In countries and areas where safer sex precautions are either unavailable or not practiced for cultural reasons, prostitution is an active disease vector for all STIs, including HIV/AIDS, but the encouragement of  safer sex  practices, combined with regular testing for sexually transmitted infections, has been very successful when applied consistently. As an example, Thailand's condom program has been largely responsible for the country's progress against the HIV epidemic. [ 224 ]  It has been estimated that successful implementation of safe sex practices in India "would drive the [HIV] epidemic to extinction" while similar measures could achieve a 50% reduction in Botswana. [ 229 ]  In 2009,  UN Secretary-General   Ban Ki-moon  urged all countries to remove bans on prostitution and homosexual sex, because "such laws constitute major barriers to reaching key populations with HIV services". In 2012, the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, which was convened by Ban Ki-moon, and which is an independent body, was established at the request of the  UNAIDS , and supported by a Secretariat based at the  UNDP , [ 230 ]  reached the same conclusions, also recommending decriminalization of  brothels  and  procuring . [ 231 ] [ 232 ] [ 233 ]  Nevertheless, the report states that: "The content, analysis, opinions and policy recommendations contained in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations Development Programme." [ 230 ]


The  COVID-19 pandemic  has  had an impact on sex work . During the COVID-19 pandemic, contact professions (which includes prostitution, amongst others) had been banned (temporarily) in some countries. This has resulted in a local reduction of prostitution. [ 234 ]


De Marneffe (2009) argued that there are psychological issues that prostitutes face from certain experiences and through the duration or repetition. Some go through experiences that may result "in lasting feelings of worthlessness, shame, and self-hatred". De Marneffe further argued that this may affect the prostitute's ability to perform sexual acts for the purpose of building a trusting intimate relationship, which may be important for their partner. The lack of a healthy relationship can lead to higher divorce rates and can influence unhealthy relationship to their children, influencing their future relationships. [ 235 ]


Further reading


A  purity test  is a self-graded survey that assesses the participants' supposed degree of innocence in worldly matters (sex, drugs, deceit, and other activities assumed to be  vices ), generally on a percentage scale with 100% being the most and 0% being the least pure.  Online purity tests were among the earliest of  Internet memes , popular on  Usenet  beginning in the early 1980s. However, similar types of tests circulated under various names long before the existence of the Internet.


The  Rice Thresher  student newspaper in 1924 published the results of an informal ten-question survey of 119 female undergraduate students at  Rice University , with questions like "Have you ever been drunk?", "Did you ever dance conspicuously?", and "Have you ever done anything that you wouldn't tell your mother?" [ 1 ]  The test has periodically been revisited and revised by the Thresher, usually on its satirical "Backpage," with expanded lists of questions that students can take and score on their own, starting with a list of 100 questions in 1988. [ 2 ]  An official website was created for the 2012 edition by the newspaper staff. [ 3 ]


The  Columbia University  humor magazine,  The Jester , reported in its October 1935 issue on a campus wide "purity test" conducted at  Barnard College  in 1935. The issue of  The Jester  was briefly censored, with distribution curtailed until the director of activities at the university could review the article. According to the editor-in-chief of  The Jester , "We printed the survey to clear up some of the misconceptions that Columbia and the outside world have about Barnard girls," he said. "The results seem to establish that Barnard girls are quite regular. I fail to see anything off-color in the story. It's a sociological study." [ 4 ]


In 1936,  The Indian Express  reported that students at Toronto University were "under-going a 'purity test', which took "the form of twenty very personal questions, designed to determine the state of their morals and their 'purity ratio'. For example, so many marks are lost for smoking, drinking, and every time the sinner kisses a girl or boy. Then, after truthfully answering all the questions, the total number of bad marks are added up and subtracted from a hundred. What is left, if any, is the 'purity ratio'. The test is unofficial and just what it will prove when completed nobody knows." [ 5 ]


Alan Dundes , a professor of anthropology and folklore at the  University of California, Berkeley , and Carl R. Pagter included examples of purity tests in their 1975 book  Work Hard and You Shall Be Rewarded: Urban Folklore from the Paperwork Empire . They noted, "An indication of the particular sexual activities that are valued is provided by various versions of a questionnaire parody entitled 'Virtue Test' or 'Official Purity Test' or the like. It is obviously doubtful whether anyone would answer the questions posed on the test in an honest and truthful fashion. Nevertheless, the questions themselves serve to reveal a good deal about the American male's sexual fantasy life." [ 6 ]  Dundes and Pagter's book reprints a "Virtue Test" circulated at  Indiana University  in 1939 and a more contemporary "Official Purity Test" circulated at  California Institute of Technology . [ 7 ]


In 1976, a teacher at  La Grange High School  in Texas was fired for distributing a 1966 purity test, which had appeared in the  Ask Ann Landers  column, to her students. The questions on the test ranged from "Ever said 'I love you'?" to "Ever had group sex?" [ 8 ]  The teacher sued the school district and was awarded $71,000 in back pay and damages. [ 9 ]


Most purity tests have possible scores anywhere from 0% to 100%. Purity tests ask numerous personal questions of their users, most commonly about the use of alcohol and  illicit substances ;  sexual acts  with members of the opposite or same-sex; other illicit or illegal activities, and the above actions in an odd or "kinky" context.  These tests typically have anywhere from 50 to 2000 questions.


Many popular purity tests encourage participation in a social situation (one person reading a purity test aloud while others mark down their "yeses" for later  tabulation ). The tests often acknowledge that some may use them as a  checklist  for things to do, try, or accomplish.


One test is The Unisex Purity Test (or, simply, the Purity Test). First written before 1980 in the  Massachusetts Institute of Technology   Baker House , the first incarnation had two  parallel  versions, 100 questions each; one for male, and one for female. The next iteration (247 questions, written at  Carnegie Mellon University  in 1983) heralded the merging of the gendered versions, making it  unisex . Over the next  decade  or so, many re-writes and expansions commenced, a 2000-question version being written in 1995.


In  human sexuality , the  refractory period  is usually the recovery phase after  orgasm  during which it is physiologically impossible for males to have additional orgasms. [ 1 ] [ 2 ]  This phase begins immediately after  ejaculation  and lasts until the  excitement phase  of the  human sexual response cycle  begins anew with low-level response. [ 1 ] [ 2 ]  It is generally reported that females do not experience a refractory period and can thus experience an additional orgasm (or multiple orgasms) soon after the first one. [ 3 ] [ 4 ]  However, some sources state that both males and females experience a refractory period because women may also experience a moment after orgasm in which further  sexual stimulation  does not produce excitement. [ 5 ] [ 6 ]


Although the refractory period varies widely among individuals, ranging from minutes to days, [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ]  most men cannot achieve or maintain an  erection  during this time, and many perceive a psychological feeling of satisfaction and are temporarily uninterested in further sexual activity; the  penis  may be hypersensitive, and further sexual stimulation may feel painful during this time frame. [ 3 ] [ 6 ]


An increase in the infusion of the  hormone   oxytocin  during ejaculation is believed to be chiefly responsible for the male refractory period, and the amount by which oxytocin is increased may affect the length of each refractory period. [ 7 ]  Another chemical which some consider to be responsible for the male refractory period is  prolactin , [ 3 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ]   which is repressed by  dopamine  and is responsible for  sexual arousal . [ 8 ]  However, there is no consensus for such a causative relationship; some studies suggest that prolactin has no effect on the refractory period. [ 10 ]  It is additionally proposed that the  gonadotropin inhibitory hormone  (GnIH), which is considered to inhibit the  hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis  and sexual functions, causes refractoriness of the post-ejaculatory refractory period. [ 11 ]  This hypothesis also supports the increase of oxytocin and prolactin after orgasm in accordance with the previous studies. [ 11 ]


An alternative theory explains the male refractory period in terms of a peripheral autonomic feedback mechanism, [ citation needed ]  rather than through central chemicals like oxytocin,  serotonin , and prolactin. Autonomic feedback is already known to regulate other physiologic systems, such as breathing, blood pressure, and gut motility. This theory suggests that after ejaculation, decreased wall tension in structures such as the  seminal vesicles  leads to a change in the fine autonomic signals sent from these organs, effectively creating a negative feedback loop. Such a mechanism is similar to decreased gastric and bowel motility once gastric contents have passed through. Once the feedback loop has been created, the refractory period remains until the loop is broken through restoration of the wall tension in the seminal vesicles. As men age, the time to restore tension in the seminal vesicles increases. [ 12 ]


The female  sexual response  is thought to be more varied than that of men, and women are thought to be more capable than men of attaining additional or multiple orgasms through further sexual stimulation, suggesting a shorter or absent refractory period in some women. [ 3 ] [ 4 ]  A study has shown that the vast majority of women experience  clitoral  hypersensitivity after orgasm at similar rates to the refractory period in men, which is characterised by penile sensitivity. The findings of that same study also suggest a reconsideration of the refractory period in women and highlight the need for further research on post-orgasmic experiences that includes the female perspective. [ 13 ]  In addition, both men and women experience increased prolactin levels following orgasm for approximately 60 minutes, which is a neurobiological marker of the refractory period in males. [ 14 ] [ 9 ]  Like men, it may be that only a minority of women are capable of multiple orgasms or lack a refractory period, but there is insufficient data to make a conclusion. [ 15 ]


Men may have a reduced refractory period and may be capable of multiple orgasms. [ 16 ]  According to some studies, 18-year-old males have a refractory period of about 15 minutes, while those in their 70s take about 20 hours.  [ 17 ]  Although rarer, some males exhibit no refractory period or a refractory period lasting less than 10 seconds. [ 18 ]  A scientific study attempting to document natural, fully ejaculatory, multiple orgasms in an adult man was conducted at  Rutgers University  in 1995. During the study, six fully ejaculatory orgasms occurred in 36 minutes, with no apparent refractory period. [ 3 ] [ 19 ]  In 2002, P. Haake et al. reported a single male individual producing multiple orgasms without elevated prolactin response. [ 8 ]


The  right to sexuality  incorporates the right to express one's  sexuality  and to be free from discrimination on the grounds of  sexual orientation . Although it is equally applicable to  heterosexuality , it also encompasses  human rights  of people of diverse sexual orientations, including  lesbian ,  gay ,  asexual  and  bisexual  people, and the protection of those rights.  The inalienable nature of rights belonging to every person by virtue of being  human . [ 1 ]


No right to sexuality exists explicitly in  international human rights law ; rather, it is found in a number of  international human rights instruments  including the  Universal Declaration of Human Rights , the  International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights  and the  International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights .


