Randall Collins (University of Pennsylvania): Sexual Revolution and the Future of the Family
Summary
TLDRIn this thought-provoking lecture, Professor Randall Collins explores the historical and sociological aspects of sexual revolutions and their impact on the family unit. He delves into the evolution of courtship, the rise of the feminist movement, and the increasing acceptance of non-heteronormative relationships. Collins discusses the contentious issues surrounding abortion and gender politics, highlighting the complex interplay between personal freedom, political regulation, and societal attitudes. He also examines the role of technology in shaping modern relationships and speculates on the future of the family in the context of a digitalized world.
Takeaways
- 🎓 The lecture by Professor Randall Collins, a distinguished American sociologist, focused on the historical and contemporary aspects of sexual revolutions and the future of the family.
- 👨👩👧👦 The family, as the oldest human institution, has undergone significant transformations from being politically and economically centered to becoming more focused on personal and sexual relations.
- 🔄 The shift in the core of the family from political and economic to personal and sexual has led to greater individual choice and explicit political regulation of sexual behavior.
- 🤔 Current disputes over sexuality and gender, including the upsurge in anti-abortion movements, are seen as part of a larger struggle over the remaining aspects of the family and its future.
- 🤱 Abortion debates are primarily about freedom of sexual action, intertwined with issues like homosexuality, publicizing sexual identity, and the fight to eradicate gender distinctions.
- 🌍 The sexual revolution and related movements, such as the women's rights movement and LGBTQ+ rights, have been worldwide phenomena with notable exceptions like the Muslim world.
- 🏳️🌈 The LGBTQ+ movement has evolved significantly, from fighting for basic freedoms to asserting sexual identity as a central identity in politics and society.
- 📉 The decline in marriage rates and the rise in non-marital births reflect a broader shift in societal attitudes towards traditional family structures and sexual norms.
- 🔮 Sociological tools can be used to forecast the future of the family, considering factors like government regulations, political movements, and technological advancements like the internet.
- 🌐 The digitalization of relationships and sexuality through the internet may lead to a decivilizing process, with less physical interaction and potentially less civility in relationships.
- 🔄 The future of the family may involve a re-evaluation of its role in society, with potential for both traditional and non-traditional family structures to coexist or transform further.
Q & A
What is the main topic of Professor Randall Collins' talk?
-The main topic of Professor Randall Collins' talk is the sexual revolutions, the future of the family, and the current disputes over sexuality and gender.
How does Collins relate the anti-abortion movement to the sexual revolution?
-Collins argues that the anti-abortion movement is a conservative response to the sexual revolution, viewing it as an attempt to restrict sexual freedom and roll back the changes in societal attitudes towards non-marital sex and the acceptance of various erotic practices.
What is the historical context of the shift in family structure according to Collins?
-Collins explains that modernity began by replacing family organization with bureaucracy, leading to states regulating the family household from outside. The core of the family has become personal and sexual rather than political and economic, with a focus on individual choice.
How does Collins describe the role of the state in the family unit?
-Collins describes the state's role as one of external regulation, where states began to inscribe everyone in the roles of the state as individuals, marking a shift from the family as the building block of power to the state's oversight and control over family matters.
What is the significance of the term 'gender identity' in the context of the talk?
-The term 'gender identity' is significant as it represents the struggle to eradicate gender distinctions and the assertion of one's sexual identity as a central identity in politics, particularly in the context of publicizing one's sexual identity in schools and other public spaces.
How does Collins explain the resurgence of the anti-abortion movement?
-Collins suggests that the resurgence of the anti-abortion movement is a reaction to the perceived decline of traditional family values and the increase in casual, non-marital sex. It is seen as a conservative effort to reassert the confining of sex to marriage and to push back against the sexual revolution of the mid-20th century.
What is the sociological explanation for the increase in people living alone?
-The increase in people living alone is attributed to a combination of factors, including the rise of individualism, changes in social attitudes towards non-traditional family structures, and the impact of digitalization on social relationships, leading to more people choosing solitary lifestyles.
How does Collins view the impact of the internet on the future of the family?
-Collins suggests that the internet and digitalization may lead to a future where most people work from home and interact primarily online. This could result in a decline in traditional family structures, with physical contact and interaction rituals becoming more privileged and thus the family potentially surviving as an enclave rather than a universal social institution.
What is the significance of the term 'anomie' in the context of the talk?
-The term 'anomie' is used to describe the state of normlessness or lack of social cohesion that can result from the rapid social changes and movements discussed in the talk, such as the sexual revolution and the struggle over gender identity. It reflects the sense of disorientation and uncertainty experienced by some in the face of these transformations.
How does Collins address the issue of gender-neutral language and its relation to social movements?
-Collins discusses the issue of gender-neutral language as part of a broader struggle over what remains of the family and what will replace it. He notes the political and social movements advocating for the use of non-gendered pronouns and the recognition of diverse gender identities, indicating a shift towards more fluid and inclusive understandings of gender.
What is the role of the government in regulating sexuality according to the talk?
-According to the talk, the government plays a significant role in regulating sexuality through explicit political measures that either restrict or permit certain sexual behaviors and practices. This regulation has become more pronounced over the 20th century and continues to be a contentious issue in the context of social and political movements.
