John Kellogg's Sexual Crusade (Research Paper Sample)

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John Kellogg's Sexual Crusade
Introduction
For most America and generally Western, every other morning is a time to enjoy corn flakes. Not so many people understand the origin of the corn flakes, even though they enjoy the breakfast cereals. The corn flakes can be attributed to an American inventor and physician, John Harvey Kellogg. This was part of his massive campaigns for healthy living as he was a staunch advocate of a vegetarian diet. As such the cereals were part of a diet campaign that would help the Americans and others across the globe avoid the dangers that were perceived to come from consuming meat in any form (Abraham). As part of the healthy lifestyles campaign, the western world experienced one of the most controversial debates in the 18th and 19th century (Abbott, 206). As part of the healthy living, Kellogg campaigned against people pleasuring themselves. At the time the Judeo Christian traditions were against the aspects of masturbation, as it was deemed as waster of human sexuality (Satter). The prudishness that was rife during the Victorian era also gave the perfect platform for the campaigns against masturbation among the western cultures. This gave rise to a myriad of books and other forms of literature that came up during this time and euphoria among the people. Some of the most common pieces that came up during this time included the Treatise on the Diseases Produced by Onanism, authored by Samuel Tissot and Ononia: Or the Heinous Sin of Self-Pollution, and all its Frightful Consequences by an anonymous author. At the time, Onanisms was used to refer to acts of pleasuring oneself or masturbation. These efforts had some very significant impact during the 18th and 19th century, but have since reduced, due to scientific evidence (Studd). Additionally the there has been a cultural shift, where sexology is praised and appreciated. Most of the media content gracing the internet and television are laced with sexist ideas. People are no longer influenced by the ideas perpetrated by John Kellogg (Rosenberg, 222).
Thesis statement: John Kellogg's Sexual Crusade had some significant impact on the past cultures of his time, but that influence has since waned away.
Corn flakes suppressing sexology in people
In the late 19th century Kellogg developed his skills as a prolific writer, starting out his writing journey at the Health Reformer an editorial for the Adventists church. During this time Kellogg is said to have published over 50 books and countless articles about health living (Waxman). At the same time he held lectures to campaign for healthy lifestyles. Some of the best books that he published were among them; Plain Facts about Sexual Life, Proper Diet for Man and Rational Hydrotherapy (Klein).
It was during this time that Kellogg developed the idea commonly referred to as the Battle Creek idea. Ideally, he was advocating foe healthy living among the people (Abraham). The central rationale was that, people were supposed to avoid meat but could still use eggs, cheese, refined sugar and milk. However, he also called for complete avoidance of tea, coffee, alcohol, chocolate and tobacco. While most of the idea about vegetarianism and consuming whole grains were borne of philosophies of intuition and religious beliefs, Kellogg set out to give the beliefs some scientific backing. In his opinion, supposedly guided by science, tea could lead to insanity, coffee affected the liver, oysters had germs on their outer exoskeleton and he also believed that coffee would increase the chances of developing diabetes. As part of the healthy living advocated in the Battle Creek Idea, nuts, grains fruits and legumes were to form the basic diet of a healthy human being (Rosenberg, 207).
As a follow up to his campaign, Kellogg went on to develop some new food products one of them being a multigrain biscuit, which called Granola in 1877. Later he changed the name, as Dr. James Caleb pressed charges on the name use similar to his products. Later in 1894, with the help oh his younger brother, Will Keith, they came up with wheat flake the breakfast cereals.
The central idea detailed in the Plain Facts for Old and Young, other that the fact that Kellogg wanted to create a product to help with dental health, he also wanted to offer a food product that would reduce the elements of masturbation. According to Kellogg masturbation could actually kill and if it did not cause death it would lead to impotence, insanity, cancer, epilepsy, nocturnal emissions and UTIs. As such wheat flakes were developed as a remedy food to salvage the population that was addicted to masturbation (Abbott, 207). By eating the cereals, Kellogg reckoned that the sexual urge s would be reduced significantly. Meat, according to his views, was a strong influence on the sexual urges and increased the chances of a person participating self pleasuring. Kellogg felt that no other natural disaster or disease that had been experience in the lifetime of the human beings had more devastating effects than masturbation (Klein).
