What were the Puritans' views on sex and morality? Were the Puritans that strict/puritanical about sex or were they more concerned with how sexuality was regulated?
When they landed in America in 1600s, they brought with them the belief that sex should be restricted to intercourse in marriage, hence the sentiment on the left. The word puritan is often used today in a derogatory sense and is sometimes applied to those who appear to reject pleasure, especially of a sexual kind, or who are judged to have a too moralistic attitude towards sexuality in general.
In general Puritans were disciplined and principled, but not legalistic. They favored moderate enjoyment of food, drink & recreation, but did not endorse asceticism. They have healthy attitude towards marital love, including sex. The Puritans also married primarily to form practical partnerships for bearing children and mutual survival, hence the sentiment in the card on the right.
The Puritans didn’t make any distinctions between sexual orientations, even if they acknowledged different kinds of sexual behavior. Anyone who indulged in masturbation, sodomy, pre-marital sex or bestiality was therefore seen to have been tempted by the same dark…show more content… The physical distance required during courtship further emphasized this restriction. People who were found to have had sex outside of marriage faced strict punishments, with men facing a harsher fate than women. Therefore they are allowed to perform sex only after marriage. The Puritans did not arrange marriages between young people, and in fact believed that the basis of a marriage should be true love. Prior to marriage, a couple followed a strict courtship process to get to know each other. The suitor had to ask permission to marry from a girl's parents, and the couple were encouraged to keep a physical distance between themselves during the courting process. Courtship was often supervised as