Outlines
📝 Introduction and Acknowledgements
The paragraph begins with the host welcoming everyone to the final session of a conference and introduces Professor Randall Collins, a distinguished American sociologist from California. The host expresses hope that Professor Collins is online and mentions having sent him a text message. The speaker also acknowledges the contributions of earlier speakers, including Richard Senate, who discussed the situation in Ukraine. The host sets the stage for Professor Collins's talk on sexual revolutions and the future of the family, expressing curiosity about how he might connect his topic to the current events in Ukraine.
🌍 Societal Shifts and the Sexual Revolution
In this paragraph, Professor Collins delves into the historical and societal shifts that have taken place, particularly focusing on the transformation of the family as an institution. He discusses how the family's role evolved from being the foundation of political, military, and economic power to a more personal and sexual focus in modern times. The speaker also touches on the increasing political regulation of sexual behavior and the rise of movements advocating for various sexual rights. He argues that the recent surge in anti-abortion movements is tied to broader issues of sexual freedom and the struggle to redefine gender roles and identity.
💡 The Sexual Revolution and its Impact
This paragraph continues the discussion on the sexual revolution, highlighting its impact on courtship, dating, and social interactions. The speaker describes how the younger generation began to mix without supervision, leading to a culture where sexual expression became a central aspect of life. The paragraph also addresses the rise in divorce rates, the emergence of the 'teenager' as a social category, and the increase in crime rates. The speaker connects these societal changes to the broader context of the sexual revolution and the evolving perceptions of marriage and family life.
🎭 Changing Social Norms and Expressions
The speaker in this paragraph explores how changes in social norms and self-presentation have occurred alongside the sexual revolution. The evolution of fashion trends, the depiction of sexualities in media, and the shift towards informalization in attire are discussed. The paragraph also examines the impact of the Jazz Age and the liberalization of Hollywood film censorship on societal attitudes towards sex. The speaker notes the rise of obscenity in language and its normalization in various aspects of society, reflecting a shift in cultural values and norms.
🏳️ The Politics of Identity and Sexuality
This paragraph delves into the political and social movements centered around sexuality and identity. The speaker discusses the progression of movements advocating for women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and the recognition of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. The paragraph also touches on the controversies surrounding sex education, the debate over non-gendered pronouns, and the political activism around gender-neutral language. The speaker posits that these movements reflect a broader struggle over the definition and future of the family.
🤔 Reflections on the Future of the Family
In the final paragraph, the speaker reflects on the future of the family, considering the impact of government regulations, political movements, and technological advancements. The speaker discusses the potential outcomes of increased automation and the internet's influence on social relationships and sexual behavior. The paragraph also contemplates the possibility of the family evolving into a more exclusive and privileged institution, contrasting with the trend of increased individualism and solitary living. The speaker concludes with a discussion on the enduring significance of the family as a place of physical contact, interaction, and emotional connection.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Sexual Revolutions
💡Abortion
💡Family
💡Identity Politics
💡Gender
💡Sociology
💡Political Regulation
💡Liberalism
💡Conservatism
💡LGBTQ+
Highlights
The family as the oldest human institution and its transformation over time.
The shift from kinship-based households to political and economic bureaucracy in modernity.
The increasing political regulation of personal and sexual behavior in the 20th century.
The connection between the sexual revolution and the current disputes over sexuality and gender.
The upsurge in anti-abortion movements and their link to freedom of sexual action.
The historical context of abortion struggles and the sexual revolution.
The transformation of societal attitudes towards nonmarital sex and its impact on family structure.
The evolution of the women's movement and the fight for equal legal rights and employment opportunities.
The emergence of the teenager as a new social category and its influence on crime rates and social movements.
The rise of the counterculture and its emphasis on antinomian values.
The changing trends in self-presentation and media depiction of sexualities.
The impact of the internet era on social movements and the ease of mobilization.
The potential future of the family as a privileged enclave in a society of isolated individuals.
The role of government regulations in shaping the future of the family and social institutions.
The intricate relationship between the anti-abortion movement and the defense of traditional family values.
The potential decline of the abortion issue due to less sexual activity among younger generations.
The internal divisions within the LGBTQ+ community and the challenges of forming a united political front.
The influence of the digitalization of relationships and its possible decivilizing effect on society.
The importance of understanding the knowledge position when formulating scientific statements about social issues.
