SEXUAL ATTRACTION: EARLY EXPERIENCES OF INTERCOURSE

A critical review of the evidence suggests that the age at which intercourse starts is mainly governed by the genetic blueprint as modified by earlier sexual and emotional experiences. Personality development and social skills have to be sufficiently well developed to attract a partner but their availability for sex and emotional exaggeration are also important ingredients.

On balance girls think they are looking for a romantic relationship and boys for a physical one. Girls generally are hoping for their search to end in security, while boys are looking for adventure, but there are probably more girls around today in an adventurous frame of mind and boys in a romantic one.

Emotional and sexual attraction are complex issues of which we know only a few dimensions. Variations in taste between individuals ensure that almost any man or woman will be attractive to someone of the opposite sex. Hairy women, for example, often believe themselves to be unattractive but some men prefer them. Physical differences and even disabilities can be attractive to others. Physical attractiveness is the most important factor to young adolescents and to adults looking for brief affairs. Distinguishing emotional attraction from the physical is mainly an adult skill.

For women particularly, how attractive they feel greatly influences how attractive they are. A good morale is vital to one’s sense of attractiveness.

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SEXUAL ATTRACTION: FACES AND HEIGHT

There is evidence to suggest that there is a widely held notion of the ‘ideal’ face. In one study people were shown photos of twelve young women between the ages of twenty and twenty-five and there was marked agreement as to which faces were the most attractive. The only people who disagreed to any extent were the over fifty-five-year-olds and some members of the unskilled occupations.

As so many people agreed about what is attractive they must clearly be making their judgement using certain shared standards. People shown photographs of physically attractive people readily assign them more socially desirable attributes than they do photos of unattractive people. On balance, we also assume that attractive people will be more likely to hold top jobs, be better parents, be more happily married and have better lives generally. It also seems that we are more likely to trust physically attractive people on a first meeting than the physically unattractive. This confers a tremendous advantage on the attractive because by definition almost all contacts are one-offs and will never get any further if there is no immediate attraction. There is a greater chance that this immediate attraction will happen with attractive people.

Height

As a man’s height increases so does our expectation of his socially desirable personal qualities. People tend to guess the height of authority figures and attractive people as taller than they actually are and one researcher has noted that every American president elected since at least 1900 has been the taller of the two major candidates. Women almost everywhere invariably prefer men who are taller than themselves.

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MID-ADOLESCENCE

Middle adolescence, or adolescence proper, starts at around the age of fourteen or fifteen in girls and fifteen or sixteen in most boys. By the end of early adolescence boys are still mainly homosexual in a social sense but an interest in girls has started to develop. Nevertheless the boy is still looking towards boys rather than girls for approval and friendship. Any social contacts with girls are usually undertaken along with other boys. Although for most girls the main friendship is with another girl, a girl’s heterosexual drive and interests have been much greater than those of boys throughout early adolescence. A girl with a boyfriend is likely to think of him as her best friend.

A recent survey of nearly 800 fifteen-year-olds revealed that girls, compared with boys, were more concerned about their personal safety, their ‘looks’, criticism from others, arguments with their parents, confusion about life, speaking-up in class, the health of their mothers, obtaining a job eventually and their ability to do it well. The concerns of girls are thus more mature and adult than those of boys at the same age. Worries about their mothers’ health may reflect the tendency of mothers generally to use emotional blackmail to control older girls by making remarks about the consequences of the girls’ behaviour on their health. The phase of conflict between mother and daughter can become ferocious and may result in the girl running away or becoming pregnant to punish the mother. If a girl feels she receives only criticism instead of help and understanding she may think these or other dramatic acts are necessary.

A lot of this kind of trouble could be avoided if parents recognised that most girls are in a conflict over their desire to please their parents but also to grow up and fulfil their own needs. Adolescents, both boys and girls, criticise themselves enough and require little in the way of external help in the matter! Approval and success at home increase their self-confidence and protect them from excessive peer-group pressures and also from flagrant rebellion.

