sexual frustration act 1768 - The Prologue SeXStoRY

THE PROLOGUE England mid 18th century was a lawless place, marauding bands of demobbed troops roamed the streets fighting all and sundry. Women were out of control, many spending time in the branks, which did not seem to deter their offensive behaviour. Pub fights were routine and **** a common offence. No one appeared happy and all appeared irritable. This was not the sort of England that Farmer George wanted to reign over. Thomas Hobbes’s works on the social contract had been studied, as had Rene Descartes’s and Immanuel Kant’s. But they did not contain the answer, something was inherently wrong with the common man – he did not comprehend what his part of the social contract was, after all Durkheim and sociology had not yet happened; The common man saw no advantage to himself in honouring a contract that was heavily biased in favour of the upper gentrified classes. Even among the upper classes all was not well, there was much profligacy and v******e, and even duchesses had been known to lose their temper. Even both houses of Parliament seemed to spend all their time bickering. However there was a glimmer of hope as it had been reported to the king that two groups of people did appear perfectly content with life:- The first group were known as the “Hellfire club”, a movement recently formed (1755) by Sir Francis Dashwood, though it was rumoured that he had got the idea from a similar venture he had come across in Dublin. The club motto Fay ce que voudras (‘Do as thou shalt wish’) appeared to be the key to the contentment of the members. What they had achieved was to do away with any moral hang-ups concerning the sexual use of women – to them it was not only socially acceptable but desirable that women could be used as man’s play things. The king interviewed some of the members and found them to be the least frustrated people he had ever come across. The second group were followers of a young French Comte (born 1740) by the name of Donatien Sade. His followers, though few in number in England, were a more secretive group than the Hellfire club. They had a similar philosophy to the Hellfire club motto but went one stage further in taking delight in the misfortunes of women subjected to cruelty, pain and humiliation: In this manner Sade’s followers achieved sexual gratification. To keep themselves secretive they had adopted the practice of keeping their own female sex slaves for use among the followers, thus not attracting too much publicity. Again, the king had managed an audience with one of Sade’s followers, and again found him to be a most satisfied and contented fellow. Farmer George eventually put two and two together and in the year 1763 commissioned a Royal inquiry to ascertain if the frustrations of the general public could be alleviated by conducting themselves in the manner of Dashwood and/or Sade: And, if so, could such behaviour be codified into a working law. 1765 – The Royal inquiry was completed and the commission reported to the king. The finding was enequivocal, the problem was SEXUAL FRUSTRATION. The mores of the day had led to both men and women suffering serious sexual hang-ups, which left unrequited, had over-spilled into public and domestic v******e. It was noted that all the existing statutory laws regarding sexual activity were a list of things one was not allowed to do; It was only the common law that allowed a man his conjugal rights within the bounds of the state of holy matrimony, but, even here, there was nothing to offer sexual relief to the female. Recommendation – A new law, that, whilst not replacing the existing negative laws, would in certain areas override the negative laws, to the extent that both men AND women, who satisfied certain criteria, be given legal rights to relieve sexual frustration. The King endorsed this recommendation and invited Parliament to make the necessary enactments. Thus the SEXUAL FRUSTRATION ACT 1768 came into being; England was now internally at peace with itself. And any collective frustrations of the country, as a whole, could be vented by wars with the French. ***************************