical rigor. The first extends from normal activities to those deemed pathological by current mores, while the second focuses on describing a continuum from isolated to communal activities. These continua may be used either to reduce descriptions of behaviors to a four-part typology or to apply them as semantic differentials to allow more precise measurement of the behaviors' social organization and normative status. This scheme is especially well-suited for describing shifts in the perception and organization of behaviors brought about by adaptations of new technologies such as the Internet.

Trends in Cervical Squamous Cell Carcinoma Incidence in 13 European Countries: Changing Risk and the Effects of Screening

Despite there being sufficient evidence for the effectiveness of screening by cytology in preventing cancer of the cervix uteri, screening policies vary widely among European countries, and incidence is increasing in younger women. This study analyzes trends in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the cervix uteri in 13 European countries to evaluate effectiveness of screening against a background of changing risk. Age-period-cohort models were fitted and period and cohort effects were estimated; these were considered as primarily indicative of screening interventions and changing etiology, respectively. A unique set of estimates was derived by fixing age slopes to one of several plausible age curves under the assumption that the relation between age and cervical cancer incidence is biologically determined. There were period-specific declines in cervical SCC in several countries, with the largest decreases seen in northern Europe. A pattern emerged across Europe of escalating risk in successive generations born after 1930. In the western European countries, a decrease followed by a stabilization of risk by cohort was accompanied by period-specific declines. In southern Europe, stable period, but increasing cohort trends, were observed. Substantial changes have occurred in cervical SCC incidence in Europe and well-organized screening programs have been highly effective in reducing the incidence of cervical SCC. Screening and changing sexual mores largely explain the changing period- and cohort-specific patterns, respectively. The increasing risk in recent cohorts is of obvious concern particularly in countries where no screening programs are in place. Further investigation of the effectiveness of opportunistic screening is warranted as is the observation of differing risk patterns in young cohorts in countries with relatively similar societal structures.

The Spread of Single-Parent Families in the United States since 1960

About half of all American children can expect to live with both of their biological parents at age fifteen, compared to two-thirds of children born in Sweden, Germany, and France, and nine-tenths of those born in Italy. This form of American exceptionalism reflects both higher rates of divorce and higher rates of breakup among cohabiting couples in the US. The increase in divorce, which began in the early 1960s but leveled off in the early 1980s, affected women at all educational levels. The increase in nonmarital childbearing, which was concentrated between the early 1960s and early 1990s, mainly affected non-white women and white women without college degrees. These changes appear to be a product of changes in sexual mores, which reduced the role of sexual attraction and increased the importance of economic calculations in decisions about whether to marry. The increased importance of economic factors coincided with a decline in non-college men's ability to support a family and perhaps also with an increase in conflict over men and women's roles.

‘A Festering Sore on the Body of Society’: The wolfenden committee and Female Prostitution in Mid-Twentieth-Century Scotland

The proceedings and report of the Wolfenden Committee on Prostitution and Homosexual Offences (1954–7) figure prominently in the historiography of the sexual politics of late twentieth-century Britain. In terms of female prostitution, three broad but inter-related strands of interpretation may be detected within the literature. First, a largely narrative approach has located the Committee and subsequent legislation within the broader story of changing sexual mores and associated moral panic in 1950s Britain. Secondly, many social historians and sociologists have focused upon the coercive and regulatory implications of the report and the Street Offences Act of 1959,often within a Foucauldian framework of analysis. For commentators such as Jeffrey Weeks, the Wolfenden Report, by redefining the relationship of the law to the private moral terrain of the citizen, enabled a reaffirmation of the policing of public space in the interests of order and decency. Similarly, for Frank Mort, one of its most significant features was its codification of a ‘new geography of sexuality’ which both made the ‘troublesome and dangerous sexualities of prostitution’ more visible to the official mind and furnished a new ‘topography of regulation’. Meanwhile, other commentators have advanced a more specifically feminist interpretation of events. Thus, Carol Smart views the central thrust of the Wolfenden Committee’s deliberations on

