Victorian erotica

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Actaea, the Nymph of the Shore (1868), an oil painting by Frederic Leighton. His paintings were enormously popular during his lifetime. 1868 Frederic Leighton - Actaea.jpg
Actaea, the Nymph of the Shore (1868), an oil painting by Frederic Leighton. His paintings were enormously popular during his lifetime.

Victorian erotica is a genre of sexual art and literature which emerged in the Victorian era of 19th-century Britain. Victorian erotica emerged as a product of a Victorian sexual culture. [1] The Victorian era was characterized by paradox of rigid morality and anti-sensualism, but also by an obsession with sex. Sex was a main social topic, with progressive and enlightened thought pushing for sexual restriction and repression. [2] Overpopulation was a societal concern for the Victorians, thought to be the cause of famine, disease, and war. [3] To curb the threats of overpopulation (especially of the poor) and to solve other social issues that were arising at the time, sex was socially regulated and controlled. [1] New sexual categories emerged as a response, defining normal and abnormal sex. [4] Heterosexual sex between married couples became the only form of sex socially and morally permissible. Sexual pleasure and desire beyond heterosexual marriage was labelled as deviant, considered to be sinful and sinister. Such deviant forms included masturbation, homosexuality, prostitution and pornography. [1] Procreation was the primary goal of sex, removing it from the public, and placing it in the domestic. [3] Yet, Victorian anti-sexual attitudes were contradictory of genuine Victorian life, with sex underlying much of the cultural practice. Sex was simultaneously repressed and proliferated. Sex was featured in medical manuals [2] such as The Sexual Impulse by Havelock Ellis and Functions and Disorders of Reproductive Organs by William Acton, and in cultural magazines like The Penny Magazine and The Rambler . Sex was popular in entertainment, with much of Victorian theatre, art and literature including and expressing sexual and sensual themes. [5]

Contents

General

Historian Peter Webb writes that there are two categories of Victorian erotica: on the one hand the expressive writings of Oscar Wilde and Swinburne, and on the other hand the "coldly calculated indulgence in male fantasy" such as is found in The Memoirs of Dolly Morton , where women are depicted merely as sex objects. [6]

Art and literature provided Victorians with an avenue to express transgressive and repressed sexual desire. [7] [8] Sex was a prominent feature in much of Victorian art, [5] especially in theatre and literature. Sex was often illustrated by stories of deviance and scandal. [8] [9] It is argued that some Victorian erotica rests on techniques of implication and allusion to sexual desires and activity, [10] such as in the works of Wilde, Dickens, and Field. Yet there are also explicitly sexual works, as compiled in Henry Spencer Ashbee's Forbidden Books of the Victorians, in which the books describe sex in much erotic detail. Such Victorian works include The Romance of Lust , My Secret Life , and Venus in Furs . Additional Victorian artists and authors include Aubrey Beardsley (the illustrator of Wilde's Salome), and, of course, many literary and artistic works by "Anonymous."

The female sexual object

A main component of Victorian erotica was the female sexual object. Women were increasingly being defined in terms of femininity, subordination, and the object of sexual desire. [5] Aesthetic and medical procedures were targeting women to accentuate their sex appeal. [3] In real Victorian life, female sexuality was problematic, and was only to be expressed in terms of domestic life. [3]

On the stage, in art, or in literature, women were inscribed with sexuality, positioned as the sexual object. [11] Societal expectations tied women to ideas of purity and virginity. [2] [3] Erotic plot lines and themes sought to shatter these expectations, crafting women as whores, prostitutes, and adulterers. [11] Women were symbol of vice and temptation. [5] Men were thought to be victims of the female seductress, and were the primary spectators and consumers of female erotica. [11] Themes of same-sex erotica was avoided.

Erotic stimulation was usually implied or suggested. [11] Female erotica was marked through clothing, hairstyles, corseted silhouettes, shoes and headgear. [11] Explicit nudity was rare, with arousal coming from the process of undressing. [12] Rather than the breast or buttocks, legs were a major source of sexual arousal. [12] Veiling and silhouetting were popular modes of titillation, with brief uncovering of legs, or silhouetted outlines of naked women creating voyeuristic arousal. [13]  

The fallen woman

Augustus Egg's Past and Present (1858) depicting the "Fallen Woman" Past and Present Number One.jpg
Augustus Egg's Past and Present (1858) depicting the "Fallen Woman"

The fallen woman was a key stereotype for Victorian erotica. The fallen woman was characterized in opposition to the Victorian moral standard for women. [12] Women were expected to be sexually pure and virtuous, with their role being mothers and domestic caregivers. [3] The fallen woman was a prostitute, sexual deviant, or wife unable to perform her domestic duties. [12] This woman, whether driven by economic problems or greed, was thought to have fallen from virtue. Social anxieties over the sexuality and independence of women produced the image of the fallen woman. [12] Erotic images and narratives often portrayed these fallen women needing to be rescued from her vices, and to be reformed into the proper position in family life. [12] The fallen woman is featured in much of Victorian erotic literature, including works by Thomas Hardy, Augustus Egg, and William Bell Scott.