The concept of the right to sexuality is difficult to define, as it comprises various rights from within the framework of international human rights law.


Sexual orientation is defined in the Cambridge dictionary is described as "The fact of someone being sexually or romantically attracted to people of a particular gender, or more than one gender". [ 2 ]


Pronouns are used to identify as to what an individual goes by. For a female, it is typically used as She/Her. For a male, it is typically used as He/Him.  [ 3 ]


Freedom from discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation is found in the  Universal Declaration of Human Rights  (UDHR) and the  International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights  (ICCPR).


The UDHR provides for non-discrimination in Article 2, which states that: [ 4 ]


"Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty."


Sexual orientation can be read into Article 2 as "other status" or alternatively as falling under "sex".


In the ICCPR, Article 2 sets out a similar provision for non-discrimination:


"Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present Covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."


In  Toonen v Australia  the  United Nations Human Rights Committee  (UNHRC) found that the reference to "sex" in Article 2 of the ICCPR included sexual orientation, thereby making sexual orientation prohibited grounds of distinction in respect of the enjoyment of rights under the ICCPR. [ 5 ]


The right to be free from discrimination is the basis of the right to sexuality, but it is closely related to the exercise and protection of other fundamental human rights.


Individuals of diverse sexual orientations have been discriminated against historically and continue to be a "vulnerable" group in society today. Forms of discrimination experienced by people of diverse sexual orientations include the denial of the  right to life , the  right to work  and the  right to privacy , non-recognition of personal and family relationships, interference with human  dignity , interference with  security of the person , violations of the right to be free from  torture , discrimination in access to economic, social and cultural rights, including housing, health and education, and pressure to remain silent and invisible. [ 6 ]


67 countries maintain laws that make same-sex consensual sex between adults a criminal offence, and seven countries (or parts thereof) impose the death penalty for same-sex consensual sex. They are Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Mauritania, the twelve northern states of Nigeria, and the southern parts of Somalia.


The right to sexuality has only relatively recently become the subject of international concern, with the regulation of sexuality traditionally falling within the jurisdiction of the  nation state . [ 7 ]  Today numerous international  non-governmental organizations  and  intergovernmental organizations  are engaged in the protection of the rights of people of diverse sexual orientation as it is increasingly recognized that discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation is widespread and an unacceptable violation of human rights.


Acts of violence against LGBT people are often especially vicious compared to other  bias-motivated crimes [ 8 ]  and include killings, kidnappings, beatings, rape, and psychological violence, including threats, coercion and arbitrary depravations of liberty. [ 9 ]


Examples of violent acts against people of diverse sexual orientation are too numerous to account here, and they occur in all parts of the world. A particularly distressing example is the sexual assault and murder of fifteen lesbians in  Thailand  in March 2012. In that example, two lesbian couples were killed by men who objected to their relationship and who were embarrassed when they were unable to convince the women into heterosexual relationships with them. [ 10 ]


In another disturbing case which took place in 2017 in a church located in  Brazil , a 13-year-old lesbian girl fell victim to sexual abuse after confessing to her bishop her sexual orientation. The bishop then proceeded to anoint the girl with an oil under the pretext of “gay healing” to which the young girl was left traumatized and in need of psychological care. [ 11 ]


In another case,  Nex Benedict , a 16-year-old teenager, was found dead inside of their own home. Nex Benedict was a teenager who was using  they/them pronouns , getting comfortable with their sexuality and expressing how they truly were. At school, many other teens bullied and picked on them due to their pronouns. It got to the point where Benedict was beaten; they died the following day.  [ 12 ]


Often acts of violence against people of diverse sexual orientations are perpetrated by the victim's own family. In the case of  Zimbabwe , 18 yr. old Tina Machida was raped multiple times as a lesbian which was organized by her own family in an attempt to "normalize" her from homosexuality. [ 13 ]


In those cases, as in many other cases of violence against people of diverse sexual orientation, State law enforcement authorities are complicit in human rights abuses for failing to persecute violators of rights.


The  right to privacy  is a protected freedom under the UDHR, [ 14 ]  and the ICCPR [ 15 ]  which reflects the "widespread, if not universal, human need to pursue certain activities within an intimate sphere, free of outside interference. The possibility to do so is fundamental to personhood." [ 16 ]  Intimate relationships, whether between two people of the same sex or of different sexes, are among those activities that are subject to a right of privacy. The privacy rights extend much further then to just the things you do in your home but  to your medical records, who your sexual partners are, and what your sexual status is.


It has been successfully argued in several cases that criminalization of homosexual relationships is an interference with the right to privacy, including decisions in the  European Court of Human Rights  and the UNHRC. [ 17 ] [ 18 ] [ 5 ]


The freedom to decide on one's consensual adult relationships, including the gender of that person, without the interference of the State is a fundamental human right. To prohibit the relationships of people of diverse sexual orientations is a breach of the right to sexuality and the right to privacy.


Every person, by their  individual autonomy , is free to express themselves, assemble and join in association with others.  Freedom of expression  is a protected human right under Article 19 of the UDHR and Article 19 of the ICCPR, as is the right to  freedom of assembly  under Article 20 of the UDHR and Article 21 of the ICCPR.


LGBT people are discriminated against in respect of their ability to defend and promote their rights. Gay pride marches, peaceful demonstrations and other events promoting LGBT rights are often banned by State governments. [ 19 ]


In 2011 gay pride marches were banned in Serbia [ 20 ]  and another march in Moscow was broken up by police, who arrested thirty leading gay rights activists. [ 21 ]


Many individuals use pronouns that they feel are comfortable with their sexuality. When it comes to a female, it is typically she/her, and when it comes to a male, they use he/him. Nowadays people use they/them pronouns as a way to show that is how they go as an individual. There are different pronouns that people are also coming up with in order to go by as. [ 22 ]


In 2005, twenty-nine experts undertook the drafting of the  Yogyakarta Principles  on the Application of International Human Rights Law in relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. [ 23 ]  The document was intended to set out experiences of human rights violations against people of diverse sexual orientation and transgender people, the application of international human rights law to those experiences and the nature of obligations on States in respect of those experiences. [ 6 ]


The Principles can be broadly categorized into the following:


The Yogyakarta Principles is an instrument of  soft law  and is therefore not binding. But it does provide an important standard for States in their obligation to protect the rights of individuals of diverse sexual orientations.


On June 17, 2011 the  United Nations Human Rights Council  in a Resolution on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, adopted by a vote of 23 in favor, 19 against, and 3 abstentions, requested the commission of a study to document discriminatory laws and acts of violence against people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. [ 24 ]


The 2011 Resolution was intended to shed light on how international human rights could be used to prevent acts of violence and discrimination against people of diverse sexual orientation.


On 15 December 2011 the first Report on human rights of LGBT people was released by the  Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights . [ 25 ]


The Report made the following recommendations. To prevent such acts of violence occurring,  United Nations Member States  are recommended to: [ 26 ]


Further action is yet to be taken by the United Nations, although a proposed declaration on sexual orientation and gender identity was brought before the  United Nations General Assembly  in 2008. However, that declaration has not been officially adopted by the General Assembly and remains open for signatories.


Romance  or  romantic love  is a  feeling  of  love  for, or a  strong attraction  towards another person, [ 1 ]  and the  courtship behaviors  undertaken by an individual to express those overall feelings and resultant emotions. [ 2 ] [ 3 ]


The  Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Family Studies  states that "Romantic love, based on the model of mutual attraction and on a connection between two people that bonds them as a couple, creates the conditions for overturning the model of family and marriage that it engenders." [ 4 ]  This indicates that romantic love can be the founding of attraction between two people. This term was primarily used by the "western countries after the 1800s were socialized into, love is the necessary prerequisite for starting an intimate relationship and represents the foundation on which to build the next steps in a family."


Alternatively,  Collins Dictionary  describes romantic love as "an intensity and idealization of a love relationship, in which the other is imbued with extraordinary virtue, beauty, etc., so that the relationship overrides all other considerations, including material ones." [ 5 ]


Although the  emotions and sensations  of  romantic love  are widely associated with  sexual attraction , they could also exist without sexual attraction. In certain cases, romance could even be interpreted as a normal friendship.  Historically , the  term   romance  originates with the  medieval   ideal  of  chivalry  as set out in the literature of  chivalric romance .


People who experience little to no romantic attraction are referred to as  aromantic .