Adverse childhood experiences and risk of paternity in teen pregnancy 1,2

OBJECTIVE: Few studies have investigated risk factors that predispose males to be involved in teen pregnancies. To provide new information on such factors, we examined the relationships of eight common adverse childhood experiences to a male’s risk of impregnating a teenager. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using questionnaire responses from 7399 men who visited a primary care clinic of a large health maintenance organization in California. Data included age of the youngest female ever impregnated; the man’s own age at the time; his history of childhood emotional, physical, or sexual abuse; having a battered mother; parental separation or divorce; and having household members who were substance abusers, mentally ill, or criminals. Odds ratios (ORs) for the risk of involvement in a teen pregnancy were adjusted for age, race, and education. RESULTS: At least one adverse childhood experience was reported by 63% of participants, and 34% had at least two adverse childhood experiences; 19% of men had been involved in a teen pregnancy. Each adverse childhood experience was positively associated with impregnating a teenager, with ORs ranging from 1.2 (sexual abuse) to 1.8 (criminal in home). We found strong graded relationships ( P < .001) between the number of adverse childhood experiences and the risk of involvement in a teen pregnancy for each of four birth cohorts during the last century. Compared with males with no adverse childhood experiences, a male with at least five adverse childhood experiences had an OR of 2.6 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.0, 3.4) for impregnating a teenager. The magnitude of the ORs for the adverse childhood experiences was reduced 64–100% by adjustment for potential intermediate variables (age at first intercourse, number of sexual partners, having a sexually transmitted disease, and alcohol or drug abuse) that also exhibited a strong graded relationship to adverse childhood experiences. CONCLUSION: Adverse childhood experiences have an important relationship to male involvement in teen pregnancy. This relationship has persisted throughout four successive birth cohorts dating back to 1900–1929, suggesting that the effects of adverse childhood experiences transcend changing sexual mores and contraceptive methods. Efforts to prevent teen pregnancy will likely benefit from preventing adverse childhood experiences and their associated effects on male behaviors that might mediate the increased risk of teen pregnancy.

The maltz hierarchy of sexual interaction

Abstract Due to changes in sexual mores and behaviors during this century, our society has been left without clear guidelines to help channel sexual energy. The Maltz Hierarchy of Sexual Interaction is a progressive model for understanding sexual relating. It provides a way of evaluating sexual behavior within the context of relationships. Sexual energy is presented as a benign, natural force, which can be channeled in either destructive or life-affirming ways. The model presents six levels of sexual interaction; three negative levels (impersonal, abusive, and violent) and three positive levels (role fulfillment, making love, and authentic sexual intimacy). As a tool in sexual abuse and addiction treatment, couples therapy, and sex education, the hierarchy helps individuals understand the need for communication, safety and trust, and points to authentic sexual intimacy as a peak experience in human sexual relating.

Social bonds and teen pregnancy

Foreword by Della Hughes Preface Introduction Changing Sexual Mores An Overview of Legislation and Community-Based Programming Antecedents and Current Theoretical Concepts A Study of Pregnant and Parenting Homeless and Runaway Girls Case Record Excerpts and Summaries Personal Stories Told by the Teenagers Appendices References Index

Population policy in South Africa: a critical perspective.

The argument in this article is that population growth and the concept of balancing resources against population growth is flawed when the context, in this case South Africa, is gross inequalities in resource distribution. The fact is that causes of poverty are located in the social and political structures which give people unequal access to existing resources or international aid. Population trends reflect the mode of production of that society. It is argued that the Malthusian law of population and the theory of demographic transition is ahistorical and inaccurate. The theory does not explain why population growth rates change. In South Africa, fertility reflects lack of control over one's life and poverty. Migrant labor in South Africa undermined normal social institutions and disrupted family life. Government has emphasized a fear of a future population crisis because of resource shortages and a fear of the growing black population. The South African population development program is extracted and discussed. Questions are raised about the theory of demographic transition, the way resource allocation is ascertained, the relationship between resources and population in a specific area, and the relationship between population growth and development in general. The theory of demographic transition is examined and the Western influences which contributed to population growth through requests for changes in sexual mores and the effects of colonization. When demographic transition theory postulates that mortality rates decline with industrialization as a result of access to medical care and an improved diet, it doesn't take into account the discriminatory health care allocation under apartheid, or the displacement of rural people from their land and undermining of the rural peasantry. Separate development has led to inferior schooling and lack of access to skilled employment. In discussing the availability of resources in South Africa, the question is raised as to whether there is an absolute limit to water, or whether water management or water conservation is at issue, as in the case example of the Transkei. What is economical reflects political decisions about national priorities when consideration is given to alternative strategies for increasing the water supply, or solving pollution problems. The potential to feed South Africans is substantiated, and the problems of maldistribution identified. In establishing the balance between family planning and development, the Population Development Program (PDP) expresses contradictory aims; i.e., seeking community involvement of a politically disenfranchised population. The concept of overpopulation and the application of population control programs in South Africa does not address the problems of poverty and powerlessness.

