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Introduction of the american society change in 1920
American society in the 1920s
American society in the 1920s
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Jillian Dachman History 392, Dr. Lapsley 2.25.14 The nineteenth century brought with it tremendous economic prosperity, prompting vast urban expansion, widespread acceptance of capitalist ideals, and redefinitions of family and sex. The industrial economic boom brought waves of immigrants with new and strange customs, disease and moral disparity. The rapidly growing middle-class fought to enhance its own respectability and distinguish itself from the filth and disease of the lower-class, as well as from the decadence of the upper-class. Middle-class citizens set themselves apart morally, and reinforced their hope for the next generation by imposing strict behavioral limits privately and publicly. Moral reform and social purity movements of this century were extensions of these efforts, and attempted to regulate what was perceived as the source of social degeneration: prostitution, venereal disease and the sexual double standard. The relationship between early nineteenth century socio-sexual moral reform, medical sexual reform and late century social purity movements can be superficially viewed as antagonistic. However, each of them responded to the phenomenon of urbanization and modernization, and the agendas of moral reform and social purity were conclusively in opposition to pestilential classic moralism which assumed that the sexual double standard was an embodiment of natural law based on immutable differences between the sexes. Thus, social purity activists and moral reformists were fighting against common enemies, and that which privileged the white, middle-class heterosexual male in both social and sexual practice. During the transition to a multifarious complex of industry and commerce in the nineteenth century, ... ... middle of paper ... ...of sexuality in the public arena. As they left the hallowed domestic sphere, women increasingly perceived sexuality as a political, and not simply a private, issue. (4) The object of moral reform moved quickly past the private and personal concerns of individual middle-class women and generated an objective of achieving a set of controls over sexuality, structured through the family and enforced through social purity, and even through law. Reformists rallied against the double standard, the vileness of prostitution, male lust and drunkenness, and heavily advocated sexual restraint. Nineteenth century culture was one in which it was difficult to even conceive of female sexual agency, and as long as women lacked agency in other vital areas, social purity feminists could and did regard male sexual self-control and single-standard morality as significant advances.
Expanding on the notion of moral regulation evolution, Hunt makes note of shifts in civil associations and their approaches to regulating morals between the 18th and 19th centuries. Hunt speaks of the Societies for the Reformation of Matters, its successor – the Vice Society, in chapter two, and the Female Moral Reform Society and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in chapter three. In brief, moral regulation projects shifted from simply enforcing the laws in place at the time, to working alongside the state, to going back to civil matters but this time adding women into the social sphere, and rescuing and aiding immoral actors instead of punishing them. The Societies for Reformation of Matters existed to enforce laws which were in place, while its successor had more on its agenda. Comparing the two organizations shows that although they shared similar fundamental visions and motives at first, the Vice Society evolved into something much larger a...
This essay will analyse whether the iconic representation of the roaring twenties with the woman's new right to sexuality, was a liberal step of progression within society or a capitalist venture to exploit a new viable market. Using Margaret Sanger's work in comparison with a survey conducted by New Girls for Old, the former a more mature look at the sexuality and ownership to a woman's body and the second a representation of girls coming of age in the sexually "free" roaring twenties. Margaret Sanger is known as "the mother of planned parenthood", and in the source she collates a collection of letters to speak of the sexual enslavement of motherhood through the fulfilment of the husbands desires. While Blanchard and Manasses of New Girls for Old suggests the historical consensus that the flapper is a figment compared to the reality where promiscuity was largely condemned.
The Effects of American Reform Movements in the 1900s Living in the United States of America is all about opportunity. The opportunity to get a good job, make money, and lead a life of good quality; in other words, the opportunity to live, live, and live the Pursuit of Happiness. However, the opportunity for many people was not around throughout the 1800s. Certain groups of people did not hold the basic rights that were guaranteed by the Constitution. In fact, most of the people that had opportunity were the wealthy white men, and few other people ever had any chance to lead a good life.
The first half of the nineteenth century was marked by great economic, and therefore social, upheaval. After America won the War of 1812, it turned to internal improvements. The formerly local economic market was greatly expanded through the building of thousands of miles of new roads and canals. Before new methods of transportation opened up, most people had confined their business transactions to their immediate neighbors, but some saw the potential for more lucrative business in other places. “…increasing numbers of people produced for the "market," rather than for personal consumption, and made decisions about what to produce, what to charge, and where to sell on the basis of "the market" (Shmoop Editorial team). With this increasing economic shift came new social tensions. Farmers grew their, formerly local, operations and became businessmen. They had more employees and, thus more interpersonal relationships. The role of bu...
