The quality or state of being dissolute; moral looseness, unrestrained behavior, or lack of self-discipline.
From dissolute + -ness. Dissolute comes from Latin dissolutus, suggesting something morally 'loosened' or 'unraveled' like a dissolved substance.
Dissoluteness was a major theme in Victorian literature—the fear of moral dissoluteness in cities drove the entire Gothic novel genre, where characters abandoned rural virtue for urban vice and moral ruin.
Noun form of 'dissolute'; carries the same gendered moral baggage as the adjective, historically weaponized against women to police sexuality and autonomy.
Avoid the term when describing behavior; specify the actual conduct (e.g., 'lack of discipline,' 'absence of restraint') without gendered moral judgment.
["lack of restraint","undisciplined behavior","absence of constraint"]
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