Some thoughts on the traditional context of romance, marriage, and sexuality (Part Two)
By Mark Wegierski
web posted December 1, 2025
Before the Twentieth Century, it appeared that, in both Western and non-Western societies, the subtlest refinements of love as well as heterogeneous sexual exploration (whether for good or ill) existed chiefly among various kinds of upper classes and such groups as artists and writers. It may also be noted that the ethos represented by different "upper-class" groups was indeed enormously divergent. The code of chivalry, for example, which had its beginning in the attempt to Christianize the pagan, barbarian warrior, was entirely different from that of the practical-minded, merchant classes.
It was in "the upper classes" that the first stirrings of what was then called "libertinage" originated – of which the Marquis de Sade, Casanova, and Don Juan, are probably the best-known examples. Indeed, most of the various sexual and other cruelties and abuses of "the aristocrats" against the common people – which have been popularly ascribed to the iniquities of the Ancien Regime, a reactionary social order – probably in fact flowed from the embrace of Enlightenment and its sovereign egoism among some of the upper classes. Indeed, the Marquis de Sade may have avoided execution precisely because of his aristocratic status. One may indeed also wonder how socially prevalent the notorious "droit de seigneur" ever actually was.
It should also of course be remembered that war was an extremely common condition for nearly all of European history, and wars in those times were often characterized by the mass-rape of peasant and town women outside of one's own country. It would not appear to be a climate congenial to the flourishing of family life, yet somehow the European populations were able to smartly increase, despite the depredations of war, famine, plague and disease.
There is a tendency today to blame virtually all social troubles (insofar as they are recognized as troubles at all) on some part of the past. For example, a prominent liberal once described pedophilia as a "dark relic of the past." This is profoundly disorienting. It is far more likely the result of the current-day, florid climate of the consumerization of children, and of the massive collapse of the traditional family. Indeed, the image of "nice childhood" – which some claim actually arose in Victorian times – although it was almost certainly present to some extent in virtually every society – has now been highly attenuated. What liberals also seem to ignore in the matter of the negative side of heterogeneous sexual exploration is that various inclinations may, indeed, be decisively resisted. The typical liberal derision of character and the importance of free will tend toward a deterministic de-humanization.
As a result of increasing over-all prosperity, as well as the triumph of broadly Romantic notions, arranged marriage faded from most Western and European societies – for an ever-larger percentage of the population -- by the beginning of the Twentieth Century. It seemed, at least for some Western and European societies, that the rising prosperity, advances in medicine and hygiene, the emphatic recognition of romantic love, and the apparent triumph of civilized values, would make a happy "familialism" possible. Indeed, the persistence of "pro-family" outlooks among virtually every part of the political spectrum – such as among, for example, the rather old-fashioned social democratic parties – would have seemed to put the family on a strong footing. However, just when it appeared that "happy times" had arrived for the Western family – a number of heterogeneous threats arose. First of all, there was the rise of radical feminism in the early Twentieth Century. The First World War had a shattering impact on the confidence of white, Western, Christian civilization. The arising of the Bolsheviks in Russia (among whom there were also some sexual-radical elements) contributed to a climate of revolutionary ferment. Then, there was the emergence of Freudian psychology (or perhaps of vulgarized Freudian psychology). It was said that the advance of Freudianism in America in the 1920s became a license for people to "make whoopee" (in the slang of the time). The Weimar Germany of the 1920s – and the hyper-radical Dadaist movement -- became synonymous with decadence. The onslaught of the Great Depression in the 1930s had a debilitating effect on family life. Finally, the arising of Hitler put a final bitter twist on sexual radicalism. Claiming to some extent to be a defender of "traditional family values" Hitler also introduced various perverse practices in Germany even before 1939. The sexually charged climate around Hitler is attested to by rock-singer David Bowie's thought-provoking point: "Hitler was the first rock-and-roll star." The Second World War, the Holocaust of European Jewry, and the destruction of more traditional European societies like Poland, Hungary, and Romania, were further blows against the sense of normalcy, decency, and stability.
The 1950s in the United States were probably the last long sunset of traditional "familialism" in the West. There are a number of later films and television shows that looked back with nostalgia to that era – notably Happy Days, Back to the Future, and Peggy Sue Got Married. However, much of the groundwork for the concatenation of the sexual and social revolutions in the 1960s was laid in the 1950s. There were the Kinsey Reports, the formulation of the theory of "the authoritarian personality", Dr. Spock's enormously influential book, Gunnar Myrdal's very influential interpretation of American race-relations, the launching of Hugh Hefner's Playboy Magazine, the arising of rock-and-roll music in its earliest form, and so forth.
In the 1960s, all these various trends, reinforced by the civil-rights struggle of American Blacks, the Vietnam War protests, the accentuation of the "protest" aspects of rock music, the emergence of television as the central medium, the massive expansion of universities and colleges, and the easy availability of narcotic and hallucinogenic drugs (propagandized by Timothy Leary), exploded into a series of sexual and social revolutions, which may together have indeed constituted "the greatest revolution in human history."
The whole massive structures of familial existence, which the pre-1960s Left had, for the most part, simply accepted as part of pre-political existence, now came into increasingly radical question.
To be continued. 
Mark Wegierski is a Canadian writer and historical researcher.
