Tag: prostitution

(Sexual) Labour Day

By Julia Laite April 30, 2014 Sexual Labour, United Kingdom 3 comments

Julia Laite I’ve often said that researching prostitution makes me more of a labour historian than a historian of sexuality. Despite having typically been lumped into the same categories as homosexuality and other perceived sexual deviances, women who sold sex in the past connected their actions not to their sexuality but to […]

Beards, Real Men, and Poseurs: male sexuality and fashion since around 1900

By Julia Laite April 8, 2014 History of Sexuality 7 comments

Julia Laite A recent post by regular blogger Nikki Daniels (‘An open letter to bearded hipsters’) that has made the usual rounds of facebook and twitter has got me thinking about how male fashion has long been central to the way we define what it means to be a ‘real’ man. The blogger wrote about […]

The Censorship of Female Pleasure: Cleland, Charlie Countryman, Cunnilingus

By Katelyn Dykerman March 20, 2014 Early Modern 0 comments

Katelyn Dykstra Dykerman What is it about a woman enjoying herself that is so threatening? It is not an idle question. Female pleasure, and female sexuality, seem to be cause for confusion, as well as a particular kind of hand-wringing, censor-inducing, violence-spurring anxiety. A few months ago, Evan Rachel Wood took to twitter […]

Valentine’s as Prostitution, Marriage as a Trade: Commerce, Sex, History (and a recipe)

By Julia Laite February 14, 2014 Sexual Labour 2 comments

Julia Laite The only thing that I like about Valentine’s Day is the fact that it comes along with my family’s tradition of making a chocolate torte that is basically nothing but butter, eggs, ground almonds, and sugar, which I eat for breakfast.[1] Growing up in Canada, Valentine’s was a […]

Immigration, sexuality and ‘British’ identity: contrasts and continuities

By Simon Jenkins January 16, 2014 United Kingdom 6 comments

Simon Jenkins As Britain approaches the 2015 general election, debates over immigration are taking shape to play a decisive role. The lifting of migration controls on Bulgaria and Romania has been met by anxieties over large numbers of migrants entering Britain’s shores, echoing responses to eastern European migrants a decade […]