Sexual Politics

The initial phase of the sexual revolution ended not with complete overthrow of problematic ideology but with reform: “patriarchal ideology was eroded and patriarchy reformed, [but] the essential patriarchal social order remained” (157). Moreover, this period in time resulted in a veritable backslide into a belief that a family unit revolving around the subordination of women was necessary for society. Because “authoritarian governments appear to favor patriarchy especially” (158), looking to Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia’s experimentation with family models—though extreme—might help explain the sexual revolution in other societies.

In the years leading up to the Nazi Party taking power, the Woman’s Movement in Germany grows rapidly, and the Nazi government quickly identifies “the sexual revolution and feminism as forces to be dealt with seriously” (159). They set about dismantling these problems methodically: “by factionalizing, by infiltrating, by forcing elections, commandeering leadership positions” (160), before coopting the movement into official Party frameworks that are explicitly anti-feminist. These tactics help the Party control the role of women within the country, assigning a position that is “strictly confined to utter dedication to motherhood and the family” (161), a move that was somewhat contradicted by also forcing many women, including mothers, to “participate in state labor” (161).