The sex lives of people in Medieval Europe

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Originally published at: The sex lives of people in Medieval Europe | Boing Boing

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Or that there was likely a lot of public sex going on because many bedrooms were anything but private,

Definitely true for the colonial American Puritans. People didn’t have curtains or coverings on their windows. The idea was that you shouldn’t be doing anything that you didn’t want people to see. If you were hiding it, it must be shameful.

There’s a great article out there on Puritans and divorce. Women could petition for divorce on the grounds that their husbands could not sexually satisfy them (and, especially, if their husbands could not bring them to orgasm women had a good claim for divorce). And court cases specifically about this weren’t uncommon. In a few cases there are records where the woman claimed that the husband couldn’t get an erection, and during the trials the husbands talk about people in town telling them to “drop pantaloons” and demonstrate. Oftentimes family and other members (so to speak) of the community would testify that, yep, we are all aware that Goody Jane’s husband is unable to perform in bed.

Ah, there it is: “Deficient Husbands: Manhood, Sexual Incapacity, and Male Marital Sexuality in Seventeenth-Century New England” The William and Mary Quarterly Vol. 56, No. 4 (Oct., 1999), pp. 723-744. Great stuff.

Also, turkey-fscking, if you’re going down that rabbit-hole: "“Things Fearful to Name": Bestiality in Colonial America,” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies Vol. 65, Explorations in Early American Culture (1998), pp. 8-43.

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I thought you said that this was about turkeys.

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I imagine it was kind of smelly, and definitely itchy.

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Another case of “OK i’ll just watch a minute or so, just to get the gist” …and ended up watching the whole thing. In short: That was a very well produced and informative video - Thank you for posting it!

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Given my understanding of hygiene during that time period, I think I’d just be celibate.

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While germ theory was non-existent, I have read that they washed more than they are often given credit for.

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“You down with MEP (Yeah you know me), you down with MEP (Yeah you know me)
In the woods or back alley? (Yeah you know me), who’s down with MEP (Every last peasantry)”

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One of the meeting places was the local bathhouse, and where some sex workers were available for business. Medieval people did wash regularly.

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Kudos for mentioning the Southwark Stews, but in the 14th Century they were owned by the Bishop of Westminster – that’s right, the Church owned the best and most popular brothels and bathhouses in London.

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Good take on things:

ETA:

Obligs:

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So… Same?

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I believe it was the Bishop of Winchester, not Westminster, who held the Liberty of the Clink in Southwark and derived his revenue from (among other things) its stews.

The sex workers of the Clink were known as “Winchester geese” for this reason.

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Ever hear the old yarn about how the acronym for Fornication Under Consent of the King was the source of the modern vernacular? I expect there are many who continue to believe it.

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Along with “fart” and “beer,” fuck is one of the oldest words in the English language. It predates English. Possibly Proto-Indo-European in origin. A wonderful etymological history.

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This certainly helps explain why Ben wanted to make the turkey the national boid.

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Yea, that’s covered in the video.
I really enjoyed it. Very informative and funny. Today was a quiet day for work prior to the holiday weekend, so that was a good way to learn something new.

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lol maybe your sex life!

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With all the neighbors (and probably all your children) hearing the goings-on.

And what was going in aboriginal living spaces, in native American teepees or Amazonian huts? It seems like a whole lotta [effectively public] sex is goin’ on.

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Probably why there are so many fairy tales about how evil and scary the woods are. Wanting to get busy and have some privacy, that was where you had to go.