Survey evidence shows that the majority of mid-adolescents get on well with their parents and respect and admire them. A survey of 1000 teenage boys revealed that most felt understood by their parents, regarded their discipline as reasonable and were proud of them. Nevertheless, mid-adolescence is the time when the instinctual sex drive is finally withdrawn from the direction of the opposite-sex parent and is invested in the adolescent him- or herself. Masturbation rates tend to rise, as does a preoccupation with the self and the body. The capacity for abstract thinking which starts in early adolescence increases and results in mid-adolescence being a potentially creative period. Girls may begin to keep diaries recording their moods and activities. Emotional and romantic feelings can be inspired by things such as literature and landscapes. Poetry writing may start. Although mid-adolescents can be savage, more in the way of mindless violence than for any purpose, the stage is usually one in which inner feelings of tenderness and beauty develop.

Sexual fantasies keep in step and, although they may include unusual or even ‘deviant’ elements, active involvement with the opposite sex begins to emerge in fantasies. Although girls may have earlier explored their vaginas and many may have used tampons, the vagina becomes more significantly incorporated into the body-image at this age. Earlier, unsophisticated fantasies give way more to fantasies of ‘making love’. Psychosexual history-taking from a spectrum of girls and women, not just those with sexual problems, shows that by the age of sixteen something like three-quarters of girls have included vaginal activity both in their fantasies and their masturbatory practices. The physically relatively insensitive vagina now becomes psychologically valuable and can give her physical pleasure.

Thoughts of using her vagina to show her emotional feelings to a boy, and the pleasure he will obtain from it, become exciting.

Mid-adolescents may be involved in heterosexual relationships and intercourse is common. A 1987 study of 6000 readers of a UK woman’s magazine found that the average under-zo had lost her virginity at 15.8 years. This is also a time of sexual rehearsal in fantasy and self-generated romanticism which may be placed on a member of the opposite sex though almost always in a play-acting way. This is not to deny that, for example, a sixteen-year-old girl can love a boy, but it must be said that she can only love him to the extent to which a sixteen-year-old is capable. Although mid-adolescents may wax lyrical about their boyfriend or girlfriend, when seen a year or two later, they not infrequently have some difficulty in recalling their names. Early and pre-intercourse heterosexual experimentation may arise in this stage and fondling of the breasts and vulva may occur, but most girls are too shy and most boys too ignorant for this to progress to mutual masturbation. Most girls do not handle their boyfriends’ penises during this stage. However, many mid-adolescent and some early-adolescent girls behave provocatively, not so much with the intention of having intercourse but more to reassure themselves that they can attract male attention. Such behaviour can be misunderstood by boys and men and rape, or something close to it, may be the result.

Mid-adolescence is the true turning point from childhood to adulthood. As well as sexual, emotional, social and personality development taking place, career choices are usually being explored. It is a time of expansion but the mid-adolescent still relies heavily on his or her parents. Moods can change rapidly from feelings of despair to exaltation and day-dreams are common. Everything and yet nothing seems possible.

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BABY AND CHILDHOOD SEXUALITY: THE PRE-ADOLESCENT STAGE

Hormonal changes occur as puberty approaches. Girls who stopped masturbating at the end of the phallic stage often start again around the age of nine or ten. It is still an ‘innocent’ activity which the girl may feel little guilt about unless she was criticized or punished for earlier masturbation or sex games. This increase in eroticism may be reflected in an increasing interest in portrayals of nude adult females and the father who was previously welcome in the bathroom is now banned.

Dreams or fantasies of appearing partially or wholly nude occur and are exciting. Sex games are undertaken now only with other girls and under the guise of dressing-up games or sexual enactment games such as kiss-me-like-a-boy-would and mutual genital inspection and bottom smacking may occur. The phase is a sort of ‘homosexual’ one and is perfectly normal. Girls rarely teach each other to masturbate-unlike boys. The reason may be that sexual skills are more innate in girls whereas in boys, as in higher primate males generally, there is a larger learned component to sex. Girls can seem to be very mature just before puberty and often take a special interest in relationships between the sexes, both human and animal.

Boys tend to gang together even more strongly in pre-adolescence and although there may be mutual showing of genitals it is not really a homosexual stage. They tend at this stage to denigrate women, presumably because of residual fears of them from earlier childhood arising from encounters with them in the form of mothers and teachers, and they also tend to regress towards the anal stage. Talk about excretion and breaking wind, making noises, eating crudely and failing to wash adequately are signs of this regression.

