This week on my podcast I interview Victorian-age sexuality historian Professor Sharon Marcus, author of Between Women: Friendship,Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England.
Sharon's historical interest may seem quaint at first, but she was the funniest, more lucid observer of contemporary sexuality that I've had in my studio for some time.
"Women in Victorian England wore jewelry made from each other's hair and wrote poems celebrating decades of friendship. They pored over magazines that described the dangerous pleasures of corporal punishment.
"A few had sexual relationships with each other, exchanged rings and vows, willed each other property, and lived together in long-term partnerships described as marriages.
"But these women were not seen as gender outlaws. Their desires were fanned by consumer culture, and their friendships and unions were accepted and even encouraged by family, society, and church.
"Far from being sexless angels defined only by male desires, Victorian women openly enjoyed looking at and even dominating other women. Their friendships helped realize the ideal of companionate love between men and women celebrated by novels, and their unions influenced politicians and social thinkers to reform marriage law."
I ask Sharon why is today's society more prudish and bitchy about women's friendships then the high-laced collar Victorians. Susie and Sharon discuss if lesbian "marriage" was first born within the good-girl Victorian friendships.
Listen to the interview: LINK.
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Then, in the Try This at Home mailbag, I explore why one women's sex drive appeared to be killed by her birth control device!
Don't forget, you can send your confidential questions, feedback about the show, and requests for girly cards to [email protected] (Episode 310, September 21, 2007).
