 | I expect that just about everyone knows that "gay" has (at least) two meanings. There is the traditional meaning of happy, jolly and carefree. And the slang meaning of homosexual.
Just about everyone has heard the last decade of the nineteenth century referred to as The Gay Nineties. Probably most people think that the gay in that term has the traditional meaning. Well, maybe. Or maybe not. You see, in the nineteenth century the word gay had a different slang meaning. It meant sexually promiscuous. We think of the Victorian era people as being prim and proper. But behind that facade were really passionate people. As research by Sigmund Freud and others has revealed, those Victorians did a lot of screwing. Why? Because they could. The latex condom was invented in 1856 and by the late nineteenth century condoms were readily available and quite reasonably priced. So for the first time in human history people could engage in intercourse with minimal risk of unwanted pregnancy or STD. |
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You're correct that the Victorian era was very prudish, to the point of absurdity, in public but very licentous in private. The English aristocracy enjoyed weekend house parties in which discrete wife swapping was very common, along with 'threesomes' The future King Edward VII was an enthusiastic womaniser and sexpot who had a special chair made and kept in Paris so that he could pleasure two women at the same time, although exactly how is a matter of dispute to enquiring minds!
In this era the great sexologist, Sir Richard Burton delved deeply into the Kama Sutra and oriental sex publishing his findings in several volumes such as 'The Perfumed Garden' although on his death his widow made a big deal of burning all his private papers and written research in an apparent attack of the vapours!
England before the 19th century was very bawdy indeed...the great sexual sagas such as 'Fanny Hill' were written then and Hogarth was at the height of his rude career. There were streets and alleys in London known for sex and prostitution with very earthy names like 'open cunt lane'. These were all changed in the Victorian era due to the need to suddenly protect public decency, along with a sudden need to put skirts on table legs and other false prudity.
Is there, I wonder, a connection with the politics of the era?.....in this era workers revolted successfully and European crowns looked insecure. More importantly, 'The Church' became trully powerful for the first time as it turned into a global business in all but name. The church has always feared sex because it offers a sublime experience that priests can only hope to emulate and never can.
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I posted it in my thread too. It's a porn film from 100 years ago. It shows three guy putting on a condom.
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More sex things of the past: /forum/thread.php?id=28845&p=1#t524086
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