Critical Introduction - The Meaning of Sexual Health

What is Sexual Health?

Example: The sexual health of women - The Victorian Ideal

In the 19th century, the WHO definitions would have been rejected even in our own culture. At that time, the main purpose of sexual activity was still believed to be procreation, a goal now barely mentioned by the WHO. Moreover: At least women would not have been granted a right to sexual pleasure. On the contrary: A healthy woman was believed to have little interest in sex. She tolerated marital intercourse mainly because she wanted children and then fulfill her true calling as a mother. A typical  statement of this belief was provided by the eminent Victorian physician William Acton (1813 -1875) in his book  "The Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs” (1857): "I should say that the majority of women, happily for them,  are not very much troubled with sexual feeling of any kind".
 

Young woman at the time of Queen Victoria Source: Sense and Sensibility, Copyright Mrs. Jennie E. Chancey. German family 1914