... Through “A&P”, John Updike has told of a coming revolution, where the establishments of authority will have to defend each and every rule and regulation that they have put in place. He tells of a revolution where this young generation will break sex from its palace of sanctity. Every single idea that was present in American society that led to the sex driven, often naïve, free spiritedness of the sixties to present day are present in John Updike’s “A&P”.
the last third of the 18th century and the first two decades of the 19th
This new sense of equality and freedom manifested itself through what might be termed as “unladylike things”. The introduction of birth control in the last decade empowered women to take control of their own body as well. The Flapper became more open to experiment with sexual behaviors than previous generations. Sigmund Freud, a modern-day psychoanalyst, claimed that this sudden expr...
At the turn of the 19th century Americans faced a multitude of cultural changes, involving contraceptive acceptance, sexuality changes, and modernism acceptance. Contraceptives were illegal in the early 1900s and posed many relationship problems between married couples since they wanted to be intimate. New ideas about sexuality and affection changed the views on appropriate erotic practices to indulge in within single people typically around college age. Women and men didn’t wait until marriage before having some type of sexual relation, which caused family problems and government intervention because of the negative views of being promiscuous. Modernism ideals developed with the introduction of new sciences and the argument of evolution
The changes that took place in the 1920s were drastic in many different ways, whether they are socially, economically, or morally, many people were affected in some way. Different events, such as Prohibition or the Great Crash, played as key factors in the social change of the 1920s. The 1920s moral crisis, “took the form of a confrontation over consumers’ rights” (Mays, “Cultural” 696). In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, “Babylon Revisited”, the lifestyle and struggles of the 1920s are clearly expressed and shown in a very personal way. Although there are different types of morals displayed throughout the story, by using characters like Marion and Lorraine, the reader can see these morals and see that the old morality seems to be more valued, while
Joane Nagel reveals 2000 that “No ethnic boundary is more sexualized , surveilled, and scrutinized in US society than the color line dividing blacks and white” (Ethnicity and Sexuality, 2000, p.122). Racial theme has been a major part of US history since the colonial and slavery eras. The struggle of minorities to overcome the oppressors has led to the creation of many civil right organizations which demanded respect, freedom, equal rights and social advancement. Not only were minorities politically and economically disadvantaged, their sexualities were also designed to control them. Normality, which permitted acceptance and adherence into a civilized society, became visible in racial and sexual discussions. What is considered authentic and normal sexualities in the US from 1880-1940? This paper examines how race manifests in control over sexuality by exploring ideologies such as class, gender and race, which form sexual beliefs and practices among white and African Americans.
Klein, Marty. America's War on Sex: the Continuing Attack on Law, Lust, and Liberty. 2nd ed. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Praeger, 2012. Print.
Another belief is held that cultural norms around sexuality, is insensitive to acts and persons that engage in any acts that are not seen as socially appropriate. Thus, making laws that unfairly stigmatize individuals who sexual expressions or sexual acts that are seen as perverted or dangerous. Post- World War II saw a similar response to deviant sexual behavior, this was linked to the changes of gender roles and the anxiety that it created around it. The conclusion was based that deviant sexual behavior was the culprit and an increase of the family and children principal took precedence. Which in turn, concludes that law was used as a tool for a legal
[Sati] did not occur in England, but many manifestations of the attitudes and anxieties underlying the practice did. Nineteenth-century respectability in both England and India divided women into exalted and degraded classes, not only on basis of actual or imputed sexual behavior, but also on the basis of whether that behavior was at all times controlled and supervised, pref...
Around the times of the 1920’s people started to oppose the moral beliefs of others. The article “Only Yesterday,” discusses this 1920’s revolution and the effects it had on society.
It has been said that “Society has always defined for us what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman, what a man should be like and what a woman should be like, and these traditional definitions of gender roles have limited and even harmed individuals”. The theme of sexual politics comes to mind for this quote. One can define sexual politics as the relationship of the sexes, male and female regarding power. Society’s definition of this can limit an individual in their gender role and restrain a person to not be themselves.