desexualizationn.
/ˌdiːsɛkʃʊəlʌɪˈzeɪʃn/, /ˌdiːsɛkʃᵿlʌɪˈzeɪʃn/, /ˌdiːsɛksjʊ(ə)lʌɪˈzeɪʃn/, /diːˌsɛkʃʊəlʌɪˈzeɪʃn/, /diːˌsɛkʃᵿlʌɪˈzeɪʃn/, /diːˌsɛksjʊ(ə)lʌɪˈzeɪʃn/, U.S. /diˌsɛkʃ(əw)ələˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/, /diˌsɛkʃ(əw)əˌlaɪˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/ 1. Surgical or medical treatment of a person to prevent reproduction or reduce sexual urges; sterilization. Cf. asexualization n. 1. Now disused.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > infertility > [noun] > rendering
asexualization1888
desexualization1889
radiosterilization1954
1889 Proc. Assoc. Med. Officers Amer. Inst. Idiotic & Feeble-minded Persons 1887–8 596 These moral imbeciles are, if any are, proper subjects for operations for desexualization.
1920 G. W. Cooke Social Evol. Relig. i. 7 The eugenists..propose the elimination of those not capable of producing a sound offspring, either by the process of death or that of desexualization.
1938 Jrnl. Criminal Law & Criminol. 28 701 Desexualization was ordered by the criminal court in 3 cases for repeated rape.
2. Loss or deprivation of distinct masculine or feminine characteristics; minimization of the significance of the personal attributes of sex or gender in a place, situation, etc.
ΚΠ
1898 ‘G. Egerton’ Wheel of God 161 The danger to-day, when women are changing places with man.., is desexualisation. It must bring unhappiness, for in measure as woman loses the spirit of her own sex, she will feel the burden of it.
1968 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 30 June 30/3 Everywhere he looks, he sees evidence of the desexualization of American life—the blurring of the distinctions between male and female roles, the neutering of the total environment.
1998 K. J. Taylor in Gender Transgressions ix. 181 The remarkable degree of progress made by certain modern critical movements towards the desexualization of strongly defined masculine and feminine roles.
2000 Wall St. Jrnl. 1 Jan. 8/2 Contemporary trends like urbanization,..technological progress and the desexualization of the workplace were expected to continue apace.
3. The action of making something less sexual or erotic in character, associations, or appeal; an instance of this.
ΚΠ
1923 B. M. Hinkle Re-creating of Individual iv. 138 All the thousands of years of culture, with their separation of the words and images from the original source and the desexualization of original sexual libido bound up with these activities and conceptions are quite ignored in practice.
1953 Ann. Amer. Acad. Polit. & Social Sci. 285 141/1 The wife..is like one's mother—holy, pure, and saintly. This desexualization of the love object frequently helps to block communication on sexual matters.
1997 J. K. Noyes Mastery of Submission v. 156 Morality and the law had evolved as desexualizations of the Oedipus complex.
2000 R. M. Paris Mother-to-be's Dream Bk. iii. viii. 139 These dreams feed the illusion that becoming a father means a desexualization of the relationship.
2011 Daily Bruin (Nexis) 22 Feb. 1 From drop crotch pants to shoulder pads, and animal hats to rompers, there is an austere desexualization in fashion.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1889