Long-term Surveys Show That Women Belong Behind the Stove, Dear Colleague

An Essay on Genders and the Ideology Behind Popularizing Sexology in the Czech Lands

Abstract

A new field centring around the dispositivity of sexuality came into being in Czechoslovakia during the twentieth century, namely sexology. In line with the definition of its sphere of interest, the discipline unavoidably makes its interpretations on an ideological basis, although it does have ambitions of employing the procedures of an exact science. The form of genders also comes under the sphere of sexological interest. Using increasingly sophisticated methods, science in the form of popularizing textbooks defends traditional nineteenth-century stereotypes of the active and socially involved male and the passive woman, mother and housewife. These images are confused with the female and male soul, character and nature, whose counterpart is seen in the corresponding physical make-up. Hence the body mirrors the soul or the gender stereotype. While gender re presentation remains practically unchanged, it is possible to observe what is primarily an epistemological shift, enabling the discipline to make a much deeper penetration through the ideology concerned into the body and life of the individual.