Rosie's Ramblings - The Masturbation Problem

The Masturbation Problem

During the 19th century much of Europe was in a state of flux. France was rebuilding itself after the revolution. Queen Victoria ascended to the English throne and ushered in an era of great social change. Reformers began to champion causes such as child labor, slavery and women’s suffrage. The beginning of the industrial revolution also had a huge impact, changing the way people worked and lived. By comparison, however, more modern views on sex lagged far behind.
In Italy, the Catholic Church still held a great deal of control over the population, especially with regard to sex. Sex was only proper after marriage, and even then it was reserved for procreation, never pleasure. In addition, divorce was unheard of, even in cases of abuse.
In England an evangelical movement was taking root. Charismatic preachers expected higher moral standards from their congregants and often tried to exert as much control over their behavior as possible. While doctors and scientists knew otherwise, some of these religious figures actually spread rumors that masturbation could cause syphilis. Which added to a masturbation panic that had been brewing for a while.
The idea that regular sex was important for maintaining men’s health became popular. But, too much sex could be unhealthy and something that was definitely too much was masturbation. To make matters worse, in 1838 a prominent French psychiatrist, Jean Esquirol, wrote that in all countries masturbation is singled out “as one of the most frequent causes of insanity.” With these and other unusual ideas about sex, especially masturbation, it is easy to see why explicit artifacts, like those left by the ancient Romans, could cause such a stir.
Some 19th century thoughts on this type of material:

viewing this material, esp in private, would disturb the person who was consuming it
they might even resort to masturbation
If they succumbed to this they would become addicted
they would need to consume more & more of this, and become constant masturbaters
by losing their sacred seed, men would become enfeebled, effeminate and degenerate, possibly even insane

Some even went so far as to speculate that this might have contributed to the fall of Rome! In Pompei and Herculaneum you couldn't avoid these images but the western world traced its roots back to classical Rome, so the discovery of this artwork was a threat to not only their idea of a noble ancient world, but also their idea of who they were.
Still the question remained. What should be done with the artifacts?
They couldn't destroy them, they were important pieces of history, so they did have to be cataloged. But, when you start cataloging things, you have to publish it. But, when you publish it, it becomes public and you have to control who sees what.
First, great pains were taken to control who had access to the actual artifacts as well as the published documentation. Only people of good moral character, meaning certain wealthy, white men, could even look at the artifacts and not be negatively affected.
Additionally, genitals were diminished, obscured, or blurred out in published renderings of the artifacts. Those who created these altered images didn’t think they were doing anything wrong. Rather, they thought this was actually the most appropriate choice at the time.
The artifacts in Naples remained locked away from public view for another hundred years. In 1967 the room was finally reopened, and by 1971 new rules were in place to regulate requests to visit that area of the museum and see the artifacts. Access was still very restricted and would remain that way until, in the year 2000, the Gabinetto Segreto, or the Secret Cabinet, was open to the public. Finally in 2005, some of the artifacts, or replicas of them were installed in other areas of the museum. Today in a large room filled with other statuary, Pan and the goat is on display for all to see.

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