In most cases, an authoritarian state uses its control over sexuality to exercise power, suppress dissent, and perpetuate itself. In such a context, sexuality becomes a weapon used to subjugate individuals and shape their behavior according to the state's interests. To understand how authoritarian states control sexuality, one must examine several factors that impact individual lives and societies at large.
Sexual Expression
Authoritarian states often strive to regulate every aspect of citizens' personal life, including how they express themselves sexually. This means that they dictate who people can date, marry, live with, have children with, and engage in sexual acts with.
Countries like North Korea limit the marriages between citizens and foreigners; others force women to wear a particular type of clothing or prohibit them from speaking out loud. Such restrictions are implemented to control the population and prevent any threat to the regime's legitimacy.
Reproduction Control
The reproduction rate is another factor considered by authoritarian governments when controlling sexuality. They may encourage or discourage birth rates based on political goals. This was common during the Soviet Union era when it needed more workers for industrialization projects, so it promoted large families. On the other hand, some contemporary authoritarian states like China employ population policies designed to reduce family sizes through forced sterilizations, abortions, and fines. These measures aim to curb overpopulation and preserve resources.
Religious Values
Religion plays an important role in shaping sexual norms across cultures and societies. Authoritarian states use this influence to establish rules and laws regarding gender roles, marriage, sexual orientation, contraception, and more. In Islamic countries, for instance, sex outside of marriage is forbidden, but homosexual relationships remain criminalized even though such practices are accepted among many Muslim populations worldwide.
Religious beliefs can also be used as a tool against the state if its actions contradict those values, as seen in Iran where conservative clerics fight government policies they deem un-Islamic.
Propaganda
Authoritarian leaders use propaganda to shape public perceptions about sexuality and eroticism. They portray these subjects as morally wrong, sinful, or dangerous to society.
The Nazi party in Germany promoted eugenics and racial purity, which led to mass extermination of "undesirable" groups, including gay people and Jews. In North Korea today, pornography and prostitution are considered crimes punishable by death while promoting the state's ideology and leader's image. This serves as social control that discourages individual expression and promotes collectivism.
Social Control
In addition to restricting access to information and freedom of speech, authoritarian governments implement surveillance systems to monitor citizens' private lives and regulate their interactions. State agencies may spy on individuals' communications, physical movements, and personal decisions, including what books they read, films they watch, and whom they date.
Censorship policies prevent access to foreign media outlets and limit internet usage, leaving the state in charge of shaping narratives around sexuality and identity.
The ways authoritarian states control sexuality vary from one country to another but share common goals: preserve power, promote conformity, and suppress dissent. While this strategy can be effective in the short term, it ultimately leads to a lack of creativity, innovation, and individual thinking, hindering progress and development.
How do authoritarian states control sexuality to maintain power?
Authoritarian states often employ various strategies to control sexuality as part of their political agenda to maintain power and control over society. These strategies can include censorship and regulation of media, education, and cultural production; enforcement of strict gender roles and social norms; criminalization and punishment for certain forms of sexual expression; promotion of traditional family values and marriage; and exploitation of women's bodies and reproductive labor.