The following essay could also be entitled “We can hardly wait for Sarah Palin to win her law suit so we can no longer have to read such nonsense.” The New York Times has published an article that states that women had better sex in the old Soviet Empire than they did in the free world. The idea is as counterintuitive as suggesting that gay sex is more fulfilling in Iran. On the other hand, the Times has been shilling for communists since Walter Duranty won a Pulitzer by covering up Stalin’s crimes when he ran the Times’ Moscow Bureau.
The theory of Soviet sex
The theory behind the article is that women behind the Iron Curtain had a significant number of rights that their sisters in the free world did not have, including free health care and maternity leave allowances. Because of these generous programs courtesy of the Soviet state, women under communism had more orgasms that those living under male chauvinist liberal democracies.
What was the reality?
An article in Russia Beyond The Headlines suggests a more complicated situation in Soviet Russia, depending on the period in history. To be sure, a sudden burst of sexual liberation happened in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution. However, Stalin clamped down, outlawing homosexuality and making divorce more difficult.
Sex for pleasure or love was considered bourgeois excess and was strongly condemned by the communist authorities. Sexual intercourse was solely for the procreation of children within a state approved marriage.
The situation began to change in the late 1970s when a freer attitude toward sex began to arise. However, while more sex out of wedlock was more frequent during this period, it was a far more joyless affair.
High levels of alcoholism, a lack of personal hygiene as compared to the West, and the rigors of living in a Police State made sex more of an act of rebellion than something one indulged in for pleasure and love. After a full shift at the factory helping to fulfill the latest five-year plan followed by standing in lines for hours to get essential goods left little time for fun and frolic.
Why is the New York Times publishing this nonsense?
The article was a heavy handed defense of Soviet communism, even by the standards of the Times. It is based on dubious academic studies using dodgy research methods. More important, it is getting very little but mockery in social media. The New York Times used to enjoy a sterling reputation as the “newspaper of record.” However, that phrase is used more often as a joke in the modern age.