Same-sex erotica

Art and literature allowed the expression of a homosexual identity. [14] [15] Art and literature were the primary mode in which positive images of homosexuality could be produced. [16] Homosexual artists such as Pater, Wilde, Symonds, and Solomon, threaded homosexual themes and identities through their work. [17]

The Sins of the Cities of the Plain; or, The Recollections of a Mary-Ann , is an explicitly homosexual novel written by an anonymous author in 1881. [18] This novel is inspired by John Saul, an Irish male prostitute who was involved in a homosexual scandal in Dublin in 1884. [18]

The Phoenix of Sodom, written by Robert Holloway in 1813, is based on experiences from the famous The Vere Street Coterie. [18]

The Shaftesbury memorial by Alfred Gilbert caused moral scandal and outrage, as the sculpture was deemed subversive of heterosexual standards of the time. [17]

Lesbian

Michael Field was a pseudonym for the lesbian couple Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper. Michael Field was a poet, who it is suggested developed a language of love between women. [19] Lesbian sex and emotions were spoken and explored in Field's work, with their position against worldly discrimination. [19] It is discussed that lesbian vocabulary and discourse was not available to Field, so language inherent to heterosexuality such as "marriage", was used as metaphors to describe Field's love. [19]

School Life in Paris, (1897). This is a book made from a compilation of letters from a young British girl, who boarding at a finishing school in Paris, sent letters to her cousin in England. These letters are erotically descriptive, especially of clothing, and describes her mistress as "handsome". The letters also include an explicit scene in which Blanche had to lie naked on her dorm bed, as an initiation into the school's "lesbian society".

Other Lesbian erotic works include The Nunnery Tales (1886), Astrid Cane (1891), and The Mysteries of Verbena House .

Pornography

In the Victorian period, pornography on the market boomed, and was produced in abundance. [1] Before 1864, pornography was described as "obscenity". [20] Only in 1864 was the word "pornography" placed in the dictionary. [1] Pornography was not a clear-cut genre, but a general category of sexual explicitness. [20] There were political concerns that pornography "corrupted private morality" disturbing social order. [20]  For the Victorians, pornography was a medium in which they could illustrate repressed and controlled sexual fantasy and desire. [21]  

Victorian pornography often depicted the rape, abduction, and subordination of women. [21] Cases and trials of sexual misconduct were a class of their own. [2] Castration was also a theme of Victorian pornography, with it being alluded to the male orgasm. [20] Female characters would threaten to dismember a penis in the height of orgasm, as in The Lustful Turk . [21]

The Pearl: A Journal of Facetiae and Voluptuous Reading was a pornographic magazine published in London in the Victorian era. [22]

Victorian legislation was passed in an attempt to deal with the issue. The Obscene Publications Act 1857 prohibited the distribution and sale of pornography, though not its possession.

Henry Spencer Ashbee is the first bibliographer of pornographic literature. [20]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erotica</span> Category of sexually stimulating media

Erotica is literature or art that deals substantively with subject matter that is erotic, sexually stimulating or sexually arousing. Some critics regard pornography as a type of erotica, but many consider it to be different. Erotic art may use any artistic form to depict erotic content, including painting, sculpture, drama, film or music. Erotic literature and erotic photography have become genres in their own right. Erotica also exists in a number of subgenres including gay, lesbian, women's, bondage, monster and tentacle erotica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heterosexuality</span> Attraction between people of the opposite sex or gender

Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to people of the opposite sex; it "also refers to a person's sense of identity based on those attractions, related behaviors, and membership in a community of others who share those attractions." Someone who is heterosexual is commonly referred to as straight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesbian</span> Homosexual woman or girl

A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexuality or same-sex attraction. The concept of "lesbian" to differentiate women with a shared sexual orientation evolved in the 20th century. Throughout history, women have not had the same freedom or independence as men to pursue homosexual relationships, but neither have they met the same harsh punishment as gay men in some societies. Instead, lesbian relationships have often been regarded as harmless, unless a participant attempts to assert privileges traditionally enjoyed by men. As a result, little in history was documented to give an accurate description of how female homosexuality was expressed. When early sexologists in the late 19th century began to categorize and describe homosexual behavior, hampered by a lack of knowledge about homosexuality or women's sexuality, they distinguished lesbians as women who did not adhere to female gender roles. They classified them as mentally ill—a designation which has been reversed since the late 20th century in the global scientific community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eroticism</span> Quality that causes sexual feelings

