Nationalism and sexuality in nineteenth-century Europe

Concentrating on developments in Germany &, to a lesser extent, England, the relationship between nationalism & respectability, particularly as regards M sexuality, is examined. Nineteenth-century attitudes toward chastity, unconventionality, & masturbation are all traced, as well as the association of big cities with ideas of degeneracy, homosexuality, & unmanliness. The late nineteenth-century awakening of interest in sexuality & the human body is contrasted with nationalist championing of nudity as a form of race regeneration & a cult of idealized homoeroticism. In a world threatened by the appearance of social chaos, nationalist-inspired ideas of normalcy & abnormalcy formed a bulwark against shifting mores. By maintaining the ideal of respectability of the early part of the nineteenth century, nationalists sought to forestall the encroachment of modernity. 8 References. J. Weber.