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Science, Sexuality, and Sex Radicalism, C. 1895- 1913

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Science, Sexuality, and Sex Radicalism, C. 1895- 1913 View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Open Research Exeter Constructing ‘Free Love’: Science, Sexuality, and Sex Radicalism, c. 1895- 1913. Submitted by Sarah Lyndsey Jones to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History In October 2015 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: ………………………………………………………….. Abstract In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, a broad community of radical men and women engaged in discussions about sex reform and what they termed ‘free love’. Much of this debate took place within a particular community of periodicals, as those interested in radical sexual reform read, contributed to, and corresponded with a small number of key sex radical journals such as The Adult, Lucifer, the Light-Bearer, and The Freewoman. Drawing upon their contributions to these journals, this thesis will examine the ways in which sex radical authors built and shaped their beliefs about sex and sex reform – in short, how they constructed ‘free love’ in their work. In particular my research will explore how sex radicals, despite holding diverse and often conflicting views, used similar theories and ideas drawn from a broad range of scientific disciplines to support their arguments. This thesis will show that radicals used a varied set of scientific ideas and theories in order to contend that mankind had a ‘natural’ and important sexuality that had been harmfully bound and distorted by contemporary social, cultural, and legal institutions. It will demonstrate that it was these scientific ideas that underpinned their criticisms of existing social institutions, and thus framed their varied calls for radical sexual reform. Despite the often contentious nature of sex radical debates, this thesis will therefore illustrate that radical authors throughout these journals shared a belief that a scientific understanding of sex was crucial to making sex ‘free’. Furthermore, by exploring links between sex radicals and other social reformers, research will illustrate that radicals were not isolated and should not be dismissed as a marginal group; instead it will show that they are better understood as active participants in part in a broad set of contemporary intellectual debates about issues related to sex, relationships, gender, and the body. As such, this thesis will show the importance of bringing radicals in from the fringe of historical accounts in order to gain a more in-depth understanding of such debates. 2 Acknowledgments Funding for my PhD studies was provided through the generous support of Great Western Research, alongside much appreciated financial support from Andrew Threipland. Without the help and guidance of my supervisors, colleagues, friends, and family this thesis (and the person who wrote it) would have been a total mess. Firstly, I’d like to thank my supervisor Professor Kate Fisher. Without her kindness, encouragement, and considerable patience this project would have never come together. I am indebted to her for the support she has given me throughout this long and difficult process, and for the faith she has shown in me and my work. I also need to thank Kate for handling the inevitable meltdowns wonderfully – without the tea, cake, and kind words there would have been a lot more crying in public. I’d also like to thank my second supervisor Dr Staffan Müller-Wille for his insightful feedback, and for his help in developing my research. I’m also grateful for the input of Dr Jana Funke. Her help and guidance has been invaluable, and she always managed not to laugh when I asked ridiculous questions. I have been lucky enough to be a part of a vibrant postgraduate research community at the University of Exeter, and thanks need to go my friends and colleagues for their input and support. Hannah Charnock has been especially helpful, both for her insightful feedback and for her valiant attempts to correct my grammar. Particular thanks need to go my friends in Office 2. Despite the inevitable difficulties of dragging a thesis together, they always made coming to work a pleasure. Without their encouragement (and the supply of biscuits) this process would have been much more difficult. My whole family have been amazing but a special thank you needs to go to my parents, Sue and Gareth. They have supported me in so many ways, and have always believed that this thesis would be finished (even when I wasn’t so sure). I am so incredibly grateful to them for their unwavering love and support – I hope I have made them proud. 3 Finally I’d like to thank my wife, Sarah. I’d need another thesis to cover all the ways she has helped me through this, so I’ll keep it simple - I don’t care what the free lovers would say, being married to you is great. 4 Contents Introduction .......................................................................................................... 9 Sex and Science: Radical Constructions of Sexuality ........................................ 39 ‘Natural’ Sexuality and the Critique of Marriage ................................................. 83 Sexual Knowledge and Sexual Ignorance ........................................................ 125 Evolution, Civilization, and the Development of Mankind: Debating Alternatives to Marriage ............................................................................................................ 167 Women, Reproduction, and the Question of Equality ....................................... 203 Defining ‘Freedom’ ........................................................................................... 237 Conclusions ...................................................................................................... 271 Bibliography ..................................................................................................... 283 5 Introduction ‘From the mire of injustice and unmentionableness [sic] into which the sexual instinct has been cast by the unco’ guid, the Legitimation Leaguers set themselves to raise it into the peaceful paths of pleasantness. Appreciation is our attitude towards this instinct, as against the depreciation it was so long been subject to…To the Obscure Judes and distracted Sues of society we offer the hand of fellowship, and boldly proclaim that only where love is free from legal bonds and sordid pressures, and mutual attraction guides voluntary association between the sexes, is the realisation of the most complete life possible.’1 In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, a broad community of radical men and women engaged in discussions about sex reform and what they termed ‘free love’. Much of this debate took place within a particular community of periodicals, as those interested in radical sexual reform read, contributed to, and corresponded with a small number of key sex radical journals. While their views and agendas often diverged, many of these radicals came to this debate with a shared (and novel) understanding of sex. These sex radicals (as I shall term them) agreed that mankind had a powerful, pure, and natural sexual instinct. This natural imperative, they claimed, had been wrongfully and harmfully restricted and degraded by contemporary social, legal, and cultural mores. As such they were highly critical of laws, values, and customs that they believed had served to obscure the ‘true’ nature of sexuality, and render what they saw as a clean, natural instinct as impure and 1 Leighton Pagan, ‘To the “Obscure Judes” and Distracted “Sues”’, The Adult 1:1 (June, 1897), 6. 6 immoral. This denigration, they claimed, had interfered with and distorted the natural relationship between the sexes. In their view this distortion had a number of worrying outcomes and lay at the heart of a range of social problems. Firstly, radicals argued that the restrictions and controls placed on the expression of natural and pure sexual urges was harmful to an individual’s physical and mental health, development and wellbeing. Furthermore, they linked it to worrying social issues such as the declining moral health of society, unhappy, unequal and unjust marriages, and the proliferation of sexual vice. These sex radicals therefore called for a redefinition of the way people thought about sex – they argued that people should not consider the sexual instinct to be something dangerous or in need of control, and instead (as in the opening quote) they called for it to be appreciated as a positive and powerful force. Allowing sex to be free of ‘legal bonds and sordid pressures’, and allowing mutual feelings of love and desire to guide and govern sexual relations, they believed, would restore a natural order that would not only make people healthier and happier, but also cure a number of prominent social ills. A key aim of these radicals was therefore to free mankind’s natural sexual instincts from the social and legal controls and restrictions placed upon them – in short, they sought to facilitate ‘free love’. As Joanne Passet has noted, terminology is a problematic aspect of any scholarly consideration of free love in this period due to the term’s contested meanings.2 For some contemporaries,
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