The Influence Of Masculinity In The 19th Century

The 19th-Century was a period in which the expression of sexuality and sexual compulsion was firmly repressed. Charles E. Rosenberg explores the typical behaviors of the sexes, and how they related to the expression, or repression, of sexuality in “Sexuality, Class and Role in 19th-Century America.” Medical and biological literature tended to adopt very sex-negative attitudes, condemning sexual desires and activity. This literature was often ambivalent and self-contradicting. Initially, people viewed sex as a normal human behavior: they believed sexual excess was bad, but thought it was natural and necessary after puberty because horniness left unsatisfied and untreated could cause disease. However, in the 1830s, the previous sex-neutral attitude was quickly replaced by a harsher, more negative view of sexuality. “Quacks,” or charlatans, tried to instill people with a crippling fear of sex by warning them of

Rosenberg shares the account of a physician on his experiences with “aggressive masculinity” in his field of work: “‘I regret,’ a self-consciously horrified physician recorded in the early 1880s, ‘to say that I have known some fathers to tickle the genital organs of their infant boys until a complete erection of the little penis ensued, which effect pleases the father as an evidence of a robust boy”. The trend of fathers trying to ensure that their young sons were masculine and robust was common during the 19th-century. Fathers sent their sons off to brothels, also known as bawdy houses. This was so important in the 19th-century because effeminate men were pitied and even hated, so they looked to establish and affirm their masculinity in whatever way they could, even if it meant having sex with a prostitute at a very young age. Their ability to perform sexually was taken very seriously, and was what essentially defined them during this