Sigusch Volkmar
Institute of Sexual Science, University of Frankfurt, Frankfurt/Main, Germany.
Ger Med Sci. 2004 Oct 20;2:Doc07.
Western cultures have witnessed a tremendous cultural and social transformation of sexuality in the years since the sexual revolution. Apart from a few public debates and scandals, the process has moved along gradually and quietly. Yet its real and symbolic effects are probably much more consequential than those generated by the sexual revolution of the sixties. Sigusch refers to the broad-based recoding and reassessment of the sexual sphere during the eighties and nineties as the "neosexual revolution". The neosexual revolution is dismantling the old patterns of sexuality and reassembling them anew. In the process, dimensions, intimate relationships, preferences and sexual fragments emerge, many of which had submerged, were unnamed or simply did not exist before. In general, sexuality has lost much of its symbolic meaning as a cultural phenomenon. Sexuality is no longer the great metaphor for pleasure and happiness, nor is it so greatly overestimated as it was during the sexual revolution. It is now widely taken for granted, much like egotism or motility. Whereas sex was once mystified in a positive sense - as ecstasy and transgression, it has now taken on a negative mystification characterized by abuse, violence and deadly infection. While the old sexuality was based primarily upon sexual instinct, orgasm and the heterosexual couple, neosexualities revolve predominantly around gender difference, thrills, self-gratification and prosthetic substitution. From the vast number of interrelated processes from which neosexualities emerge, three empirically observable phenomena have been selected for discussion here: the dissociation of the sexual sphere, the dispersion of sexual fragments and the diversification of intimate relationships. The outcome of the neosexual revolution may be described as "lean sexuality" and "self-sex".
自性革命以来的这些年里，西方文化见证了性观念在文化和社会层面的巨大转变。除了一些公开辩论和丑闻外，这一过程一直渐进且悄然地进行着。然而，其实际和象征意义上的影响可能远比六十年代的性革命所产生的影响更为深远。西古施将八九十年代对性领域的广泛重新编码和重新评估称为“新性革命”。新性革命正在拆解旧有的性模式，并重新组合它们。在此过程中，出现了许多维度、亲密关系、偏好和性片段，其中许多在以前曾被淹没、未被命名或根本不存在。总体而言，性作为一种文化现象已失去了很多象征意义。性不再是快乐和幸福的伟大隐喻，也不再像性革命期间那样被过度高估。现在它已被广泛视为理所当然，就像自我主义或能动性一样。性曾经在积极意义上被神秘化——被视为狂喜和越轨行为，而现在却呈现出以虐待、暴力和致命感染为特征的负面神秘化。旧有的性观念主要基于性本能、性高潮和异性恋伴侣关系，而新的性观念则主要围绕性别差异、刺激感、自我满足和假体替代。从新性观念所产生的大量相互关联的过程中，这里选取了三个可通过实证观察到的现象进行讨论：性领域的解离、性片段的分散以及亲密关系的多样化。新性革命的结果可被描述为“精简的性”和“自我的性”。
