What the Roman Empire Has To Do with The Sexual Revolution

My Review of Louise Perry's "A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century" for The Gospel Coalition

The Roman Republic was born after a woman plunged a knife into her own chest. She’d been raped by the son of the Etruscan king, and she felt she should take her own life to maintain her honor, despite the fact that she hadn’t consented to sex. Lucretia’s story reminds us that, in some ways, modern culture has become more hospitable to women.

Louise Perry—British journalist and podcast host—would agree. But in her books, The Case Against the Sexual Revolution and A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century, the self-proclaimed feminist rejects the “wisdom” of another, more modern philosophy wreaking havoc on women’s bodies: feminism. These books will seem pedestrian to most Christians, but they’re surprising admissions of many truths about sex that Christians have known all along.

The Case Against the Sexual Revolution, released in 2022, is a well-reasoned critique of modern-day feminism from a self-proclaimed feminist. Drawing on her work in a rape crisis center, Perry bravely questions feminist dogma that has become status quo in the West over the past several decades. She claims the sexual libertinism and personal autonomy held in high regard in our cultural moment are shackling women rather than freeing them, benefiting certain high-status men and leading some of the women they exploit—women like Marilyn Monroe—to suicide.

Read the rest for free at The Gospel Coalition, and leave a comment below. As always, thanks for reading.

The Mommy Blog is a blog not just for mommies, on all things theology, ethics, politics, sex, culture, and the stuff in-between. It’s inspired by Elizabeth Anscombe, and written by Katelyn Walls Shelton. Thanks for reading.