NationStates Jolt Archive


Puritans and Victorians: Mass Confusion

Orangians
21-09-2005, 12:22
All right, I see that quite a few people use "puritanical" and "prudish" interchangeably. I'm tired of seeing the historically ignorant bloviate on about how the "puritanical ethic" is responsible for so-called "uptight views" on sex that survive in the United States.

Puritans looked upon sex as a healthy and necessary part of marriage. In fact, a husband or wife could be punished for denying his or her spouse sex. Puritans, a more pragmatic lot than you'd think, discussed sex quite openly. They could even be characterized as often romantic and sentimental about love and sex. Virginity as an ideal wasn't cherished in women. Unmarried women were expected to remain chaste, though. If a Puritan caught a fellow member of the community committing adultery, the snitch would probably recall the encounter in quite explicit detail before the rest of the community and even to the court if the offended spouse decided to request a divorce. I read one account of two women stumbling upon a man having sex on the floor of his home with his young mistress. The women walked directly up to his open window and stared at him having sex, all the while condemning him for his sin. The women then discussed the 'ins and outs' of what they had witnessed before the magistrate. Imagine! Young female Puritans talking about sex - in public! Puritans opposed sex outside of marriage, yes, but realized that premarital sex was a fact of life. If a girl became pregnant before marriage, Puritans would most likely respond sensibly - the community would strongly urge the male and female involved to marry as soon as possible. The Puritans had a practical reason for this: if the man refused to take responsibility for the woman and child, the community would have to financially support her.

As a point of side interest, Puritans often lived in brightly colored houses and even wore ornate and colorful clothing. They enjoyed parties. The women weren't kept inside and locked away. Women tended to farms and assisted their husbands with the family business. Women could inherit property. Divorce was permitted, but not very common. Although husbands did beat their wives, it was generally frowned upon as a practice, just as it was in Medieval Europe.

This has a point. When people say "puritanical," I think they really mean "Victorian." In a history class my professor told me a story of a man who lived in the Victorian Era. He had never seen a woman naked in person or from a photograph. The only knowledge he had of female nudity was from classical art and Greek and Roman statues. On the night of his honeymoon, he saw his wife naked for the first time. He refused to consummate the marriage. He saw that real women have pubic hair and lumps and skin discoloration. The sight of his naked wife so appalled him as a repressed Victorian that he never had sex with his bride for the entirety of their marriage. She eventually left him and remarried, and apparently had a quite fulfilling sex life with her new husband.

This is an exaggerated account, of course. Obviously the Victorians had sex inside and outside of marriage. The difference was that the Victorians saw the subject as sinful and crude. Men were known to visit prostitutes, but the topic was entirely too distasteful to discuss. Virginity was cherished and the sanctity and innocence of children was championed. Women were supposed to remain naive about sex. Check out Victorian paintings of women. They're always sitting inside, perhaps looking out a window, never really reading or writing, and always looking pristine.

So, I beg of you, from now on if you're whining about prudes, call them Victorians, not Puritans.
Laerod
21-09-2005, 12:27
So, I beg of you, from now on if you're whining about prudes, call them Victorians, not Puritans.Well, I feel I must add that Puritans were the ones that hate the idea of fun. The Puritan Cromwell regime that ruled Britain outlawed anything that could be considered fun and even burned down the Globe Theater that Shakespeare performed in. That's mainly the reason why they faced persecution in Great Britain and fled to America...
Orangians
21-09-2005, 12:32
Well, I feel I must add that Puritans were the ones that hate the idea of fun. The Puritan Cromwell regime that ruled Britain outlawed anything that could be considered fun and even burned down the Globe Theater that Shakespeare performed in. That's mainly the reason why they faced persecution in Great Britain and fled to America...

Nah. Not really.

MYTH # 10

Puritans Hated Fun (http://hnn.us/articles/406.html)

H.L. Mencken defined Puritanism as "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy!" Actually, the Puritans welcomed laughter and dressed in bright colors (or, to be precise, the middle and upper classes dressed in bright colors; members of the lower classes were not permitted to indulge themselves -- they dressed in dark clothes). As Carl Degler long ago observed, "The Sabbatarian, antiliquor, and antisex attitudes usually attributed to the Puritans are a nineteenth-century addition to the much more moderate and wholesome view of life's evils held by the early settlers of New England."
Laerod
21-09-2005, 12:40
Nah. Not really.Let's look at the comments to that:
Regarding myths 9 & 10: The non-separating congregationalists living in the bay Colony during the mid-17th century were fruitful and multiplied, so they had to have sex at some point. However, if they enjoyed it, there was nothing communicated about it. Also, regarding #10, the Puritans were anything but nice people. They established an ecclesiastical oligarchy, and were very totalitarian in the way they governed. By the mid-1650s, they were engaging in a brutal suppression of all who disagreed with their point of view. This suppression included large fines, confiscation of both real property and chattel, forced hard labor, banishment, imprisonment, mutilation (having body parts removed or a hot poker stuck through your tongue) and execution. Unfortunately, these were not isolated instances of overzealous persecution, but regular and recurring actions by those in power. So many were banished to Rhode Island (which they referred to as the "sewer of New England"), that church membership actually declined. They were not a lot of fun to be around...Source (http://hnn.us/readcomment.php?id=380&bheaders=1#380)
Orangians
21-09-2005, 12:46
Let's look at the comments to that:
Source (http://hnn.us/readcomment.php?id=380&bheaders=1#380)

