Sex in the 1800s

I thought I would post this link here, promoted by our recent challange topic.

I don't know how authentic it is but anyways it is apperently a a reprint from The Madison Institute Newsletter, Fall Issue, 1894:

INSTRUCTION AND ADVICE FOR THE YOUNG BRIDE
On the Conduct and Procedure of the Intimate and Personal Relationships of the Marriage State for the Greater Spiritual Sanctity of this
Blessed Sacrament and the Glory of God

http://www.libchrist.com/bible/1894.html

There is this article that has the following title, which might provide a stepping stone for further read for others writing about different cultures throughout history.

History Of Sexuality In Cultures

http://www.libchrist.com/bible/history.html

dolores haze - yes, and no - I have just become a bit side tracked.

Thanks for the link

The Young Man's Guide by William A. Alcott - 1838

This guide is very long but has some excellent information for those trying to get into a male characters mindset in this time period. Topics are too long to list…

But in relation to this post, from the following chapter there is some information about men and female relations – not sexual as such but no less interesting.

CHAPTER V.

Social and Moral Improvement.

SECTION I. _Of Female Society, in general._

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/23860/23860-8.txt

Cyia said:

So... sex=bad. Lying to get out of it = good.

She must have an abridged version of the 10 Commandments.

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Ah, but one must wonder how many women sill use some of those excuses today. I haven' suffered a headache yet, but I am certain one day I may.

Hey guys, and especially puma and pdr - maybe some of ancestors were fibbing. I just found a very, very interesting article considered to be one of the earliest surveys taken of woman's sexuality called the

THE MOSHER REPORT

The sexual habits of American women, examined half a century before Kinsey - although the servey this woman did only had 47 woman, some were born prior to the civil war and there responses to the questions asked regarding sexual matters are very interesting and enlightening, considering the society they were living in.

The actual survey questions and answers are a fair bit down the page.

http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1981/4/1981_4_56.shtml

pdr said:

but, cooee, it simply confirms what I heard from my mother's and grandmother's generations.

This sample of women were all educated women, not the norm, and you can 'hear' them thinking round the usual bumph they were told. But you can also pick up what they were told.

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Yes, but if they were being honest some women obviously took pleasure and gained pleasure out of the occassion despite what they were being told.

Bluegate said:

Hey, is it just me or does the language in this piece sound wrong for the era? It strikes me a rather modern.


http://www.libchrist.com/bible/1894.html
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I don't know if it is authentic but the language does not strike me as wrong, after reading various writings on religion and other such topics from earlier periods - but than again I am no scholar on language.

I was posting my response before your updated you post.

What I find interesting is the following comment, which if even the document itself is a hoax is that it appears to be agreed that the content of the text does in fact remain true to some of the content that was being distribution at that time.

The Advice for the Young Bride article is being presented as a source document for the Metaphysical Boundaries series, in particular chapter three entitled "I love you, you love me", where it is dealt with in some depth. It is in no way to be taken seriously other than as a commentary on the state of the public perceptions of marital relations in the 1890's. The piece is believed by several authorities to be of modern authorship. However, its tone and point of view are a fair approximation of the Victorian attitudes at the end of the Nineteenth Century.

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Sirius said:

If you are writing about sex in the 1820s a book dealing with sexual attitudes in the 1890s is just wrong, whether it's authentic or nor. What people knew or admitted to knowing at the start of the century was wholly different to what they knew or admitted to knowing at the end - it's almost like the difference between what women were able to wear in Tehran when the Shah was in power and what they could wear under Khomeini. Only a few years difference and a 180 degree shift in attitudes. Jane Austen could happily have plots which include 15 year old girls scampering off with older men and having sex with them (remember Lydia in Pride and Prejudice's attitude that "they would be married some time and it did not much signify when"?), adultery and divorce(Maria Rushworth, Colonel Brandon's lost love) abduction (Sanditon), illegitimacy (Harriet Smith, Eliza) and no-one cared that she was an unmarried woman. Her brother in her obituary makes a point of mentioning that she didn't like Fielding's Tom Jones much - unmarried ladies of later decades weren't supposed to have heard of it, still less read it. There's an excellent book called Dr Bowdler's Legacy which explains the ebb and flow of prudery over the course of the nineteenth century and it's an eye-opener.

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Part of the reason why I posted the documents dated later then my WIP had to do with conversations we were having in the Historical SYW forum about woman as recent as our mothers or grandmothers and this post is titled Sex in the 1800s.

Some of the suggested reading you gave on the subject and The Dr Bowdler's Legacy book sounds interesting.

Hey guys,

Yes, I agree Puma in that what has changed over time and throughout different times is societys feelings on such activites.

pdr - your comments had me thinking all day. And yes, I agree it is somewhat difficult for someone of my generations mindset to completely understand a previous time period or woman in it in relation to this topic and probably many others, without this security net of something deemed as 99% safe but it is not completely impossible.

I already said on another thread I had a very strong fear of falling pregnant - the pill or condoms never took that away, nor did marriage, but only my deciscion to have a child and still then I feared what would happen for ever after to that child.

I do think that one thing that might be misprecieved by some that have not grown up in my generation is that they believe the pill or common knowledge of contraception took away all or some of our moral and/ ethical beliefs of those that had access to it. The pill gave us one type of power and part freedom, but it also tested all our other beliefs - and we were and still are, no less tested or judged by society then those before us.

Many women purely by taking the pill, were going against everything they had been brought up to believe was gospel. And many of us, have forever fallen deeper into a society we have doomed because of our shame and lack of morals, if we are to believe some. And many mothers who had previously not had the luxury and knew what lied ahead for their daughters and who had been restrained by not only society but religion, broke away from their own beliefs in the hope their daughters would have some type of freedom. I feel that the pill and the common knowledge and access to it allowed all classes of women something never achievable before. It united them all as women despite their class in society.


I am thinking that it is not intirely impossible to get into the mindset of women of the past in relation to sex. Those same problems with husbands, birth control, society, religion, attitudes and assumptions still abound, although in some cases may not seem to because of this perception that birth control has stopped all fears and gave us some formular and freedom for perfect sex free of all responsiblity, morally and ethically. It hasn't. I know many woman who can't take the pill, and some of those whose husbands refuse to use condoms for reasons that have nothing to do with religious reasons. (I will keep my thoughts on that for another post)

I was speaking to my husband today about this topic because we have been in a situation that modern medicin and contraception may very well have made a marked difference on how we would and do relate to each other to this day. While our daughter was being born, she and I almost died, and my husband and I were advised against me falling pregnant again. We most certaintly had a couple of intersting months after our daughter was born - and I will leave that there.

pdr, I know you weren't saying it was impossible and your comments were given to provoke thought amongst those who intend to write love scenes set in time periods that where sexual topics were greatly restricted, and social, religious and moral attitudes affected them but the following comment provoked my comments and did make me imagine how it had been for me personally and I can honestly say after much thought - I see little difference when it comes to the core of humans - despite the precieved thoughts it is somehow greatly different today, although it is obviously different on the outside at the end of the day, many of the deeper sexual issues are still here for women despite birth control.

Try to imagine wanting to have sex but knowing that you may well become pregnant every time you do. No matter how much you might want to enjoy yourself you are also afraid.

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At the end of the day I don't believe our really deep an inner fears and internal conflicts are any different then they have been for hundreds of years. Although my generation may have been fortunate to have found a part solution to a social issue it defied religious ones - the current and younger generation than myself now have problems we never had in relation to sex, which is a completely different issue, but netherless I think it shows that a fear of sex because of social, moral or ethical grounds will take a while to completely eliviate despite contraception.