VICTORIAN SEX MYTHBUSTERS
October 18, 2011 12:18 PM Subscribe
"... and the Bible!".
The post text looks like it was written by Mr. Show.
posted by hincandenza at 12:25 PM on October 18, 2011
The post text looks like it was written by Mr. Show.
posted by hincandenza at 12:25 PM on October 18, 2011
Metafilter: leads to all sorts of ailments including Malthusian uterus.
posted by michaelh at 12:31 PM on October 18, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by michaelh at 12:31 PM on October 18, 2011 [2 favorites]
fun, thanks for posting this.
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:42 PM on October 18, 2011
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:42 PM on October 18, 2011
Metafilter: Misconceptions about Victorians and sex cleared up after discovery of the most well-preserved dinosaur fossil ever found in Europe.
posted by ancillary at 12:43 PM on October 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by ancillary at 12:43 PM on October 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
If this post somehow mentioned the history of men's suits then The Whelk would never have to read anything else.
posted by shakespeherian at 12:44 PM on October 18, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by shakespeherian at 12:44 PM on October 18, 2011 [2 favorites]
I'm not clicking on the link because I know I'll be disappointed when it does not feature steampunk Adam, Jamie, Kari, Grant, and Tory.
First, they examine the plausibility of the story as given. If it doesn't check out, then they demonstrate what it would take for it to really happen that way.
posted by Zed at 12:54 PM on October 18, 2011
First, they examine the plausibility of the story as given. If it doesn't check out, then they demonstrate what it would take for it to really happen that way.
posted by Zed at 12:54 PM on October 18, 2011
The section on "Doctors masturbating women as a cure for hysteria" seems to go against Mary Roach's writing on the subject in Bonk.
posted by drezdn at 1:00 PM on October 18, 2011
posted by drezdn at 1:00 PM on October 18, 2011
For the record, I have dibs on the using of 'Malthusian uterus' for a sock puppet handle.
posted by Obscure Reference at 1:12 PM on October 18, 2011
posted by Obscure Reference at 1:12 PM on October 18, 2011
Of course Clitoridectomy was a myth!
How could a Victorian doctor remove from his patient, what he couldn't even find on his wife?
[BA-DUM DUM]
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 1:19 PM on October 18, 2011
How could a Victorian doctor remove from his patient, what he couldn't even find on his wife?
[BA-DUM DUM]
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 1:19 PM on October 18, 2011
That whole website, in all its 1998 html glory, is fabulous. I can picture the owner perfectly: distractedly matronly, fantastically eager, with a head that moves like a bird, disarmingly direct. I want be asked to tea with that website.
posted by stonepharisee at 1:24 PM on October 18, 2011 [8 favorites]
posted by stonepharisee at 1:24 PM on October 18, 2011 [8 favorites]
Metafilter: I know I'll be disappointed when it does not feature steampunk Adam, Jamie, Kari, Grant, and Tory.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:51 PM on October 18, 2011
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:51 PM on October 18, 2011
Wait, you mean we were getting historical Victorian misconceptions of sex wrong? How Victorian of us.
posted by happyroach at 1:55 PM on October 18, 2011
posted by happyroach at 1:55 PM on October 18, 2011
The discussion of the Maines book and the resulting movie is really interesting for me. I figured when I read the book that medical vibrator use couldn't be very widespread during the nineteenth century, so it was nice to see that confirmed. I still want to see the movie, though. (Also, I'm in the middle of Netflixing Desperate Victorians, so the Ruskin discussion is timely as well.)
posted by immlass at 2:06 PM on October 18, 2011
posted by immlass at 2:06 PM on October 18, 2011
VICTORIAN SEX MYTHBUSTERS
In which they attempt to answer the question: if all of the prostitutes at Thackeray's funeral were having sex on a treadmill to cure their hysteria, would Queen Victoria herself acknowledge what they were doing, or would she lay still and think of making Oscar Wilde cover his Prince Albert with a pantalette?
posted by mosk at 2:20 PM on October 18, 2011 [3 favorites]
In which they attempt to answer the question: if all of the prostitutes at Thackeray's funeral were having sex on a treadmill to cure their hysteria, would Queen Victoria herself acknowledge what they were doing, or would she lay still and think of making Oscar Wilde cover his Prince Albert with a pantalette?
posted by mosk at 2:20 PM on October 18, 2011 [3 favorites]
It recently occurred to me that "close your eyes and think of England" might just have been less about the horrors of sex, than the horrors of socially-sanctioned marital rape, in an era where women were routinely married off to men not of their choosing.
posted by L'Estrange Fruit at 2:48 PM on October 18, 2011
posted by L'Estrange Fruit at 2:48 PM on October 18, 2011
I chanced at an auction to be the winning bidder on a collection of Victorian medical texts. One of them had a chapter that specifically addressed the "Terrible Ailment of Onanism".
