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Rent Boys & Degenerate Men
From Tom Kalin's "Swoon" (1992).Everyone knows that Victorian women were supposed to be chaste. Many people still consider female chastity a virtue, so in some ways little has changed. For me, it is...
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Why Victorians Thought Sex Manuals Were Like Porn
Everyone knows that Victorian women were supposed to be chaste. Many people still consider female chastity a virtue, so in some ways little has changed. For me, it is impossible to look at any notion...
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The No-Nose Club and Victorian STDs
Victorian sexuality can be approached from so many directions, including (but not limited to) body image, sexual orientation, masturbation, prostitution, sex education, disease, religion, marriage, and...
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God, Goddesses, Guilt, and Desire
Victorian sexuality can be approached from so many directions, including (but not limited to) body image, sexual orientation, masturbation, prostitution, sex education, disease, religion, marriage, and...
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The Marriage Question
Victorian sexuality can be approached from so many directions, including (but not limited to) body image, sexual orientation, masturbation, prostitution, sex education, disease, religion, marriage, and...
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Pornography
Victorian sexuality can be approached from so many directions, including (but not limited to) body image, sexual orientation, masturbation, prostitution, sex education, disease, religion, marriage, and...
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Marriage Really Was The Answer To Everything
Eight posts ago, I started a series on 1890s male sexuality, and expected to wind up characterizing the 1890s gentleman and his sexy self as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, but the novel itself can be read as a...
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Charles Dickens and PTSD
Generally, I'm not a fan of reading contemporary ailments onto historical figures, but, while searching for more information on Bunbury, which is only remotely connected to my novel at this point, I...
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A Hand-Bag?
Jack. I am afraid I really don’t know. The fact is, Lady Bracknell, I said I had lost my parents. It would be nearer the truth to say that my parents seem to have lost me . . . I don’t actually know...
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Oscar Wilde's Underpants
Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months. - Oscar WildeIn an effort to shame me for my addiction to Cosmo, an old friend of mine used to love to throw this...
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Hysteria, Highstrikes, and Hysterics
This post originally appeared on the blog of my Victorian Dictionary Project, 16 October 2014.Though hysteria has a two thousand-year history of using women’s bodies to opress them, the term was first...
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Top Ten Terrible Valentines
"Greetings from Krampus,"a German Christmas legend applied to Valentine's Day.Not looking forward to Valentine's Day? Consider a Vinegar Valentine. Costing only a penny to send, Vinegar Valentines were...
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The Best of Writers in London in the 1890s
There's a widget tin the column on the left that lists my most popular posts. The things that appear there sometimes surprise me.Now that it's been more than two years since I decided to blog my...
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The Importance of Being Irish Gentlemen
Source of quote.I've been thinking about the way that Oscar Wilde's family treated him when he was going to trial. The following is an excerpt from H. Montgomery Hyde's book: Oscar Wilde.The Marquess...
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Ten More Terrible Valentines
If you missed the first ten terrible Valentines, you can find them here. My mom asked for more. Today is her birthday and tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so I thought I better do as she asked."A POETICAL...
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Throwing Rotten Food in the Theatre
An interesting article about Oscar Wilde's cabbage got me thinking about writers and vegetables today, partially because I find it particularly disturbing when it takes a long time for a vegetable to...
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Sherlock Holmes and Batman as Aspirational Superheroes
Some people reject the notion of Sherlock Holmes as a superhero because Arthur Conan Doyle's books weren't science fiction, or fantasy. The original character possessed qualities that were within the...
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Humans of London: Arthur Conan Doyle
I've seen some parodies of Humans of New York recently and thought I could try putting my own spin on it.Follow me on Twitter @TinyApplePress and like the Facebook page for updates!If you have enjoyed...
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Humans of London: Bram Stoker
Again, my twist on Humans of New York, but London in the 1890s...Yesterday I posted one for Arthur Conan Doyle.Follow me on Twitter @TinyApplePress and like the Facebook page for updates!If you have...
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Are Men Gay Deceivers?
Headline from the November 18, 1909 issue of The Republican.Though it sounds funny to our ears now, in the nineteenth century, the term 'gay deceiver' referred to a man who used his charm for personal...
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