Eroticism is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, sculpture, photography, drama, film, music, or literature. It may also be found in advertising. The term may also refer to a state of sexual arousal or anticipation of such – an insistent sexual impulse, desire, or pattern of thoughts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual fantasy</span> Class of mental image or pattern of thought

A sexual fantasy or erotic fantasy is an autoerotic mental image or pattern of thought that stirs a person's sexuality and can create or enhance sexual arousal. A sexual fantasy can be created by the person's imagination or memory, and may be triggered autonomously or by external stimulation such as erotic literature or pornography, a physical object, or sexual attraction to another person. Anything that may give rise to a sexual arousal may also produce a sexual fantasy, and sexual arousal may in turn give rise to fantasies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erotic art</span> Visual art created to incite sexual arousal and activity

Erotic art is a broad field of the visual arts that includes any artistic work intended to evoke erotic arousal. It usually depicts human nudity or sexual activity, and has included works in various visual mediums, including drawings, engravings, films, paintings, photographs, and sculptures. Some of the earliest known works of art include erotic themes, which have recurred with varying prominence in different societies throughout history. However, it has also been widely considered taboo, with either social norms or laws restricting its creation, distribution, and possession. This is particularly the case when it is deemed pornographic, immoral, or obscene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erotic literature</span> Literary genre

Erotic literature comprises fictional and factual stories and accounts of eros intended to arouse similar feelings in readers. This contrasts erotica, which focuses more specifically on sexual feelings. Other common elements are satire and social criticism. Much erotic literature features erotic art, illustrating the text.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Spencer Ashbee</span> Book collector and writer (1834–1900)

Henry Spencer Ashbee was a book collector, writer and bibliographer. He is notable for his massive, clandestine three-volume bibliography of erotic literature published under the pseudonym of Pisanus Fraxi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homoeroticism</span> Sexual attraction between members of the same sex

Homoeroticism is sexual attraction between members of the same sex, including both male–to–male and female–to–female attraction. The concept differs from the concept of homosexuality: it refers specifically to the desire itself, which can be temporary, whereas "homosexuality" implies a more permanent state of identity or sexual orientation. It has been depicted or manifested throughout the history of the visual arts and literature and can also be found in performative forms; from theatre to the theatricality of uniformed movements. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it is "pertaining to or characterized by a tendency for erotic emotions to be centered on a person of the same sex; or pertaining to a homo-erotic person."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesbian erotica</span> Visual art depiction of female-female sexuality

Lesbian erotica deals with depictions in the visual arts of lesbianism, which is the expression of female-on-female sexuality. Lesbianism has been a theme in erotic art since at least the time of ancient Rome, and many regard depictions of lesbianism to be erotic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of lesbianism</span>

Lesbianism is the sexual and romantic desire between women. There are historically fewer mentions of lesbianism than male homosexuality, due to many historical writings and records focusing primarily on men.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erotic horror</span> Erotic subgenre, horror subgenre

Erotic horror, alternately called horror erotica or dark erotica, is a term applied to works of fiction in which sensual or sexual imagery are blended with horrific overtones or story elements for the sake of sexual titillation. Horror fiction of this type is most common in literature and film. Erotic horror films are a cornerstone of Spanish and French horror.

"Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence" is a 1980 essay by Adrienne Rich, which was also published in her 1986 book Blood, Bread, and Poetry: Selected Prose 1979-1985 as a part of the radical feminism movement of the late '60s, '70s, and '80s.

The Romance of Lust, or Early Experiences is a Victorian erotic novel written anonymously in four volumes during the years 1873–1876 and published by William Lazenby. Henry Spencer Ashbee discusses this novel in one of his bibliographies of erotic literature. In addition the compilers of British Museum General Catalogue of Printed Books list this book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bisexual erasure</span> Dismissing or misrepresenting bisexuals in the public perception

Bisexual erasure, also called bisexual invisibility, is the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, or re-explain evidence of bisexuality in history, academia, the news media, and other primary sources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of erotic depictions</span> Aspect of history

The history of erotic depictions includes paintings, sculpture, photographs, dramatic arts, music and writings that show scenes of a sexual nature throughout time. They have been created by nearly every civilization, ancient and modern. Early cultures often associated the sexual act with supernatural forces and thus their religion is intertwined with such depictions. In Asian countries such as India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Japan and China, representations of sex and erotic art have specific spiritual meanings within native religions. The ancient Greeks and Romans produced much art and decoration of an erotic nature, much of it integrated with their religious beliefs and cultural practices.

