Antisexualism is opposition or hostility towards
sexual behavior
Human sexual activity, human sexual practice or human sexual behaviour is the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts, ranging from activities done alone (e.g., masturbation) t ...
and
sexuality
Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...
.
Terminology
Other terms whose meanings overlap or are synonymous or interchangeable with antisexualism include ''sex-negativism'', ''sex-negative movement'', ''sex-negativity'', ''antisexuality'', ''demonization of sex'' or as an adjective, ''anti-sex'' or ''sex-negative''. In a broader scope, it may refer to a general opposition to sexuality, especially tending to reduce or eliminate the
sex drive
In psychology, libido (; ) is psychic drive or energy, usually conceived of as sexual in nature, but sometimes conceived of as including other forms of desire. The term ''libido'' was originally developed by Sigmund Freud, the pioneering origin ...
or sexual activity or a force in society that suppresses sexual freedom and disseminates antisexual opinions. When such an aversion involves hatred, it is sometimes called ''miserotia'' or ''miserotism''.
History
Religious
Some forms of early ascetic
Gnosticism
Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek language, Ancient Greek: , Romanization of Ancient Greek, romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: Help:IPA/Greek, �nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced ...
held all matter to be evil, and that unnecessary gratifications of the physical senses were to be avoided. Married couples were encouraged to be chaste. In the first century,
Marcion of Sinope
Marcion of Sinope (; ; ) was a theologian in early Christianity. Marcion preached that God had sent Jesus Christ, who was distinct from the "vengeful" God ( Demiurge) who had created the world. He considered himself a follower of Paul the Apost ...
held an antisexual and
ascetic
Asceticism is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from worldly pleasures through self-discipline, self-imposed poverty, and simple living, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their pra ...
outlook.
The
Skoptsys were a radical sect of the
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...
that practiced
castration
Castration is any action, surgery, surgical, chemical substance, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical cas ...
and amputation of sexual organs. The Skoptsy believed that Christ had been castrated during his crucifixion, and it was this castration that brought about salvation.
Boston Corbett, who was involved in killing John Wilkes Booth, castrated himself after being mocked and tempted by prostitutes.
Ann Lee
Ann Lee (29 February 1736 – 8 September 1784), commonly known as Mother Ann Lee, was the founding leader of the Shakers, later changed to United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing following her death. She was born during ...
was the founder of the
Shakers
The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, more commonly known as the Shakers, are a Millenarianism, millenarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian sect founded in England and then organized in the Unit ...
, a radical
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
sect that opposed procreation and all sexual activity. The Shakers were more opposed to pregnancy than anything else.
Father Divine, founder of the
International Peace Mission Movement, advocated religious
abstinence from sex and marriage and taught that sexual objectification is a root cause of undesirable social and political conditions.
James Baldwin
James Arthur Baldwin (né Jones; August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer and civil rights activist who garnered acclaim for his essays, novels, plays, and poems. His 1953 novel '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'' has been ranked ...
in ''
The Fire Next Time'' refers to the United States as an antisexual country dominated by a
white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
culture that regards sensual or soulful behavior by
Black Americans
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
as suspect. This contributed to a crisis of Baldwin's Christian faith, showing that the world did not accept him, and that Christianity had not made white people accepting.
Non-religious
Philosopher
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works ...
viewed humans as being subject to the animalistic desires of self-preservation, species-preservation, and the preservation of enjoyment. He argued that humans have a duty to avoid actions that harm or degrade themselves, including suicide, sexual degradation, and drunkenness. This led Kant to regard sexual intercourse as degrading because it "makes of the loved person an Object of appetite", rather than focusing on their inherent worth as rational beings, which violates Kant's second formulation of the
categorical imperative
The categorical imperative () is the central philosophical concept in the deontological Kantian ethics, moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Introduced in Kant's 1785 ''Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals'', it is a way of evaluating motivati ...
, a philosophical concept he created to judge the morality of actions. He admitted sex only within marriage, which he regarded as "a merely animal union".
Feminist
Various
feminist views on sexuality have been described as anti-sex or sex-negative. In particular,
second-wave and
radical feminist
Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are also affected by other ...
viewpoints and thinkers have been subject to this, including from other feminists.
Prior to the second wave of feminism, which introduced such slogans as "
The personal is political
''The personal is political'', also termed ''The private is political'', is a political argument used as a rallying slogan by student activist movements and second-wave feminism from the late 1960s. In the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970 ...