Bode & Kushnick undertook a comprehensive review of romantic love from a biological perspective in 2021. [ 6 ]  They considered the psychology of romantic love, its mechanisms, development across the lifespan, functions, and evolutionary history. Based on the content of that review, they proposed a biological definition of  romantic love: [ 6 ]


Romantic love  is a  motivational state  typically associated with a desire for long-term mating with a particular individual. It occurs across the lifespan and is associated with distinctive cognitive, emotional, behavioral, social, genetic, neural, and endocrine activity in both sexes. Throughout much of the life course, it serves  mate choice ,  courtship ,  sex , and  pair-bonding  functions. It is a suite of adaptations and by-products that arose sometime during the recent evolutionary history of humans. [ 6 ]


Anthropologist  Charles Lindholm  defined love as "any intense attraction that involves the idealization of the other, within an erotic context, with expectation of enduring sometime into the future". [ 7 ]


The word "romance" comes from the French  vernacular  where initially it indicated a  verse narrative .  The word was originally an adverb of Latin origin, "romanicus", meaning "of the  Roman  style". European medieval vernacular tales,  epics , and  ballads  generally dealt with  chivalric adventure , not bringing in the concept of  love  until late into the seventeenth century. The word  romance  developed other meanings, such as the early nineteenth century Spanish and Italian definitions of "adventurous" and "passionate", which could intimate both "love affair" and "idealistic quality". [ citation needed ]


Anthropologists  such as  Claude Lévi-Strauss  show that there were complex forms of courtship in ancient as well as contemporary primitive societies. There may not be evidence, however, that members of such societies formed loving relationships distinct from their established customs in a way that would parallel modern romance. [ 8 ]  Marriages were often arranged, but the wishes of those to be wed were considered, as affection was important to primitive tribes. [ 9 ]


In the majority of primitive societies studied by the anthropologists, the extramarital and premarital relations between men and women were completely free. The members of the temporary couples were sexually attracted to each other more than to anyone else, but in all other respects their relationships had not demonstrated the characteristics of romantic love. In the book of Boris Shipov  Theory of Romantic Love [ 10 ]  the corresponding evidences of anthropologists have been collected.  Lewis H. Morgan : "the passion of love was unknown among the barbarians. They are below the sentiment, which is the offspring of civilization and super added refinement of love was unknown among the barbarians." [ 11 ]   Margaret Mead : "Romantic love as it occurs in our civilisation, inextricably bound up with ideas of monogamy, exclusiveness, jealousy and undeviating fidelity does not occur in Samoa." [ 12 ]   Bronislaw Malinowski : "Though the social code does not favour romance, romantic elements and imaginative personal attachments are not altogether absent in Trobriand courtship and marriage." [ 13 ]


The phenomenon which B. Malinowski calls love, actually has very little in common with the European love: "Thus there is nothing roundabout in a Trobriand wooing; nor do they seek full personal relations, with sexual possession only as a consequence. Simply and directly a meeting is asked for with the avowed intention of sexual gratification. If the invitation is accepted, the satisfaction of the boy's desire eliminates the romantic frame of mind, the craving for the unattainable and mysterious." [ 14 ]  "an important point is that the pair's community of interest is limited to the sexual relation only. The couple share a bed and nothing else. ... there are no services to be mutually rendered, they have no obligation to help each other in any way..." [ 15 ]


The aborigines of Mangaia island of Polynesia, who mastered the English language, used the word "love" with a completely different meaning as compared to that which is usual for the person brought up in the European culture. Donald S. Marshall: "Mangaian informants and co-workers were quite interested in the European concept of "love". English-speaking Mangaians had previously used the term only in a physical sense of sexual desire; to say, "I love you" in English to another person was tantamount to saying, "I want to copulate with you." The components of affection and companionship, which may characterize the European use of the term, puzzled the Mangaians when we discussed the term." [ 16 ]  "The principal findings that one can draw from an analysis of emotional components of sexual relationship feelings on Mangaia are:


Nathaniel Branden  claims that by virtue of "the tribal mentality," "in primitive cultures the idea of romantic love did not exist at all. Passionate individual attachments are evidently seen as threatening to tribal values and tribal authority." [ 18 ]  Dr. Audrey Richards, an anthropologist who lived among the Bemba of Northern Rhodesia in the 1930s, once related to a group of them an English folk-fable about a young prince who climbed glass mountains, crossed chasms, and fought dragons, all to obtain the hand of a maiden he loved. The Bemba were plainly bewildered, but remained silent. Finally an old chief spoke up, voicing the feelings of all present in the simplest of questions: "Why not take another girl?" he asked. [ 19 ]


The earliest recorded marriages in Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, and among Hebrews were used to secure alliances and produce offspring. It was not until the Middle Ages that love began to be a real part of marriage. [ 20 ]  The marriages that did arise outside of arranged marriage were most often spontaneous relationships.  In  Ladies of the Leisure Class ,  Rutgers University  professor Bonnie G. Smith depicts courtship and marriage rituals that may be viewed as oppressive to modern people. She writes, "When the young women of the Nord married, they did so without illusions of love and romance. They acted within a framework of concern for the reproduction of bloodlines according to financial, professional, and sometimes political interests." [ 21 ] [ 22 ]


Anthony Giddens , in  The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Society , states that romantic love introduced the idea of a  narrative  to an individual's life, and telling a story is a root meaning of the term  romance . According to Giddens, the rise of romantic love more or less coincided with the emergence of the  novel . It was then that romantic love, associated with  freedom  and therefore the ideals of romantic love, created the ties between freedom and  self-realization . [ 23 ] [ 24 ]


David R. Shumway states that "the discourse of intimacy" emerged in the last third of the 20th century, intended to explain how marriage and other relationships worked, and making the specific case that emotional closeness is much more important than  passion , with intimacy and romance coexisting. [ 25 ]


One example of the changes experienced in relationships in the early 21st century was explored by Giddens regarding  homosexual  relationships. According to Giddens, since homosexuals were not able to marry, they were forced to pioneer more open and negotiated relationships. These kinds of relationships then permeated the heterosexual population. [ 26 ]


Anthropologist  and author  Helen Fisher  has argued that romantic love is a mammalian brain system evolved for selecting a preferred mating partner. [ 27 ] [ 28 ]  Fisher's team has proposed that romantic love may have evolved around the time of bipedalism, when new mothers needed additional protection and provision while having to carry their young. [ 29 ]  A 2023 paper by Adam Bode has argued that while Fisher's evolutionary theory has been the predominant one for 25 years, romantic love could be better explained by evolutionary co-option of the systems for mother-infant bonding. [ 30 ]  Fisher likens romantic love to mammalian courtship attraction, [ 31 ]  but Bode argues courtship attraction is separate. [ 30 ]


In F. Engels book,  The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State : "monogamy was the only known form of the family under which modern sex love could develop, it does not follow that this love developed, or even predominantly, within it as the mutual love of the spouses. The whole nature of strict monogamian marriage under male domination ruled this out." [ 32 ]   Sigmund Freud  stated, "It can easily be shown that the psychical value of erotic needs is reduced as soon as their satisfaction becomes easy. An obstacle is required in order to heighten libido; and where natural resistances to satisfaction have not been sufficient men have at all times erected conventional ones so as to be able to enjoy love. This is true both of individuals and of nations. In times in which there were no difficulties standing in the way of sexual satisfaction, such as perhaps during the decline of the ancient civilizations, love became worthless and life empty." [ 33 ]


Some believe that romantic love evolved independently in multiple cultures. For example, in an article presented by Henry Grunebaum, he argues " therapists  mistakenly believe that romantic love is a  phenomenon  unique to Western cultures and first expressed by the troubadours of the Middle Ages." [ 34 ]


The word "romance" is derived from the Latin adverb  Romanice , meaning "in the vernacular," in reference to the languages  Old French  and  Old Occitan . These languages were descendants of  Latin , the language of the  Romans . Evolutions of the word  Romanice  were used to refer first to the Romance languages and eventually also to the works composed in them. The genre of  chivalric romance  initially focused on the heroic military deeds of knights, which led to the use of the word  romantic  in the sense of  chivalrous . As the genre evolved, starting after the  Renaissance  and especially in the  Romantic period , it focused increasingly on love in the modern sense. [ 35 ]


The general idea of "romantic love" in the Western tradition is believed [ by whom? ]  to have originated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, primarily from that of the French culture. This idea is what has spurred the connection between the words "romantic" and "lover", thus  coining  English phrases for romantic love such as "loving like the Romans do". The precise origins of such a connection are unknown, however. Although the word "romance" or the equivalents thereof may not have the same connotation in other cultures, the general idea of "romantic love" appears to have crossed cultures and been accepted as a concept at one point in time or another. [ citation needed ]


The conception of romantic love was popularized in  Western culture  by the concept of  courtly love .  Knights  of the  Middle Ages  were thought to have engaged in non-sexual relationships with women of nobility whom they served. [ 36 ]  These relations were highly elaborate and ritualized in a complexity that was steeped in a framework of tradition, which stemmed from theories of etiquette derived out of  chivalry  as a moral code of conduct. [ citation needed ]


Courtly love and the notion of  domnei  were often the subjects of  troubadours , and could be typically found in artistic endeavors such as lyrical narratives and poetic prose of the time. Since  marriage  was commonly a formal arrangement, [ 37 ] [ better source needed ]  courtly love sometimes permitted expressions of emotional closeness that may have been lacking from the union between husband and wife. [ 38 ]  Courtly love did not necessarily refer to those engaging in  sexual  acts. It may also have referred to caring and emotional intimacy. The bond between a knight and his  Lady , or the woman of typically high stature of whom he served, may in some cases have been one such example. [ 36 ] [ 39 ]


Religious meditations upon the  Virgin Mary  were partially responsible for the development of chivalry as an ethic and lifestyle. A lady's honor and a knight's devotion to her, coupled with an obligatory respect for all women, factored prominently in the identity of medieval knighthood. Members of the  aristocracy  were schooled in the principles of chivalry, which facilitated important changes in attitudes regarding the value of women. [ 40 ]


Modern historians such as  D. W. Robertson Jr. , [ 41 ]  John C. Moore, [ 42 ]  and  E. Talbot Donaldson [ 43 ]  consider the concept of courtly love to be a modern invention. Donaldson called it "The Myth of Courtly Love," on the basis that it is not supported in medieval texts. Other scholars consider courtly love to have been purely a literary convention. Examples of allegorical use of the concept can be found in the Middle Ages, but there are no historical records that offer evidence of its presence in reality. Historian John Benton found no documentary evidence in law codes, court cases, chronicles or other historical documents. [ 44 ] [ 45 ]


Romantic love is contrasted with  platonic love , which in all usages precludes sexual relations, [ contradictory ]  yet only in the modern usage does it take on a fully nonsexual sense, rather than the classical sense, in which sexual drives are sublimated.