性行為によって感染した２型単純ヘルペス・ウイルスによる急性へん桃炎

Because of changes in sexual mores, the oral cavity is increasingly becoming the site of primary infection for sexually transmitted diseases. A 28-year-old man who had severe tonsillitis needed hospitalization for parenteral fluid therapy. The tonsils were red and edematous without lacunar exudates. There was a shallow ulcerative lesion on the right posterior pillar. He had engaged in orogenital sex (cunnilingus) two weeks previously. Culturing swab from the ulcerative lesion and immunofluorescent technique showed herpes simplex virus type 2. The initial leukocyte count was 6400/mm3 with 56% neutrophils, 23% lymphocytes and 21% monocytes. Interestingly, the serum anti-EB virus titer was elevated during the acute phase (VCA γ-G 1 : 80 initially and1 : 20 in the convalescent phase). It seemed likely that endogenous reactivation of latent EB virus occurred in the tonsillar B-lymphocytes in a heterogenous response to HSV-2. One month later culturing swab from the tonsil was negative and the serum titer of anti-HSV type 2 was 1 : 4.

Comments on the eradication of bovine brucellosis

Some have suggested that any disease which can be eliminated from a herd can also be eradicated from a region and a nation. However illogical this conclusion, it is safe to state that the opposite is true. To eradicate disease, when possible, is surely wiser and ultimately cheaper. But, to promise eradication and fail to accomplish it results in cynicism and backlash. The promises of an early end of human venereal disease failed to consider the effects of changing sexual mores, drug resistant microbes, and inadequate reporting. The promises of eradication of brucellosis also failed to consider many factors which influence persistence of the disease.&#x0D; It is unfair to suggest that eradication of one disease can be equated with eradication of another or that comparisons can be made between one region or an entire country to others. Conditions, including the technology of diseases, are often vastly different and these will prevent achievement of goals. The nature of a disease must be known and the methods for its manipulation must be based upon all available facts such as transmission, reservoirs, vaccines, economics, etc. There are many negative aspects in brucellosis control and eradication and some of these are further examined in this paper.

Induced abortion: epidemiological aspects.

Sir Dugald Baird sketches the history of abortion legislation in Great Britain from the beginning of the century. In his views the 1967 Abortion Act has been one of the most important and beneficial pieces of social legislation enacted in Britain in the last 100 years. It has, however, brought problems both of administration in the hospitals and to individual doctors and nurses, particularly when the patients are young single women and even schoolgirls. One of the consequences of the Abortion Act has been a fall in maternal mortality and perinatal mortality rates. Abortion does not seem to be followed by serious emotional sequelae. Nevertheless recent changes in sexual mores have introduced new and serious social problems which are discussed in relation to the role of the doctor in his relationship with patients seeking abortion.

Post-coital Contraception

Changes in sexual mores have led to the need for an effective emergency postcoital contraceptive agent. To meet this need various individual steroids, either alone or in combination, have been evaluated and shown to be effective in preventing pregnancy as a result of a single, unprotected coital act. No drug has received specific marketing approval in North America for this purpose. However, in western Europe, the combination of ethinyloestradiol and levonorgestrel is marketed specifically for use as a postcoital contraceptive agent. Intrauterine copper contraceptive devices have also been shown to be effective postcoital contraceptive agents, but their applicability is confined to a specific segment of the population. Other agents are also being investigated for their postcoital contraceptive effectiveness, including prostaglandins, anti-progestins, GnRH agonists, super agonists and antagonists, and HCG antagonists. Sufficient interest exists in postcoital contraception that the World Health Organization has undertaken, through their task force dealing with postcoital, once-a-month and menses-inducing agents, to develop other postcoital drugs.Changing sexual mores have led to the need for an effective postcoital contraceptive agent. Postcoital contraception is, in theory, an emergency form of contraception designed to prevent pregnancy after a single unprotected coital exposure, not an ongoing method of fertility control. However, in South America, both levonorgestrel and quingestanol acetate have been used as continuous postcoital contraceptive agents. In terms of emergency methods, high dose estrogens alone or low dose estrogen in combination with a progestin have been used effectively. Postcoital agents are belived to exert their contraceptive effect on the implantation process either by alteration in endometrial enzymatic or metabolic activity or by some other means. Copper intrauterine devices are also under investigation as postcoital agents, but their use is not considered appropriate in young, nulliparous women with multiple sexual partners. Other methods being researched for this purpose include prostaglandins; antiprogestins; gonadotropin releasing hormone agonists, super agonists, and antagonists; and human chorionic gonadotropin antagonists.

