puella
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Joined: 12/2/2004
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I am intrigued by those who put 'Victorian households' on their preference lists. Do you really know what the concept of Victorian sexuality was? Or are you going on a fantasy about what you think that meant.. corsets, high protocol and the ideas you find in Harlequin romances?
British doctor William Acton, "There is so much ignorance on the subject, and so many false ideas are current as to women’s sexual condition, and are so productive of mischief, that I need offer no apology for giving here a plain statement that most medical men will corroborate.
I have taken pains to obtain and compare abundant evidence on this subject, and the result of my inquiries I may briefly epitomise as follows: - I should say that the majority of women (happily for society) are not very much troubled with sexual feeling of any kind. What men are habitually, women are only exceptionally. It is too true, I admit, as the Divorce Court shows, that there are some few women who have sexual desires so strong that they surpass those of men, and shock public feeling by their consequences. I admit, of course, the existence of sexual excitement terminating even in nymphomania, a form of insanity that those accustomed to visit lunatic asylums must be fully conversant with; but, with these sad exceptions, there can be no doubt that sexual feeling in the female is in the majority of cases in abeyance, and that it requires positive and considerable excitement to be roused at all; and even if roused (which in many instances it never can be) it is very moderate compared with that of the male . . . .
I am ready to maintain that there are many females who never feel any sexual excitement whatever. Others, again, immediately after each period, do become, to a limited degree, capable of experiencing it; but this capacity is often temporary, and may entirely cease till the next menstrual period. Many of the best mothers, wives, and managers of households, know little of or are careless about sexual indulgences. Love of home, of children, and of domestic duties are the only passions they feel. *
As a general rule, a modest woman seldom desires any sexual gratification for herself. She submits to her husband’s embraces, but principally to gratify him; and, were it not for the desire of maternity, would far rather be relieved from his attentions. No nervous or feeble young man need, therefore, be deterred from marriage by any exaggerated notion of the arduous duties required from him. Let him be well assured, on my authority backed by the opinion of many, that the married woman has no wish to be placed on the footing of a mistress . . . ."
Eliza Duffey What Women Should Know (1873): "the passions of men are much stronger and more easily inflamed" than those of women. "the purity of women is the everlasting barrier against which the tides of man's sensual nature surge."
These are the actualities of Victorian sexuality... how does it fit in with what you put on your preference list?
< Message edited by puella -- 3/10/2007 9:00:53 PM >
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'Victorian Households" - 
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