Secularization and the Changing Face of Sexuality

When we talk about secularization, the gradual decline of religious authority in public life and personal choices. Also known as the separation of church and state in matters of intimacy, it’s not just about fewer people going to church—it’s about how we now decide what’s right or wrong in bed, in relationships, and in our bodies. For centuries, religion dictated who you could love, how you could touch yourself, and whether pleasure was a sin or a sacrament. Then came science, feminism, and legal change—and suddenly, the church didn’t get the final say anymore.

That shift didn’t happen overnight. It started with doctors in the 1800s calling masturbation a disease, then scientists in the 1900s proving it was harmless. It grew when women like Anne Koedt said the vaginal orgasm myth was nonsense, and when activists forced police to stop raiding gay bars. Each step pulled power away from pulpits and put it in the hands of individuals. sexual morality, the set of rules society uses to judge sexual behavior. Also known as moral codes around sex, it’s no longer written in holy books—it’s debated in courtrooms, classrooms, and TikTok threads. religion and sex, the historical tension between spiritual doctrine and human desire. Also known as faith-based sexual control, this clash still echoes in bans on abortion, fights over sex education, and debates about transgender rights. And historical sexuality, how people actually lived their intimate lives in the past, not just what authorities said they should do. Also known as real sexual history, it reveals that even in deeply religious eras, people found ways to be queer, to masturbate, to cheat, to love outside marriage—just quietly.

What you’ll find here isn’t a lecture on theology. It’s a collection of real stories—about Victorian doctors who treated women with steam-powered vibrators because they were "hysterical," about medieval marriages that were just business deals, about ancient Etruscans painting sex scenes in tombs to help souls move on. These aren’t anomalies. They’re proof that when you remove religious fear from the equation, human desire doesn’t vanish—it just finds new ways to speak.