" in the 1960s, the subject of
women's sexuality had rarely been addressed as a
politicized
Politicisation (also politicization; see English spelling differences) is a concept in political science and theory used to explain how ideas, entities or collections of facts are given a political tone or character, and are consequently assigned ...
subject, although the subjugation of women by aspects of
male sexuality had been discussed. Major feminist organizations, such as the
National Organization for Women
The National Organization for Women (NOW) is an American feminist organization. Founded in 1966, it is legally a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C. It ...
(NOW) in the United States, primarily focused on
male supremacy
Supremacism is the belief that a certain group of people are superior to, and should have authority over, all others. The presumed superior group can be defined by age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, language, social ...
in the public sphere. It was not until the earliest radical feminist groups began to form in the late 1960s that feminist analysis of women's sexuality started to become widespread.
According to radical feminist theory, sexuality is the primary sphere of
patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of authority are primarily held by men. The term ''patriarchy'' is used both in anthropology to describe a family or clan controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males, and in fem ...
, with
sexual activity
Human sexual activity, human sexual practice or human sexual behaviour is the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts, ranging from activities done alone (e.g., masturbation) t ...
, especially
heterosexual sex, as the basis of women's oppression by men. Sexuality, according to radical feminists, only serves to revoke the
agency of women. Radical feminists oppose the
sexual objectification
Sexual objectification is the act of treating a person solely as an object of sexual desire (a sex object). Objectification more broadly means treating a person as a commodity or an object without regard to their personality or dignity. Obje ...
of women, for their sexual and
reproductive labor, and hold the view that in a male-dominated society heterosexual practices involve an imbalance of power and serve to
sexualize the oppression of women.
Ti-Grace Atkinson
Grace Atkinson (born November 9, 1938), better known as Ti-Grace Atkinson, is an American radical feminist activist, writer and philosopher. She was an early member of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and presided over the New York cha ...
wrote of heterosexual sex as a social
institution
An institution is a humanly devised structure of rules and norms that shape and constrain social behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions and ...
serving the needs of men but not necessarily of women. This analysis led some radical feminists to call for women to stop having sex with men altogether, with some advocating for
celibacy
Celibacy (from Latin ''caelibatus'') is the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both. It is often in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, the term ''celibacy'' is applied ...
and others advocating
political lesbianism.
This led to the second wave polarizing around two camps in what would become known as the
feminist sex wars
The feminist sex wars, also known as the lesbian sex wars, sex wars or porn wars, are collective debates amongst feminists regarding a number of issues broadly relating to sexuality and sexual activity. Differences of opinion on matters of sexual ...
.
Radical feminist writer
Julie Bindel
Julie Bindel (born 20 July 1962) is an English radical feminist writer. She co-founded Justice for Women, which helps women who have been prosecuted for assaulting or killing violent male partners.
A former visiting researcher at the Univer ...
described female
bisexuality
Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, ...
as a "fashionable trend" pushing for sexual hedonism. She writes, "if bisexual women had an ounce of sexual politics, they would stop sleeping with men."
Several authors have objected to radical feminists on this front. Margaret Hunt criticized
Sheila Jeffreys
Sheila Jeffreys (born 13 May 1948) is a former professor of political science at the University of Melbourne, born in England. A lesbian feminist scholar, she analyses the history and politics of human sexuality.
Jeffreys' argument that the " ...
for praising women involved in the 19th-century
social purity movement, whose "concern with women's victimization" Jeffreys admired.
Naomi Wolf
Naomi Rebekah Wolf (born 1962) is an American feminist author, journalist, and conspiracy theorist.
After the 1991 publication of her first book, '' The Beauty Myth'', Wolf became a prominent figure in the third wave of the feminist movemen ...
identified a form of feminism she called
victim feminism, which she described as "sexually judgmental, even antisexual".
Criticism
Antisexualism drew sharp criticism from
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic ...
in his ''
Marriage and Morals
''Marriage and Morals'' is a 1929 book by philosopher Bertrand Russell, in which the author questions the Victorian notions of morality regarding sex and marriage.
Russell argues that the laws and ideas about sex of his time were a potpourri ...
'':
According to Bertrand Russell, an anti-sexual attitude must be regarded as purely superstitious and those who first inculcated antisexualism must have suffered from a diseased condition of body or mind, or both.
