In a competitive society obsessed by gathering resources for themselves and their children, some members of it have chosen the opposite during the history: foregoing to embrace sexual activity and even to have children. What was their motivation?
This book challenges the diverse situations in which people have defied society through their choices or on the contrary, were obliged by society to forego reproduction.
In most human societies, women were the second citizens – chastity and asceticism though, allowed them to not only escape the violence of marriage and births and later on, being widows, but also to gain earthly respect and spiritual rewards. This was valid for the Roman vestals, the Catholic and the Buddhist nuns.
Women preserved their vows of chastity much easier – partly because the punishments for them were higher, but also because the rewards for refraining were higher too. Besides, most of them were confined between the walls of monasteries and were not allowed to mingle in society like their male equivalents.
The book depicts cases of both medieval “holy anorexia” as well as modern anorexia nervosa – explaining the differences between them in the references. They are both silent fights for a total control of physiological functions.
A book dedicated to celibacy was expected to contain many religious references, but not all religions embraced sexual abstinence – Judaism and Islamism viewed it as unnatural – with the exception of premarital sex (for girls mainly).
Although titled “A History of Celibacy”, celibacy was oftenly viewed as equal to chastity, although in our current century, they are not synonyms. Celibacy is the state of being unmarried, while chastity is refraining from sexual intercourse.
Chastity was depicted as a way of preserving sperm and all the strength derived from it – from the Ancient Greek athletes, to Dr. Kellogg’s cereals embraced by the puritan America, until our modern soccer players.
Sexual abstinence was not always self-imposed – sometimes, it was society-imposed. In the case of women, mandatory chastity was/is done (still!) by several “accessories” like the chastity belt, the genital mutilation and the foot binding.
Chastity was felt as oppressive when it was mandated upon – because of a lack of partners (like in the modern China where the gender ratio was skewed), financial difficulties, being in jail and during wars. Several professions mandated foregoing reproduction because this increased loyalty – female primary teachers, soldiers and public administrators in Russia, professors at Oxford and Cambridge as well as opera “castrati” and Chinese/Byzantine eunuchs at the imperial court.
In a century saturated by sex from all media channels, chastity regains its attractiveness for the inner peace and self-respect it brings, the gained time for other noble pursuits as well as for avoiding STDs.
Contrary to what the author believed when she started writing this book, celibacy is not unnatural, as it is more widespread than previously thought.
You can find out more about the book on the author’s website and read it at your closest library.
Happy reading!
Interesting.