Transcripts
thank you very
um Welcome to our final uh plary session
with Professor Randall Collins uh all
the way from California I think it's
quite early in the morning uh for him
I'm hoping he's go I know he's online
I've seen his picture and I've sent him
a text message I think he will be uh
switched through to us uh any moment now
but we're very fortunate to have two
very distinguished American
sociologists speaking there is hi
Randall I'm just interrup I'm just
introducing you sorry for the slight
delay oh you're good great thanks um
we've had two distinguished American uh
sociologists speaking to us this
afternoon even if uh even if uh Richard
Senate now prefers to describe himself
as an ex American um uh uh Randall
Collins is widely recognized as I happen
to know that yop hows Blum uh regarded
Randall as the greatest living uh
sociologist and if that doesn't put
Randall off his stride at the beginning
of this talk it'll be uh difficult to
think of anything that would
um I should tell you Randall that
earlier this afternoon uh Richard Senate
um Richard Senate spoke about uh Ukraine
he was due to speak about performing um
performing
Civility and he said he thought it was
in practice quite impossible not to talk
about Ukraine well
um randle's topic is uh sexual
revolutions
um uh sexual revolutions and the future
of the family I'd be interested to see
if he can make this read sexual
revolutions the family and Ukraine but
we won't challenge you to do that
R Stephen I'm going to just stick to my
text the family is the oldest human
institution until the end of the Middle
Ages the kinship based household was the
building block of political and military
power as well as economic production and
consumption modernity began by replacing
family organization with
bureaucracy states began to regulate the
Family household from outside inscribing
everyone on the roles of the state as
individuals the core of the family has
become personal and sexual rather than
political and
econom what is personal and sexual has
become Freer more a matter of individual
choice at the same time sexual behavior
has become subject to explicit political
regulation either restricting or
permitting from the early 20th century
onwards there have been increasingly
militant movements on one side or
another of what is sexually permitted
encouraged or
prohibited in this context I will
consider current disputes over sexuality
and gender why is there an upsurge in
anti-abortion movements just now I will
argue that abortion is primarily about
freedom of sexual
action it is part of an overarching
array of issues that include
homosexuality which is to say more kinds
of acceptable erotic practices
also publicizing one's sexual identity
in schools and using toilets and in
festivals and parades not merely private
freedom of sexuality but asserting it as
one's Central identity politics has
become much more centered on sexuality
than at any time in
history these movements are Allied to a
united front with a struggle to
eradicate gender
distinctions both sides of the dispute
mobilize move M ments and propos laws
each protesting against the other in
larger perspective it is a struggle over
what remains of the family and what will
replace it I will sketch the history of
abortion struggles the sexual Revolution
and nonmarital sex homosexual and
transgender movements and the Battle of
pronouns and the perceived decline of
the family this will help answer the
question why anti-abortion movements now
I will end with some sociological tools
for forecasting the future of the
family I hope you'll excuse me for
relying on American data some of these
Trends originated in Europe on the whole
it has been a worldwide trajectory with
the notable exception of the Muslim
World abortion is argued in
philosophical and Theological terms on
the one hand the protection and
sacredness of life on the other the
right to choose rights over one's own
body but
sociologically abstract ideas and
beliefs are not the ultimate explanation
of what people
do it begs the question why do some
people sometimes believe one way or the
other when and why are they vehement
about their beliefs when do they
organize social and political movements
about them arguments about abortion are
stated altruistically it has nothing to
do with me personally I am concerned for
The Unborn children for the right to
life generally on the pro-abortion side
there is General AR the general argument
that everyone has the right over one's
own body but also sometimes personal I
have the right to an abortion if I want
one sociologically The Ground Zero is
always pragmatic a practical matter of
how people live what is the Human Action
at issue behind the abortion
argument abortion is about sex erotic
Behavior why do some women want abortion
because they have sex without marriage
in premarital and extramarital sex it is
freedom to without worrying about
pregnancy and thus is also a form of
birth control for married
couples up through the early 20th
century an unwanted pregnancy was a
fatal life event for a woman the
exception was for rich women who could
keep it secret and farm out an unwanted
child to a woman of the lower classes to
care for it to have a child outside of
wedlock was scandalous shameful to be
hidden away if possible it was a badge
of Shame punished by being ostracized
The Scarlet Letter in Hawthorne's novel
about New England Puritans worse yet the
mother could be executed for murder if
she had an abortion
or dispose of the infant through
infanticide this was the plot of G's
F that was the historical scenario today
some abortions happen because married
women don't want to have a child at the
time because the child is malformed
because the mother is in danger or
because it interrupts her career most
abortions are to unmarried women in
their
20s the taboo on unmarried pregnancy
fell away rap ridly in some countries
first in Scandinavia then in the US in
the 1950s and 60s in part this was
because of much greater acceptance of
sex before marriage in part because
young middle class couples started
living together without getting married
a trend that grew very rapidly at the
turn of the 1970s and was accepted
surprisingly soon by the older
population before that time living in
sin as it was called or Shack up was
regarded as something poor or non-white
people did but within a few years it
became normal to hear someone introduced
as this is my partner rather than this
is my husband or this is my wife the
same terminological shift in ordinary
language was adopted by homosexual
couples who more recently have shifted
back to using husband and husband or
wife and wife after winning political
and legal battles over gay
marriage the political legal battle for
abortion happened at the same time in
Scandinavia limited abortion rights
began in the 1930s and expanded in
1973 the US Supreme Court ruled in the
