Disaster and sexuality

Abstract

The hypothesis presented in this article is that fear of disaster and fear of certain modes of sexuality are intimately linked. Throughout most of human history, disaster was, in essence, the result of the actions of God or nature; either gratuitous or as a punishment for a sinning mankind. Sodom and Gommorah was the classic biblical example of this interrelationship. With the coming of the French and the Industrial Revolutions, man-caused disaster came to the center of the stage and this brought in its wake changing attitudes towards sexual deviant behavior. By examining the changing images of disaster the authors seek to explain the concern with sodomy and masturbation in the early and mid-nineteenth century.