Sexual Suspects - Influences of the Sexual Liberation on Lust, Sexuality and Family in John Irving's 'The World According to Garp'

Daniel Heuermann

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Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Paderborn, course: John ...

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Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Paderborn, course: John Irving - Selected Novels, language: English, abstract: John Irving's novelThe World According to Garpgives the reader a view on the lives of its characters and, as a part of it, their attitudes towards lust and sexuality. The description of these aspects is very direct and may be offensive for some more conservative persons. Even for persons who tend to be liberal- minded, Irving's way of writing about sex can be uncommon, although he uses lust and sexuality only to tell the story and not for sensational reasons. It is strange that after forty years of sexual liberation, or the so called sexual revolution , so little seems to have changed and people still have these kinds of feelings when reading about sex being described so directly. Despite the fact that people expected more from the sexual liberation in the 1960s and 1970s, there was indeed a change in attitude towards certain aspects, such as premarital and extramarital sex. Studies in the United States in the 1970s revealed "a gradual decrease over time in the percentage of respondents who said that premarital sex is always wrong". Another important change which derived from the liberation movement was the new female sexuality, especially concerning the sexual fulfilment of women before and during marriage. This is also proved by a decreasing support of the

double standard , where men are more or less allowed to be sexual active, including premarital and even extramarital sex, but women are not. You also have to consider the women's movement, when thinking about female sexual liberation. Both, sexual liberation and feminism, somehow worked together hand in hand to achieve improvement for women's sexuality. In order to understand the gap between the new achievements and the nevertheless still exis ting resentments towards them, you need to know the situation prior to the 1960s, when the above- mentioned

double standard` and abstinence were in the focus of sexuality.