lawsuit Ro v Wade that abortion was a
right covered in the abstract language
of the Constitution the anti-abortion
movement dates from that
period the arguments are on the ground
of legal philosophy translated into
social practice to restore the ban on
abortion means that sex should be
confined to marriage this means rolling
back the sexual revolution of mid 20th
century on the other side my body is my
own means in Practical terms I can have
sex with whoever and whenever I want men
traditionally had this right why
shouldn't
women we are approaching an answer to
the question why is there a Resurgence
of the anti-abortion movement just now
which is to say a movement against
casual non-marital sex this should be
seen in the context of the sexual
Revolution starting about 100 years
ago the 1920s saw a revolution in
courtship dating and partying replaced
parents steering their children's
marriage choices now the younger
generation mixed Sexes without
supervision creating a culture where
drinking dancing and necking was a main
excitement of life rather than a
transition to marriage it was a
rebellious thrill in the United States
where alcohol was prohibited but the
same style emerged in England and
Germany
also in the 1930s and 40s divorce began
to be common no longer disreputable and
scandalous by 1960 almost 50% of
marriages were ending in divorce a level
relatively constant since then the 1950s
was also the era of the teenager a new
social category working class youths no
longer entered the labor force as
Government made them attend secondary
school with free time on their hands
teens created gangs and Social Clubs got
their own style of music and dancing
with a tone of rebellion against the
traditional middle class the rise in
crime rates began at this time
continuing from the 1950s into the
1990s political and social movements had
existed before what was different in the
1960s was that they were based among the
young during a huge increase in
University
students we called ourselves the new
Left distinguished from the old left by
being less concerned about ideology than
lifestyle culture icons were the hippies
dropouts from school and career living
in communes where they shared
psychedelic drugs and free love in
reality most were weakend hippies and
most of the free love commun
disintegrated rather quickly over
jealousy and Status ranking the main
Legacy of the free love period was that
cohabitation living together without
getting married became widespread even
becoming a census category in the
1970s the 1970s were dominated by
sexually based movements first the f
movement sought equal legal rights and
employment opportunities for women plus
its militant lesbian Branch condemning
sexual intercourse as the root of the
problem in the 70s and increasing with
each decade through the present a chain
of homosexual movements demanded not
only freedom from disc discrimination
but the recognition of a new public
vocabulary gender rather than sex gay
rather than homosexual and so on this
this has been a Cascade of movements
each building on its predecessors in
tactics ideology and lifestyle each
finding a new issue on which to
fight something deeper has been going on
for a longer period of time like the new
left the overall ethos has been
antinomian the counterculture of status
reversal these rebellious social
movements were paralleled by shifts in
self-presentation demeanor and in the
mediate depiction of
sexualities in the
1920s women's skirts became shorter
young women adopted a more Manish look
they also began to show a lot more flesh
body covering swimsuits became briefer
women athletes exercised and competed in
shorts the trend also existed in
socialist and Soviet communist
organizations and in the nudist movement
popular in Germany in 1946 came the
bikini created in France and named for
an island where an atom bomb was
exploded eventually there were men in
thongs and women going topless at
beaches the 60s and 70s were a weird
mange of clothing fads granny dresses
and throwback Sergeant Pepper uniforms
nou jackets surgical smocks men in
ponytails wearing Puka shell necklaces
and Jewelry earrings most of these
styles did not last long but the
prevailing mood was a change for the
sake of something different the
long-term result was the casualness
revolution also called
informalization which triumphed in the
1990s wearing blue jeans t-shirts and
athletic clothes on All Occasions
discarding neck ties and business suits
calling Everyone by their first name no
more use of titles and once polite forms
of
address simultaneously with these
changes erotic hom
heterosexuality was coming out of the
closet in literature and the
media the Jazz Age of the 1920s was
originally named after a slang word for
having sex novelists like Scott
Fitzgerald and songwriters like Cole
Porter were full of innuendo James
Joyce's ulses in 1922 began literary
depiction of the bodily details of sex
followed by DH Lauren Hemingway Henry
Miller and anas nin most of these were
published in Paris but censored
elsewhere until 1960 when their free
publication fueled the sexual atmosphere
of the
counterculture in 1968 Hollywood film
censorship changed to a rating system
marketing soft porn as PG Parental
Guidance and hard porn as
x-rated the 70s was the era of the
so-called pubic Wars glossy magazines
with nude photos tested the borders of
what could be displayed moving from
breasts to pubic air hair to arouse
genitals and by the 1980s to penetration
and oral sex pornographic photos had
existed before but they were cheaply
produced and had a limited underground
distribution now these were some of the
biggest Mass distribution magazines sex
magazines went into decline in the '90s
replaced by porn sites on the
internet it spilled over into language
obscene words began to be used in
political
demonstrations then on t-shirts in
fashion advertising and an ordinary
middle class
conversation the remaining Bastion of
prohibition on obscene language is what
could be said in School classrooms
everywhere else flaunting overt sex has
been a successful form of rebellion one
might even say that the major line of
conflict is no longer economic classes
but a status division hip and cool
versus square and
straight homosexual sex came out of the
closet as the same time as the porn
Revolution gay porn magazines and film
followed heterosexual men's magazines
their circulation was never as wide
Playboy and Penthouse reached peaks of 5
to 7 million but the gay movement was
more controversial and more activist
it's spun off from resistance tactics of
the Civil Rights Movement pushing back
at police raids on gay bars and meeting
places it became a Cascade of movements
gay and lesbian joined by bisexual queer
militant homosexuals rejecting gay
marriage transgender transsexual and
non-binary the growth of This Acronym
now
