La patologización del celibato en la medicina española (1820-1920) / The pathologization of celibacy in spanish medicine (1820-1920)

En la España de la Restauración, la novela naturalista y la prensa anticlerical insistían en que la causa principal de la depravación sexual de los sacerdotes era el voto de castidad. ¿En qué medida las tecnologías de saber y de poder médicos de la época permitían defender esa tesis? Este es el asunto abordado en el artículo. En primer lugar se examinan los antecedentes ilustrados de la ofensiva higienista contra el celibato sexual. En segundo lugar se analiza la controversia suscitada por Monlau con su defensa higiénica de la castidad sexual. Los argumentos de Monlau tienen lugar en un contexto de propaganda a favor del celibato suscitada por la Iglesia Católica. En tercer lugar se exploran los argumentos médicos que conectaban causalmente la continencia absoluta con las desviaciones sexuales, en particular la pederastia. Por último se indican las circunstancias que, a comienzos del siglo XX, llevaron a reactivar la defensa médica de la abstinencia sexual entre los jóvenes, anunciando un nuevo prototipo de masculinidad

In the Spain of the Restoration, the naturalist novel and the anticlerical press insisted that the main cause of the sexual depravity of priests was the vow of chastity. To what extent the technologies of knowledge and medical power of the time allowed to defend that thesis? This is the issue addressed in the article. First, we examine the enlightened background of the hygienist offensive against sexual celibacy. Secondly, the controversy raised by Monlau with his hygienic defense of sexual chastity is analyzed. The arguments of Monlau take place in a context of propaganda in favor of celibacy raised by the Spanish Catholic Church. Third, the medical arguments that causally connected absolute continence with sexual deviations, particularly "pederasty", are explored. Finally, we indicate the circumstances that, at the beginning of the 20th century, led to reactivate the medical defense of sexual abstinence among young people, announcing a new pattern of masculinity

En sus propias palabras: Relatos de vida sexual y (no) reproductiva de mujeres jóvenes mexicanas durante las décadas de 1960 y 1970 / In their own words: Stories of the sexual and (non-) reproductive life of young Mexican women between the 1960s and 1970s

Este artículo indaga en las experiencias de un grupo de mujeres mexicanas, nacidas entre 1941 y 1955, que vivieron parte de su pubertad, adolescencia y juventud entre 1960 y 1970. Se analiza el conocimiento y uso de métodos anticonceptivos, las dinámicas de sus primeras relaciones erótico-afectivas, las consideraciones sociales y personales sobre la virginidad femenina, y la influencia de las religiones y del feminismo en estos temas. Sus testimonios se ponen en relación con otros estudios de la época -algunos también basados en testimonios de mujeres-, y materiales de la industria cultural, como libros, revistas y películas mexicanas, muchos de las cuales fueron nombrados por las mismas entrevistadas. Sus relatos de vida, obtenidos a partir de entrevistas en profundidad, permiten conocer las negociaciones que estas mujeres establecieron con ciertos sentidos, creencias, modelos y mandatos sociales

This article studies the experiences of a group of Mexican women, born between 1941 and 1955, who lived part of their puberty, adolescence, and youth between 1960 and 1970. It analyzes their opinions and experiences related to contraceptive methods, the dynamics of their first sexual intercourse, social and personal considerations about female virginity, and the influence of religions and feminism on these issues. Their testimonies are contextualized by the available literature on this period, much of which is also based on women's testimony. The women's experiences are also discussed in relation to cultural industry materials such as Mexican books, magazines, and films, many of which were referred to by the interviewees. Their life stories, obtained from in-depth interviews, reveal the negotiations that these women established with certain social meanings, beliefs, models, and obligations

'Apostles of Continence': Doctors and the Doctrine of Sexual Necessity in Progressive-Era America.

