a more sexual society is really one that is simply more open about such matters,' conventional wisdom deplores increasing promiscuity as a result of the availability of birth control and abortion, believes the institution of marriage is threatened as a result of easier divorce and more permissive sexual relationships, and bemoans the deleterious effects of popular magazines (Playboy and Penthouse) and films (Deep Throat and Last Tango in Paris) upon impressionable juvenile and adult minds.* In this context, it might seem somewhat anachronistic to discuss women's gothic novels were it not for the fact that these books, sold on paperback counters beside The Sensuous Woman (. . .Man . . . Couple, etc.), Playboy and Stag, support in fictional form some of the very ideas about sexuality that give rise to current alarms about corrupted morals in America. Because these novels, while toying with forbidden acts and illicit sexuality, represent and reinforce a world in which traditional values about men, women, sexuality and marriage still hold true, they provide for the reader a way of escaping from the problems of coping with a society that seems to undercut those values.According t o the traditional "double standard," sexual relationships are permitted for men (accepted somewhat indulgently as "sowing wild oats"), but not for women, upon whom falls the responsibility for controlling the relationship by denying sex t o the male until it has been sanctioned by marriage. Such a situation, resulting from society's fear of the consequences of unregulated sexual behavior, gives rise t o two related aspects of the 84 n recent years, American society has evidenced a well-documented preoccupation with sexuality and family relations, much of this concern in the form of warnings and alarms about the declining moral standards of the society and the many and various appalling results of permissiveness. AIthough there is some evidence to indicate that what seems t o be
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