Ok, so last week Google launched a new search option in their labs called the Google News Timeline. It’s AWESOME! So me, being me, did a search for ’sex’. Wow. Tons of sex articles in the past couple of days- today alone there are 10 articles on sex before Noon EST. So it’s a HUGE search query. I narrowed it to just showing me the highlights of the decades, and then amused myself by scrolling backwards. They have articles going back all the way to 1800! Wondering what’s going on in SEX for the past 200+ years?

1800s:

Wife sale prices in Manchester, England are now being regulated by the magistrate for quality so that the market wouldn’t be saturated with below-average specimines.

1810s:

Big problem - wives in Sydney, AUS are not as reverent and church-oriented as a new arival from England thinks they should be.

1820s:

Lots of rumblings about women who are disgracing their sex.

1830s:

Arguments over whether to educate women or not and whether the intellect and the soul have a sex. It is thought that they are asexual here.

1840s:

Lots of emphasis in articles on difference to women and romantic sensibilities- women should be put on a pedestal kind of thing.

1850s:

Ohh… articles BY women begin. Discussion on ‘the proper sphere of men’ and whether or not women can and should be shop keepers. It is thought that, so long as the shop is only selling to women things then they might be able to manage it.

1860s:

Interesting Cornell article about how, if liberated from the responsibilities of housewifery (because their educations have made them now bad at this) women might become leaders among women in the same way men have become leaders among men. Laboring women fight for better (not equal!) pay.

1870s:

Enter “Sex Education”! Ok, but not what you think. It’s a huge question, all the way to the president and the supreme court, whether to educate women. Specifically whether to allow them to attain a higher education and open them to professional fields.

1880s:

Many still are arguing that the sex of someone limits them, but by the middle of the decade 13 female doctors are awarded degrees! Fun violent argument against a statement that American women, because they don’t have to work”will become more intelligent and cultured than men”. Rather, women are for ornament- their education and culturing will never be used to displace the male role as breadwinner.

1890s:

Women newspaper writers are frequent and the difference and similarities between genders continues to have the front page as the Woman’s Suffrage movement gets fully underway. However, for the first time, we’re beginning to see the term “sex” used to refer to intercourse instead of gender in the newspapers on a regular basis as the studies of Darwinism become more and more popular.

1900s:

Lots of questions about the sex of angels real near the century turning. Then everything turns to sexual equality as the sufferage movement steams up into full force.

1910s:

Dr. Riddle first attempts to control the sex of animals and says that, if successful, it can be applied to humans. Sufferage and equality fight continues.

1920s:

Ok, sex education is back- this time in schools. Except, if you talk about the actual SEX act (instead of just hygene) you’re liable to be suspended from teaching. So keep it clean folks!

1930s:

Here’s the breaking point- it’s the hey-day for Sex in the news. At least 3 articles in Time magazine on the subject. The female sex hormone is discovered. A bunch of daring ’sex’ films are banned because they display the female body to levaciously (as in, draped in cloth instead of clothed). Sex conference held to teach kids in schools how to have better sex lives and thereby prevent divorce (it planned things, but didn’t get anything implemented *pout*). Popular book out called “Marriage” in Europe and US promotes women, as well as men, ’sowing their wild oats’ before they get married- around the age of 15.

1940s:

There’s still a lot of talk, especially at the NYTs, about how to controll the sex of offspring. Lots of studies- including interesting douching and timing methods to control fertility and ensure a male. Sex education continues to grow and expand with parents being told for the first time to talk honestly and openly with kids about sex, even at a young age, instead of using fairy tales.

1950s:

Lots of reported and discussed sex crimes. Is this a rise in reporting or a rise in activity? No way to know. Catholic church pushes back AGAINST sex education in favor of parents and the church teaching kids instead of the school system.

1960s:

Wow, tons of sex books published. Most notably is Masters and Johnson’s “Human Sexual Response” which describes in detail the female erotic stimulation and response leading to orgasm. It’s dry and clinical and sells like a bestselling novel.

1970s:

Ford hires more women workers. Sex education is believed to lead to experimentation and so the Vatican publishes a Sex Code for Catholics. Sex is apparently everywhere, even your phone!

1980s:

Sex in schools and Aids are in the headlines. With the growth of Aids, Regan urges kids to avoid sex. Sex scandals are on the rise.

1990s:

More sex scandals (anyone remember Lewinski?) and as they become common, same-sex couples begin to fight for parental and marital rights. In addition, same-sex couples and GLBTQ couples fight for equal rights in the work place (anyone remember/experience don’t ask/don’t tell?).

2000s:

The fight for same sex marriage continues, sex education fight comes back with a vengence and surveys about sex show that people are having sex for more reasons (Chicago Tribune says 237 reasons) and later in life (80s and 90s!).

Wow… what a journey! Here’s to all those out there who have and who continue to fight for sexual rights!

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