The Road to the Sexual Revolution

I just finished reading a fascinating book called "The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self:

Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution" by Carl Trueman. The book is marketed as (and has made waves because it is) a book that describes the philosophical and cultural background to the way we understand sexuality and gender in modern society. As such, before I share a few of my own thoughts a couple points need to be said:

1. If sexuality and gender are topics that are too triggering or sensitive for you right now I encourage you to skip over this book and this blog post. Generally speaking I'm a big believer in grappling with difficult topics and even with opinions we disagree with, but that may not be possible or healthy in every case for these specific topics.

2. Most of the book deals with general ideas and cultural trends and only towards the end does the author zoom in to discuss LGBTQ+ issues specifically. So even if for whatever reason you aren't interested in a discussion on gender and sexuality, I'd still recommend the book as a persuasive history of how our modern way of thinking has developed.

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When I first took some philosophy courses back in my undergrad I was fascinated and surprised by the fact that philosophical ideas—that initially seem so abstract that they have no practical relevance for our everyday lives—eventually do have a way of shaping our world. And that is what I most appreciated about Trueman's book. In it he argues that some philosophical and intellectual shifts that happened a few hundred years ago have filtered down into the everyday life of our modern culture to dramatically alter the way we even understand what it means to be human.

In the same way that they say fish aren't aware of the water they swim in, we often aren't aware of the cultural perspectives, attitudes, and norms that dominate our society—and how they are often unique to our place and time and not how things have always been everywhere throughout history. As the title of Trueman's book suggests, a key issue for him is how we understand what it even means to be a "self" in our modern culture. In other words, what makes you "you"? And what is most important about you? His argument is that how we answer these questions has dramatically changed in the past few hundred years.

To greatly simplify his point, he argues that throughout most of human history people have based their understanding of their "self" on the external world, whereas now in our current society we understand ourselves based on our internal thoughts and feelings. That is, up until the past hundred years or so, people would have gotten their sense of identity from things outside of themselves, such as the politics of their nation, religious authorities and doctrines, social hierarchy, family, tradition, their participation in the economy, and so on. In contrast, in our present culture we find our sense of identity, our truest self, on the inside. That is why ideas such as "you do you", "live your truth", "I need to find myself", "do what makes you happy", and "listen to/follow your heart" have become so popular and unquestioned.

Trueman gives job satisfaction as a concrete example. If you asked someone even just 100 years ago whether they were satisfied with their job, Trueman suggests they might not even understand your question at first. But after pressing them on it, they would probably point to the fact that their job puts food on the table for their family and contributes to the economy, and therefore yes they would say they have job satisfaction. Nowadays, job satisfaction has not only become a major thing that we pursue, but we also measure it differently. If you ask the average person the same question today, they might point to things like inner feelings of enjoyment or fulfillment.

In the realm of sexuality and gender, Trueman believes the phrase "I feel like a woman trapped in a man's body" perfectly gets to the heart of this cultural shift. In the past if you told a doctor that you felt like a woman trapped in a man's body, the doctor would have attempted to bring the internal in line with the external: they would have tried to bring your thoughts/feelings back in line with your physical body. But nowadays the trend is going in the opposite direction: increasingly our culture would support the person to bring the external in line with the internal, i.e., they should change their physical body to make it correspond with their thoughts/feelings. Regardless of where you fall in the debates on gender, Trueman's basic observation that there has been a stark change is undeniable. His book is essentially a long history of how we got from the past situation to the present situation.

Trueman is clear that he holds the traditional perspective on gender and sexuality. At various points he points out the dangers he sees in the total authority our popular culture has given to internal thoughts and feelings. But that being said, in my opinion the book doesn't read like one long argument for the traditional view of gender and sexuality. Like I said above, the first three-quarters of the book are about relatively general philosophical and cultural ideas and often don't mention the modern LGBTQ+ debates at all. The book reads more like a story—albeit a long story spanning a few hundred years. Trueman describes the history of cultural perspectives on the self by zooming in on the key thinkers that have most influenced our society. In that sense I recommend the book to you as interesting food for thought regardless of whether you consider yourself conservative or progressive.

In closing I want to warn you that this particular book is long! It's not for the faint of heart! But thankfully Trueman realized that himself and wrote a shorter book that summarizes his main ideas called "Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution". So check that version out if you prefer less reading. And if you don't like reading at all I would still recommend just searching the name "Carl Trueman" on YouTube or your favorite podcast player, as he's done a number of interviews regarding his books. To be honest I think Trueman makes a better historian of philosophy than a theologian or minister: he's strongest when he's describing the history of ideas rather than when he's making biblical arguments or suggestions for churches. In interviews his interviewers tend to ask him "so what?" questions that get him giving his opinions on what churches should do or how Christians should respond to modern culture, which I find less helpful. But these interviews still are a good introduction to his basic ideas.