Sex and Marriage -- Classics of Worldly Wisdom (Cultural Century Press)

Author: (English) Bertrand Russell, translated by Wenliang Culture
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-02-01
Features: This book is a work discussing love, marriage, and happiness, one of Bertrand Russell's representative works. In the 19th century, Europe was heavily influenced by the strict religious constraints of Queen Victoria's era, with extremely harsh demands for female chastity, severe discrimination against women, and a rigid lifelong monogamy system that bound people. Even couples completely broken up were not allowed to divorce, nor were they permitted to discuss sex, conduct scientific research related to sex, or create artistic works about it. As a result, people suffered from heavy sexual repression. In this book, Russell criticizes the religious sexual taboos, advocates sincere and pure love and marital freedom, and proposes serious reforms for marriage. In the book, Russell analyzes the roots of women's discrimination in society and discusses issues of gender equality and women's liberation from perspectives such as social status, sexual morality, and women's education. He sees a significant connection between women's political liberation and marital morality, believing that in ancient societies, people had long maintained women's morality by restricting them rather than cultivating their inner self-control. Therefore, the initial demands for gender equality not only involved political issues but were also related to sexual morality. However, Russell also took this to an extreme, advocating sexual liberation and freedom, arguing that women could also have an open sexual attitude and sexual life like men in the past, and even legalized phenomena such as "extramarital affairs." These arguments reflect certain limitations of the era.