Unrequited love  can be romantic in different ways: comic, tragic, or in the sense that sublimation itself is comparable to romance, where the spirituality of both art and  egalitarian  ideals is combined with strong character and emotions. Unrequited love is typical of the period of  romanticism , but the term is distinct from any romance that might arise within it. [ 46 ]


Romantic love may also be classified according to two categories, "popular romance" and "divine or spiritual" romance:


Greek philosophers and authors have had many theories of love. Some of these theories are presented in  Plato 's  Symposium . Six Athenian friends, including  Socrates , drink wine and each give a speech praising the  deity   Eros . When his turn comes,  Aristophanes  says in his  mythical  speech that sexual partners seek each other because they are descended from beings with spherical torsos, two sets of human limbs, genitalia on each side, and two faces back to back. Their three forms included the three permutations of pairs of gender (i.e. one masculine and masculine, another feminine and feminine, and the third masculine and feminine) and they were split by the gods to thwart the creatures' assault on heaven, recapitulated, according to the comic playwright, in other myths such as the  Aloadae . [ 48 ]


This story is relevant to modern romance partly because of the image of reciprocity it shows between the sexes. In the final speech before  Alcibiades  arrives,  Socrates  gives his encomium of love and desire as a lack of being, namely, the being or form of  beauty .


Though there are many theories of romantic love—such as that of  Robert Sternberg , in which it is merely a mean combining liking and  sexual desire —the major theories involve far more insight. For most of the 20th century, Freud's theory of the family drama dominated theories of romance and sexual relationships. This gave rise to a few counter-theories. Theorists like Deleuze counter Freud and  Jacques Lacan  by attempting to return to a more naturalistic philosophy:


René Girard  argues that romantic attraction is a product of  jealousy  and rivalry—particularly in a  triangular form .


Girard, in any case, downplays romance's individuality in favor of  jealousy  and the  love triangle , arguing that romantic attraction arises primarily in the observed attraction between two others. A natural objection is that this is  circular reasoning , but Girard means that a small measure of attraction reaches a critical point insofar as it is caught up in  mimesis . Shakespeare's plays  A Midsummer Night's Dream ,  As You Like It , and  The Winter's Tale  are the best known examples of competitive-induced romance. [ 49 ]


Girard's theory of mimetic desire is controversial because of its alleged  sexism . This view has to some extent supplanted its predecessor, Freudian Oedipal theory. It may find some spurious support in the supposed attraction of women to aggressive men. As a technique of attraction, often combined with irony, it is sometimes advised that one feign toughness and disinterest, but it can be a trivial or crude idea to promulgate to men, and it is not given with much understanding of mimetic desire in mind. Instead, cultivating a spirit of self-sacrifice, coupled with an attitude of appreciation or contemplation, directed towards the other of one's attractions, constitutes the ideals of what we consider to be true romantic love. Mimesis is always the desire to possess, in renouncing it we offer ourselves as a sacrificial gift to the other. [ 50 ]


Mimetic desire is often challenged by  feminists , such as  Toril Moi , [ 51 ]  who argue that it does not account for the woman as inherently desired.


Though the centrality of rivalry is not itself a cynical view, it does emphasize the mechanical in love relations. In that sense, it does resonate with  capitalism  and  cynicism  native to post-modernity. Romance in this context leans more on fashion and irony, though these were important for it in less emancipated times.  Sexual revolutions  have brought change to these areas. Wit or irony therefore encompass an instability of romance that is not entirely new but has a more central social role, fine-tuned to certain modern peculiarities and subversion originating in various social revolutions, culminating mostly in the 1960s. [ 52 ]


The process of courtship also contributed to  Arthur Schopenhauer 's pessimism, despite his own romantic success, [ 53 ]  and he argued that to be rid of the challenge of courtship would drive people to suicide with boredom. Schopenhauer theorized that individuals seek partners looking for a "complement" or completing of themselves in a partner, as in the  cliché  that "opposites attract", but with the added consideration that both partners manifest this attraction for the sake of the species:


But what ultimately draws two individuals of different sex exclusively to each other with such power is the will-to-live which manifests itself in the whole species, and here anticipates, in the individual that these two can produce, an objectification of its true nature corresponding to its aims.
— World as Will and Representation , Volume 2, Chapter XLIV [ 54 ]


Later modern philosophers such as  La Rochefoucauld ,  David Hume  and  Jean-Jacques Rousseau  also focused on  morality , but desire was central to French thought and Hume himself tended to adopt a French worldview and temperament. Desire in this milieu meant a very general idea termed "the passions", and this general interest was distinct from the contemporary idea of "passionate" now equated with "romantic". Love was a central topic again in the subsequent movement of  Romanticism , which focused on such things as absorption in nature and the  absolute , as well as  platonic  and unrequited love in German philosophy and literature.


French philosopher  Gilles Deleuze  linked this concept of love as a lack mainly to  Sigmund Freud , and Deleuze often criticized it.


Victor C. De Munck and David B. Kronenfeld conducted a study named "Romantic Love in the United States: Applying Cultural Models Theory and Methods". [ 55 ]  This study was conducted through an investigation of two cultural model cases. It states that in America, "we have a rather novel and dynamic cultural model that is falsifiable and predictive of successful love relationships" Which supports that it is popular for American people to successfully share feelings of romanticism with each other's partners. It describes American culture by stating: "The model is unique in that it combines passion with comfort and friendship as properties of romantic love." One of its main contributions is advising the reader that "For successful romantic love relations, a person would feel excited about meeting their beloved; make passionate and intimate love as opposed to only physical love; feel comfortable with the beloved, behaving in a companionable, friendly way with one's partner; listen to the other's concerns, offering to help out in various ways if necessary; and, all the while, keeping a mental ledger of the degree to which altruism and passion are mutual."


Shakespeare and  Søren Kierkegaard  share a similar viewpoint that marriage and romance are not harmoniously  in tune  with each other. In Shakespeare's  Measure for Measure , for example, "...there has not been, nor is there at this point, any display of affection between Isabella and the Duke, if by affection we mean something concerned with sexual attraction. The two at the end of the play love each other as they love virtue." [ 59 ]  In  Romeo and Juliet , in saying "all combined, save what thou must combine By holy marriage",  Romeo  implies that it is not marriage with Juliet that he seeks but simply to be joined with her romantically.


Kierkegaard addressed these ideas in works such as  Either/Or  and  Stages on Life's Way :


In the first place, I find it comical that all men are in love and want to be in love, and yet one never can get any illumination upon the question what the lovable, i.e., the proper object of love, really is. [ 60 ]


In his 2008 book  How to Make Good Decisions and Be Right All the Time , British writer  Iain King  tried to establish rules for romance  applicable across most cultures.  He concluded on six rules, including:


Many theorists attempt to analyze the process of romantic love. [ 62 ] [ 63 ] [ 64 ] [ 65 ]


Anthropologist  Helen Fisher , in her book  Why We Love , [ 66 ]  uses brain scans to show that love is the product of a chemical reaction in the brain.  Norepinephrine  and  dopamine , among other brain chemicals, are responsible for excitement and bliss in humans as well as non-human animals. Fisher uses MRI to study the brain activity of a person "in love" and she concludes that love is a natural drive as powerful as hunger.


Psychologist Karen Horney in her article "The Problem of the Monogamous Ideal", [ 67 ]  indicates that the overestimation of love leads to disillusionment; the desire to possess the partner results in the partner wanting to escape; and the friction against sex result in non-fulfillment. Disillusionment plus the desire to escape plus non-fulfillment result in a secret hostility, which causes the other partner to feel alienated. Secret hostility in one and secret alienation in the other cause the partners to secretly hate each other. This secret hate often leads one or the other or both to seek love objects outside the marriage or relationship.


Psychologist Harold Bessell in his book  The Love Test , [ 68 ]  reconciles the opposing forces noted by the above researchers and shows that there are two factors that determine the  quality of a relationship . Bessell proposes that people are drawn together by a force he calls "romantic attraction", which is a combination of genetic and cultural factors. This force may be weak or strong and may be felt to different degrees by each of the two love partners. The other factor is "emotional maturity", which is the degree to which a person is capable of providing good treatment in a love relationship. It can thus be said that an immature person is more likely to overestimate love, become disillusioned, and have an affair whereas a mature person is more likely to see the relationship in realistic terms and act constructively to work out problems.


Romantic love, in the abstract sense of the term, is traditionally considered to involve a mix of emotional and sexual desire for another as a  person . However,  Lisa M. Diamond , a  University of Utah   psychology  professor, proposes that sexual desire and romantic love are functionally independent [ 69 ]  and that romantic love is not intrinsically oriented to same-gender or other-gender partners. She also proposes that the links between love and desire are bidirectional as opposed to unilateral. Furthermore, Diamond does not state that one's sex has priority over another sex (a male or female) in romantic love because her theory suggests [ according to whom? ]  it is as possible for someone who is  homosexual  to fall in love with someone of the other gender as for someone who is  heterosexual  to fall in love with someone of the same gender. [ 70 ]  In her 2012 review of this topic, Diamond emphasized that what is true for men may not be true for women. According to Diamond, in most men sexual orientation is fixed and most likely innate, but in many women sexual orientation may vary from 0 to 6 on the  Kinsey scale  and back again. [ 71 ]


Martie Haselton, a psychologist at  UCLA , considers romantic love a "commitment device" or mechanism that encourages two humans to form a lasting bond. She has explored the evolutionary rationale that has shaped modern romantic love and has concluded that long-lasting relationships are helpful to ensure that children reach reproductive age and are fed and cared for by two parents. Haselton and her  colleagues  have found evidence in their experiments that suggest love's  adaptation . The first part of the  experiments  consists of having people think about how much they love someone and then suppress thoughts of other attractive people. In the second part of the experiment the same people are asked to think about how much they sexually desire those same partners and then try to suppress thoughts about others. The results showed that love is more efficient in pushing out those rivals than  sex . [ 72 ]


Research by the University of Pavia [ who? ]  suggests that romantic love lasts for about a year (similar to  limerence ) before being replaced by a more stable, non-passionate " companionate love ". [ 73 ]  In companionate love, changes occur from the early stage of love to when the relationship becomes more established and romantic feelings seem to end. However, research from Stony Brook University in New York suggests that some couples keep romantic feelings alive for much longer. [ 74 ]


