Sexuality: Midterm Essay

Rutz 1 Larissa Rutz HIST 4990: History of Sexuality Dr. Hampton October 23, 2022 Midterm Essay Throughout the early history of sexuality, the role of capitalism largely influences our understandings of sexual knowledge and education.we can see that capitalism plays a huge role in how we understand sexual knowledge. From slaves being seen as strictly a commodity, to dating today, we can assess the economical impacts. It is no surprise that it is hard to look at the history of sexuality without acknowledging capitalism, because it fueled so many of the sexual movements we look back at today. Capitalism is seen while assessing the marketplace of slavery, evaluating the effect that laws can play on sexuality, through contraception efforts, and applying dating and its economic impacts to the history of sexuality. Dating back to the 1800s, we can begin to assess the role that capitalism played in sexuality while discussing the marketplace of slavery. White men, and in turn the law itself, saw the bodies of enslaved black women as nothing other than a commodity during this time. Within “Rethinking Sexual Violence and the Marketplace of Slavery” , Stephanie Jones-Rogers states, “black women’s sexualized bodies held a self-perpetuating, economic promise that black men’s bodies did not possess… pairing enslaved male and female bodies together was the key to 1 increasing economic investments in the institutions.” This demonstrates the difference in monetary values that enslaved men and women had, and how an enslaved black women’s body 1 Stephanie Jones-Rogers, “Rethinking Sexual Violence and the Marketplace of Slavery,” in Sexuality and Slavery: Reclaiming Intimate Histories in the Americas,eds. Daina Ramey Berry and Leslie M. Harris (University of Georgia Press, 2018) 119. Rutz 2 2 was only as valuable as “the future promise of her womb.” This goes to show that enslaved women were not only an economic investment for the labor they performed, but also their reproductive abilities. The commodification of enslaved women shows how white men had to get the most bang for their buck to see their own economic well-being prosper, and in turn, result in personal economic growth. It was nearly impossible for an enslaved black woman to have a say when it came to her medical treatments. Their medical professionals understood that black womens’ worth depended on the health of their reproductive ability, so they would take the decisions into their own hands on what they thought was best. Enslaved black women were seen more as birthers then as laborers, but they couldn’t be one without the other. Deidre Cooper Owens in “Black Women’s Experiences in Slavery and Medicine” describes, “maintaining enslaved bodies and extending 3 the lives of slaves yielded a palpable increase in the net worth of slave owners.” This shows that slave owners were constantly aware of the health state their slaves were in and would act fast if something wasn’t right in order to maintain their economic profit. Further, proving that enslaved women were simply a commodity because “to birth a living and healthy black slave was rewarding for all members of slave communities including the mother, the plantation 4 physician, and the slave owner.” The life of a slave was really just an economic incentive at the end of the day and putting money into the health of a slave would later ensure an increased payout. Slavery, the healthcare of that slave, and capitalism all play a vital role in the history of sexuality. 2 Jones-Rogers, 118 Deirdre Cooper Owens, “Black Women’s Experiences in Slavery and Medicine,” in Medical Bondage (University of Georgia Press, 2018) 66. 4 Owens, 43. 3 Rutz 3 The Comstock Act of 1873 again exemplifies the relationship between the economy and sexuality. This act regulated the market of “obscene” publications at a time when constructs and ideas of sexuality were developing. By monitoring the distribution of all these materials, it was “the first step in the creation of a federal regulatory framework to enforce Christian sexual morality.” 5 The use of surrogacy and the privatization of the Comstock Act was where Anthony Comstock was able to receive the funding for his regulation. This is ultimately how Comstock was able to regulate and alter the American sexual discourse for almost a century. Comstock did not have to directly regulate these deviant sexual behaviors, but the act, and Comstock himself 6 even, was able to regulate the markets in which these behaviors could develop. Through the monitoring and regulation of the market for obscene materials, we can see the effect that something as minimal as monitoring media and advertisements can have on the economic state at a local and federal level. Through these examples, the impact that capitalism plays while exploring contraceptive consumers during the 1930s. The contraceptive industry grew rapidly in the United Sates during the Great Depression. Wealthy and disadvantaged families alike were trying to limit family size through this time of economic hardship through measures of family planning. Pharmaceutical companies and rubber manufactures capitalized on this fear of conception by launching campaigns that would appeal to these families and persuade women to throw out their natural methods and try a commercial device for contraception instead. In 1938, the newfound industry 5 6 Jeffrey Escoffier et al., “The Comstock Apparatus,” in Intimate States: Gender, Sexuality, and Governance in Modern US History, eds. Margot Canaday, et al. (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2021) 43. Escoffier et al., 46. Rutz 4 sales exceeded $250,000,000 and was declared the most flourishing industry of the7 This decade. contraceptive/family planning