Counseling and the College Student.

College mental services have come a long way since the early attempts, nearly 60 years ago, to meet the needs of students in emotional conflict, and this book edited by Dana Farnsworth and Graham Blaine is an excellent documentation for this progress. It is estimated that more than 200 colleges now provide a significant mental health service and that 15% to 20% of the students suffer from emotional difficulties, serious enough to diminish their effectiveness. All the authors come from the Boston region and they deal with the important aspects of student mental health; ambiguity regarding loyalty to students-patients and to the institution, the conditions under which research may be conducted, background of student activists and changing sexual mores. "Students Who Say 'No,' " is a chapter by Robert Coles, sexual morality is described by Dana Farnsworth, and drug abuse by Preston Munter. There is a chapter on depression by Paul

Education for family planning.

The change in sexual mores in the U.S. which has occurred since World War 2 had several cultural causes: 1)social mobility; 2)changing sexual roles; 3)mass media influence; and 4)technological advances. As a result attitudes towards sex and toward marriage and families have changed. Family planning programs should provide education and services. The small family norm should be emphasized and appreciation of the role of the family in community life stressed. Further basic research on human reproduction is needed. Fertility and population goals should be established for the U.S. Family planning information should be available to all socioeconomic groups and taught in school to youth. The U.S. should provide family planning assistance to any country requesting it.

Venereal disease in an elite group (university students) in East Africa.

Venereal diseases are a major problem in many universities in Africa. During 1966 the authors recorded and investigated all cases of venereal diseases at the Health Services of the University of East Africa. Out of a total of 8145 male students 1906 or 23% were affected by venereal diseases. Asians had the lowest incidence students from African states outide East Africa the highest; most were in the 21-25 age group and in their first year at college. The highest rate was in the Faculty of Agriculture and the lowest in that of Medicine. The peaks of the attacks were in January July and October coinciding with the commencement of new terms. Most common condition was gonococcal urethritis and postvenereal disease anxiety was rather frequent. A modern health education program to fit the changing sexual mores would be a welcome addition to the college required course of studies.

Sociocultural Research in Family Planning in the United States: Review and Prospects

Some of the data on recent demographic trends in the United States on family planning among Americans in general and on the factors influencing contraceptive use among the poor are reviewed. An important aspect of recent family formation patterns is the high prevalence of marriages which occur after the conception of the 1st child. Much is heard today about changes in sexual mores. Figures from the Institute of Sex Research show an increase in the incidence of premarital intercourse among women born from 1910 to 1930 compared to earlier generations. The general assumption is that this trend has continued in the last 20 years. Regarding contraception there are 2 historical trends which initially appear inconsistent. Favorable opinions of birth control became more common from 1936 to 1965 but the frequency of actual use among married couples was probably no greater in the 1950s than in the 1930s. An important distinction needs to be made between the effects of an earlier start of contraceptive use and the effects of increasing faithfulness in its practice as desired family size is approached. It is the belief of many demographers that the low birthrates in the 1930s and early 1940s reflect a high-water mark in contraceptive practice due to the strong on the part of couples to control births in that period. From this premise they argue that improvements in contraceptive technology can have little effect on natality rates. Although the strength of a determination to prevent pregnancy cannot be dismissed as a factor affecting natality is not a simple entity and it does not explain all variations in the success of family planning. The idea that lack of motivation accounts for the excess of births among the poor has been contradicted by recent experience of birth control clinics offering oral contraceptives or IUDs to low income populations.