Attachment styles  that people develop as children can influence the way that they interact with partners in adult relationships, with secure attachment styles being associated with healthier and more trusting relationships than avoidant or anxious attachment styles. [ 75 ] [ 76 ]  Hazen and Shaver found that adult romantic attachment styles were similar to the categories of secure, avoidant, and anxious that had previously been studied in children's attachments to their caregivers, demonstrating that attachment styles are stable across the lifespan. [ 77 ]  Later on, researchers distinguished between dismissive avoidant attachment and fearful avoidant attachment. [ 78 ]  Others have found that secure adult attachment, leading to the ability for intimacy and confidence in relationship stability, is characterized by low attachment-related anxiety and avoidance, while the fearful style is high on both dimensions, the dismissing style is low on anxiety and high on avoidance, and the preoccupied style is high on anxiety and low on avoidance. [ 79 ]


Irving Singer  [ 80 ] [ 81 ] [ 82 ]  first defined love based on four  Greek  terms:  eros , meaning the search for beauty;  philia , the feelings of affection in close friendships,  nomos , the submission of and obedience to higher or divine powers, and  agape , the bestowal of love and affection for the divine powers. While Singer did believe that love was important to world culture, he did not believe that romantic love played a major role. [ 82 ]  However, Susan Hendrick and Clyde Hendrick at Texas Tech University  [ 83 ] [ 84 ]  have theorized that romantic love will play an increasingly important cultural role in the future, as it is considered an important part of living a fulfilling life. They also theorized that love in long-term romantic relationships has only been the product of cultural forces that came to fruition within the past 300 years. By cultural forces, they mean the increasing prevalence of individualistic ideologies, which are the result of an inward shift of many cultural worldviews.


Researchers have determined that romantic love is a complex emotion that can be divided into either passionate or companionate forms. [ 85 ]  Berscheid and Walster  [ 86 ]  and Hatfield [ 87 ]  found that these two forms can co-exist, either simultaneously or intermittently. Passionate love is an arousal-driven emotion that often gives people extreme feelings of happiness, and can also give people feelings of anguish. [ citation needed ]  Companionate love is a form that creates a steadfast bond between two people, and gives people feelings of peace. Researchers have described the stage of passionate love as "being on cocaine", since during that stage the brain releases the same neurotransmitter, dopamine, as when cocaine is being used. [ 88 ]  It is also estimated that passionate love (as with  limerence ) lasts for about twelve to eighteen months. [ 89 ]


Hendrick and Hendrick studied college students who were in the early stages of a relationship and found that almost half reported that their significant other was their closest friend, providing evidence that both passionate and companionate love exist in new relationships. [ 90 ]  Conversely, in a study of long-term marriages, Contreras, Hendrick, and Hendrick found that couples endorsed measures of both companionate love and passionate love and that passionate love was the strongest predictor of marital satisfaction, showing that both types of love can endure throughout the years. [ 91 ]


Psychologist Robert Sternberg [ 92 ]  developed the  triangular theory of love . He theorized that love is a combination of three main components: passion (physical arousal); intimacy (psychological feelings of closeness); and commitment (the sustaining of a relationship). He also theorized that the different combinations of these three components could yield up to seven different forms of love. These include popularized forms such as romantic love (intimacy and passion) and consummate love (passion, intimacy, and commitment). The other forms are liking (intimacy), companionate love (intimacy and commitment), empty love (commitment), fatuous love (passion and commitment), and infatuation (passion).
Studies on Sternberg's theory love found that intimacy most strongly predicted marital satisfaction in married couples, with passion also being an important predictor (Silberman, 1995. [ 93 ]  On the other hand, Acker and Davis [ 94 ]  found that commitment was the strongest predictor of relationship satisfaction, especially for long-term relationships.


Researchers Arthur and Elaine Aron theorized that humans have a basic drive to expand their self-concepts. Further, their experience with Eastern concepts of love caused them to believe that positive emotions, cognitions, and relationships in romantic behaviors all drive the expansion of a person's self-concept. [ 95 ]  A study following college students for 10 weeks showed that those students who fell in love over the course of the investigation reported higher feelings of self-esteem and self-efficacy than those who did not. [ 96 ]


Gottman studies the components of a flourishing romantic relationship have been studied in the lab  [ 97 ]  Gottman & Silver, 1999. [ 98 ]  He used physiological and behavioral measures during couples' interactions to predict relationship success and found that five positive interactions to one negative interaction are needed to maintain a healthy relationship. He established a therapy intervention for couples that focused on civil forms of disapproval, a culture of appreciation, acceptance of responsibility for problems, and self-soothing.  [ 99 ]


Recent research suggests that romantic relationships impact daily behaviors and people are influenced by the eating habits of their romantic partners. Specifically, in the early stages of romantic relationships, women are more likely to be influenced by the eating patterns (i.e., healthiness/unhealthiness) of men. However, when romantic relationships are established, men are influenced by the eating patterns of women. [ 100 ]


Daniel Canary from the International Encyclopedia of Marriage [ 101 ]  describes relationship maintenance as "At the most basic level, relational maintenance refers to a variety of behaviors used by partners in an effort to stay together." Maintaining stability and quality in a relationship is the key to success in a romantic relationship. He says that: "simply staying together is not sufficient; instead, the quality of the relationship is important. For researchers, this means examining behaviors that are linked to relational satisfaction and other indicators of quality." Canary suggests using the work of John Gottman, an American physiologist best known for his research on marital stability for over four decades, serves as a guide for predicting outcomes in relationships because "Gottman emphasizes behaviors that determine whether or not a couple gets divorced". [ 102 ]


Furthermore, Canary also uses the source from Stafford and Canary, [ 103 ]  a journal on Communication Monographs, because they created five great strategies based on maintaining quality in a relationship, the article's strategies are to provide:


On relational maintenance, Steven McCornack and Joseph Ortiz, the authors of the book  Choices & Connection , state that relationship maintenance "refers to the use of communication behaviors to keep a relationship strong and to ensure that each party continues to draw satisfaction from the relationship". [ 104 ]


Researchers such as Feeney and Noller question the stability of attachment style across the life span since studies that measured attachment styles at time points ranging from two weeks to eight months found that one out of four adults' attachment style changed. [ 105 ]  Furthermore, a study by Lopez and Gormley found that attachment styles could change during the first year of college and that changes to more secure attachment styles were associated with adjustments in self-confidence ratings and coping styles. [ 106 ]  On the other hand, attachment styles in childhood mirror the ones found in adult romantic relationships. [ 107 ]  In addition, research has shown that building interpersonal connections strengthens neural regulatory systems that are involved in emotions of empathy, enjoyment of positive social events, and stress management, [ 108 ] [ 109 ]  providing evidence that early social interactions affect adult relationships.


Another topic of controversy in the field of romantic relationships is that of  domestic abuse . Following the theory that romantic love evolved as a byproduct of survival, it can be said that in some instances, it has turned into a  maladaptation .  Oxytocin  (OT) is a neurophysical hormone produced in the brain. It is known to cause a decrease in stress response. It also can cause an increase in feelings of  attachment . In the beginning stages of a romantic relationship, OT levels surge and then remain relatively stable over the duration of the relationship. The higher the surge of OT, the greater the likelihood is of partners staying together. [ 110 ]  It plays an important role in increasing positive interpersonal behaviors such as trust, altruism, empathy, etc. [ 111 ]  This response is not universal and can in fact, cause the opposite to occur depending on environment and individual. Individuals ranked high in  rejection sensitivity  exhibited aggressive tendencies and decreased willingness for cooperation, indicating a link between oxytocin and relationship maintenance. [ 112 ]


The feelings associated with romantic love function to ensure the greater reproductive fitness of individuals. The obligations of individuals in romantic relationships to preserve these bonds are based in  kin selection  theory, where by exhibiting aggressive behavior, a mate can use intimidation and  dominance  to ward off other potential predators, thus protecting the pair bond and their actual or potential offspring. This has however evolved to the point where it has become detrimental to the fitness of individuals; what is causing attachment to occur in a relationship, is now causing one partner to harm the other.


In the search for the root of intimate partner violence (IPV), intranasal oxytocin was administered to a control group and a group of participants with aggressive tendencies. Participants were then surveyed on how willing they were to engage in five behaviors towards their romantic partner. What they found was that oxytocin increased IPV inclinations only among the participants with a predisposition towards aggressive tendencies. [ 113 ]


Sex and the Church  is a  British  documentary series about how Christianity has shaped western attitudes to sex, gender and sexuality throughout history. It was shown on  BBC Two  and hosted by  historian   Diarmaid MacCulloch . [ 1 ]


MacCulloch, whose books have won a number of prizes, is not only an  Oxford  Professor of the  History of the Church  but also a veteran campaigner for the  Gay Christian Movement .


For the Jews, procreation was the vital aspect of sex, but it was celebrated as part of a polygamous male-centred culture. Celibacy, adultery and homosexuality were outlawed. The  Greek culture  dominant at the time of Christ celebrated sexuality, particularly the male body and wives had no more rights than slaves. But there was another strand, the world of the spirit being more important to  Plato  and  Aristotle  with a denial of the flesh.


Jesus  decreed  monogamy  and no  divorce  but said little else about it and he was not representative of his church in other ways.  Paul  praised celibacy but was divided: he called one woman an apostle but forbade women from speaking in church.


In the second century,  Anthony of Egypt  became the most famous of hermits who brought in the idea of  monks  and  nuns  from the  Syrian  understanding of  Buddhism  and  Hinduism . The  apocryphal   Gospel of James  elaborated  Mary 's story and introduced the idea of her  perpetual virginity  and  miraculous conception . People began to explain away Jesus's brothers and sisters, so that the most important marriage in the Christian story does not involve sex at all.  Clement of Alexandria  taught that sex except for procreation is wrong and  Origen  castrated himself to avoid temptation.


After  Constantine 's  vision of the Cross  before the  Battle of the Milvian Bridge  had in his view given him the  empire , he aligned Christianity with imperial power.  Jerome  tried to be a monk but became secretary to the  bishop of Rome  where he attacked  Helvidius  who claimed that Mary had enjoyed family life, and claimed that Joseph as well as  Mary was a virgin .


