So you think people led unfulfilled sex lives in the prudish 19th century? Think again. Get ready to be SHOCKED at HUFFPOST’s THIS IS WHAT EROTICA LOOKED LIKE IN THE 19TH CENTURY
(THIS POST IS NOT FOR EVERYONE)
Books, Art and the Writing Life
So you think people led unfulfilled sex lives in the prudish 19th century? Think again. Get ready to be SHOCKED at HUFFPOST’s THIS IS WHAT EROTICA LOOKED LIKE IN THE 19TH CENTURY
(THIS POST IS NOT FOR EVERYONE)
It always makes me laugh when I see so-called prudish societies depicted having sex…esp. plain old straight sex. I mean really…how did we all get here?
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Hahaha. So true. I love the one where the guy is smoking his pipe.
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Yeah, me too. Just laid back and taking in the pleasure. That’s the way to do it, right?
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I don’t kiss and tell. LOL.
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Oh my.
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I know! Way more than I expected from The Huffington Post–or on any of my normal internet travels. 🙂
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Well, they certainly did more than go to church. Have you seen Courbert’s “Origin of the World?” I think it was done around 1860. I saw the original and have a coffee table book with it in my living room which shocked a particularly bitchy visitor which pleased me immensely.
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Lol. Using art to put obnoxious visitors in their place. I will have to try that sometime–if I have any visitors! 🙂
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How “modern” much of this seems. Reminds me of the illustrations of 1972’s “The Joy of Sex”. I, too, Adrienne, was amused by the guy smoking his pipe while being pleasured. Interesting how the focus is on oral gratification. We tend to think of the Victorians as prudes, having sex with the lights off and in the missionary position. That women, outside of a bordello, didn’t enjoy sex; merely putting up with their husband’s (or lover’s) demands.
This puts stands that notion on it’s head, doesn’t it?
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Indeed. I never believed the Victorians were cold fish. I think in the US there was a movement in the Northeast to glorify frigid women as an ideal, but I don’t buy that regular people paid any heed to it. I remember reading a soldier’s letter home to his wife during the Civil War where he talked dirty to her. It was a great find.
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Whoo!! Headed for a cold shower! 😀
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Hehehe!
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Fascinating. A friend told me that PhD students of erotica in the British Museum reading room had to study books on glass topped tables only!
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Oh my! Makes sense. 🙂
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