Some of the ideas that Kellogg introduced to the society at the time, have had profound impact on the current culture owing t the fact that the current scientific findings have ascertained their validity. In his view, Kellogg believed that the lifestyle that one led had some very subtle impacts on their health and therefore their longevity. This was part of his campaign, to increase the health benefits of the human diet and consequently its impact on the health of the population without using medical interventions. Some of his many interventions to increase the level of healthy living included, regular exercise, eating fruits for vitamins and reducing intake of meat as well as reduction in stress. In the recent findings, research has show that red meat has significant impact on the health of many Americans, with respect to the level of prevalence in cancerous cells and other malignant growths. At the same time the level of health can be closely associated with the level of exercise that the individual partakes. Vegetable and fruits have also been found to increase the health levels in humans and is advocated in many research papers.
It is of great importance to note that much of the sexual urges suppression was advocated by the church in the Victorian age (Klein). As most of the people had come to believe, the church at the time expressly insisted that people suppress their sexual urges as they were not only ungodly but also unhealthy and would result in consequential effects from psychosis to physical defects.
According to Kellogg, the bland diet the cereal flakes provided would reduce the impacts of the people to partake of the sinful ventures associated with masturbation. This was also one of the main reasons that, he fell out with his brother (Morgan). His brother being business minded and not so cautious about the health effects that Kellogg was campaigning for in the use of the cereals that were bland, wanted to add more sugar to their products to make them more palatable. Eventually, Will was forced to take up his own company and develop better tasting cereals that what his Brother Kellogg was advocating for (Abbott, 207).
Victorian anti-masturbation devices
When the dietary provisions did not work on the patient, extreme measures would be taken to make sure that the patient recovers from the habits of self pleasuring (McMahon). Sometime the, the men would be circumcised without any form of anesthesia, the foreskin sewed with liver wires or anti masturbation devices used on their private parts. As for the women, their clitoris would be treated carbolic acid to create irritation and soreness that would deter self pleasuring (Vam.ac.uk).
There are quite a number of devices that would be used on the patients to ensure that they did not develop the sexual urges. Some of the devices include the Jugum penis, Stephenson spermatic truss, mechanical sheath, bowen device and female chastity belt. For the men the devices worked in manner that they would reduce the chances of sexual arousal and Spermatorrhoea, as nocturnal emissions were referred to as in the 18th and 19th century; during which time these discharges were considered a serious disease, caused by masturbation and sexual intercourse. The women would cover their private parts in an attempt to reduce the likely hood of having sexual intercourse. At the time, men that did not insist on sexual intercourse were considered to be very manly disciplined and healthy (Whorton, 227).
Many believed that mental distinction and sexual intercourse did not share common ground. As such, majority of the society believed that mental genius was hampered by any form of sexual arousal or activities. As a discourse to these believes, when Kellogg married Ella Ervilla Eaton, in the year 1879, he made sure that they never had any form sexual activities. All of their children were adopted, as Kellogg and his wife believed that sexual activities were the source of most of the health complications that the population was experiencing at the time.
The reaction of the western community to Kellogg’s ideologies
In the years of research leading to the development and growth of Kellogg’s career, he not only advocated for use of healthy living to help the persons that were caught up in the masturbation habits (Soniak). Rather he also used methods that were said to deter the victims from ever self pleasuring again. Some of the methods by today’s medical practices and standards are unorthodox. For the men, Kellogg suggested and practices circumcision without the use of anesthetics (Monastyrsky, 2). This way, Kellogg explains that the pain experienced and the sourness that follows the process would deter the men from touching themselves with the intent of deriving pleasure. As for the ladies, Kel...