The one single primary cause”
Divorce, the family, and heterosexual pleasure in postwar Australia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12647462 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lisa Featherstone (0000-0002-5189-1910, University of Newcastle Australia, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 349-363 |
| Publication date | 2013-08-20 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Australian Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1444-3058 • E-ISSN: 1835-6419 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14443058.2013.815256 |
| OpenAlex | W1972552606 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
In the late 1940s, the popular Australian journal Smith's Weekly boldly announced that “the one single primary cause” of divorce was “physical maladjustment between man and wife through ignorance of sex.” By the 1950s, the links between sex and divorce were omnipresent. Regardless of the traumas of World War II and the difficulties faced by both men and women in re-acclimatising to “normal” civilian life, rising divorce rates were commonly linked to sexual dissatisfaction within the marital bed. The new model of heterosexual pleasure demanded a certain kind of sexual life: regular, penetrative, and completed by the simultaneous orgasm. Anything else was troubling and probably unsatisfactory. Given that various sex writers suggested that at least half of all married women were sexually frustrated, the potential for divorce hence social disaster was clear. The sexual lives of citizens, then, were ripe for a raft of public commentaries—for marital sex could undermine postwar population, the nuclear family, and the very foundations of 1950s Australian citizenship. This article will explore the twin concepts of divorce and heterosex and the multiple ways sexual dissatisfaction was linked to social and sexual disorder
Criminology · Human sexuality · Ignorance · Orgasm · Pleasure · Political science · Population · Sexual revolution · Sociology · Wife · Australian History and Society · Demography · Gender Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Psychology
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.17 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2024 (11) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |