Broad History
History's super confused ideas about women's sex lives (with Kate Lister)
May 9 · 49 min · Season 1 · Episode 7 · 47.3 MB
0:00-49:13
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The ancient Greeks believed a woman's womb wandered through her body and made her ill. Medieval Europeans believed a woman's orgasm was necessary for conception. And the Victorians believed masturbation would drive you to madness. Sex historian Dr. Kate Lister — host of Betwixt the Sheets and author of Flick: A History of Sexual Pleasure — joins me for a tour through the wildly strange, often infuriating history of women's sexuality. For most of that history, women were believed to be the more sex-crazed gender. What can we say, girls will be girls...
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On this episode:
- Isabelle Roughol - Host
- Kate Lister - Guest
What do you think?
Jump to:
- (00:00) - AUDIO 07 Kate Lister
- (01:28) - "Girls will be girls": women as the emotionally unstable, hypersexed gender
- (03:58) - Why is women's sexuality so much more policed th an men's?
- (06:02) - The medicalisation and pathologizing of sexuality or the Victorian terror of masturbation
- (09:52) - The wandering womb
- (11:38) - Women as baby-crazed, emotional beings
- (13:42) - Are we talking about the menopause too much?
- (14:53) - The first woman to describe a female orgasm (she was a medieval nun)
- (19:52) - "Sex means putting a penis into something"
- (22:30) - Why lesbians have been relatively left alone
- (25:53) - The invention of privacy
- (28:24) - Victorian middle-class morality and the angel in the house
- (32:04) - Empire and the racialisation of female purity
- (34:56) - "Go and ask your mother"
- (39:21) - Where does a sex historian find sources?
- (41:01) - Why researching the history of pleasure matters
- (44:44) - The final question
- (47:34) - Conclusion
Get the book
🇬🇧 Buy the book in the UK: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/9178/9780857506436
🇺🇸 Shop in the US bookstore (Flick is not yet published in the US)
(Affiliate bookshop.org links support Broad History and indie bookstores.)
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- 0:00AUDIO 07 Kate Lister
- 1:28"Girls will be girls": women as the emotionally unstable, hypersexed gender
- 3:58Why is women's sexuality so much more policed th an men's?
- 6:02The medicalisation and pathologizing of sexuality or the Victorian terror of masturbation
- 9:52The wandering womb
- 11:38Women as baby-crazed, emotional beings
- 13:42Are we talking about the menopause too much?
- 14:53The first woman to describe a female orgasm (she was a medieval nun)
- 19:52"Sex means putting a penis into something"
- 22:30Why lesbians have been relatively left alone
- 25:53The invention of privacy
- 28:24Victorian middle-class morality and the angel in the house
- 32:04Empire and the racialisation of female purity
- 34:56"Go and ask your mother"
- 39:21Where does a sex historian find sources?
- 41:01Why researching the history of pleasure matters
- 44:44The final question
- 47:34Conclusion