Lady+Chatterley's+Lover

Lady Chatterley’s Lover

The book was originally published in Italy but then swept the U.K. and has since become a famous and incredibly relevant story about sex, among other things. Lots of attention was drawn to the book because of its explicit words and descriptions of sex during a time when this was not widely accepted.
 * History**
 * Lady Chatt****erle****y’s Lover** is a novel that was first published in 1928 by D.H. Lawrence. It describes an upper class woman whose husband has become paralyzed and is unable to physically please her anymore, so she starts having an affair. The story shows us how this woman was forced to realize that she needed more than her husband could give her unfortunately. We are swept by the importance of sex in a relationship.

At the time the novel was published, we were in the beginning of the **Generation of Sexual Restraint** (Bond, 2011). This generation was characterized by no talk about sex. Sex was not a norm and not a recreational activity. People did not talk about sex unless they were talking to their doctor about pregnancy. Not only was it frowned upon to discuss sex, but it was just widely accepted that it did not happen. In publishing this novel, **Lawrence** was throwing all of this out the window. He was voicing touchy subjects about sex when people were not ready to hear about it. The book initially was banned in many places, but has come to being one of the most influential stories in the studies of sex and everything that goes along with it. The touchy subjects discussed in this book showed a generation that sex was something that needed to be talked about. Specifically, the issue of bodily injury and loss of sexual function is huge research topic with sex. The ins and outs of how this affected the relationship in the novel is one that jumpstarted research on the subject.

We see that this novel led us in the direction of **Sexual Discourse**, in which the sexual repertoire is broadening. People are starting to realize that sex is something that is going to be talked about, and it starts to become more of a recreational activity. People are starting to see sex as a lifestyle and think of it as fun. We will later see the **pornographication of sex**, and we move into sex in the media. However, **Lawrence** was way ahead of his time with this novel, as we see. Before sexual discourse, it seemed very inappropriate to discuss sex. Now we are teaching that it is very inappropriate to NOT discuss sex (Gowing, 2009).


 * Subject Relevance**

Male disability and sex has been a topic of research for a long time in the sex scholarly community. Although significant research has been done, there is nothing concrete. Every situation is different. In her paper on **Sex and Disability**, **Megan Albertz** goes in depth about the idea that men are supposed to be macho and masculine in bed, but when they suffer from a physical disability, they are not longer able to show that image. Often times, men become very insecure sexually. Similarly, they often feel rejection from their partner because of the thought that they cannot please them sexually anymore. Partners are often forced to split up and see other people because the man can no longer service their physical needs. This is exactly what we saw in the novel. As we saw, it is an incredibly difficult situation to deal with, but we see that at a certain point, a relationship needs to be both physical and emotional, and without one, the relationship will struggle.

The novel also shows us a lot about **Social Roles** and **Norms**, and how those affect **Sexual Norms**. Women are attracted to masculine men that are going to be able to reproduce for them and fulfill their needs for affliction and intimacy (Bond, 2011). When a man is physically disabled, the women no longer look at them the way they did before, as **Lawrence** shows us. When a women is with a man that is disabled, often times they feel that they are violating the sexual norm, this is the impression that the male gets from the female. This leads to the belief that the physically disabled feel less sexually desirable than an able-bodied person (Taleporos and McCabe, 2001). **Lady Chatterley’s Lover** exemplifies this concept in the depiction of Lady Chatterley leaving her physically disabled husband to have an affair with someone that could please her physically as well as emotionally.

In the novel, we notice that initially, Lady Chatterley is able to cope with everything. But eventually, her **libido** and **sex drive** picked back up to normal. High libido leads to high sex drive, which leads to high sexual attraction. However, Lady Chatterley could not get this from her husband, and because that sex drive was so high, she became attracted to one of her workers.

It is interesting to note however, that even though someone has a physical disability, such as paralysis, they still have a sex drive, and often times, they are still able to have sexual relations. **Dr. Beverely Whipple** researches the topic and says “Sexuality encompasses the totality of our being. Think of a candy cane, the red is the peppermint flavor. But do you only taste peppermint in the red, or thoughout? You taste it throughout, and similarly our sexuality goes through all of us” (Shaw, 2001). Research shows that there are other ways to be pleasured if someone is paralyzed, they just need to take advantage of the benefits of what Dr. Whipple calls “outercourse.” Which consists of sexual activities that are still able to generate an orgasm, but are not intercourse.

References

Albertz, Megan. //Lets Talk About Sex and Disability//. Disability Studies Quarterly. Volume 28, Number 4. 2008. []

Bond, Bradley. //Sexual Communication//. University of Illinois Champaign Ubrana. Department of Communication. 2011.

Gowing, Lauren. //Sexual Discourses in the Premodern World//. Journal of Women’s History. Volume 21, Number 2. 2009. []

McCabe, Marita and Taleporos, George. //Physical Disability and Sexual Esteem//. Sexuality and Disability. Volume 19, Number 2. 2001. []

Shaw, Gina. //Disabled Still Have Sex Lives//. WebMD Features. 4 June 2001. []