Sex in History

There is something we know: humans have been having sex longer than we have been growing crops, developing tools, and wearing clothing. There's a lot of history... but there are issues...

Alison's Note

There are four problems with most references on History and Sex:

a. They get bogged down in Anthropology. A solid rule of thumb with a topic is to start at the beginning. But as you can tell from the first sentence, sex predates the written record. In order to begin to talk about the beginning of sex, many historians gets bogged into an area with very little tangible proof of what went on. Because I'm sitting here typing this, I know that my human ancestors 10,000 years ago at least once, inserted a penis in a vagina and had an orgasm after ovulation causing conception. But I can't tell you the sexual position they used. I can't even begin to speculate on what they would have used for lube. But many historians try, and many works on Sex in History talk more about migration patterns than pleasure.

b. They get bogged down in Gender and/of Feminism. Many works assume that their role is to explore tangents of a male dominated society, rather to explore domination as a historical practice or any other sexual practices for that matter. The assumption that what happens in the kitchen and workplace directly reflects what happens in the bedroom isn't a substantiated one, but still they go on.

c. They get bogged down in morality. Many works try very hard to make their topics NOT of a lusty, delicious nature. Some do it because they disapprove, and they are writing a text to back up their preconceived notions of what sex looks like. Homophobia runs rampant. Prostitution is always "tragic" or a "blight." In some cases Lust and Masturbation are discussed in the context of sin, not pleasure.

d. Then there is the academics who try to remain academic and stoic about prurient matters. They think that they will be judged as perverts, so they cloak their work in obscure language, hoping no one notices the prurient content. All that happens is your find yourself swimming in statistics or or dry prose on fellatio.

Rather than try and create a comprehensive who, we are incorporating historical aspects with each topic. For example, in the topic Virgin Restoration, there is information on the Victorian version. We hope to add much more like this. As always, thank you for your patience.