Why is the Victorian age, considered to be the most prudish age, seen as the beginning of the modern period?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The Victorian era is known to be prudish. During the Victorian era, the accepted view was that sex should be private, hidden from and emotionally suppressed in children, and never mentioned in polite society. The genders were highly polarized and this was expressed in male and female sexuality. However, toward the end of the 19th century, as the first women's emancipation movement gathered momentum, women began to search for a more holistic, meaningful sense of sexual well-being that would also include pleasure and a larger role in society. Children, once deemed to be sexual creatures in their own right, were now regarded as entirely sexually innocent and in need of protection to keep them that way. Men were expected to be sexually aggressive, to have manual jobs, and to express what people called very natural and innate "sex drives. Such modern attitudes motivated potential conflicts for human sexual nature. For example, women and children had to deny all sexuality, and men's sexuality was believed to be a conflict between good and evil, a struggle between the pure or good side, and the lustful, animal-like sexual side.
From the new forms of sexuality created in the 19th century, including notions of sexual degeneration that were condemned, rose new positive ideas. The most important new concept was sexual identity, defined as the self-identification by an individual as heterosexual, bisexual, or homosexual, which came into existence during this period. The concept of homosexuality as a distinctive sexual orientation of individuals attracted to others of the same gender emerged first, followed by the invention of the concept of heterosexuality as an identity. Also during the Victorian era, a new norm redefined the concepts of production and consumption: the heterosexual couple. Prior to this time, marriage was largely a political contract, and husband and wife lived with the extended family of the man, typically in small villages. The idea of a long-term romantic sexual partnership in marriage began taking shape as society industrialized and people moved to the cities. New concepts of companionship and gender equality for women also emerged at this time. Romantic love between couples and the concept of individual choice in sex and marriage became popular. In other words, sexuality was being modernized. Thus the Victorian era in a way laid the foundation of the modern period.