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The Social Hygiene Movement and its Influence on the American Plan

AS

Amber Spalinger

Transcript

The Religious Beliefs of the Social Hygiene Movement

Amber Spalinger

HIST 4261

Spring 2023

Thesis

With the rise of Progressivism in the United States during the early 20th century, it became more popular to utilize institutions to solve the growing social problems that came with the upheaval of social norms by advancements in the science and industrialization. The Social Hygiene Movement, spearheaded by the American Social Hygiene Association, worked to further establish a common moral system within the United States that cohesive with the Main-line Protestant belief system and its political values. While their beliefs were to be used as a cushion of support for the public during a chaotic time, the polices of the ASHA were far more damaging to society than helpful since they were forcing a single narrative of what is acceptable in life onto millions of people, who often did not share the same views as the organizations.

Social Hygiene Movement Motivators

Motivating Factors of Creation

Previous Organizations

Previous Social Purity Organizations

  • Social Purity movement emerged in the late 19th century
  • Sought to end prostitution, eradicate veneral diseases, rear children with proper morals (Egan and Hawkes) and restrict sexual desires and appetites (Friedenfels)
  • Successfully raised the age of Consent in several US states and territories (Friedenfels)
  • Not as organized as later movements so less progress was made at the legislative level

Industrialization

Social Stresses of Industrialization

  • Industrialization exacerbated many pre-exisiting social issues and brought attention to them on a national scale (Wuebker)
  • ex. Prositution and rise of cases of Veneral diseases
  • Public Health systems were being established to support healthier living in major cities (Wuebker)
  • led to people questioning if these sanitary practices could be used for people themselves as well as their city

Scientific Challenges

Widespread Anxiety over Advancing Science

  • As science continued to advance, questions and backlash increasingly grew from all areas of American society
  • everything that they knew was being changed or proven false by science
  • The issue of auto-eroticism was particularly controversial and amplified by scientific discoveries
  • many started to believe that auto-eroticism would "undermine the moral and physical well being’ of the nations; causing thousands of boys to perish" (Egan and Hawkes)
  • Anxiety grew to levels of elective surgeries becoming popular that scientists claimed would "diminish the desire" for auto-eroticism (Egan and Hawkes)
  • including circumcision, clitoridectomies, and even as far as electric shock

ASHA

The American Social Hygiene Association

  • The American Social Hygiene Association was founded in 1913 with the central focus of halting the veneral disease pandemic (Hansan)
  • This goal would be achieved by eliminating prostitution and raising the moral standard of society through a Christian "moral-based" sex education programs (Egan and Hawkes)
  • To the American public, this was seen as a much more palatable approach to solving societal problems since it was a return to what they were familiar with and targeted an already unpopular profession, instead of widespead societal upheaval

Morals mirroring Main-Line Protestants

Religious Beliefs

  • ASHA's sex education program was heavily influenced by Jane Addams, a co-founder of the Hull House
  • Their sex education was monitored by the Christian sponsors and the bi-annual staffing review (Fair)
  • This focused on the approved family unit by the Christian Church, emphasizing on the actions of the parents, that waited until marriage to have sex and followed the traditional gender norms of the Christian West (Wuebker)
  • Addams taught sex education through History and Biography, instead of biology, fearing that it may encourage sexual behaviors (Fair)
  • These practices reinforce a social standard that stems from a singular religion within a multicultural society and increases the stigma for those who do not follow that standard or religion

ASHA in WW1

WW1

  • Due to ASHA's shared values with the Wilson administration, they were contracted by the US Department of War in 1914 to help diminish the growing problem of US soldiers contracting venereal diseases, such as Syphilis and Gonorrhea (Hansan)
  • Their efforts included focusing sex education program, encouraging the men to save their 'sexual energies' for marriage, and militarizing efforts against on prostitution around bases (Hansan)
  • This contract brought ASHA and their ideals into the public spotlight, which allowed them to be openly interpreted by the general public and their legislators