lgbtqi plus is it self a sociological
phenomenon to be explained as new
identities have been added every few
years a trajectory likely to continue
into the
future a related issue has been sex
education in the schools initially about
contraceptives for the prevention of
venial disease a term subsequently
changed then expanding to teach children
about homosexuality as an option in
recent years there are movements among
children as young as Elementary School
demanding to be referred to by
non-gendered pronouns and for government
funded sex reassignment hormones or
surgery the fields have struggled
expanded gender-free toilets the Battle
of pronouns Banning the words he and she
in 2021 the US House of Representatives
passed legislation Banning the use of
gendered words father mother brother
sister in government documents there are
similar efforts to create gender neutral
pronouns in French and Spanish although
thus far not very
popular the arena of such conflicts has
become increasingly political as
activists file lawsuits in the courts
and demand new legislation escalation on
one side leads to counter escalation on
the other it is in this context that we
can explain why the anti-abortion
movement has become much more militant
in the last few years
in
2019 abortions in the US were about 20%
of live births but in fact the ratio has
fallen from 25% 10 years earlier this is
largely due to teenagers having fewer
children and fewer abortions and to some
extent due to the growth of
homosexuality in the age group below 30
the anti-abortion movement has not
intensified because a dent abortion was
growing worse it is just the most
prominent way conservative legislators
can strike back at the latest waves of
sexual
Revolution conservatives view these
developments as the decline of morality
and good taste the intrusion of
government into the lives of their
children and educational policies that
they regard as
indoctrination abortion is seen as part
of the sexual Revolution run rampant
separating sex from the family extoling
forms of sex that turn traditional
parent ing into an outdated
status militants of homosexual movements
have declared that heteronormativity is
on its way out homosexuality has become
more widespread it was less than 2% of
the baby boom generation grew to almost
4% of the generation born before 1980 9%
of those who became adults around the
year 2000 in so-called Generation Z now
about 18 to 23 years old identifying as
LGBT has jumped to
16% this is still far from a majority
but an expanding movement is full of
aggressive confidence expecting a time
when the heterosexual family is a quaint
minority conservatives see the same
Trend but from a different point of view
the falling marriage rate the below
replacement fertility now down to
1.6 children per woman in the US the
lowest in its history and even lower in
parts of Europe 40% of all children born
to unmarried parents more people are
living alone proportionally more among
the age 65 and older but in sheer
numbers of households the largest number
living alone are working age
adults strict laws in American states
banning abortion have been created in a
situation where the political split
between conservatives and liberals
leaves neither of them with a firm
majority at the federal level while
conservatives fall back on regional
state legislators which they control
here also control over what goes on in
the schools is increasingly
contested abortion is just one issue in
a divisive cluster of issues making
abortion laws more restrictive will not
save the family illegal abortions would
reappear recapitulating the conflicts of
the 19
1960s conflict over abortion is a symbol
of the bigger question what
conservatives perceive as a
multi-pronged assault on the
family but there are reasons of a
different sort why the family is not
likely to disappear anytime
soon when the feminist Revolution took
off in the 1970s men soon discovered
they had an economic interest in their
wives careers a family with two middle
class incomes could outspend a
traditional male-headed upper middle
class household two working class
incomes put a family in the middle class
expenditure bracket in the New Economic
hierarchy the poorest families are those
where one woman's income has to care for
her children alone marriage and its
shared property rights continues to be
the buw workk of economic
stratification from a radical left point
of view this would a reason to abolish
the family or at least take child raring
away from the
family the situation is complicated by
gay marriage beginning with when gay
couples demanded the tax and inheritance
rights of marriage it also creates
wealthy households since gay men are
usually middle class or higher and two
such incomes make them Big Spenders one
reason why consumer Industries and
advertising are so favorable to the gay
movement on the other hand although gay
couples sometimes adopt children or use
sperm donors the number of children in
gay marriages is small only 15% of
same-sex Couples married or not have
children and this is unlikely to
compensate for the overall decline in
childbearing there are about 1 million
same-sex households in the US out of 128
million households this is less than
1% since about 13 million Americans
identify as
LGBT this implies that only one sixth of
them are living with a sexual partner
most of them are living alone the big
increase in living alone may even be
driven by the rise of homosexuality or
perhaps vice
versa this seems to be particularly true
in big US cities such as Washington DC
where one quarter of the adult
population live alone in apartments
making up half of all households
Washington is also the the city where
the largest percentage identify
themselves as LBG LGBT at
10% can sociology predict the future of
the family what will happen hinges a
great deal on government regulations and
these depend on the mobilization of
political movements against each other
the internet era has made it easier for
all sorts of movements to
mobilize but government regulation may
become a weapon by by which one side can
censor the other and try to keep it from
mobilizing the causes of conflict are
easier to predict than the outcomes
especially when the sides are relatively
evenly
balanced computerization and its
offshoot the internet foreshadow a
future in which almost everyone works at
home manual work is done by robots
everyone spends most their time
communicating online or absorbed in
online entertain attainment the
generation brought up on the Internet is
the shiest generation yet they have many
online friends but few friends in the
flesh they are less sexually active more
anxious and fearful the issue of
abortion may eventually decline because
there is less sexual activity in the
future generation the immersive virtual
world of the internet strongly promoted
by today's media capitalism may be