At this point, the end of latency, the first half of childhood is complete. The child has largely been reared within the small world of his or her own family with its particular combination of advantages and disadvantages. Any harm done in the process of psychosexual and other development will, from now on, become increasingly evident. It is this long incubation period between cause and effect which makes it so difficult to be sure about the significance of earlier events. The distortion of memory, the inaccessibility of the unconscious and the repression of painful thoughts and family myths make it hard to disentangle the facts. The most important lessons in life, the very early ones, do not even register in the conscious memory. And yet, in spite of the problems, it is possible to use the information given briefly in this chapter to understand what lies behind the difficulties experienced by adolescents and adults in their relationships with others and themselves. From what they say and avoid saying, from the way they say it and their associated emotional changes, from their dreams and fantasies, from their preferences and practices, and in other ways, it becomes possible to know what happened to them and how they felt, even unconsciously, during childhood. Sometimes repressed material is retrieved from the unconscious and the person then relives it as vividly as if it had occurred only an instant before and all the emotions originally associated with it return.

Of course everyone is different, but three patterns constantly recur in clinical practice though they appear in many guises. The first is a poor relationship with the self, involving excessive self-criticism, excessive self-consciousness, self-detestation or depression and excessive

self-blame. The two main causes are disturbed parental relationships, the child perhaps having been at least partly unwanted or believing himself or herself to be, and poor child spacing. The second is the suppression of sexuality, resulting in the child being frozen at some particular stage, perhaps making him or her regress to an earlier stage or deviating him or her from ‘normal’ development. The third is a persistent attachment to the opposite sex parent which can arise, amongst other reasons, if that parent was over-close or over-rejecting. The consequences can be profound not only for the individual’s future sexuality but for his or her emotions, personality and inter-personal relationships.

Although this brief account of baby and childhood sexuality can be verified by the average observant person, it is still not universally accepted. Some people find it hard to believe that events in childhood can exert such a profound effect on such matters as the ability to enjoy intercourse later in life. If it is accepted that infant and childhood sexuality and the way it is handled are the foundation for what comes in adulthood, then its enormous importance can be readily appreciated. To argue that childhood experiences have no bearing on events in later life is contrary to all the available evidence and also to common sense. After all, we happily accept such reasoning on non-sexual matters.

A more subtle and difficult criticism arises in the question of why children who are treated in virtually the same way with regard to sexual and emotional matters display totally different sexualities and sexual problems in adulthood. One answer lies in the fact that apart from one-egg twins no two individuals are genetically the same. Another answer is that no two people can really be subject to exactly the same influences and therefore any two people will respond differently to similar experiences. How secure children feel in their place in the family also affects their vulnerability to experiences. Also, the child’s own perceptions of what is happening may be different from those of a brother or sister who is going through the same experience.

For these, and no doubt other reasons, the long-term consequences of a similar upbringing can vary enormously. Parents too are not static personalities — they change as the years pass and react differently to, and therefore have a different influence on, each of their children.

All of this makes the study of childhood sexuality a minefield but an understanding of the processes outlined in this chapter can put problems into some sort of perspective. We are a product of all our yesterdays as well as of our genetic blueprint.

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THE STAGE OF THE MOUTH (THE ORAL STAGE)

Once it is realised that sexuality and genitality are not the same thing it becomes possible to discuss infant sexuality without impugning a baby’s ‘innocence’. The notion that a baby’s lips and mouth are sources of intense pleasure is acceptable to almost everyone, especially anyone who has watched a baby feed at the breast. Later, following the blueprint, other areas become the focal point of peak pleasure, the mouth remaining pleasurable but not primarily so as in a baby.

The phase of development when the mouth is the primary source of pleasure is called the oral stage. We know that the oral stage starts before birth because foetuses have been seen both on

X-rays and scans to suck their thumb in utero. The bliss and contentment a baby displays on sucking after birth, if all goes well, is very plain to see. Mothers usually hug their babies to their bodies, talk soothingly and rock them. In doing so they are giving the child much more than milk. They are building up a sense of trust and confidence and are laying the foundations for the child to see itself as a person who is loved and valued. Provided the baby is not allowed to become too frustrated when he or she needs food or maternal attention, he or she will slowly begin to experience feelings which eventually lead to a sense of optimism, self-assurance and perhaps even self-esteem.

If the mother repeatedly leaves the baby to scream untended she will lay the foundations for self-doubt, depression and distrust of the world. It is quite possible to see that repeated and severe frustrations of the baby’s oral drives and needs, even at this early stage, could result in their excessive persistence in later life. They may not remain primary but they may remain so strong that they influence both sexuality and other behaviour. It is certainly widely held that babies that do not enjoy and fulfil this oral stage as they should are more likely to want ‘oral’ gratification in adulthood. This can manifest itself in cigarette smoking, in certain cases of alcoholism, in persistent eating (especially under stress), or even in an unusually high level of interest in oral sex.

