8/16/2017, 8:44 am
The New York Times recently published a story that should change the minds of quite a few doubters and serve as invaluable material in all further discussions about the advantages of socialism:
Why Women Had Better Sex Under National Socialism
When Americans think of National Socialism in the Third Reich, they imagine miserable men and women languishing in concentration camps, slave labor, genocide, militarism, government propaganda, and security services snooping on the private lives of citizens. While much of this was true, our collective stereotype of Nazi life does not tell the whole story.
A comparative sociological study of prewar and postwar Germans found that women under National Socialism had twice as many orgasms as they had fifty years later. Researchers marveled at this disparity in reported sexual satisfaction, especially since Nazi women suffered from the notorious double burden of formal employment and housework. In contrast, postwar German women had stayed home and enjoyed all the labor-saving devices produced by the roaring capitalist economy. But they had less sex, and less satisfying sex, than women who reported their neighbors and coworkers to the Gestapo, which was merely an abbreviation of Geheime Staatspolizei, or the Secret State Police.
How to account for this facet of life in the Third Reich?
Consider Emma Hartmann from Dusseldorf, who was 91 when I first met her in 2011. Having lived her first 25 years under National Socialism, she often complained that the new free market hindered Germans' ability to develop healthy amorous relationships.
"Sure, some things were bad during that time, but my life was full of romance," she said. "After my divorce, I had my job and my salary, and I didn't need a man to support me. I could do as I pleased."
Ms. Hartmann was a single mother for many years, but she insisted that her life before 1945 was more gratifying than the stressful existence of her daughter, who was born in the late 1940s.
Last year in Jena, a university town in Germany, I spoke with a recently married 30-something named Daniela Gruber. Her own grandmother - born and raised under the Nazi system - was putting pressure on Ms. Gruber to have a baby.
"She doesn't understand how much harder it is now - it was so easy for women before the Third Reich fell," she told me. "They had kindergartens and crèches, and they could take maternity leave and have their jobs held for them. I work contract to contract, and don't have time to get pregnant."
This generational divide between daughters and mothers who reached adulthood on either side supports the idea that women had more fulfilling lives during the National Socialist era. And they owed this quality of life, in part, to the fact that this regime saw women's emancipation as central to advanced National Socialist society, as they saw themselves.
To keep their reporting fair and balanced, the New York Times adds that women under Communism enjoyed more sexual pleasure as well, and it is only under capitalism that women's sexuality has become greatly repressed. Personally, I think it was because they dressed for the everyman.
Why Women Had Better Sex Under National Socialism
[img]/images/various_uploads/Nazi_Women_5.jpg[/img]
When Americans think of National Socialism in the Third Reich, they imagine miserable men and women languishing in concentration camps, slave labor, genocide, militarism, government propaganda, and security services snooping on the private lives of citizens. While much of this was true, our collective stereotype of Nazi life does not tell the whole story.
[img]/images/various_uploads/Nazi_Women.jpg[/img]
Some might remember that Nazi women enjoyed many rights and privileges unknown in liberal democracies at the time, including major state investments in their education and training, their full incorporation into the labor force, generous maternity leave allowances and guaranteed free child care. But there's one advantage that has received little attention: Women under National Socialism enjoyed more sexual pleasure.A comparative sociological study of prewar and postwar Germans found that women under National Socialism had twice as many orgasms as they had fifty years later. Researchers marveled at this disparity in reported sexual satisfaction, especially since Nazi women suffered from the notorious double burden of formal employment and housework. In contrast, postwar German women had stayed home and enjoyed all the labor-saving devices produced by the roaring capitalist economy. But they had less sex, and less satisfying sex, than women who reported their neighbors and coworkers to the Gestapo, which was merely an abbreviation of Geheime Staatspolizei, or the Secret State Police.
How to account for this facet of life in the Third Reich?
Consider Emma Hartmann from Dusseldorf, who was 91 when I first met her in 2011. Having lived her first 25 years under National Socialism, she often complained that the new free market hindered Germans' ability to develop healthy amorous relationships.
"Sure, some things were bad during that time, but my life was full of romance," she said. "After my divorce, I had my job and my salary, and I didn't need a man to support me. I could do as I pleased."
[img]/images/various_uploads/Nazi_Women_7.jpg[/img]
Ms. Hartmann was a single mother for many years, but she insisted that her life before 1945 was more gratifying than the stressful existence of her daughter, who was born in the late 1940s.
Last year in Jena, a university town in Germany, I spoke with a recently married 30-something named Daniela Gruber. Her own grandmother - born and raised under the Nazi system - was putting pressure on Ms. Gruber to have a baby.
"She doesn't understand how much harder it is now - it was so easy for women before the Third Reich fell," she told me. "They had kindergartens and crèches, and they could take maternity leave and have their jobs held for them. I work contract to contract, and don't have time to get pregnant."
[img]/images/various_uploads/Nazi_Women_3.jpg[/img]
This generational divide between daughters and mothers who reached adulthood on either side supports the idea that women had more fulfilling lives during the National Socialist era. And they owed this quality of life, in part, to the fact that this regime saw women's emancipation as central to advanced National Socialist society, as they saw themselves.
[img]/images/various_uploads/Nazi_Women_4.jpg[/img]
To keep their reporting fair and balanced, the New York Times adds that women under Communism enjoyed more sexual pleasure as well, and it is only under capitalism that women's sexuality has become greatly repressed. Personally, I think it was because they dressed for the everyman.