Anaphrodisiacs
John Harvey Kellogg
John Harvey Kellogg (February 26, 1852 – December 14, 1943) was an American businessman, Invention, inventor, physician, and advocate of the Progressive Era, Progressive Movement. He was the director of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Battle Cr ...
, the inventor of the corn flakes variety of breakfast cereal, was opposed to all forms of sexual activity, especially
masturbation
Masturbation is a form of autoeroticism in which a person Sexual stimulation, sexually stimulates their own Sex organ, genitals for sexual arousal or other sexual pleasure, usually to the point of orgasm. Stimulation may involve the use of han ...
. ''
The Road to Wellville'' satirized his life and practices. According to some sources, the early Christian theologian
Origen
Origen of Alexandria (), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an Early Christianity, early Christian scholar, Asceticism#Christianity, ascetic, and Christian theology, theologian who was born and spent the first half of his career in Early cent ...
castrated himself to avoid temptation and remain pure.
Fictional
* The Junior Anti-Sex League, in
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...
's
dystopia
A dystopia (lit. "bad place") is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. It is an imagined place (possibly state) in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmen ...
n novel ''
Nineteen Eighty-Four
''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also published as ''1984'') is a dystopian novel and cautionary tale by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final completed book. Thematically ...
,'' was a group of young adult Party members devoted to banning all sexual intercourse.
* The film ''
Demolition Man'' takes place in a future in which sexual intercourse is banned – reproduction is achieved clinically and the experience itself is simulated through
virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...
. These attitudes resulted from STD outbreaks that caused widespread fear.
* The song Samurai Abstinence Patrol by comedy music duo
Ninja Sex Party is about a group known as the Samurai Abstinence Patrol who ban all sex in the future.
See also
*
Absexuality
*
Antinatalism
Antinatalism or anti-natalism is the philosophical value judgment that procreation is unethical or unjustifiable. Antinatalists thus argue that humans should abstain from making children. Some antinatalists consider coming into existence to alw ...
*
Cathar Perfect
Perfect (also known as a in French or in Latin) was the name given by Bernard of Clairvaux to the leaders of the medieval Christian religious movement in southern France and northern Italy commonly referred to as the Cathars. The were not cler ...
*
Erotophobia
Erotophobia is a term to describe a fear or aversion to sex or related matters. It was coined by a number of researchers in the late 1970s and early 1980s to describe one pole on a continuum of attitudes and beliefs about sexuality. The word is der ...
*
Misanthropy
Misanthropy is the general hatred, dislike, or distrust of the human species, human behavior, or human nature. A misanthrope or misanthropist is someone who holds such views or feelings. Misanthropy involves a negative evaluative attitude t ...
*
NoFap
*
Opposition to pornography
Reasons for opposition to pornography include Religious views on pornography, religious objections, Morality, moral values, Feminist views of pornography, feminist concerns, as well as Effects of pornography, harmful effects, such as pornography ...
*
Purity culture
*
Reproductive rights
Reproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to human reproduction, reproduction and reproductive health that vary amongst countries around the world. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights:
Reproductive rights ...
*
Right to sexuality
*
Sexual abstinence
Sexual abstinence or sexual restraint is the practice of refraining from sexual activity for reasons medical, psychological, legal, social, philosophical, moral, religious or other. It is a part of chastity. Celibacy is sexual abstinence general ...
*
Sexual and reproductive health and rights
Sexual and reproductive health and rights or ''SRHR'' is the concept of human rights applied to sexuality and Human reproduction, reproduction. It is the recognition of every person’s right to make fully informed and self-determined decisions ...
*
Sexual frustration
Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing organism produces male or female gametes.
Sex, SEX or sexual may also refer to:
*Sexual intercourse, a sexual activity
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''Sex'' (1920 ...
*
Sexual repression
Sexual repression is a state in which a person is prevented from expressing their own sexuality or sexual orientation. Sexual repression can be caused by an emotional conflict, in which a person feels guilt, shame, or distress regarding their ...
*
Sexual revolution
The sexual revolution, also known as the sexual liberation, was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the Western world from the late 1950s to the early 1 ...
*
Sex-positive
References
{{Reflist
Sexual abstinence
Social movements
Non-sexuality
Opposition to masturbation
Prudishness
Sexuality-related prejudices