Love in the Time of Communism: Intimacy and Sexuality in the GDRIn the aftermath of the reunification of Germany one former dissident recalled nostalgically that under the East German regime 'we had more sex and we had more to laugh about'. Love in the Time of Communism is a fascinating history of the GDR's forgotten sexual revolution and its limits. Josie McLellan shows that under communism divorce rates soared, abortion become commonplace and the rate of births outside marriage was amongst the highest in Europe. Nudism went from ban to state-sponsored boom, and erotica became common currency in both the official economy and the black market. Public discussion of sexuality was, however, tightly controlled and there were few opportunities to challenge traditional gender roles or sexual norms. Josie McLellan's pioneering account questions some of our basic assumptions about the relationship between sexuality, politics and society and is a major contribution to our understanding of the everyday emotional lives of postwar Europeans. |
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Love in the Time of Communism: Intimacy and Sexuality in the GDR Josie McLellan No preview available - 2011 |
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abortion activity antifascism attitudes authorities BArch Betts Bild birth rate body BStU camp church communist contraception couples culture Das Magazin DDR Berlin decriminalisation Despite Deutschen Demokratischen Republik discussion divorce East Berlin East German sexual erotic erotica experiences fact female Figure film Free German Youth Freikörperkultur gay and lesbian gender girls groups Günter Harsch Heiner Carow Herr Herzog heteronormative heterosexual Homosexualität homosexuality HVDVP Ibid interview intimacy Karstädt Klimmer Kölsch Leipzig lesbians Liebe lives Magazin male marriage married moral mother naked Nazi norms nude bathing nude photographs nudist beach nudity official organised parents particularly Partner party Pill political population pornography Prerow prostitution public sphere questionnaire response regime Reimann relationships role Rudolstadt same-sex SAPMO-BArch Schnabl sexual revolution Sexualität Sillge social socialist society Stasi surveyed teenagers tion Verlag viel zuviel verschwiegen West Western Willi Stoph woman women workers young Zitzewitz eds