destroying the family by making it
easier to live physically solitary
lives
yet this may be why the family will
survive not as the universal social
institution but as a privileged
Enclave it is privileged because the
family is a place of physical contact of
interaction rituals solidarity and
emotional energy the family is also a
place of reliable sex surveys show that
married and cohabiting couples have have
much more frequent sex than unpartnered
individuals they don't have to spend
time looking for partners add to that
the two earner effect on household the
income an incentive for the family to
[Music]
survive the trajectory of the last 100
years has been to undermine the family
but the rise of the disembodied computer
world may change that I suspect we are
heading towards a future where intact
families father mother and their
children of all ages are the dominant
class economically and media networked
or media addicted isolates living alone
with their electronics are WS of the
welfare state thank you for your
[Applause]
attention thank you
Rell that's uh perfect timing too um we
have 10 or 15 minutes uh perhaps uh uh
for questions and discussion uh would
anyone like to lead
off well thank you very much Ral Collins
for this uh very interesting
lecture uh I have I I have a question
about uh what what actually is the
relation between the anti-abortion
movement and this whole change in
sexuality and and and and and family
life uh if you if you if you think of
the of the of the discourse of among the
anti-abortionists what what they say
they they do not refer so much to
sexuality uh and and and say that that
that uh sexuality should be confined to
family life but their their first motive
is that they
say uh abortion is is murder and because
because everyone after the conception a
new uh living being with with a unique
soul is born so abortion is just killing
and that's against the law and it's
agress and of course it's it's then
legitimated in religious terms it's it's
against it's forbidden by God so the
anti-abortion movement is is very much
of course related as you know with the
Orthodox Christianity within within
America and uh and Europe uh so what
what do you think then I mean is is this
just only the the uh superficial motiv
and and and and the hidden motives are
more refer to sexuality or what do you
think about
that oh so I got two uh uh points uh to
make about that one one as I explained
earlier on was that um the things that
people say in general abstract
principles are not really strong motives
in what they in what they do um they're
just way too unspecific in in addition
when people are so we but we can turn
this into an empirical question when
when and under what conditions do people
hold and
express uh positions when do they
express them more strongly when are they
very w v about about them um so the uh
the anti-ab verion movement um at least
in the United States where I've observed
it's gotten much more vehement in the
last 10 years than uh than ever before
uh and so you the the rhetoric has been
the same throughout but uh the vehement
has has uh changed
uh the uh uh the other point I I want to
make is that um the same people and the
same uh conservative politicians who are
U trying to pass and sometimes P passing
very strict anti-abortion laws also are
vehemently opposed to um
uh uh the the the pronoun War uh
uh same-sex
bathrooms um uh talking about
homosexuality as an option for children
uh government uh funding uh sex change
operations it seems to be a a complex of
of issues and uh among the uh
conservative
commentators uh
of many of them do bring it together as
a question of the assault on the family
as we know
it thank
you I think
sorry I think from the point of view of
Europeans rle the thing that most often
puzzles us is how it's often the same
people who are so vly opposed to gun law
uh reform
in other words the life of the child is
H sacred but it's okay to shoot
people yes well I mean actually sort of
under underlying that there's actually
be in the last few years there's been a
big increase in purchase of guns and uh
interviews with these people say the
world is just a whole lot more dangerous
now uh you know personally in uh I mean
these personally in America I can't
speak speak for elsewhere and they say
we need these guns because the
government's not going to protect us the
government's really against us the
government is against the police we have
to protect ourselves so it's it's a part
of a uh it's easy easy to see sort of
philosophical contradictions of what
people say but sort of on the Practical
level what they feel is we are really
Under Siege and and all the uh you know
government Elites are against us and we
have to defend
ourselves is it on yes yes hello thank
you very much for your very provocative
talk I have a question on the um the
combination of the different social um
activist groups in the letter
combination
lgbtq plus um in some respects they are
sometimes clustered together as being
all on the same side and um being firmly
on the um left leaning side uh but I
think you can now see that parts of
these letter combinations are actually
very um uh vocal in um starting to fight
among each other for instance um
especially in the UK feminists are
really vocal about um uh not um being on
the well on the side of uh eliminating
biology and saying that your sexuality
your sex is not um is not relevant for
how you identify so at least in Europe
you already see opposition to that um
well to being grouped together um do you
think um that on the basis of such um um
well such substance matter um that you
can have sort of
bipartisan new coalitions of feminists
and um conservatives for instance um uh
having uh creating new realignments on
these issues thank you can you just
identify yourself oh my name is
Kel yes um you thank you for bringing up
that uh this this point
um uh political slogans about coalitions
often are aspirational and and
rhetorical it's very notable o over here
here I'm speaking as a you know very
American Centric because that's the
sociology I know I'm I'm happy to you
know hear about uh movements in the
feminist movement in Britain uh the um
the rainbow Co
Coalition uh there uh has an ideology
this this is sort of a combination of
the Civil Rights Movement the uh uh
uh the various G gay movements uh the uh
defund the police movement and so forth
but in reality isn't really true the uh
the
uh homosexuality is not really all that
popular in the Black and Hispanic uh
communities it's very much a movement of
the white middle class but of course
when you're doing a political movement
you don't want to say say you know
anything that you know disturbs the
image of its being being uh United uh
Charles Tilly in his general theory
about social movements uh said that the
movement always wants to make itself
look like it's uh United and maximally
