desire – History Gal

Rape Myths and their Pervasiveness in the 19th and 20th Centuries: Rape Myths and their Impact on the Victims

Rape Myths and their Pervasiveness in the 19^th and 20^th Centuries: Rape Myths and their Impact on the Victims

Rape myths permeated throughout the 19^th and 20^th centuries. Suggestions that, on some level, the victim “wanted it” and that “it is impossible to sheath a sword into a vibrating scabbard”, had consequences. Not only did these myths affect the attitudes and perceptions of the authorities involved in the prosecution and conviction of these crimes, it also impacted the victims’ experiences as well. This post will be focusing on this point and on the difficulties they faced when they attempted to report the assaults. Continue reading Rape Myths and their Pervasiveness in the 19th and 20th Centuries: Rape Myths and their Impact on the Victims

Jack the Ripper and British Attitudes to Sex and Murder: Sex and sexual violence

Jack the Ripper and The Whitechapel Murders have been a source of fascination for society for well over a century now. From the high circulation numbers of newspapers at the time to books and videos today, there is huge interest the murders. There are multiple aspects that have caused this, such as the mystery surrounding the murders which I covered in more detail in the previous post. One other aspect of this allurement was the murders’ connection to sex which, both at the time of the murders themselves and today has always captivated audiences. Continue reading Jack the Ripper and British Attitudes to Sex and Murder: Sex and sexual violence

Rape Myths and their Pervasiveness in the 19th and 20th Centuries: Rape myths and the Law

“It is impossible to sheath a sword into a vibrating scabbard.”[1]

“Women lie… false accusations are endemic.”[2]

“No does not always mean no.”[3]

“She was asking for it.”[4]

The examples above are some of the more pervasive rape myths around during the 19^th Century and well into the 20^th Century. The implication of these myths being that a woman cannot be raped if she does not want it to happen, thus, making it extremely difficult to prove it had happened. A few years ago, I wrote an essay on this topic and it is one that has certainly impacted the areas of research that I later went into and I wanted to share my findings here. Continue reading Rape Myths and their Pervasiveness in the 19th and 20th Centuries: Rape myths and the Law

Interview with Brian M. Watson

A while ago, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to ask Brian Watson a few questions. His area of research is the history of obscenity and porn and has written a book on the topic: Annals of Pornography: How porn became bad. Brian has also written several articles as well including one for Notches – (re)marks on the history of Sexuality. Continue reading Interview with Brian M. Watson