Augustine 's sexual conflicts lay at the root of his teaching about sex summed up by the biblical exhortation "make no provision for the flesh". Holiness demanded control, the opposite of lust which he decided was a consequence of the fall: it explains our conviction that sex is shameful.


When Roman power collapsed in the fourth century, Christianity stepped into the power vacuum. Teaching was spread by the  monasteries  and the  penitential  laid out endless rules about sex: on only 100 days a year was any sex permitted and years of penitence were decreed for any non-acceptable behaviour such as  oral sex  or  masturbation .


It was not until  Pope Gregory VII  in the 11th century that  marriage became a Christian ceremony . To ensure inheritance, couples must then be married by a priest and rules including the  prohibition of seventh cousins marrying  gave large powers to the church who would sell  dispensations  for marriage or  annulment  for large sums. Under the  Sarum Rite , marriages only took place in the porch of the church, but this ambivalence slowly dissolved. In 1139  priestly marriages  were declared invalid and the celibate priests increasingly saw themselves as superior. Women who had learning and a voice through the monasteries, were now excluded from the new universities and some resorted to  mysticism , which often had erotic overtones.


Excessive sexual desire even for your own wife was now seen as wrong. But alongside this grew the tradition of  courtly love , which celebrated adultery and even homosexuality.  Thomas Aquinas  said that the greatest castle needed a sewer and the churches allowed  brothels —the 'stews'—next to the cathedral.


In the 16th century  Martin Luther  rebelled against the church's monopoly. He rejected Augustine's idea of  original sin  as transmitted through sex, and the sacramental nature of marriage. He decided that all clergy should be married, leading by example and having six children in eight years. The  Anabaptists of Münster  went a lot further, and  John of Leiden  even introduced  polygamy  during the year-long siege of the town by the local bishop. He was captured and tortured with several others and their bodies displayed in a cage on the side of the church.


One aim of the  Counter-Reformation  was to put this revolution back in the box. Part of the effort was the establishment of the  Pious schools  by  Joseph Calasanz  in  Spain  in the early 17th century. Unfortunately the headmaster of the school in  Naples , Father Stefano Cherubini, was found to be sexually abusing his pupils. Because of his powerful Papal connections, Calasanz didn't sack him but instead promoted him, so that he eventually displaced Calasanz.


Across Europe, women were accused of  witchcraft  by both Catholics and Protestants. Many were tortured into confessing sex with the devil in the  Würzburg witch trial . In 1590, even bad weather was blamed on witchcraft and 80 of 100 burned at the stake were women.


The 18th century saw the  enlightenment  with the Christian authorities losing control of sex. In London's  Covent Garden  there were all types of prostitutes by 1711 and meeting places for gays called " Molly houses " where  same-sex marriage  was performed.


John Wesley 's  evangelical revival  saw a new role for women with the woman preachers such as  Sarah Crosby  and women started to become the bulk of the congregations. But after Wesley's death, the Methodist conference in 1803 stopped women preachers and a promising start faded out, just as in the early church.


The  French Revolution  stripped the church of its wealth and killed 2,000 priests, marriage became secular, divorce was permitted and homosexuality legitimised, though peace with the church was restored by  Napoleon .  Secular marriage  was restored in the 1830s in England by civil registration which spread to all European countries and divorce was permitted from 1857, although the Church of England wouldn't accept the remarriage of divorcees until 2002.


Very often reforming legislation was supported by some within the church. Thus  Josephine Butler  led the campaign against the  Contagious Diseases Act ; Bishop  John Colenso  argued in favour of tolerance of polygamy where it was traditional in Africa; in 1930 the  Lambeth Conference  accepted the need for condoms in specific situations;  Derrick Sherwin Bailey  argued for the  decriminalization  of homosexuality.


But the Catholic church generally battened down the hatches, although scandals forfeited trust, with  Pope Benedict  resigning at the height of the  child sexual abuse scandals .


Determination of sex  is a process by which scientists and medical professionals determine the biological sex of a person or other animal using genetics and biological sexual traits. It is not to be confused with  sex assignment  which is a more recent colloquial term that allows for the use of non-sexual or non-genetic traits to define a person's sex.


Primary sex determination is the determination of the gonads. In mammals, including humans, primary sex determination is strictly chromosomal and is not usually influenced by the environment. [ 1 ]  Hence, the gonads are usually indicative of the biological sex. This direct correlation allows scientists and medical professionals the option to determine biological sex using gonads. When the purpose is to distinguish male vs. female in animals, this is  sexing .


Genetic sequencing  is a second way for a scientist to determine biological sex in both humans and animals (distinct from sexing). It became widely available and popular at the turn of the century. [ 2 ]  Genetic sequencing also allows for the determination of rare genetic events when the y chromosome is incomplete and a male animal has female gonads. [ 3 ]


Prenatal sex determination is  prenatal testing  for discerning the sex of a person or other animal before birth. Techniques include:


Currently, the determination of sex by physicians at the time of birth is used in medicine for health care purposes and the standard of care in medicine is biological sex. [ 4 ]  However this has become controversial and could change in the future. [ 5 ]


In writing, the term "Determination of sex" peaked in usage around 1910. [ 6 ] [ 7 ]  The term "sex determination" increased in usage after 1900. [ 8 ]  In the 1960 and early 70's the term "sex assignment" came into prominent use as a colloquially word for "determination of sex" and "sex determination". "Sex assignment" did not occur in writing prior to the 1960's. It is used ~100 times less frequently than "determination of sex". See figure.  [ 9 ]


Sex assignment  (also known as  gender assignment [ 1 ] [ 2 ] ) is the discernment of an infant's sex, typically made at birth based on an examination of the baby's external genitalia by a healthcare provider such as a midwife, nurse, or physician. [ 3 ]  In the vast majority of cases (99.95%), sex is assigned unambiguously at birth. However, in about 1 in 2000 births, the baby's genitalia may not clearly indicate male or female, necessitating additional diagnostic steps, and deferring sex assignment. [ 4 ] [ 5 ]


In most countries the healthcare provider's determination, along with other details of the birth, is by law recorded on an official document and submitted to the government for later issuance of a  birth certificate  and for other legal purposes. [ 6 ]


The prevalence of  intersex conditions , where a baby's sex characteristics do not conform strictly to typical definitions of male or female, ranges between 0.018% and 1.7%. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ]  While some intersex conditions result in genital ambiguity (approximately 0.02% to 0.05% of births [ 4 ] ), others present genitalia that are distinctly male or female, which may delay the recognition of an intersex condition until later in life. [ 10 ] [ 11 ]


Societally and medically, it is generally assumed that a person's gender identity will align with the sex assigned at birth, making them  cisgender . However, for a minority, assigned sex and gender identity do not coincide, leading to  transgender  identity experiences. When assigning sex to intersex individuals, some healthcare providers may consider the gender identity that most people with a similar intersex condition develop, although such assignments may be revised as the individual matures. [ 2 ] [ 12 ]


The use of surgical or hormonal interventions to reinforce sex assignments in intersex individuals without informed consent is considered a violation of human rights, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. [ 13 ] [ 2 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ]


Sex assignment refers to the identification of an infant's sex at birth, typically based on observable physical characteristics. This is also known as gender assignment. [ 2 ] [ 16 ]


In clinical and medical contexts, terms such as "birth-assigned sex" or "birth-assigned gender" are used to describe the sex identified at birth, while "assigned sex" and "assigned gender" may also refer to any subsequent reassignments, especially common among intersex individuals.


The terminology has evolved across various editions of the  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders  (DSM) maintained by the  American Psychiatric Association . Initially, the third edition of the DSM referred to "anatomic sex". [ 17 ]  By the fourth edition in 1994, the term "assigned sex" was introduced, with subsequent editions also using "biological sex" and "natal gender". The latest revision in 2022 streamlined the language to consistently use "sex assignment". [ 18 ] [ 2 ] [ 19 ]


A 2006 consensus statement on intersex conditions also adopted the terms "assigned sex" and "assigned gender". Sex is assigned as either male or female, leading to specific terms: [ 12 ] [ 2 ] [ 20 ]


More visible adoption of the terminology of sex assignment has led to public debate and criticism. [ 24 ]  Mathematician  Alan Sokal  and biologist  Richard Dawkins  have argued against the "assigned at birth" terminology. In a 2024 op-ed for  The Boston Globe , they contended that sex is an "objective biological reality" determined at conception and observed at birth, rather than assigned. They say that using "assigned" terminology, which they view as an example of "social constructionism gone amok", distorts scientific facts and could undermine trust in medical institutions. [ 25 ]


There is a consensus in the use of the term "sex assignment" for newborns with intersex conditions; [ 20 ]  observed chromosomal sex and assigned sex may intentionally differ for medical reasons (based upon predictions of psychosocial and psychosexual health in later life). [ 26 ]


Observation or recognition of an infant's sex may be complicated in the case of intersex infants and children and in cases of early trauma. In such cases, the infant may be assigned male or female, and may receive  intersex surgery  to confirm that assignment. These medical interventions have increasingly been seen as a  human rights  violation due to their unnecessary nature and the potential for lifelong complications. [ 27 ] [ 28 ] [ 14 ]


Cases of trauma include the famous  John/Joan case , where sexologist  John Money  claimed successful reassignment from male to female of a 17-month-old boy whose penis was destroyed during  circumcision . However, this claim was later shown to be largely false. The subject,  David Reimer , later identified as a man. [ 29 ]


The number of births with ambiguous genitals is in the range of 1 in 2,000 to 1 in 4,500 (0.05% to 0.02%). [ 4 ]  Typical examples would be an unusually prominent  clitoris  in an otherwise apparently typical girl, or complete  cryptorchidism  in an otherwise apparently typical boy. In most of these cases, a sex is tentatively assigned and the parents told that tests will be performed to confirm the apparent sex. Typical tests in this situation might include a pelvic  ultrasound  to determine the presence of a  uterus , a  testosterone  or  17α-hydroxyprogesterone  level, and/or a  karyotype . In some of these cases a  pediatric endocrinologist  is consulted to confirm the tentative sex assignment. The expected assignment is usually confirmed within hours to a few days in these cases.


