Libertines as French Open Minds
Terms used to define sex-positive people, like “lifestyle”, “ethical slut”, “kinkster”, “swingers”, were coined only in the XX century. So even in case adherents of sexual freedom did had any self-designation before, they never passed it to their descendants. And only in French there was – and still exists - a word to name culture of sex-positive experimenters. Probably in France they by the rule of thumb never hide things from their grandchildren;). The word used by Calvin for criticizing uninhibited behavior in the XVI century later became a name for an integrated philosophy of “sexual” hedonism – libertine, with libertines as its followers. Details...