This title above is how The Guardian described The Case Against the Sexual Revolution, a new book by British feminist Louise Perry.  A 30-year-old “proud Feminist,” Perry has spent her working career helping female victims of sexual abuse and exploitation.  She explains, “It’s precisely because I’m a feminist that I’ve changed my mind on sexual liberalism.” Notes the Daily Citizen, “She writes as a feminist because many things are changing in our current debate over sexuality and new voices are feeling emboldened to speak out.”  

From her work with victimized women, Perry concludes that the sexual revolution was, “an ideology premised on the false belief that the physical and psychological differences between men and women are trivial, and that any restrictions placed on sexual behavior must therefore have been motivated by malice, stupidity or ignorance… The problem is, the differences aren’t trivial. Sexual asymmetry is profoundly important.”   

Perry believes women lost much in the “advances” of the sexual revolution. She hopes her writing will spark a new and different feminist movement. “I think,” she writes, “young women have been utterly failed by liberal feminism and have the most to gain from swingback against its excesses.”  She is hopeful that her efforts will help accelerate this swing.  

The Guardian noted that Perry’s book “comes as something of a shock to see a feminist writer with any new ideas at all.”  However, The Daily Citizen is hopeful.  “Maybe that is because Louise Perry is not proposing new ideas, but instead, rediscovering some very old and wise ones. And it is very good that she is gaining such a wide hearing in articulating these views to a new generation of women…”

Of special interest to me was Perry’s comment regarding men: “If a man isn’t willing to stand up in front of everyone you and he knows and promise to cherish you forever, then how can you be sure he’s really committed to your shared life?” In this regard Perry has some very traditional views about marriage.  

Critical of marriage vows that are “tailored by individual whims and sentimentalities,” Perry maintains they are “not rugged enough to honor what marriage itself is and is supposed to be.”  She explains, “Every time my husband and I go to a traditional [high church] wedding, we hear again the words we spoke at our own wedding and are reminded that we’ve opted into an institution that every other married couple is part of.”  

Perry believes that women are unique in their femininity.  She sees female sexuality is fundamentally more civilized and can produce life. “It requires more protection, being respected and honored by all.”  Rather than advocating freedom, which ended up in Perry’s view “enslaving nearly everyone, women especially,” she prefers “the ideal of restraint by both men and women over freedom.”

Men, I hear in these words a cry for men to be “protectors.”  I am reminded of the song by Sanctus Real entitled “Lead Me” (2010).  It has always been convicting to me:  

“Lead me with strong hands/Stand up when I can’t/Don’t leave me hungry for love/Chasing dreams, but what about us/Show me you’re willing to fight/That I’m still the love of your life/I know we call this our home/But I still feel alone.”

Men, rejoice in your freedom to be the protector of your marriage, family, and home. Don’t give up the fight.  Take the lead by protecting and showing your wife the respect she deserves. “Be good husbands to your wives. Honor them, delight in them” (I Peter 3:7 – Message).  In a confused world, you can bring some order and peace.