determined uh but that's essentially the
way it stages
itself another
question
anybody want to pick up the point about
the computerized future I mean this uh
that's my talk I sort of brought two
different phenomena together about about
the future but I I think that's often
the way history operates certain Trends
get going and then something else comes
out some other variable comes in from
the side and and and very much shifts it
and it's very striking how different the
youngest generation is the one uh who
have brought up their entire lives uh
online hello Randall Collins how nice to
see you uh I was thinking what if we
thought about what the anti-abortion
movement is in favor of the family the
family is like the central value to them
and their idea of the family is a man a
woman who have children and who stick
together uh and this family is under
Threat by all sorts of things by
immigrants by
Libertines uh by the
government and because the family is
threatened the man should protect his
family and he needs a gun to do so he
needs capital punishment to make sure
that per perp trators are get their due
punishments and woman should stand next
to her man in the fight he protects her
she supports him they have an entire
very positive ideology in positive terms
they're not just
anti-abortion they are against whatever
undermines the traditional family and
the hierarchy or maybe I should say the
symbiosis between a man who protects and
a woman who supports and educates
children so I would like to have a
positive account of the family
movement also because for its
explanatory
value it's I mean I'm not taking sides
I'm just trying to imagine how they
feel well there uh has been a movement
in the United States called the
promisekeepers which fits exactly the
you description that you made I mean
it's a a sort of non denominational
Christian uh movement uh that uh says
that you know men themselves should you
get active in defending the family and
not just leave it to to the the women uh
the at the same time there are uh
certain sociological trends that have
been going on that
um I think tend to make families more
egalitarian than they were before I
mentioned one of them which is that um
men have an economic interest in having
uh wives who uh have good careers uh the
you know so that uh at the very top of
the uh hierarchy um sort of doesn't
matter whether Jeff Bezos is married or
not uh he's got so much more money than
any anyone else but in the upper middle
class uh if you take that uh just in
terms of household income and and ignore
what the occupations are uh if you've
got two people have middle class incomes
they will be in it if you have one man
with a middle class income and a wife
who doesn't work they have an in they
have a a h household expenditure very
much like the working class so there is
an economic incentive
for men to be at least in C practical
sense feminists like they're in FA favor
of uh their wife's career there's
there's another uh Trend which is uh
again not noticeable in In America which
I'm going to make no V judgment about
this but just uh mention it and that is
the women are getting more armed
too um if you look at the crime
statistics uh there is increasing uh
proportion of violent Crimes by uh uh
women and in the most recent concern
about defunding the
police uh there's been a a very large
increase in number of people buying guns
and the largest percentage of that is uh
women buying guns I mean so you're kind
of seeing in an odd way a certain amount
of feminization of the right uh to go
along with you know obviously a big
feminization of of the left and and the
center uh so it's that part of it I
think is actually a a good
Trend um hello I'm Natalie enck and I'm
very pleased to meet you even if it's a
distance thank you for this very
suggestive uh talk and uh listening to
you I thought that maybe we should
distinguish two movements in what you
described the first one is about sexual
Liberation let's say um which began in
the 20th century and especially after
the second world war and after this
movement in which the movements
pro-abortion took place we have another
movement which is very um similar but
different at the same time which is the
digitalization of sexual relationship
ship of relationship in general and
sexual relationship in particular
through the internet which is another uh
movement which comes after the first
wave of uh the sexual Revolution and if
we come back to Elias's Concepts I
wondered whether um this second wave
digitalization of relationship is not uh
doesn't mean a kind of
decivilization process de civiliz it's
very difficult in French decivilizing
process because the absence of physical
uh relationship between people the uh
distant relationship allows a lowering
of the constraints allows more violence
allows less uh civility in
relationship and I wondered whether this
first wave of sexual Revolution hasn't
been
uh accelerated and directed until a
decivilizing process through the
internet uh yes that's um I I think you
know quite a a a good way to uh uh
conceptualize the uh you know uh
computerization
digitalization of of social
relationships and therefore of sex so I
uh mentioned um if you compare sexual
activity across Generations then you you
find that in the most recent two
generations uh uh these uh young people
are uh starting their sex lives uh later
uh having uh uh less actual sexual
relationships uh I haven't seen a a
close analysis of uh
specifically sexual or romantic uh
relationships uh
online uh but uh some of the data I've
have seen in a different context uh is
that uh the
uh uh the youngest generation of college
students are uh very anxious about uh
dealing with uh other
students uh and some of that is a sexual
an
anxiety uh one peculiar finding uh was
uh that uh women who identified
as
uh lesbian
or acronym uh were more worried about
being raped on campus uh which sounds to
me like a a uh a symbolic issue more
more than a real one although certainly
could you know look into the data on
that um I I mentioned uh that
um the the big rise in living
alone and uh it uh if you put this
together with people living their lives
online the two things seem to be very
compatible they sort of less comp
compatible if you're living with a bunch
of other people it's not that they're
not online also but I suspect that the
Lesser percentage of their life is being
spent uh
online um
the uh I I gave some statistics at the
end of the talk but let me to consider
the hypothesis that living the increase
in people living alone particularly
among the youngest uh generation may
have to do with the increase of
homosexuality that is if if you're
homosexual uh there's uh less reason for
you to uh want to uh actually be engaged
with other people or to put it another
way I have the impression that a
considerable percentage of say that's