Although sucking at the breast or bottle relieves a baby’s hunger it is also pleasurable in its own right and children, when they can control the movement of their muscles effectively, suck their thumbs if no other source of oral pleasure is available. Later still the child learns to suck, or at least to put in his or her mouth, almost anything appealing in the environment. These are

self-pleasuring or auto-erotic activities and may, without stretching the imagination too far, be seen as a forerunner of masturbation. The opposition that thumb sucking, especially in older children, often encounters from parents, presumably recognises this fact, no matter how unconsciously. Of course at the conscious level the parents’ fear is that others will think the child is babyish, unloved or that his teeth will be displaced.

This can be used to illustrate a point of general importance. Although we all want pleasurable experiences, the ways in which we obtain them most naturally may not necessarily be socially acceptable. Because of this, restraint is taught in childhood. For example, an adult man sucking his thumb would be considered very odd but sucking a pipe is quite acceptable.

To generalise further, many of our pleasure drives are opposed, at least in part, by cultural conditioning and are, as a result, displaced on to other activities which gratify a particular need in a way that is, perhaps, less satisfactory but more socially acceptable, thereby possibly leading to a mild degree of frustration. These displacements are taken to be the mark of civilisation and the process is thought to account for many great achievements in the area of creative thinking, writing, painting, music, sculpture, and so on.

In a humbler form the displacements probably enrich our lives and comfort in many ways. For example, a woman’s displacement of pleasure drives to her home, social life and children usually improves life for all concerned. Men, or some men, may, perhaps for a genetic reason, be capable of more distant displacements and this may account for male supremacy in areas of achievement. This is not to deny that women are capable of more distant displacements or men of displacements closer to the family and home; it is simply to say that the main focal points for such displacements may be slightly different for the two sexes, so enabling each to contribute slightly differently to civilisation. Men, on balance, tend to push society forwards and women to keep it there.

To return to the oral stage, parents, of course, make use of the oral drive to pacify their baby in the early stages of life. Giving him or her something to suck will lead to pacification even if no milk or food is involved.

Two further points should be made. Presumably the infant is, at first, incapable of realising that it is the mother who relieves the tension of hunger or who provides the comfort of cuddling and rocking. At first the baby must think that it is the breast that does these things. Eventually, he or she realises that the breast is part of his mother and, if all is well, the baby starts to develop the capacity to love. A newborn baby expresses love through the mouth, and attachments between the mother and child develop which build up a capacity to form stable, affectionate relationships later in life. If this stage is not happily achieved the child’s later relationships may be less than full. Sexual and emotional development are first linked in this way. Through constant contact with the mother’s body and her various attentions to his or her needs, a baby becomes aware of his or her own body and its pleasures. Self-exploration of the body follows and much later the exploration of other people’s bodies.

When an infant boy is at the breast he may have an erection. He may also have one during urination, nappy changing, bowel emptying, or as a result of any excitement. Similarly, girls may roll their thighs and, according to some mothers, even lubricate vaginally. Children learn to touch their genitals fairly early and babies have been observed to stimulate themselves to orgasm. At this stage, however, the genitals are not the baby’s primary source of pleasure. The mouth ensures survival and is still the main source of delight.

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OUR SEXUAL BODIES: TYPES OF OUTERCOURSE AND SEXUAL INTERCOURSE

Types of outercourse (foreplay and alternatives to intercourse)

• Masturbation. Masturbation is the most common way we enjoy sex. Partners can enjoy it together while hugging and kissing or watching one another. Masturbating together can deepen a couple’s intimacy.

• Erotic massage.
Many couples enjoy arousing one another with body massage. They stimulate each other’s sex organs with their hands, bodies, or mouths. They take turns bringing each other to orgasm.

• Body rubbing (“frottage”).
Many couples rub their bodies together, especially their sex organs, for intense sexual pleasure. Many are stimulated to orgasm by this “dry humping.”

• Erotic fantasy,
role play, masks. Reading, watching, or telling erotic fantasies with a sex partner can be very exciting. Acting out fantasies can be exciting, too. Masks and costumes may intensify this kind of sex play.