Some infants are born with enough ambiguity that assignment becomes a more drawn-out process of multiple tests and intensive education of the parents about  sexual differentiation . In some of these cases, it is clear that the child will face physical difficulties or social stigma as they grow up, and deciding upon the sex of assignment involves weighing the advantages and disadvantages of either assignment. Intersex activists have criticised "normalising" procedures performed on infants and children, who are unable to provide informed consent. [ 28 ]


In European societies,  Roman law , post-classical  canon law , and later  common law , referred to a person's sex as male, female, or  hermaphrodite , with legal rights as male or female depending on the characteristics that appeared most dominant. Under Roman law, a hermaphrodite had to be classed as either male or female. [ 30 ]  The 12th-century  Decretum Gratiani  states that "Whether a hermaphrodite may witness a testament, depends on which sex prevails". [ 31 ] [ 32 ]  The foundation of common law, the 16th Century  Institutes of the Lawes of England , described how a hermaphrodite could inherit "either as male or female, according to that kind of sexe which doth prevaile." [ 33 ] [ 34 ]  Legal cases where sex assignment was placed in doubt  have been described  over the centuries.


With the medicalization of intersex, criteria for assignment have evolved over the decades, as clinical understanding of biological factors and diagnostic tests have improved, as  surgical  techniques have changed and potential complications have become clearer, and in response to the outcomes and opinions of adults who have grown up with various intersex conditions.


Before the 1950s, assignment was based almost entirely on the appearance of the external genitalia. Although physicians recognized that there were conditions in which the apparent secondary sexual characteristics could develop contrary to the person's sex, and conditions in which the gonadal sex did not match that of the external genitalia, their ability to understand and diagnose such conditions in infancy was too poor to attempt to predict future development in most cases.


In the 1950s,  endocrinologists  developed a basic understanding of the major intersex conditions such as  congenital adrenal hyperplasia  (CAH),  androgen insensitivity syndrome , and  mixed gonadal dysgenesis . The discovery of  cortisone  allowed survival of infants with severe CAH for the first time. New hormone tests and karyotypes allowed more confident diagnosis in infancy and prediction of future development.


Sex assignment became more than choosing a sex of rearing, but also began to include surgical treatment. Undescended testes could be retrieved. A greatly enlarged clitoris could be amputated to the usual size, but attempts to create a  penis  were unsuccessful.  John Money  and others  controversially  believed that children were more likely to develop a gender identity that matched sex of rearing than might be determined by chromosomes, gonads, or hormones. The resulting medical model was termed the "Optimal gender model". [ 35 ]


In recent years, the perceived need to legally assign sex is increasingly being challenged by transgender, transsexual, and intersex people. [ 36 ] [ 37 ]  A report for the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice states "Gender increasingly seems to be perceived as a 'sensitive' identity feature, but so far is not regarded, nor protected as such in privacy regulations". [ 36 ]  Australian government guidelines state that "departments and agencies that collect sex and/or gender information must not collect information unless it is necessary for, or directly related to, one or more of the agency's functions or activities" [ 38 ]


Sex registration was introduced in the Netherlands in 1811 due to gender-specific rights and responsibilities, such as military conscription. [ 36 ]  Many gender-specific provisions in legislation no longer exist, but the provisions remain for rationales that include "speed of identification procedures". [ 36 ]


Sex hormones , also known as  sex steroids ,   gonadocorticoids  and  gonadal steroids , are  steroid hormones  that interact with  vertebrate   steroid hormone receptors . [ 1 ]  The sex hormones include the  androgens ,  estrogens , and  progestogens . Their effects are mediated by slow genomic mechanisms through  nuclear receptors  as well as by fast nongenomic mechanisms through membrane-associated receptors and  signaling cascades . [ 2 ]  The  polypeptide  hormones  luteinizing hormone ,  follicle-stimulating hormone  and  gonadotropin-releasing hormone  – each associated with the  gonadotropin  axis – are usually not regarded as sex hormones, although they play major sex-related roles.


Natural sex hormones are made by the  gonads  ( ovaries  or  testicles ), [ 3 ]  by  adrenal glands , or by conversion from other sex steroids in other tissue such as liver or fat. [ 4 ]


In many contexts, the two main classes of sex hormones are androgens and estrogens, of which the most important human derivatives are  testosterone  and  estradiol , respectively. Other contexts will include  progestogens  as a third class of sex steroids, distinct from androgens and estrogens. [ 5 ]   Progesterone  is the most important and only naturally occurring human progestogen. In general, androgens are considered "male sex hormones", since they have masculinizing effects, while estrogens and progestogens are considered "female sex hormones" although all types are present in each sex at different levels. [ 6 ]


Sex hormones include:


There are also many synthetic sex steroids. [ 7 ]  Synthetic androgens are often referred to as  anabolic steroids . Synthetic estrogens and progestins are used in methods of  hormonal contraception .  Ethinylestradiol  is a semi-synthetic estrogen. Specific compounds that have partial agonist activity for  steroid receptors , and therefore act in part like natural steroid hormones, are in use in medical conditions that require treatment with steroid in one cell type, but where systemic effects of the particular steroid in the entire organism are only desirable within certain limits. [ 8 ]


The conditions governing  sex in space  ( intercourse ,  conception  and  procreation  while  weightless ) have become a necessary study due to plans for long-duration space missions, as well as the future potential accommodation of sexual partners aboard the  International Space Station  (ISS). Issues explored include disrupted  circadian rhythms ,  radiation ,  isolation ,  stress , and the physical acts of intercourse in  zero or minimal gravity . [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]


Sex in space is a part of  space sexology .


Human sexual activity  in the  weightlessness  of  outer space  presents difficulties due to  Newton's third law . According to the law, if the couple remain attached, their movements will counter each other. Consequently, their actions will not change their velocity unless they are affected by another, unattached, object. Some difficulty could occur due to drifting into other objects. If the couple have a combined velocity relative to other objects, collisions could occur. The discussion of sex in space has also raised the issue of  conception  and  pregnancy in space . [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ]


As of 2009 [update] , with  NASA  planning  lunar outposts  and possibly long-duration missions, the topic has taken a respectable place in  life sciences . Despite this, some researchers have argued that national and private space agencies have yet to develop any concrete research and plans to address human sexuality in space. [ 8 ] [ 9 ]  Dubé and colleagues (2021) proposed that NASA should embrace the discipline of  space sexology  by integrating sex research into their  Human Research Program . [ 9 ]  Santaguida and colleagues (2022) have further argued that space agencies and private companies should invest in this discipline to address the potential for  sexual harassment  and  assault  in space contexts. [ 10 ]


Numerous  physiological  changes have been noted during  spaceflight , many of which may affect sex and procreation, notably  circulation  and the flow of blood within the body. Such potential effects would likely be caused by a culmination of factors, including gravitational changes, planetary and space radiation, noise, vibration, social isolation, disrupted circadian rhythms, or mental and physical stress. [ 11 ]


The primary issue to be considered in off-Earth reproduction is the lack of  gravitational acceleration .  Life on Earth, and thus the reproductive and  ontogenetic  processes of all life, evolved under the constant influence of the Earth's 1 g   gravitational field . It is important to study how space environment affects critical phases of  mammalian  reproduction and development, as well as the events surrounding  fertilization ,  embryogenesis ,  pregnancy ,  birth , postnatal maturation, and  parental care . [ 12 ]


Studies conducted on  rats  revealed that, although the  fetus  developed properly once exposed to normal gravity, rats raised in  microgravity  lacked the ability to right themselves. [ 13 ]  Another study examined mouse embryo fertilization in microgravity. Although this resulted in healthy mice, once implanted at normal gravity, the fertilization rate was lower for the embryos fertilized in microgravity. [ 14 ]  As of 2006 [update] , no mice or rats had developed while in microgravity throughout the entire life cycle. [ 15 ]


In 2006, American  novelist   Vanna Bonta  invented the  2suit , a garment designed to facilitate sex in weightless environments such as outer space, or on planets with low gravity. [ 5 ] [ 16 ]  The 2suit was made of a lightweight fabric, with a  Velcro -lined exterior, which would enable two people to securely embrace. [ 17 ]  However, Bonta stressed that the 2suit was versatile, and was not intended for the sole purpose of sex. [ 18 ]  Functionality testing was conducted in 2008 by Bonta aboard  G-Force One , a  low gravity simulator . It took eight attempts for the two test participants (Bonta and her husband) to successfully embrace one another. [ 19 ]  According to science author  Mark Thompson , the 2suit was cumbersome but moderately successful, and it is not clear whether or not it will have practical value for future space travelers. [ 20 ]  The 2suit has been covered in the TV series  The Universe  as well as a 2008  History Channel  television documentary. [ 21 ] [ 22 ]  It has also been discussed by online writers. [ 23 ] [ 24 ]


NASA has stated that it knows of no intercourse in space. [ 25 ]


In June 2015,  Pornhub  announced its plans to make the first pornographic film in space. It launched a  crowdfunding  campaign to fund the effort, dubbed Sexploration, with the goal of raising $3.4 million in 60 days. The campaign only received pledges for $236,086. If funded, the film would have been slated for a 2016 release, following six months of training for the two performers and six-person crew. [ 26 ] [ 27 ] [ 28 ] [ 29 ]  Though it claimed to be in talks with multiple  private spaceflight carriers , the company declined to name names "for fear that would risk unnecessary fallout" from the carriers. [ 26 ]  A  Space.com  article about the campaign mentioned that in 2008,  Virgin Galactic  received and rejected a $1 million offer from an undisclosed party to shoot a sex film on board  SpaceShipTwo . [ 27 ]


Adult film actress  CoCo Brown  had begun certifying for a co-pilot seat in the  XCOR  Lynx spaceplane, which would have launched in a suborbital flight in 2016 and spent a short amount of time in zero-gravity. [ 30 ]  However, XCOR Aerospace declared bankruptcy before ever flying a  space tourist . [ 31 ]


