Editing Immorality (section)

==Sexual immorality==
{{Also|Sexual ethics}}
Coding of sexual behavior has historically been a feature of all human societies; as too has been the policing of breaches of its [[mores]]{{snd}}sexual immorality{{snd}}by means of formal and [[informal social control]].<ref>F. Dabhoiwala, 'The first sexual revolution', ''The Oxford Historian'' X (2012) p. 426</ref> Interdictions and [[taboo]]s among primitive societies<ref>Durkheim, p. 410</ref> were arguably no less severe than in traditional agrarian societies.<ref>S. Freud, ''On Sexuality'' (PFL 7) p. 271</ref> In the latter, the degree of control might vary from time to time and region to region, being least in urban settlements;<ref>E. Ladurie, ''Montaillou'' (1980) p. 149 and p. 169</ref> however, only the last three centuries of intense urbanisation, commercialisation and modernisation have broken with the restrictions of the pre-modern world,<ref>Dabhoiwala, p. 41–3</ref> in favor of a successor society of fractured and competing sexual codes and subcultures, where sexual expression is integrated into the workings of the commercial world.<ref>Herbert Marcuse, ''One-Dimensional Man'' (2002) p. 78</ref>

Nevertheless, while the meaning of sexual immorality has been [[sexual revolution|drastically redefined in recent times]], arguably the boundaries of what is acceptable remain publicly policed and as highly charged as ever, as the decades-long debates in the US over reproductive rights after ''[[Roe v. Wade]]'', or 21st-century [[Internet Watch Foundation and Wikipedia|controversy over child images on Wikipedia]] and Amazon would tend to suggest.<ref>A. Lih, ''The Wikipedia Revolution'' (2010) p. 204–9</ref>

Defining sexual immorality across history is difficult as many different religions, cultures and societies have held contradictory views about sexuality. But there is an almost universal disdain for two sexual practices throughout history. These two behaviors include [[infidelity]] within a [[monogamous]], [[romance (love)|romantic]] relationship and [[incest]] between immediate family members.{{cn|date=February 2025}}

Other than these two practices, some cultures{{which|date=February 2025}} throughout history have permitted sexual behaviors considered obscene by many cultures today, such as marriage between cousins, [[polygyny]], [[Underage sexual abuse|underage sex]], [[rape]] during [[war rape|war]] or forced [[cultural imperialism|assimilation]], and even [[zoophilia]].{{cn|date=February 2025}}