Word: sexuality
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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THREE years ago the Lutheran bishops of Sweden caused an uproar by coming out against sin. The occasion was a pastoral letter on sexual morality. Tactfully vague, and generous toward "weaknesses of the flesh," the letter said in effect that the Lutheran Church was opposed to birth control, abortion and promiscuity, especially among the young. In no other country would the letter have caused more than a ripple. But in modern Sweden, where sociology has become a religion in itself, and birth control, abortion and promiscuity -especially among the young-are recognized as inalienable rights, there was a tidal wave...
...necessary. They say, 'Since these things exist, then let us do something constructive about them.' They don't believe it is possible to change human nature. They attack the problem as a sociological and medical one." "But what will this lead to?" I asked. "After all, sexual morality is basic to Western ethics." The man shook his head sadly. "I don't know what the result will be." In the pages of a Stockholm paper, in a typical one of a series of interviews being printed under the title, Swedish Youth Speaks, I found a partial...
According to Hicks, however, his fellows were "more excited about Judge Lindsey's views on companionate marriage and Bertrand Russell's program of sexual freedom than about politics." Many of the intellectuals were merely interested in dissent for its own sake. Hicks emphasizes that those belonging to the Liberal Club in the 1920's were not at all the intense and serious young men of the next decade. From the point of view of the Young Communist League of the 1930's, they were frivolous dilettantes...
...despite their desire to resemble women, all the men shared "an extremely shallow, immature and grossly distorted concept of what a woman is like socially, sexually, anatomically and emotionally." The investigators found no indication that the men would be any better off as castrated males in women's clothing: "The idea of surgery seems to represent an escape from . . . sexual impulses rather than a wish for a female sexual life...
...They particularly remembered childhood incidents supporting the idea that they had been female from birth. All, to some extent, were transvestites, i.e., desired to wear women's clothes. They struggled against all overt signs of masculinity; one even had his heavy, black beard burned out by electrolysis. Intense sexual conflicts, ranging from prudery to deep feelings of guilt, were evident in all of them. Said one: "It's all dirty. If I could have the operations and dress in feminine clothes, I'd feel free and clean...