16% who identify with I am
LGBT uh may not actually be practicing
homosexuals particularly if a lot of
them are are very young so one of the
things that the big issue is about uh
should uh
children um be allowed to uh change
their
sex uh and uh and should the government
help them them them do that well I mean
so if you if you get it a young young
enough age clearly enough you can uh
change your identity to uh
nonheterosexual without uh being
sexually active so it maybe we are
heading in that direction I mean so that
this this topic is uh you can kind start
out with the beginning of it sort of
basic wig history of yeah everything
used to be very repressive and then then
it opened up but history is not a moving
in a straight line and uh the
sociological news of recent times is hey
maybe there's maybe quite a big uh turn
going on
now well I am miklos hadash from Hungary
at
University um you use the term several
time by saying
lgbtq plus
Group Well if we would like to uh choose
an other
perspective we might say that there are
important internal gaps within this Camp
let me give you an example uh for
instance queer Scholars or the
representants of qu studies identify
themselves against gays and lesbians
saying that they have a stable
identity well what I would like to uh
illustrate that the knowledge position
is very important when we would like to
formulate scientific statements I do
agree with Donna her uh who is an
excellent standpoint feminist when she
says that uh
only um contextual situated knowledge uh
might Empower us to formulate um
objective statement so what I would like
to ask how could you define your
perspective your knowledge position
where are you speaking from when you
speak about uh these
issues
I I've used the the term LGBT in this
talk uh because it's a conventional term
of reference terms are in my opinion not
something to argue about they're just
terms of convenience like we know what
we're talking about now that we know we
can talk about we can argue about it we
can attack each other we can say you
have a poor epistemology or so forth but
nevertheless we need to have terms like
that I mean I uh
made the comment that um this started
out as uh be being a a uh movement that
call itself the gay movement then other
things added on to it I thought
i' sociologically have been a little bit
interested in the queer movement
precisely because this is sort of like
the radicals of the movement uh among
among other things uh the uh movement in
favor of gay marriage is attacked as
well you know you're becoming Bourgeois
you're selling out you're going back to
going back to the family I'm not making
any I'm not making any value judgment
about that uh because as a sociologist
I'm trying to find out uh you know
what's going on what's the best way to
analyze that and I think that's the best
way to do it rather than sort finger
pointing and uh attacking people for
trying to be
sociological I think that's
probably I think that um is probably the
point at which we should thank
Randall uh and it's
the it's also the close of the
conference Randall um might I say that I
quote before he has
[Applause]
this you notice that I miscued the
Applause for you my apologies for that
um I qu right at the beginning of the
conference I quoted Randall having said
to me yope always wrote about important
things and the same is true of Randall
himself uh as we have seen and uh the
connection we have with Randall is one
that we all uh value
I've been asked to say a few words by
way of reflection which is more
difficult and challenging and thanks
which is easy um let me start with the
thanks then that um thanks to the
organizing committee Johan hon who did a
great deal of the organization over the
last 12 months or whatever it is and we
haven't been able to see him because he
went down with Co
the day before the conference
started which is
awful um ni wilterding who is also
[Applause]
current oh is he Johan are you there can
you be conjured onto the
screen yes as well thanks thanks for all
your work any
here
um
careful
um Aran Arian post who has been equally
busy in the committee uh
as who's also Secretary of the nor Elias
foundation and I particularly want to
draw attention to the um
understated uh work of uh Emma vaner
Marl
[Applause]
um who has fetched and carried things
including speakers um and V Franson uh
who's seems to have seems to have been
doing a lot of the
electronics uh
um I want to thank the participants both
here and
online and particularly the the the full
range we're a little un underpopulated
at the end of the conference but it's
been a large conference particularly
when you count the number of people who
were taking part actively in many cases
by Zoom from great distances and um
we've had a terrific array of of papers
I believe the intention is that at least
some of them will find their way into a
special issue of historical social
research
um what else to say
yes there is another conference in the
offing uh it's a little uncertain but uh
as to date but uh uh book Holts and I
have been planning a conference in
Warsaw or
online uh it had to be postponed because
of everything being postponed by the uh
the pandemic and we we need to get back
to you with it was announced and then
postponed we think it will take place in
December and the topic which I think
will follow follow on nicely from many
of our discussions in this one is the
fantasy reality Continuum one of
Elias's key Concepts and one which may
have seemed a little
abstract uh in sociological circles
until recently and now we see the sheer
horror of how practical and important it
is that human groups can slide between
fantasy and reality and um it's not that
fantasy is necessarily A Bad Thing it
fulfills its purposes nor butt used to
say for
Fantasy I do poetry um but uh very often
put a fantasy has more practical
purposes but as I was saying in respon
responds to uh R to Richard Senate uh
earlier um there is a sense in which uh
the sheer level of ludicrous fantasy
that has spread in places where perhaps
we wouldn't have expected it to spread
like America is now quite
dangerous uh not to mention the fantasy
views of one um poutin um so I hope that
many of you will want to gather again
and I do hope that at least in part it
may be a an in-person Gathering because
in the end although it's more exhausting
to mix with people hour by hour than it
is to sit at home online uh in the end
there's no substitution for no
substitute for meeting in in
person finally I hope that we have done
Justice to the memory of Johan HS Blum
um and uh I think his
presence uh has been running right
through the conference and I hope he
would have been pleased at the way we
have um commemorated him thanks and have
a good journey
[Applause]
home
thank you st also organiz so
[Applause]
I I only have to deal with the
vi
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