Women's erotica is any erotic material that caters specifically to women target-demographic of various sexual preferences. When erotica is specifically directed at lesbians, it is referred to as lesbian erotica. Women's erotica is available from a variety of media including video games, websites, books, comics, short stories, films, photography, magazines, audio, anime and manga. The content may cover many aspects of sexuality, from relationships to fetishes; the main idea being to convey sex-positivism from a woman's perspective, or to feature female empowerment and sexual fantasies.

Feminist sexology is an offshoot of traditional studies of sexology that focuses on the intersectionality of sex and gender in relation to the sexual lives of women. Sexology has a basis in psychoanalysis, specifically Freudian theory, which played a big role in early sexology. This reactionary field of feminist sexology seeks to be inclusive of experiences of sexuality and break down the problematic ideas that have been expressed by sexology in the past. Feminist sexology shares many principles with the overarching field of sexology; in particular, it does not try to prescribe a certain path or "normality" for women's sexuality, but only observe and note the different and varied ways in which women express their sexuality. It is a young field, but one that is growing rapidly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex in film</span> Sex in mainstream film

Sex in film, the presentation of aspects of sexuality in film, specially human sexuality, has been controversial since the development of the medium. Films which display or suggest sexual behavior have been criticized by religious groups or have been banned or censored by governments, although attitudes have changed much along the years and a more permissive social environment has developed in certain parts of the world, notably in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. In countries with a film rating system, films which contain explicit sex scenes typically receive a restricted classification. Nudity in film may be regarded as sexual or as non-sexual.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Compulsory heterosexuality</span> Social vision of heterosexuality as the natural inclination or obligation

Compulsory heterosexuality, often shortened to comphet, is the theory that heterosexuality is assumed and enforced upon people by a patriarchal and heteronormative society. The term was popularized by Adrienne Rich in her 1980 essay titled "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence". According to Rich, social science and literature perpetuate the societal belief that women in every culture are believed to have an innate preference for romantic and sexual relationships with men. She argues that women's sexuality towards men is not always natural but is societally ingrained and scripted into women. Comphet creates the belief that society is overwhelmingly heterosexual and delegitimizes queer identities. As a result, it perpetuates homophobia and legal inequity for the LGBTQ+ community.

References

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  7. ↑ Regina., Barreca (1990). Sex and death in Victorian literature. Indiana University Press. ISBN   978-0253310156. OCLC   19672783.
  8. 1 2 Cohen William A. (1996). Sex scandal : the private parts of Victorian fiction. Duke University Press. ISBN   9780822398028. OCLC   682184252.
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  10. ↑ Oulton, Carolyn W. de la L. (2016-04-08). Romantic Friendship in Victorian Literature. doi:10.4324/9781315606934. ISBN   9781315606934.
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  13. ↑ Morgan, Rosemarie (2006-04-07). Women and Sexuality in the Novels of Thomas Hardy. doi:10.4324/9780203193365. ISBN   9780203193365.
  14. ↑ Nord, Deborah Epstein (July 2004). "Book Review: Ellen Bayuk Rosenman. Unauthorized Pleasures: Accounts Of Victorian Erotic Experience. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2003". Victorian Studies. 46 (4): 707–709. doi:10.2979/vic.2004.46.4.707. ISSN   0042-5222.
  15. ↑ Smith, Alison (1996). The Victorian nude : sexuality, morality, and art. Manchester University Press. ISBN   978-0719044021. OCLC   36208423.
  16. ↑ Prettejohn, E. (Ed.). (1999). After the Pre-Raphaelites: art and aestheticism in Victorian England. Manchester University Press.
  17. 1 2 Prettejohn, Elizabeth (2012), "Envoi", The Cambridge Companion to the Pre-Raphaelites, Cambridge University Press, pp. 265–272, doi:10.1017/ccol9780521895156.020, ISBN   9781139017183
  18. 1 2 3 Ashbee, Henry Spencer (1970). Forbidden books of the Victorians Henry Spencer Ashbee's bibliographies of erotica. Odyssey Press. OCLC   574281820.
  19. 1 2 3 White, Christine (June 1990). "'Poets and lovers evermore': Interpreting female love in the poetry and journals of Michael Field". Textual Practice. 4 (2): 197–212. doi:10.1080/09502369008582086. ISSN   0950-236X.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 Frederickson, Kathleen (May 2011). "Victorian Pornography and the Laws of Genre". Literature Compass. 8 (5): 340–348. doi:10.1111/j.1741-4113.2011.00800.x. ISSN   1741-4113.
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  22. ↑ Virdis, Daniela Francesca (2015-01-02). "Eroticizing female and male bodies: a linguistic investigation of a pornographic novel from the Victorian magazine The Pearl". Porn Studies. 2 (1): 19–34. doi:10.1080/23268743.2014.984924. ISSN   2326-8743.
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