In the first decades of the twentieth century, a group of doctors under the banner of the social hygiene movement set out on what seemed an improbable mission: to convince American men that they did not need sex. This was in part a response to venereal disease. Persuading young men to adopt the standard of sexual discipline demanded of women was the key to preserving the health of the nation from the ravages of syphilis and gonorrhoea. But their campaign ran up against the doctrine of male sexual necessity, a doctrine well established in medical thought and an article of faith for many patients. Initially, social hygienists succeeded in rallying much of the medical community. But this success was followed by a series of setbacks. Significant dissent remained within the profession. Even more alarmingly, behavioural studies proved that many men simply were not listening. The attempt to repudiate the doctrine of male sexual necessity showed the ambition of Progressive-era doctors, but also their powerlessness in the face of entrenched beliefs about the linkage in men between sex, health and success.

"By expresse experiment": the doubting midwife Salome in late medieval England.

This article examines late medieval English representations of the startling and apocryphal story of Salome, the skeptical midwife who dares to touch, or at least attempt to touch, the Virgin Mary "in sexu secreto" during a postpartum examination at the nativity. Salome's story originated in the second century, but its late medieval iterations are inflected by a culture interested in evaluating and examining sensory evidence, in both medicine and religion. The story appears in sermon collections, devotional texts, the cycle nativity plays, and John Lydgate's Life of Our Lady, and these variations demonstrate the intersection of gender and experience-based knowledge in medical and devotional contexts. Salome's story provides a unique opportunity to study late medieval interpretations of female medicine, materialism, and spirituality.

Height, socioeconomic status and marriage in Italy around 1900.

This study examines the role of height in the process of mate selection in two Italian populations at the turn of the twentieth century, Alghero, in the province of Sassari, and Treppo Carnico, in the province of Udine. Based on a linkage between military registers and marriage certificates, this study reveals a negative selection of short men on marriage and a differential effect of tallness by population in the process of mate choice. These findings emerge once SES is taken into account in the risk models of marriage.

"Hunnish scenes" and a "Virgin birth": a 1920s case of sexual and bodily ignorance.

When, in June 1921, a clairvoyant informed Christabel Russell, to her great surprise, that she was pregnant, her husband denied paternity and petitioned for divorce on grounds of adultery. The Hon. John Russell claimed that on the very few occasions that they had slept in the same bed in their two and half years of marriage, his method of birth control (which she referred to disapprovingly as "Hunnish scenes") had made pregnancy impossible. What added to the sensational nature of the case was the revelation that whilst pregnant, Christabel's hymen was unbroken ­ hence the claims of a "virgin birth." Two divorce trials and two appeals followed. The first trial ended inconclusively, the second trial was won for John Russell by the eminent barrister Sir Edward Marshall-Hall, but on the second appeal, in the House of Lords, it was ruled that evidence questioning the legitimacy of a child born in wedlock was inadmissible. The decree nisi was rescinded and the baby was legitimized.

"It Was Never Good World Sence Minister Must Have Wyves": clerical celibacy, clerical marriage, and anticlericalism in Reformation England.

The impact of the Reformation was felt strongly in the nature and character of the priesthood, and in the function and reputation of the priest. A shift in the understanding of the priesthood was one of the most tangible manifestations of doctrinal change, evident in the physical arrangement of the church, in the language of the liturgy, and in the relaxation of the discipline of celibacy, which had for centuries bound priests in the Latin tradition to a life of perpetual continence. Clerical celibacy, and accusations of clerical incontinence, featured prominently in evangelical criticisms of the Catholic church and priesthood, which made a good deal of polemical capital out of the perceived relationship of the priest and the efficacy of his sacred function. Citing St Paul, Protestant polemicists presented clerical marriage as the only, and appropriate remedy, for priestly immorality. But did the advent of a married priesthood create more problems than it solved? The polemical certainties that informed evangelical writing on sacerdotal celibacy did not guarantee the immediate acceptance of a married priesthood, and the vocabulary that had been used to denounce clergy who failed in their obligation to celibacy was all too readily turned against the married clergy. The anti-clerical lexicon, and its usage, remained remarkably static despite the substantial doctrinal and practical challenges posed to the traditional model of priesthood by the Protestant Reformation.

Marriage and the family in a Maltese parish: St. Mary's (Qrendi) in the eighteenth century.