• Sex toys. Sex toys, including vibrators and dildos, can heighten sexual pleasure. They are used to stroke, stimulate, probe, and caress the body.

Types of sexual intercourse

• vaginal intercourse (coitus)—inserting the penis into the vagina

• anal intercourse—inserting the penis into the anus

• axillary intercourse—inserting the penis under the armpit

• interfemoral intercourse—inserting the penis between the thighs

• mammary intercourse—inserting the penis between the breasts

• oral intercourse— inserting the penis into the mouth. Sex play that involves putting the tongue into the vulva is also often called oral intercourse.

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SEXUAL ANATOMY OF CHILDREN. ERECTIONS, SEXUAL FANTASIES. GYNECOMASTIA

Spermarche, Erections, and Wet Dreams

Boys have erections all their lives, starting from the moment they are born. But at puberty, erections occur more often. Many young men think that the occurrence of an erection means that their bodies are ready for sexual activity. This is not true. For example, when a boy or man wakes up from sleep, he may have an erection. This is because his bladder is full. A full bladder may stimulate nerves inside the body near the base of the penis and cause an erection.

Erections normally occur throughout the night during sleep. Erotic dreams cause young men to become aroused in their sleep. Young men undergoing puberty may notice that when they wake up, heir bellies, clothing, or sheets are sticky and wet around their penis. This is because young men may ejaculate in their sleep. The ejaculate, or semen, is the sticky substance found when a young man awakens. Ejaculating in one’s sleep is often called a wet dream. The clinical name is nocturnal emission. Almost all young men will have wet dreams. Boys and men who ejaculate during masturbation or other forms of sex play are less likely to have wet dreams.

The first time a young man ejaculates is called spermarche. Ejaculation can occur during nocturnal emission, masturbation, or sexual intercourse.

Sexual Thoughts and Fantasies

A young woman’s body will begin to respond to sexual thoughts and stimulation during puberty. Before puberty, children and babies touch the vulva only because it feels good. Their autoerotic play is usually not a sexual type of pleasure because it doesn’t involve sexual thinking or fantasy. At puberty, young women may begin to touch the clitoris and vulva for sexual pleasure. They can also be aroused by sexual thoughts or touch. Sexually stimulating dreams may mean that a girl wakes up with her vulva moistened with lubrication.

Sexual arousal—an erection or lubrication of the vulva—may happen without sexual activity. All the sensitive nerve endings that give us sexual pleasure are present from birth in girls and boys. A puberty, young women and men begin to have more sexual thoughts. When they touch themselves in the same way they have done all their lives, but with sexual fantasies while they are doing it, it is more correctly considered sexual activity.

Breast Size Changes in Boys—Gynecomastia

The change in hormones during puberty may cause surplus estrogen to be produced in a young man’s body. This usually happens only for a short period of time. It can mean that his breasts become slightly larger. This condition is called gynecomastia. It happens in 40 to 60 percent of adolescent boys. Young men feel very self-conscious and embarrassed about having enlarged breasts. During puberty, gynecomastia is usually temporary—it goes away within one to two years. I it happens before a boy goes through puberty, or continues after puberty, a health care provider should be consulted.

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MEN’S INTERNAL SEX AND REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS AND SPERM PRODUCTION: VAS DEFERENS, SEMINAL VESICLES, PROSTATE AND COWPER’S GLANDS

Vas Deferens

Mature sperm are pushed out of each epididymis into a long, thin tube called the vas deferens. The vas deferens connects the epididymis to the seminal vesicle. It moves sperm to the seminal vesicle by contracting and pushing them on their way.

Seminal Vesicles

The seminal vesicles are two small organs that are located beneath bladder. It is here that the sperm are combined with a fluid called seminal fluid. This fluid gives the sperm more room to move and also provides nourishment.

Prostate

The prostate is the next important place on the sperm’s journey. The prostate gland is located below the bladder and is very sensitive. Some men like to have it stimulated during sex play. When sperm, combined with the seminal fluid, reach the prostate, another substance is added to the mixture. The prostate produces a thin, milky fluid that is secreted into the urethra at the time of emission of semen. The substance helps give the sperm an environment in which it can swim easily.

A muscle at the bottom of the prostate gland keeps the sperm out of the urethra until ejaculation begins. Then the sperm move through the urethra in the penis and out of the body.