ASHA Later Years and their Impact

ASHA Impact

  • Due to the widespread reach of reinforcement of Christian gender roles through the ASHA sex education, the public created further rules for couples, where some even descend to the courtship stage of relationships (Wuebker)
  • ex. Group Dates, Meeting the Parents early
  • ASHA reformers often pushed back against the Birth Control movement since they viewed it as enabling sex prior to marriage (Wuebker)
  • The BC movement also pushed for further autonomy for women of all social classes and relationship status, which is a stark difference from ASHA's views
  • Heavily delayed the legalization and increased stigma
  • In the late 1910s and 1920s, Social Hygiene reformers often adopted and spread Eugenic ideals and helped legalize nonconsensual sterilization at the state level for several states (Wuebker)
  • This is because SH and Eugenics emphasized a particular ideal (SH's Christian-based and Eugenic's racist and ableist) ideal for society and wanted the elimination of the 'other' (Jones)

The American Plan

American Plan

  • Inspired by ASHA's philosophies and coordination with the US Department of War, Congress passed the Chamberlain-Kahn Act of 1918, which legalized forced STI and Vaginal Exams, and imprisonment for those accused of Prostitution and 'Promiscuous' Behavior (McVean)
  • Gender Neutral Legislation but had a misogynistic application, over 30,000 people were arrested with over 90% identifying as a woman
  • "The phrasing “reasonably suspected” gave practical carte blanche to its enforcers to arrest anyone they pleased" (McVean)
  • Women that tested positive were forcibly quaratined in jails and former brothels to remove them from society (McVean)
  • Women of Color were heavily discriminated against under this law, with racism from both their captors and white cellmates
  • The Chamberlain-Kahn Act did little to reduce the numbers of Veneral Disease cases, but further stigmatized women while motivating men to become more 'moral' soldiers
  • Federal Funding dropped in 1922, but some states utilized mimicking legislation until the 1950s (McVean)

Conclusion

Conclusion

While the Social Hygiene Movement had the intention of healing a chaotic society, they proceeded to further stigmatize and traumatize generations of Americans. With the emphasis of the traditional Christian marital and sexual morals upon a growing multi-cultural society, it stunted the progression towards an accepting culture and utilized institutions to do so. ASHA made it far more difficult for people to live peacefully outside of the standards of the dominating Christian society, and created risks of imprisonment for behavior that broke those rules. The later acceptance of Eugenics and anti-Birth Control stances further reinforces their problematic platform and halts progress for women and society.

Weaknesses of this Project

Weakness of Project

Within this project I had a main weakness of relying on Secondary sources for research material. I had difficulites finding primary sources that would support my thesis that were free for the public to use. I found, however, an abundance of peer-reviewed secondary sources that had a large amount of information that substantially added to this presentation.

Another weakness was my chosen topic. I had originally included my argument to include far more information about the American Plan, but limited myself due to time struggles and formatting issues.

Works Cited

Egan, R. D., and G. Hawkes. “Childhood Sexuality, Normalization and the Social Hygiene Movement in the Anglophone West, 1900-1935.” Social History of Medicine, vol. 23, no. 1, 2009, pp. 56–78, https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/hkp062.

Fair, Alexandra. “‘The Mind Has to Catch up on Sex’: Sexual Norms and Sex Education in the Hull House.” Paedagogica Historica, vol. 54, no. 3, 2018, pp. 249–265, https://doi.org/10.1080/00309230.2017.1417320.

Freidenfelds, Lara. “Liberal Christians in the Making of Sex Education.” Nursing Clio, 16 Aug. 2021, nursingclio.org/2021/08/17/liberal-christians-in-the-making-of-sex-education/.

Hanson, J. “American Social Health Association.” Social Welfare History Project, 5 Mar. 2018, socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/programs/health-nutrition/american-social-health-association/.

Jones, Greta. "Social hygiene." The International Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality, edited by Patricia Whelehan, and Anne Bolin, Wiley, 1st edition, 2015. Credo Reference, https://libproxy.library.unt.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/wileyhs/social_hygiene/0?institutionId=4982.

McVean, Ada. “The American Plan to Win World War I: Incarcerate Promiscuous Women.” Office for Science and Society, 17 Feb. 2023, www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/history/american-plan-win-world-war-ii-incarcerate-promiscuous-women#:~:text=The%20act%20implemented%20a%20public,sexually%20transmitted%20infections%20(STIs).

Nash, Jo. “Psychoanalysis: A History of Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory.” PositivePsychology.Com, 13 Apr. 2023, positivepsychology.com/psychoanalysis/.

Wuebker, Erin. “Social Hygiene in America | Erin Wuebker - Gale.” Gale, 2020, www.gale.com/intl/essays/erin-wuebker-social-hygiene-america.