csillagkohó’s Reviews > Sexual Liberation, Socialist Style: Communist Czechoslovakia and the Science of Desire, 1945–1989 > Status Update
csillagkohó
is on page 50 of 290
"Historian Josie McLellan uncovered evidence that the censors of Mann und Frau Intim [a GDR sex manual] suggested revisions to its author. Surprisingly, the recommended modifications were more progressive than the original. For example, the author was 'chided for presenting female sexuality as a male object, lecherously describing "charming" women, "beautiful breasts", "delightful figures" and their effect on men.'"
— Feb 25, 2026 03:49PM
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csillagkohó’s Previous Updates
csillagkohó
is on page 108 of 290
"The demographers who advised the state on population issues were unambiguously for liberalizing access to abortion, and their discourse was more rights driven than scholars usually acknowledge. (...) Abortion might have been publicly introduced as a measure for improving women's health but in expert circles it was hailed as a tool for equality and reproductive freedom."
— 20 hours, 33 min ago
csillagkohó
is on page 100 of 290
In divorce court rulings, "'marital contact', 'living as husband and wife' or 'living together' were synonyms for sex: if present, judges were reluctant to grant a divorce. If sex was absent though, even marriages with children could end in divorce. Sexual matters trumped violence, especially in cases where the wife left a husband who beat her; wife battering was seen as compatible with marriage, adultery was not."
— 22 hours, 29 min ago
csillagkohó
is on page 23 of 290
In the 1950s, "a zoophile man who abused cows was not prosecuted for offending sexual propriety, but instead, because he damaged collectivized farms"
— Feb 22, 2026 10:59PM
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Feb 26, 2026 02:24AM
Seems to be a decent body of literature on the sociology/politics of sex in Eastern Europe under the Eastern Bloc. Most of it seems to indicate a remarkably progressive position (perhaps excepting LGBT+ rights)? I've not read any yet but want to give it a go at some point.
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Yes I'm surprised too how many similar works there are, especially on the GDR and USSR. Kristen Ghodsee is the well-known one (never read her but she's a great speaker) but that's just the tip of the iceberg. This one's main thesis seems to be that in Czechoslovakia the tendency was one towards radical sexual progressiveness in the 1950s and 1960s, but that this was replaced by more family- and marriage-oriented values and sexual conformity after the Prague Spring: the opposite movement of what happened in the West. It also has a whole chapter on homosexuality (decriminalized in CZ in 1961) and male "sexual deviance". Good read so far
