The Physician and Sexuality in Victorian America - Paperback

by John S. Jr. Haller (Author), Robin M. Haller (Author)

"Men and women in late nineteenth-century America," write John S. Haller and Robin M. Haller, "faced a bewildering and conflicting array of roles forced on them by a newly industrialized society." Nowhere were these roles more sharply drawn than in the area of sexuality. Growing numbers of Victorians found themselves unable to confide in husbands, wives, or relatives on personal matters. Increasingly, they turned to advice columns in newspapers, etiquette books, philanthropic organizations, marriage manuals, private counselors--and to the physician. The peculiar relationship that existed between the physician and his patient enabled the medical profession to exert a powerful influence: the doctor found himself with the responsibility of acting as the arbiter of fashion, the watchman of morals, and the judge of personal needs. And because the medical profession held itself responsible for the moral and spiritual health of the nation, doctors felt it necessary to bring their professional authority to bear against those elements--such as the women's rights movement--which threatened the stability of society.

Back Jacket

Although the middle class operated on a double standard, Victorian men faced enormous expectations and restrictions similar to the proscriptive role assigned Victorian women. John S. Haller, Jr., and Robin M. Haller cover the resulting nervous ailments common to Victorians, in addition to marriage and sexual relationships, proper hygiene, prostitution, and drug addiction, thus illuminating the ways doctors in Victorian America - ostensibly exponents of reason and science - became chauvinists, ready fountains of pronouncement and champions of manly burdens and womanly limitations. In one of the few sexual studies to deal with both genders, the authors reject the stereotypical view of Victorian sexuality. Discounting the popular dictum of the Victorian period as an aberration in the ascent of women to greater sexual freedom, they posit prudery as a mask behind which women sometimes gained greater freedom of person.