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This book was the second volume in Mason's look at Victorian sexuality. The first volume I read in November of last year and enjoyed a great deal. I finally managed to get around to reading the second volume. The first volume looked at what the Victorians did and this looked more about what they thought about it. Unfortunately the people who wrote about it were much smaller than the people who actually did it, so it was harder to get a prevailing look at attitudes but Mason did an excellent job at looking at the most important influences on people's attitudes towards sex.
One of his leading arguments was that people took up the anti-sensual attitudes of the Evangelicals without taking up their religious beliefs. He started by looking at "The Theological View" towards sexuality and the spread of anti-sensualist, he then traced these beliefs to the Evangelical views towards sex, both marital and extra-marital. From there he looked at different attitudes towards prostitution and focused a great deal on the different attitudes towards prostitution and the varying attempts of prostitute reformation. He ended the book by looking at the different views towards birth control. Like in his first book he focused exclusively on heterosexual sex and ignored fetishes. Though he does trace some interesting ideas towards marriage such as the Swedenborgian idea of sex in heaven, and the different arguments for free love and equitable marriage and divorce.
My only criticism of the book would be that time was often confusing, Mason appeared to draw many of his sources from the early 20s and 30s and then later from the 80s but it was hard for me, albeit as a non-specialist, to put together the link between these views. It would have been clearer if he looked at them in order and traced the impact of these views over time (even if it was just in each chapter or each particular trend) rather than repeatedly going back and forth over the whole Victorian period.
But apart from that it was a very interesting and insightful look at Victorian sexual attitudes. The last chapter looked at the sexual attitudes of women, and modern historians who were studying these attitudes. I felt that this was a particularly interesting topic, especially as the Victorian women themselves had such a limited view of their own sexuality, and wish that Mason had spent more time examining these views. But at least he mentioned several other studies which would also be interesting to read.
All in all a very interesting and useful book.
One of his leading arguments was that people took up the anti-sensual attitudes of the Evangelicals without taking up their religious beliefs. He started by looking at "The Theological View" towards sexuality and the spread of anti-sensualist, he then traced these beliefs to the Evangelical views towards sex, both marital and extra-marital. From there he looked at different attitudes towards prostitution and focused a great deal on the different attitudes towards prostitution and the varying attempts of prostitute reformation. He ended the book by looking at the different views towards birth control. Like in his first book he focused exclusively on heterosexual sex and ignored fetishes. Though he does trace some interesting ideas towards marriage such as the Swedenborgian idea of sex in heaven, and the different arguments for free love and equitable marriage and divorce.
My only criticism of the book would be that time was often confusing, Mason appeared to draw many of his sources from the early 20s and 30s and then later from the 80s but it was hard for me, albeit as a non-specialist, to put together the link between these views. It would have been clearer if he looked at them in order and traced the impact of these views over time (even if it was just in each chapter or each particular trend) rather than repeatedly going back and forth over the whole Victorian period.
But apart from that it was a very interesting and insightful look at Victorian sexual attitudes. The last chapter looked at the sexual attitudes of women, and modern historians who were studying these attitudes. I felt that this was a particularly interesting topic, especially as the Victorian women themselves had such a limited view of their own sexuality, and wish that Mason had spent more time examining these views. But at least he mentioned several other studies which would also be interesting to read.
All in all a very interesting and useful book.