No porn and vibrators, but still happy
Pornography, sex shops and prostitution were all taboo in communist Czechoslovakia. And there was no sex education of any kind, neither in schools nor in teen magazines. So how did Czechs live without all that?
With no official sources, young people looked for what they could find about sex in world literature. In the 1980s Czech comedy Jen si tak trochu písknout (Just Whistle a Little), we find a dialogue between two young men referring to "a perfect rape scene" on page 242 of Alberto Moravia's La Ciociara.
Lots of Czechs over the age of 50 can still recall the novel from which they gained information about sex in their youth. In a small survey for this program, a variety of titles came up, including Lady Chatterley's Lover, The Life of Klim Samgin by Maxim Gorky and novels by the Japanese writer Kenzaburo Oe.
Besides fiction, of course, there were also films. How much eroticism did Czechoslovak cinema offer? Sociologist Kateřina Lišková says plenty:
"I think that the films of the time were not prudish. The Czechoslovak New Wave in the 1960s was world-famous for its openness in all respects, including sex. Literature from the 60s also offered a lot of potential. I think that most people who read are familiar with Kundera."
Films like Milos Forman's The Loves of a Blonde, Vojtech Jasný’s film The Pipes, or The Cremator and Sweet Games of Last Summer by Juraj Herz had plenty to offer.
However, the situation changed over time. After a very relaxed period in the late 1960s came a bout of severe censorship in the 1970s. Communist censors banned everything that was considered "politically inappropriate" and frowned on love scenes with exposed actresses. It often happened that erotic scenes were not completely cut from the film, but were shortened and "modified" to make them more acceptable. In the 1980s, especially in the second half of the 1980s, censors loosened their grip and love scenes returned to Czech films.
However even the years of censorship had no effect on the broad masses. Jaroslav Mach photographed nudes at the time and says that finding women who were willing to pose in the nude was not the slightest problem.
"Women and girls willing to take it all off were very easy to find. For example, there were women who wanted nude photos of themselves, allegedly to give to their husbands for Christmas. I personally couldn’t understand that because I wouldn't be very pleased if my wife got someone to take nude pictures of her as a surprise for me. But that's everybody's own business. Either way, there was plenty of sex back then, and photographers did not lack models."
Sex education was non-existent
Sex education in schools was basically non-existent. The Ministry of Education generally acknowledged the need for it, but sexologists were not asked to prepare a curriculum, and teachers themselves were at a loss as to how to approach the subject. Specialist publications existed, but were hard to get hold of and were also considered “controversial”. For example, in 1970, a publication titled Young Marriage came out, with very detailed instructions on sexual practices and many illustrations. The book was soon withdrawn and in 1972 a second edition was published, but without a single illustration.
The sex life of soldiers in barracks presented a problem
At the same time sexologists paid considerable attention to issues such as the sex lives of soldiers serving conscript duty. At the time men had to complete a compulsory two-year service in the army. Soldiers, aged between 18 and 21, lived in barracks with few outings allowed. Specialist publications (such as Roman Útrata's Intimate Conversations) dealt with the problem of educating soldiers so as to avoid unwanted excesses in their rare contacts with women. Let's not forget that youths grew up on "perfect rape scenes" instead of getting a proper sex education. Moreover, in the 70s and 80s, marriages of 18 to 20 year olds were commonplace, so the men who enlisted were already used to a regular sex life.
Abortion as a contraceptive method
The lack of sex education had a number of negative consequences. The most serious was the extremely high number of abortions undertaken at the time (115,000 abortions in 1987 compared to 15,000 in 2020). In fact, due to the lack of birth control, abortion was perceived as a contraceptive method.
Abortion was legalized in Czechoslovakia in 1957, but until 1986 women had to seek permission for abortion from a so-called abortion committee. It was a humiliating experience; on the other hand, the commissions almost always gave women permission to get an abortion. After the change in the law, abortions were available to all free of charge and without any formalities.
Contraception was difficult to obtain, and sex toys were not available in the shops. People could be prosecuted for selling vibrators on the black market. Just as today you go to jail for selling drugs, in communist Czechoslovakia you went to jail for selling vibrators or other sexual aids. People were not convicted on the grounds that women in communist Czechoslovakia were not allowed to use vibrators, but for “engaging in illicit enterprise”. Only a state-run company could sell such products and state-run sex shops did not exist in Czechoslovakia.
The fall of communism in 1989 brought a radical change. Newspaper stands were suddenly flooded with porn magazines. Nudity appeared in almost all advertisements, even if it was for car tires. Czechia became a major and successful producer of porn films. And, somewhat surprisingly, people’s behavior gradually changed as well.
There are no official statistics on this, but sexologists claim that the number of sexual contacts is much lower than it was 40 years ago. Nowadays sex competes with a great many other forms of entertainment and young people often prefer to spend time on their mobile phones and computers rather than go out on a date.
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Sex under Communism
What was sex like under Communism? What was allowed and what was prohibited? And in what ways was the country more liberal than its Western neighbours?