Short of actual space, the adult entertainment production company  Private Media Group  has filmed a movie called  The Uranus Experiment: Part Two  where an actual zero-gravity intercourse scene was accomplished with a  reduced-gravity aircraft . The filming process was particularly difficult from a technical and logistical standpoint. Budget constraints allowed for only one  20-second  shot, featuring the actors  Sylvia Saint  and Nick Lang. [ 32 ]


Science fiction  writer and  futurist   Isaac Asimov , in a 1973 article "Sex in a Spaceship", conjectured what sex would be like in the weightless environment of space, anticipating some of the benefits of engaging in sex in an environment of  microgravity . [ 33 ]


On July 23, 2006, a Sex in Space panel was held at the  Space Frontier Foundation 's annual conference. Speakers were science journalist-author Laura Woodmansee, who presented her book  Sex in Space ; [ 34 ]  Jim Logan, the first graduate of a new aerospace medicine residency program to be hired by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston; and Vanna Bonta, an American poet, novelist, and actress who had recently flown in  zero gravity  and had agreed to an interview for Woodmansee's book. [ 16 ]  The speakers made presentations that explored "the biological, emotional, and ... physical issues that will confront people moving [off Earth] into the space environment." [ 35 ]  NBC science journalist Alan Boyle reported on the panel, opening a world discussion of a topic previously considered taboo. [ 5 ]


"Sex in Space" was the title of an episode of the  History Channel  documentary television series  The Universe  in 2008. The globally distributed show was dubbed into foreign languages, opening worldwide discussion about what had previously been avoided as a taboo subject. Sex in space became a topic of discussion for the long-term survival of the human species, colonization of other planets, inspired songs, and humanized reasons for space exploration. [ 7 ] [ 23 ] [ 24 ] [ 36 ]


The idea of sex in space appears frequently in science fiction.  Arthur C. Clarke  claimed to first address it in his 1973 novel  Rendezvous with Rama . [ 37 ]


In the pilot episode of  the Expanse , ' Dulcinea ' , a scene was shown where the first officer of the ice hauler ship, the  Canterbury , was having sexual intercourse with the ship's navigator in zero gravity. The intercourse was met with a sudden interruption when the ship resumed thrust, slamming them both to the bunk bed with the acceleration.


In  human sexuality , a  sex life  is a sector of a person's day-to-day existence which may involve  sexual activity  or represent the absence of sexual activity. In general parlance, the term can have many sub-meanings and social layers, but generally includes the following:


Several sources say that in humans, frequency of  sexual intercourse  might range from 0 to 20 times a week. [ 1 ]  In the United States, the average frequency of sexual intercourse for married couples is 2 to 3 times a week. [ 2 ]  It is generally recognized that  postmenopausal  women experience declines in frequency of sexual intercourse [ 3 ]  and that average frequency of intercourse declines with age. According to the  Kinsey Institute , average frequency of sexual intercourse in US is 112 times per year (age 18–29), 86 times per year (age 30–39), and 69 times per year (age 40–49). [ 4 ]


In a number of  sexual harassment  cases, certain employees and others have been asked about their sex lives, [ 5 ]  often repeatedly, including in a case filed against  Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America  by the  Equal Employment Opportunity Commission  (EEOC). [ 6 ]


Sex manuals  are  books  which explain how to perform  sexual practices ; they also commonly feature advice on  birth control , and sometimes on  safe sex  and  sexual relationships .


In the Graeco-Roman era, a sex manual was written by
 Philaenis of Samos , possibly a  hetaira  ( courtesan ) of the  Hellenistic period  (3rd–1st century BC). [ 1 ]  Preserved by a series of fragmentary  papyruses  which attest its popularity, it served as a source of inspiration for  Ovid 's  Ars Amatoria , written around 3 BC, which is partially a sex manual, and partially a burlesque on the art of love.


The  Kama Sutra  of  Vatsyayana , believed to have been written in the 1st to 6th centuries, has a notorious reputation as a sex manual, although only a small part of its text is devoted to sex. It was compiled by the Indian sage  Vātsyāyana  sometime between the second and fourth centuries CE. His work was based on earlier  Kamashastras  or  Rules of Love  going back to at least the seventh century BCE, and is a compendium of the social norms and love-customs of patriarchal Northern India around the time he lived. Vatsyayana's  Kama Sutra  is valuable today for his psychological insights into the interactions and scenarios of love, and for his structured approach to the many diverse situations he describes. He defines different types of men and women, matching what he terms "equal" unions, and gives detailed descriptions of many love-postures.


The  Kama Sutra  was written for the wealthy male city-dweller. It is not, and was never intended to be, a lover's guide for the masses, nor is it a "Tantric love-manual". About three hundred years after the  Kama Sutra  became popular, some of the love-making positions described in it were reinterpreted in a Tantric way. Since Tantra is an all-encompassing sensual science, love-making positions are relevant to spiritual practice.


The earliest East Asian sex manual is the  Su Nü Jing . Probably written during the Chinese  Han dynasty  (206 BC – 220 AD), the work was long lost in China itself, but preserved in Japan as part of the medical anthology  Ishinpō  (984). It is a Daoist text purporting to describe how one might achieve long life and immortality by manipulating the  yin and yang  forces of the body through sexual techniques, which are described in some detail. [ 2 ]  The  Yufang mijue  ( Chinese :  玉房秘訣 ), translated into English as  Secrets from the Jade Chamber , [ 3 ]   Secret Formulae from the Jade Alcove , [ 4 ]  or  Secret Instructions from the Jade Chamber , [ 5 ]  is a Chinese sex manual composed during the  Han dynasty .


Medieval sex manuals include the lost works of  Elephantis , by  Constantine the African ;  Ananga Ranga , a 12th-century collection of  Hindu  erotic works; Ratirahasya ,a  medieval Indian  sex manual written by Koka and  The Perfumed Garden for the Soul's Recreation , a 16th-century  Arabic  work by  Sheikh Nefzaoui . The fifteenth-century  Speculum al foderi  (The Mirror of Coitus) is the first medieval European work to discuss sexual positions. Constantine the African also penned a medical treatise on sexuality, known as  Liber de coitu . The medieval Jewish physician and writer  Maimonides  is author of a  Treatise on Cohabitation.


Despite the existence of ancient sex manuals in other cultures, sex manuals were banned in Western culture for many years. What sexual information was available was generally only available in the form of illicit  pornography  or medical books, which generally discussed either sexual physiology or sexual disorders. The authors of medical works went so far as to write the most sexually explicit parts of their texts in  Latin , so as to make them inaccessible to the general public (see  Krafft-Ebing 's  Psychopathia Sexualis  as an example).


A few translations of the ancient works were circulated privately, such as  The Perfumed Garden ....


In the late 19th Century,  Ida Craddock  wrote many serious instructional tracts on human sexuality and appropriate, respectful sexual relations between married couples. Among her works were  The Wedding Night  and  Right Marital Living . In 1918  Marie Stopes  published  Married Love , considered groundbreaking despite its limitations in details used to discuss sex acts.


Theodoor Hendrik van de Velde 's book  Het volkomen huwelijk   (The Perfect Marriage) , published in 1926, was well known in  Netherlands ,  Germany ,  Sweden  and  Estonia . In Germany,  Die vollkommene Ehe  reached its 42nd printing in 1932 despite its being placed on the list of forbidden books, the  Index Librorum Prohibitorum , by the Roman Catholic Church. In Sweden,  Det fulländade äktenskapet  was widely known although regarded as pornographic and unsuitable for young readers long into the 1960s. In English,  Ideal Marriage: Its Physiology and Technique  has 42 printings in its original 1930 edition, and was republished in new editions in 1965 and 2000.


David Reuben, M. D.'s book  Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) , published in 1969, was one of the first sex manuals that entered mainstream culture in the 1960s. Although it did not feature explicit images of sex acts, its descriptions of sex acts were detailed, addressing common questions and misunderstandings Reuben had heard from his own patients. Most notably, Reuben dismissed popular medical-psychiatric notions of "vaginal" vs. "clitoral" orgasm, explaining exactly how female physiology works.


The Joy of Sex  by Dr.  Alex Comfort  was the first visually explicit sex manual to be published by a mainstream publisher. It was followed by  The Joy of Gay Sex  and  The Joy of Lesbian Sex . Its appearance in public bookstores in the 1970s opened the way to the widespread publication of sex manuals in the West. As a result, hundreds of sex manuals are now available in print.


Sex manuals and works of the sort became so popular during the  sexual revolution  of the 1970s that even religious groups developed their own manuals. [ 6 ]  Most notably, the book  The Act of Marriage  by Christian Baptist authors Tim and Beverly LaHaye has sold over 2.5 million copies. [ 7 ]  While they began with the prerequisite of a heterosexual,  complementarian  relationship, the behavior they suggested went far beyond standard Christian teaching at that time. [ 6 ]  They suggested role play, experimentation with sex devices, masturbation to ensure climax and many other practices that were considered taboo up until the 1970s in Protestant bedrooms. [ 8 ]  Other manuals such as Marabel Morgan's  The Total Woman  emphasized the importance of the female orgasm. While they all required marriage, heterosexuality and complementarianism, they did push the bounds of accepted practice within their respective spheres of influence. [ 6 ]  Today, Christian authors continue to produce similar manuals and guides to their constituents in search of appropriate, fulfilling behavior. Books such as Mark and Grace Driscoll's  Real Marriage  encourage Christians to experiment in the bedrooms with their spouses, even encouraging acts that have long been rejected by Protestant tradition such as anal sex.


One of the currently most well known in America is  The Guide to Getting it On !  by Paul Joannides. Now in its tenth edition, it has won several prestigious awards and been translated into 12 foreign languages since appearing in 1996. [ 9 ]


The  sex recession , also known as the sexual recession, refers to a decline in sexual activity among adults, particularly among young adults. This phenomenon has been observed in various studies and research papers, and its causes and implications are still being debated.