That doesn't show that Puritans didn't like to have fun. That illustrates that one community didn't leave records of the joys of sex and that the Puritans punished dissenters harshly. I refuse to believe that an entire people disliked "fun." They're human, after all. They didn't like drunken orgies on Goodwife Johnson's farm, I'm sure, but they weren't "uptight" and they weren't opposed to having a good time. They were moral beings and obeyed strict rules.
Laerod
21-09-2005, 13:04
That doesn't show that Puritans didn't like to have fun. That illustrates that one community didn't leave records of the joys of sex and that the Puritans punished dissenters harshly. I refuse to believe that an entire people disliked "fun." They're human, after all. They didn't like drunken orgies on Goodwife Johnson's farm, I'm sure, but they weren't "uptight" and they weren't opposed to having a good time. They were moral beings and obeyed strict rules.
Hmhm...
Life in England under Cromwell:
One of the main beliefs of the Puritans was that if you worked hard, you would get to Heaven. Pointless enjoyment was frowned upon. Cromwell shut many inns and the theatres were all closed down. Most sports were banned. Boys caught playing football on a Sunday could be whipped as a punishment. Swearing was punished by a fine, though those who kept swearing could be sent to prison.Source (http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/cromwell_england.htm)The Puritans were a sect of Calvinists. The core belief of the Calvinists was that those prosperous in life would go to heaven, since their prosperity was a sign of God's approval (hence the notion of the class of "saints" in Puritan society).
Kinda Sensible people
21-09-2005, 13:21
Puritan beliefs on the issue of sex were loose, in a sense. Don't have sex without being married to the person you're screwing. Of course if you broke that law you would be put to death or publicly humiliated by being forced to wear a large scarlet "a" on your chest.

Yes, the puritans were a small minded lot who enjoyed oppression of others. Yes, the puritans were hypocrites and tyrrants. Yes, they certainly had a lot of rules against having fun. But they don't seem to have thought sex was evil, as long as it was had in a marriage.
Laenis
21-09-2005, 13:23
If puritans were so fun loving, why would a contemperory, William Shakespeare, use their name to describe a cold hearted, serious and generally unfun man?
Dakini
21-09-2005, 13:27
Weren't the puritans the people responsable for the Salem Witch trials?

Though other groups of christians did a fair amout of witch burning throughout history... I think they were over it before then though.
Jeruselem
21-09-2005, 13:48
The worst Puritans went to ... the USA.
Laerod
21-09-2005, 13:54
Weren't the puritans the people responsable for the Salem Witch trials?

Though other groups of christians did a fair amout of witch burning throughout history... I think they were over it before then though.
The Puritans only hung witches, never burned them, as far as I know ;)
Adlersburg-Niddaigle
21-09-2005, 14:09
The author of this thread is correct about puritans. They were a peasant (thus, earthy) lot who were, despite their religious beliefs, imbued with the English culture of that era. If they painted their houses at all is questionable since paint was a rare commodity. If they could find dyes for cloth, then their love of color would not have limited them to what we might consider good taste.

Sexual morality in the present-day USA is a combination of repressive Victorian ideals and more open European attitudes. This is why, to my mind, the USA struggles so much with this issue.
Eutrusca
21-09-2005, 14:14
Goo luck in getting this changed. Use of the term "Puritanical" is firmly anchored in the English language vocabulary.

Incidentally, sex in most societies has been bounded by taboos and strictures throughout history, some island societies in the Pacific being the only exceptions of which I am aware.
Khaotik
21-09-2005, 14:36
The Victorian Era has colored our understanding of the past. We assume that, before the nineteenth century, European people were just as uptight and "proper" as the Victorians, perhaps even more so. But the opposite is true - they were earthy and even vulgar in daily life, and the obsession with propriety and the ideal of female purity were an invention of the early 19th century.

The Puritans in England under Cromwell were pretty uptight, as far as I know, but the ones who lived in the American colonies were somewhat different. They did know about and talk about sex (although they weren't as likely to turn a blind eye to adultery as most Anglicans or Catholics or whatever), wore bright-colored clothing, and did engage in recreation. However, they had a very strong work ethic, partly a development of Puritan religion in England and partly because, if you lived out in the colonies, you had to be willing to work hard or you died.

The nineteenth-century ideas about the pilgrims and Puritans are very inaccurate, and historians have just recently begun to refute them. It will take a while before everyone sees the real picture.


EDIT: Also, Puritan society in the American colonies had greater equality between the sexes than that of Victorian society. According to legal records from the period, women could inherit and control property from their husbands, easily bring lawsuits to court, and their testimony in legal cases was regarded as being of equal value to the testimony of a man. Marriage was a vital economic arrangement in the colonies and women were important players on the economic stage. They weren't expected to just stay inside and take care of the kids and the housework: they had to help tend crops and take care of family businesses as well. So any attitudes we have about "the weaker sex" are certainly Victorian, not Puritanical.