4/25/25
Soviets : Was Bolshevism a Sexual Revolution?
● Many Bolsheviks believed that the traditional nuclear family structure would die out and
be replaced by state support of families
● Alexandra Kollontai : “glass of water” ; sex should be available to people like a glass of
water
● Idealistic talk of free, cohabitation and emancipation of women
● Lenin rejected these ideas and ended this early phase of experimentation
● Under Stalin, tolerance of premarital sex and freer divorce was definitely over
4/30/25
The Science of Sex
● Knjng
Anna Desclos (Pauling Reage) wrote Histoire d’O (Story of O)
● Young woman only known as “O” is initiated into a sex cult by her love Rene
● Wears bondage-style clothing, cannot speak to other women, obeys the commands of
men who violate her
● Sparked major debates about female objectification
● Ended up winning the Prix des Deux Magot, French literary prize
Simone de Beauvoir ; The Second Sex (1949)
● Believed women should get to choose who they spend their lives with
● Believed one is not born a woman but becomes a woman
● Evaluated de Sade : famous French Revolutionary figure who gave his name to sadism
○ Asked in a 1951 essay “Must we burn de Sade?”
○ Second wave feminism as fuck
● Tried to understand his sexual choice and understanding de Sade in his historical context
● Rejected both de Sade and Freud’s instance that sex drives overrides choice
● Showed the gendered way Freud constructed his ideas about sexuality and civilization
(relied on male sexuality)
Philosopher Herbert Marcuse
● Believed sexual liberation was related to political liberation
○ More enjoyment of sex = more enjoyment of politics
● But also built on Beauvoir to believe that sexual pleasure could be manipulated to
exercise power
● “Father of the New Left” and one of the founders of the Frankfurt school
● Worked as an intelligence analyst for the Office of the Secret Service after he was forced
from Nazi Germany for Jewish heritage
● Critiqued both capitalist and communist societies as one-dimensional
● Rejected the idea that sexual freedom could be an end in itself, agreed with Freud that
some sexual urges should be repressed
● Believed that society has too much repression and that civilization arises from pleasure
Soviets : Was Bolshevism a Sexual Revolution?
● Many Bolsheviks believed that the traditional nuclear family structure would die out and
be replaced by state support of families
● Alexandra Kollontai : “glass of water” ; sex should be available to people like a glass of
water
● Idealistic talk of free, cohabitation and emancipation of women
● Lenin rejected these ideas and ended this early phase of experimentation
● Under Stalin, tolerance of premarital sex and freer divorce was definitely over
4/30/25
The Science of Sex
● Knjng
Anna Desclos (Pauling Reage) wrote Histoire d’O (Story of O)
● Young woman only known as “O” is initiated into a sex cult by her love Rene
● Wears bondage-style clothing, cannot speak to other women, obeys the commands of
men who violate her
● Sparked major debates about female objectification
● Ended up winning the Prix des Deux Magot, French literary prize
Simone de Beauvoir ; The Second Sex (1949)
● Believed women should get to choose who they spend their lives with
● Believed one is not born a woman but becomes a woman
● Evaluated de Sade : famous French Revolutionary figure who gave his name to sadism
○ Asked in a 1951 essay “Must we burn de Sade?”
○ Second wave feminism as fuck
● Tried to understand his sexual choice and understanding de Sade in his historical context
● Rejected both de Sade and Freud’s instance that sex drives overrides choice
● Showed the gendered way Freud constructed his ideas about sexuality and civilization
(relied on male sexuality)
Philosopher Herbert Marcuse
● Believed sexual liberation was related to political liberation
○ More enjoyment of sex = more enjoyment of politics
● But also built on Beauvoir to believe that sexual pleasure could be manipulated to
exercise power
● “Father of the New Left” and one of the founders of the Frankfurt school
● Worked as an intelligence analyst for the Office of the Secret Service after he was forced
from Nazi Germany for Jewish heritage
● Critiqued both capitalist and communist societies as one-dimensional
● Rejected the idea that sexual freedom could be an end in itself, agreed with Freud that
some sexual urges should be repressed
● Believed that society has too much repression and that civilization arises from pleasure
