Part 4, Chapter 4, Periodization Summary and Analysis

The history of sexuality is not a monolithic history of directed change. Rather, notable events have marked large changes in sexuality, and sexuality can be quit different from century to century.

From the 16th to the 17th century, sexuality was principally viewed as the domain of Christian sin, and the discourse of sexuality was largely limited to the marital state. The Reformation saw the original rise of sexual controls within the church and established the gradual rise of the confessional as primarily a sexual discourse. This period of sexuality underwent a fairly radical change near the end of the 18th century when medicine, pedagogy, and economics directed sexuality to the control of the state as a means of national power. The shift from ecclesiastical to governmental dominance demonstrates notable continuity but is nevertheless a marked transformation. By...