industry was successful through extensive advertising efforts and empowering women to become their top consumers in a new economic era for women. Taking advantage of the booming industry, some began to exploit this by selling contraception efforts that were useless or dangerous in order to make a profit. By producing a wide variety of products, it made them more available to women and families in all economic situations. Andrea Tone in “Contraceptive Consumers: Gender and the Political Economy of Birth Control in the 1930s” mentions, “contraceptive manufacturers did not create the desire to control fertility, but 8 they preyed on and compounded women’s fears of pregnancy to reap higher profits.” The contraceptive industry is a prime example of how sexuality and capitalism go hand in hand in the history of sexuality, and to this day, women are still the top, if not the only consumers for high effectivity birth control methods, regardless of the side effects and price points as avoiding conception is a must. Women partaking in the field of sex work also serve as an example of the socioeconomic impacts of the intersections of gender and class during these time periods . There were various levels within the sex work hierarchy that appealed to men from different economic standpoints. Women began to participate in sex work because they could not find jobs in factories or stores, so they began to work for themselves through prostitution, particularly appealing to single women.9 Women found that if they became associated with a brothel, they would have a 7 Andrea Tone, “Contraceptive Consumers: Gender and the Political Economy of Birth Control in the 1930s,”Journal of Social History_29, no. 3 (1996) 485. 8 Tone, 488. 9 Angela J. Smith, et al., “The View from Two Fields: History and Archaeology of Historical Sex Work,” in Historical Sex Work: New Contributions from History and Archaeology,ed Kristen R. Fellows, et al. (University Press of Florida, 2020) 11. Rutz 5 domestic space that they could do day-to-day tasks in while providing them with the financial 10 support to provide for themselves and their families. The sex work industry supports the idea that women’s bodies were objectified and commodified in the patriarchal society, playing into the idea of capitalism. In a society where societal structures weren’t reliable and constant, women had to take matters into their own hands and take spaces as their own in order to survive and provide for themselves. Similar to sex work, treating and petting came into play and show another side of the women as a commodity within the patriarchal society. Treating was a much safer way for women to meet their material needs without having to partake in the risks that came with prostitution. By bringing the interactions of men and women into commercial amusements, it transformed the 11 idea of sex as being for sale to sex as barter. Alice Clement mentions in “Treating, Dating, Petting, and the Class Dynamics of America’s First Sexual Revolution,” that treating is a model of how to manage the normal heterosexual relationships, “boys could pay in cash, and girls could 12 reciprocate with sexual intimacy in the form of kissing, fondling, and at times, intercourse.” This stemmed from the Great Depression era, and by asking for help with bills in exchange for sexual favors, it wasn’t necessarily considered prostitution anymore. Clement mentions that women always walked a very line between treating and casual prostitution in order to support 10 11 Alexander D. Keim, “Sex Workers in the City: Brothels, Working Women, and the Urban Landscape of Nineteenth-Century Boston’s North End Neighborhood,” in Historical Sex Work: New Contributions from History and Archaeology, ed Kristen R. Fellows, et al. (University Press of Florida, 2020) 110. Elizabeth Alice Clement, “Treating, Dating, Petting, and the Class Dynamics of America’s First Sexual Revolution,” inLove for Sale: Courting, Treating, and Prostitution in New York City(The University of North Carolina Press, 2006), 212. 12 Clement, 213. Rutz 6 13 themselves under the economic pressures and their family responsibilities. Treating soon came to be referred to as dating and supported the new entertainment economy. Young people who lived in New York spent over five million a year in halls that had an admission fee of ten cents, showing the huge impact that treating and dating had on the economic growth following the Depression.14 Through the mass amount of money spent on the entertainment field through treating, we not only see the impact it has on the history of sex work and the field transitioning into safer routes, but we also see the tremendous economic benefit that it provided to a post-war country. Looking back to slavery, we can see the impact that slave owners had on sexuality through their commodification of enslaved back women as they only saw them for their reproductive value. Through the Comstock Act of 1873 and the contraception boom during the Great Depression, it shows that a simple control over a market can go a long way, and we are still seeing the side effects of both of these events today. Women engaging in the sex work industry play into the commodification and objectification of the female body by the patriarchal society in an effort to create a life for themselves where they can support their family, as there was no other choice for some of these women. Today, we can see how treating has informed our definition of dating today, and how the origins of masculinity for providngfor the women or family in return for sexual favor. All of these topics show just how closely intertwined sexuality and capitalism are, as money is the basis and driver for all actions. 13 14 Clement, 216. Clement, 219. Rutz 7