Cowper’s Glands

While the sperm are waiting, something else is happening to make the voyage easier. Located below the prostate are two Cowper’s glands, which are attached to the urethra. The Cowper’s glands deposit a fluid into the urethra before ejaculation. This fluid acts as a lubricant for the sperm and coats the urethra while flowing out the penis.

If there are sperm in the urethra from a previous ejaculation, they will mix with the Cowper’s fluid. This means that sperm can slide out of the penis before ejaculation. The lubricant is often called pre-ejaculate.

Ejaculation happens when the prostate muscle opens and the prostate gland pumps the seminal fluid into the urethra. It then gets pumped out of the body through the urethral opening. When the final mixture leaves the body, it is called semen.

Some men worry that they may urinate instead of ejaculating. This is impossible. When the penis is erect, a muscle closes off the bladder so no urine can pass through the urethra. It is also not possible for semen to mix into urine during urination because the prostate closes when urine moves into the urethra.

If these muscles are not working correctly, semen can be ejaculated into the bladder instead of out of the body. This is called retrograde ejaculation. This does not happen often. It is most likely to happen to men who have had prostate surgery or who have diabetes or multiple sclerosis. Men who have retrograde ejaculation are still able to have fulfilling sexual relationships and orgasms.

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ALL ABOUT SEX: OUR SEXUAL BODIES

Whenever a child is born, family and friends always want to know the child’s gender because most people treat girls and boys differently from the day they are born. Actually, the human bodies of girls and women and boys and men are not that different. All have hearts, brains, stomachs, bones, muscles, blood, and many other commonalities.

The one very important difference between female and male is in the nature of their sex and reproductive structures and functions. The sexual anatomies of women and men are different inside and outside their bodies.

Everyone’s body is made up of many parts. Some of these parts, such as fingernails, scrotum, eyebrows, and vulva, are structures. Some body parts have more complicated functions and are called organs. A leaf is an organ of a tree; an ear is an organ of an animal. Our hearts, ovaries, brains, penises, and lungs are organs.

We have special structures and organs that are a part of our sex and reproductive systems. The parts outside the body are the external sex structures and organs—commonly called genitals. The structures and organs inside the body are the internal sex and reproductive organs and structures. These are linked to the external sex and reproductive organs and structures.

Our sex and reproductive organs identify us as girls and boys or women and men. They are also the source of sexual pleasure in our lives. But they are not the only sexually sensitive parts of our bodies.

“SEXUAL REVOLUTIONS” THAT HAVE AFFECTED OUR SEXUAL NORMS

Sexual norms and gender equality have been crucial concerns of various social and political movements throughout our history. These include the civil rights and antiwar movements as well as the movements for women’s equality and gay liberation. They all have had a major impact on our attitudes toward sex and sexuality today. Here are some of the highlights:

First-Wave Feminists: The Women’s Movement— Suffragists and Abolitionists

Women began fighting for the right to vote—suffrage—20 years before the Civil War. The suffrage movement was born out of the abolitionist movement that fought to outlaw slavery. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott held the first women’s rights conference in Stanton’s home in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848.

The suffrage movement split from the abolitionist movement before the Civil War began. Some women found it unacceptable that men in the movement wanted to postpone the suffrage effort until after slaves were emancipated. Many women remained with the abolitionists under the leadership of Lucy Stone. Others formed their own movement under Stanton, Mott, and Susan B. Anthony. They widened the suffrage agenda to include issues such as divorce reform, sexism in the church, and assistance for workingwomen.

Temperance and Moral Reform

In 1874, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union was established to work for moral reform. The union worked toward eliminating prostitution, improving public education, and enacting universal suffrage. Its chief goal, however, was temperance—abolishing the sale of alcohol. Union members believed that drinking was a threat to the American home—that drunken husbands wasted money on liquor and were abusive to their wives and children.

The social purity campaign against prostitution grew out of the temperance movement at the end of the nineteenth century. Its members worked to create a single standard of sexual conduct in the belief that prostitutes were the victims of male vice.

The Sexual Revolution of the 1920s

The soldiers who experienced the sexual norms of Europe during World War I changed the sexual norms of the United States when they returned home. They became much more likely to have intercourse with women for whom they cared than with prostitutes or casual sex partners. Young women and men began to develop equality in romantic relationships and sexual behaviors. The number of women who had sexual intercourse before marriage increased from 25 percent at the turn of the century to 50 percent by the 1920s.

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