If Reich’sviews on adolescent sexuality scandalized manyprofessionals in-
volved in socialistyouth work, his masculinist attitudes set him apart from so-
cialist activists withamoreegalitarian view ofgenderand sexuality. To give
just two examples, the prolific OttoRühle used the critique of traditional mar-
riageand gender rolesto declare that“in the rejection of, and liberation from,
the hegemonyofmale-oriented sexuality lies therebirth of eroticism”¹⁵andto
call foranew sexual ethics in the spirit of socialism–avery different project
of sexual liberation indeed. Meanwhile, theyoung ElfriedeFriedländer (née Eis-
ler,and laterknown asRuth Fischer,1895–1961), inashort 1920 pamphlet on
the sexual ethics of communism, concededthat completesexual freedom
could not be achievedduringperiods of political struggle and,moreover,thatev-
eryone should have the right to be promiscuous,polygamous,ormonogamous.
Her explanation,“because sexual life in all of its manifestations is solely the
choice of each individual,”not onlyconfirmed the irreducibility of desire to so-
cial or economic determinations, but also it refusedtomake anyemptypromises
of sexual gratification.¹⁶
Sex-Pol, as conceivedbyReich,represented bothapublic repudiation of
bourgeois prejudices about the moral depravity of the workingclass andadecid-
edlymasculinist alternative to the new communist moralityadvocated byRühle
and Hodann.“Whyno happiness on earth,whyshould notpleasure (Lust)bethe
content of life?”¹⁷Reich at one point asked provocatively.And if all human
yearning and striving aimedatthe“realization of happinessonearth,”¹⁸he con-
cluded, these desires needed to be taken into account by every social movement.
Translatedinto Marxist terminology, this meant that,“the affirmation of life in
its subjective formasthe affirmation of sexual lust and in its objectivesocial
form as the socialist planned economymust be advanced toreach subjective
consciousness and objective realization. The fight for the affirmationoflife
must be organized.”¹⁹In other words, if capitalism required sexual repression
OttoRühle,Die Sozialisierung der Frau(Dresden: Am anderenUfer,1924), 49 and 56.After
all, he concludes, happier marriagesmakehappier families resulting in morechildren and,
hence,moresocialists.
ElfriedeFriedländer,Sexualethik desKommunismus.Eine prinzipielle Studie(Vienna: Neue
Erde, 1920), 49.
Reich, Die MassenpsychologiedesFaschismus,198.
Wilhelm Reich,Die Sexualität im Kulturkampf.Zur sozialistischenUmstrukturierung desMen-
schen,expanded ed.(Copenhagen: Sexpol-Verlag,1936), xv.The additionalchapters in the ex-
panded edition discuss the fight for sexual liberation in the SovietUnion. Noteagainthe differ-
ent English title for the 1945and 1974 editions,TheSexual Revolution:TowardaSelf-Governing
Character Structure.
Reich,Die Sexualität im Kulturkampf,246 (original entirelyinitalics).
294 Chapter16