Narratives of abuse have taken on different forms during different moments.
Childhood and Youth
Wolfenden, Paederasty and Paedophilia
What do the Wolfenden Papers have to say about paederasty and paedophilia?
Stalling Civil Rights: Conservative Sexual Thought has been in the Toilet Since the 1940s
Gillian Frank Houston’s Proposition 1 bathroom ordinance. What does it mean to you? Any man at any time could enter a woman’s bathroom simply by claiming to be a woman that day. No one is exempt. Even registered sex offenders could follow women or young girls into the bathroom and […]
Dr. Spock and the History of Sexuality
Janet Golden Dr. Benjamin Spock (1903-1998) was a pediatrician and a political activist who published the bestselling book, Baby and Child Care, in 1946. In it, Spock encouraged mothers to trust their own judgment and to eschew overly strict parenting strategies. By the mid-1960s, Baby and Child Care was the top […]
Classroom Wars and Sexual Politics: An Interview with Natalia Mehlman Petrzela
Interview by Robert Self The schoolhouse has long been a crucible in the construction and contestation of “family values.” In Classroom Wars: Language, Sex and the Making of Modern Political Culture (Oxford, 2015), Natalia Mehlman Petrzela focuses on battles over sex education and bilingual education in order to chart how Californians […]
Radical Relations: An Interview with Daniel W. Rivers
Interview by Gillian Frank In keeping with Notches’ commitment to fostering a public and widespread discussion of the history of sexuality within and outside of the academy, we are introducing a regular feature that we are calling “Author Interviews.” Here, we publish critical conversations with authors of recent publications on the history of […]
Heterosexuality and Americanization: "Social Education" for Immigrant Youth in the 1920s
Erica Ryan In the nativist 1920s, in the wake of successive waves of mass immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, progressives in the United States engaged in tremendous efforts to assimilate immigrants into their vision of American culture. For these white, middle-class, and Protestant reformers, channeling sexuality into marriage was key […]
Recent Posts
Understanding Zika & the Abortion Debate in Brazil: A View from 1940
Naming & Shaming Women: Reporting on VD Trials During WWI
Syphilis Onstage: Eugène Brieux’s Damaged Goods
The Catholic Church and Child Sexual Abuse in Twentieth-Century Ireland
Reverend Anna Garlin Spencer and the Rise of “Family Life” in Early Sex Education