Local

Women discuss the Sexual Revolution in light of #metoo

Zoey Maraist | Catholic Herald Staff Writer

Suzanne Hollman, a dean of Divine Mercy University in Arlington, articulates the psychological consequences of casual sex during “Second Thoughts on the Sexual Revolution” in Washington. ZOEY MARAIST | CATHOLIC HERALD

CROP_LR_metoo-227.jpg

Women listen during “Second Thoughts on the Sexual Revolution,” a multi-speaker lecture hosted by the Catholic Women’s Forum and the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture, among other hosts, in Washington May 31. ZOEY MARAIST | CATHOLIC HERALD

CROP_LR_metoo-236.jpg

Law professor Helen Alvaré of George Mason University’s law school in Arlington talks during a break in the lecture. ZOEY MARAIST | CATHOLIC HERALD

CROP_LR_metoo-285.jpg

Betty Freidan’s The
Feminine Mystique flew off the shelves when it was published in 1963. Its
message spoke to women who had been told they could only find fulfillment through
housework, child rearing and nurturing their husbands, said Mary Leary, a law professor
at The Catholic University of America in Washington. “That (was said to be) the
only way to be truly feminine, and that was not resonating with women,” she
said.

Yet as attitudes toward women’s abilities
outside the home changed, sexual norms also began to loosen. “The emergence of
feminism and women’s rights overlapped with and were intertwined with the
developments later labeled the Sexual Revolution,” said Leary. 

Increased opportunities to pursue higher
education and a career have led to women being valued in multi-dimensional ways,
said Leary. But current widespread sexual harassment, as evidenced by the #MeToo
movement, suggest the 1960s didn’t solve everything. 

“If the #MeToo movement has shown us
anything, it is that women are not as free as they may have previously thought
in this context,” said Suzanne Hollman, a dean of Divine Mercy University in
Arlington. “(It) has forced female minds and bodies to confront the reality
that when it comes to sex, women remain very much at risk.”

“We’ve exchanged one form of
exploitation for another,” said Leary.

She and other women discussed the
consequences of sexual liberation during “The #MeToo Moment: Second Thoughts on
the Sexual Revolution,” a multi-speaker lecture hosted by the Catholic Women’s
Forum and the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture, among other hosts, in
Washington May 31. Through their different disciplines, the experts gave
examples of how liberalization of sexual norms has been largely detrimental to
women’s health and well-being. 

Dr. Monique Chireau of Duke University
Medical Center in Durham, N.C., spoke about the explosion of cases and kinds of
sexually transmitted diseases and infections since the 1960s, many of which
lead to infertility, cancer and other negative health consequences. 

Hollman spoke about how the gendered
script of the hookup culture leads some women to consent verbally to sexual
activity while still having deep internal reservations. “I would encourage any
person if they have experienced some kind of sexual trauma, even if it doesn’t
rise to the level of rape — if there is any coercion, if there’s any
discomfort, get help,” she said. 

Dr. Marguerite Duane of Georgetown
University in Washington spoke about the negative health and societal
repercussions of birth control. Though many claim birth control has allowed women
to get ahead in the work world, Duane disagrees. 

“Contraception has further defined the
need to avoid pregnancy at all costs. If anything, it has hurt women in not
allowing for flexibility or changes in professional structures,” she said. “I
think the pill (instilled) this belief that you should postpone childbearing
until your 30s, and I don’t necessarily think that’s in the best interest of
women or men or the children they have.”

Hollman added that her colleague worked
with a patient who “lamented the fact that she had spent most of her 20s trying
not to get pregnant and most of her 30s trying to get pregnant,” she said.
Women then turn to expensive, time-consuming reproductive technologies that can
take a steep emotional toll, said Hollman. 

Jennifer Lahl, a nurse turned
documentary filmmaker, spoke about the commodification of women’s bodies
through surrogacy and egg donation. Leary spoke about the lucrative
exploitation of sex trafficking. Mary Anne Layden, a clinical psychology
professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, discussed the
pornification of the culture. 

“Internet pornography is the most
perfect learning environment we could ever devise if we had ever devised it as a
learning environment. (There is) one problem and that is everything it teaches
is a lie,” she said. “Sex (in pornography) is not about intimacy, love or
respect — there isn’t any of that going on. Sex is not about marriage or having
children.  (In pornography), all people
want sex with all people all the time.

“It’s teaching us permission-giving
beliefs that say what I’m doing is normal, it doesn’t hurt anybody and
everybody is doing it. Since it’s all normal, I don’t need to change my
behavior,” said Layden. “I hear this in therapy every day from men who are
pornography addicts or abusers or rapists.”

In the face of such dysfunction,
Catholics should assume the posture of healing, said Washington Cardinal Donald
W. Wuerl. “How desperate has our culture become for that healing as a result of
the craziness that has flowed from secularism,” he said. “The beginning of the
process is somehow re-establishing the moral compass, and we’re not going to do
that by simply repeating over and over again the same teaching, which remains
true.

“But now, we have a world that doesn’t
even understand. The language is altogether different. Our task in the
accompaniment of this generation is not only to have clear in our mind the
teaching, but to be able to reach out in a way that they begin to hear us,” he
said. “There is an element of going out, an element of engaging — this is where
Pope Francis is calling us.”

Cardinal Wuerl was a young priest when
Blessed Pope Paul VI published his groundbreaking encyclical “Humanae Vitae.” He said society and many Catholics rejected its
teaching on artificial birth control and in turn rejected the pope as well.
Today’s Catholic should not make the same mistake, said the cardinal. “In all
our efforts, we need to keep one hand on that rock, so that how we are reaching
out is faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ and the teaching of the church,”
he said.

Related Articles