This article addresses the Maltese traditional family, taking St. Mary's (Qrendi) as a test case. It results that couples married in their early twenties, while a high proportion of men and women never married at all. Marriage was not popular so that one-fifth of all marriages were remarriages. Very few widows remarried and it was only for some economic reason that they sought another man. There is no evidence though that a high rate of celibacy resulted in flagrant promiscuity even if there is evidence that the Qrendin were not so particular about their sex life. No birth control was practiced within marriage and children followed one another regularly. This brings into relief the parents' unconcern for their offspring's future as well as the inferior status of women because husbands made their wives several offspring. Relations between the spouses were poor so that dissatisfied couples went their own ways.

Marrying in the city in times of rapid urbanization.

Economic, social, political, and demographic processes changed Western European cities strongly during the nineteenth century. Especially during this time, the northern part of Belgium (Flanders) became highly urbanized. Investigating the long-term development of the marriage pattern in the cities of Antwerp, Aalst, and Ghent gives a detailed picture of the evolution of the urban marriage pattern. In this article, specific emphasis is on gender, social, and migration distinctions. The results confirm that there is a male-female difference and variation among various social and migrant groups in the age at first marriage during the period 1800-1906. Moreover, regional differences are also visible. In the port city of Antwerp, massive immigration caused a unique evolution in the age at first marriage during the last decades of the nineteenth century, which did not appear in the textile cities of Aalst and Ghent during this time.

[On warrior virgins, effeminate men, and infertility among ancient Scythians]. / Om krigeriske piger, kvindelige maend og infertilitet hos antikkens skythere. Hippokrates som kulturetnograf.

The Hippocratic text 'On the winds, waters and places' contains a fairly long description of an ancient Scythian tribe, the nomadic Sauromats. In this tribe the gender roles appear to have been inverted to some degree. The virgin women fight from horseback with swords, bows and arrows, and are not allowed to marry before they have killed three enemies. The married women are often infertile. The Hippocratic author ascribes this to the pronounced fatness of these women. Many men suffer from impotence and as a consequence dress as women, talk like them and carry out feminine household work. The Hippocratic author emphasises that the male impotence and the female infertility stem from the cold, damp climate and the Scythians' way of living, particularly the men spending most of their time riding. In contrast Herodotus states that the male impotence is Aphrodite's revenge because the Scythians ravaged her temple in Ascalon many years earlier. The difference between the Hippocratic emphasis on natural explanations for all natural phenomena, including health and disease and the occasional divine intervention promoted by Herodotus is underlined. There seems to be no plausible modern explanation for the impotence and infertility as described by the Hippocratic author.

Religiosity, self-control, and virginity status in college students from the "Bible Belt": a research note.

Using a sample of college students (N = 904) from the "Bible Belt," this study examines the effect of religiosity and self-control on late adolescents' delay in initiating sexual intercourse or oral sex. Findings from logistic regressions provide evidence that for each one unit increase in self-control, the odds of a male remaining a virgin or of delaying oral sex increased by a factor of 1.82 and 2.84, respectively, while for females, the odds of not engaging in oral sex increased by a factor of 1.67. In addition to the effect of self-control, a one unit increase in religiosity results in the odds of a male remaining a virgin by a factor of 3.86 and 3.30, respectively. For females the odds are increased by a factor of 4.13 and 2.60, respectively. Mediation tests also provided evidence that self-control mediated the effects by religiosity on both dependent measures. Thus, both religiosity and self-control independently and additively function as key social control mechanisms that promote late adolescent health.

Violación y transgresión. Medicina forense y moral sexual en la España del siglo XIX / Rape and transgression. Forensic medicine and sexual morality in the Spain in the 19th century

En este trabajo se examina la contribución del discurso médico-forense español del siglo XIX, a través de su aplicación en los casos de agresión sexual, a la legitimación del orden moral sexual de la época. Con este objetivo se analizan los principales tratados de Medicina Forense editados en nuestro país durante ese siglo (AU)

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the importance of the contribution of the Spanish forensic medical discourse in the 19th century, and its application in cases of sexual harassment, to legitimize the sexual moral value of the time. For that reason we will analyse the main forensic medicine treaties edited in Spain during this century (AU)