Hi Alexis--you might like to check out "Sexual Revolution in Early America" by Richard Godbeer for a good primer on sexual values at the nation's inception. Puritans weren't nearly as sexually repressive as is generally thought (at points they were downright kinky), but they did believe that the community as a whole was responsible for the actions (read: sins) of any one member, which led to some fairly strange policies.
Forgive me, I was using the term in the current common American usage. I am thinking of the American problem where Janet Jackson's nipple exposed was considered a "big deal" as opposed to the say German or French understanding of what is appropriate on a hot day or at the beach.
Perhaps a better term would be uber British - that is the prim and proper cultural values that came over the ocean and festered to the point of becoming over-the-top extreme.
It should also be noted that sexual acts/expression supposedly flaunted and open does not necessarily equate to liberated. It can be an extreme rebellion against repressive tendencies which can be just as harmful. I am thinking of many individuals at an art college along the Hudson river in a place called Annandale-on-Hudson (*cough* BARD).
Hi Alexis--you might like to check out "Sexual Revolution in Early America" by Richard Godbeer for a good primer on sexual values at the nation's inception. Puritans weren't nearly as sexually repressive as is generally thought (at points they were downright kinky), but they did believe that the community as a whole was responsible for the actions (read: sins) of any one member, which led to some fairly strange policies.
ReplyDeleteForgive me, I was using the term in the current common American usage. I am thinking of the American problem where Janet Jackson's nipple exposed was considered a "big deal" as opposed to the say German or French understanding of what is appropriate on a hot day or at the beach.
ReplyDeletePerhaps a better term would be uber British - that is the prim and proper cultural values that came over the ocean and festered to the point of becoming over-the-top extreme.
It should also be noted that sexual acts/expression supposedly flaunted and open does not necessarily equate to liberated. It can be an extreme rebellion against repressive tendencies which can be just as harmful. I am thinking of many individuals at an art college along the Hudson river in a place called Annandale-on-Hudson (*cough* BARD).