The highlight of the book was a series of illustration panels of a gentleman in the various stages of this terrible ailment. The first panel showed a handsome young lad in his prime, free of disease. The next showed him looking weakened and fatigued. In the following one, he was looking frail and sickly with sagging facial features. The one after had him looking decidedly dreadful but still ambulatory, albeit with a mumps-style bandage holding his now slackened jaw and drooling maw in place. The final panel was a most amusing image of the young lad laid out upon his deathbed now diminished and skeletal, attended by his grieving parents.
What perplexed me most about the logic of this sequence was how on earth our subject ever managed to retain the desire to wank at all, given his progressively degenerating state.
For those of you saying 'pix or it didn't happen': the books made a most wonderful gift for a friend graduating med school.
posted by empatterson at 3:27 PM on October 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
The highlight of the book was a series of illustration panels of a gentleman in the various stages of this terrible ailment. The first panel showed a handsome young lad in his prime, free of disease. The next showed him looking weakened and fatigued. In the following one, he was looking frail and sickly with sagging facial features. The one after had him looking decidedly dreadful but still ambulatory, albeit with a mumps-style bandage holding his now slackened jaw and drooling maw in place. The final panel was a most amusing image of the young lad laid out upon his deathbed now diminished and skeletal, attended by his grieving parents.
What perplexed me most about the logic of this sequence was how on earth our subject ever managed to retain the desire to wank at all, given his progressively degenerating state.
For those of you saying 'pix or it didn't happen': the books made a most wonderful gift for a friend graduating med school.
posted by empatterson at 3:27 PM on October 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
Prefer her work with Gem Sweaters.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 4:05 PM on October 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by PeterMcDermott at 4:05 PM on October 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
mrbill, those are the french version of close enough. Awesome.
posted by empatterson at 5:51 PM on October 18, 2011
posted by empatterson at 5:51 PM on October 18, 2011
L'Estrange Fruit: "It recently occurred to me that "close your eyes and think of England" might just have been less about the horrors of sex, than the horrors of socially-sanctioned marital rape, in an era where women were routinely married off to men not of their choosing."
The only thing I find surprising about your comment is the "recently occurred to me" part. I would take your speculation as a given.
posted by misha at 6:01 PM on October 18, 2011
The only thing I find surprising about your comment is the "recently occurred to me" part. I would take your speculation as a given.
posted by misha at 6:01 PM on October 18, 2011
The prolonged series of images in that link really made me wonder how the poor bastard could have kept on at it even in such a state.
It never occurred to me until just now that it could be portraying the consequences of a sngle hasty wank in a moment of weakness.
posted by empatterson at 6:04 PM on October 18, 2011
It never occurred to me until just now that it could be portraying the consequences of a sngle hasty wank in a moment of weakness.
posted by empatterson at 6:04 PM on October 18, 2011
MetaFilter's moderator's making MetaFilter marry me,
My moderator's making me marry MetaFilter.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:00 PM on October 18, 2011
My moderator's making me marry MetaFilter.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:00 PM on October 18, 2011
Metafilter: the consequences of a single hasty wank in a moment of weakness
posted by ifjuly at 8:16 PM on October 18, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by ifjuly at 8:16 PM on October 18, 2011 [2 favorites]
TRUE FACT: Any research into sexuality in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Britain will at some point (usually more than one) lead to Lesley Hall's website and work. The benefits of being a professional archivist are thus made manifest.
posted by winna at 10:43 PM on October 18, 2011
posted by winna at 10:43 PM on October 18, 2011
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how about sex, are the misconceptions about those?
oooooooh
posted by LogicalDash at 12:19 PM on October 18, 2011