El Pais: No oral sex in the Middle Ages

[China]

No oral sex in the Middle Ages

 

A gripping book by British historian Katherine Harvey documents what went on between the sheets in the Middle Ages

 

In reality, we only have vague and contradictory ideas about sex in medieval times. That’s why British historian Katherine Harvey’s book The Fires of Lust: Sex in the Middle Ages is so interesting. Harvey begins by debunking some persistent myths about sex in the Middle Ages, such as beliefs that medieval times resembled a Game of Thrones-like “anything goes” scenario; that the period was defined by the droit du seigneur (as in Warlord); or that it was governed by the chastity belt (which calls to mind Monica Vitti in On My Way to the Crusades I Met a Girl Who…. In the scene, she sits down in a rage with a clanging sound after her husband – who is leaving to join the Crusades – puts the contraption on her. But the historian also warns that it would be a mistake to believe that Europeans between 1100 and 1500 had sex in the same way we do, even if sex is a universal human impulse. While the human body and its physical capabilities have not changed much over the past millennia, she argues that there have been significant transformations in how people view, understand and experience sex.

 

One fundamental distinction is the medieval tendency to emphasize active (implicitly male) and passive (female) sexual roles. Sex was something that men did to women. That doesn’t mean that the medieval woman was just expected to lie on her back and think of England, although it was significant that the man did the penetrating while the woman was penetrated. In fact, sex between women was only considered to be sex if one of them used an object to penetrate the other. Other forms of sex between women were legally unknown, and it appears that many people did not really understand what they could do with each other.

 

Other sexual practices that are relatively commonplace today are similarly absent from the historical record, indicating that they were very rare during the Middle Ages. Harvey notes that there are no traces of oral sex in the documents. “It may be that it seemed especially repugnant to a society that associated the upper body with God and morality, while the lower body was linked to filth and sin. To put the mouth in direct contact with the genitals was to defile an organ [the mouth] made for better things.” It is possible that a lack of hygiene played a role here. It seems that interfemoral intercourse – sex with the penis between the woman’s legs but without penetration – was very popular. That method, however, was frowned upon in homosexual male sex: in 1357, Nicletus Marmanga and Johannes Braganza were sentenced to death at the stake for engaging in the practice.

 

Informed by Roman Catholic Christianity and Galenic medicine, medieval sexual knowledge was concerned about questions such as whether Adam and Eve had sex in paradise, whether she menstruated before the Fall, and whether he had wet dreams. These weren’t minor issues; they were of great concern to the abbess and scholar Hildegard of Bingen and especially to St. Augustine, who believed that all sex was sinful, and that orgasms made you stupid. The obsession with (female) virginity was such that the mystic Margery Kempe thought only of being a virgin, despite having birthed 14 children. However, from a health perspective, it was thought that some sex was good for a woman. According to the medieval theory of humors, women were cold by nature, and sex provided a woman with warmth. Defloration was a critical moment. Women were subject to virginity tests, and women devised ingenious methods to bypass them, such as putting leeches in their vagina the day before the wedding to deceive their husbands with the flow of blood that night.

 

People generally believed that women could only get pregnant through sex in the missionary position. It was commonly suggested that a man should stay on top of the woman for at least an hour, even if he (or she) was bored. Women were believed to produce a seed when they orgasmed. Common wisdom in the Middle Ages held that men and women needed to climax almost simultaneously (ladies first) for conception to occur.

 

More interesting positions during sex could cause physical defects in the babies; some circumstances could even cause a woman to give birth to a toad. Sex with the woman on top and sex from behind were regarded as particularly egregious positions; the latter was associated with animals. Women who had twins were believed to have been with two men. Sometimes, adultery was punished with severe penalties, including death.

 

In the early Middle Ages, bestiality was considered a minor crime, the equivalent of masturbation. But as the belief in witches and their dealings with the devil in the form of an animal became official thought, sex with an animal came to be both a sin and a crime of heresy. At that point, it was customary to execute both the sinner and the animal.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[LadySkinsFan]

All I can say is thank goodness I live in the present where we know so much more.

[fullnelson9999]

Imagine being the person that invented oral sex.

[Larry]

Never thought I'd say it.  

 

But good thing I am no longer middle aged.  

 

[PleaseBlitz]

14 minutes ago, fullnelson9999 said:

Imagine being the person that invented oral sex.

 

This is going directly into every group text I am on, with zero context. 

[fullnelson9999]

4 minutes ago, PleaseBlitz said:

 

This is going directly into every group text I am on, with zero context. 

 

Good luck to you sir. lol

[Renegade7]

Truly the Dark Ages, if there was ever a doubt...

 

Now, is this specific to Mideval Europe, because I'm not buying that's true for the rest of the world.

[Sacks 'n' Stuff]

Oh bull****. Johan Gutenberg was straight feeding it to Joan of arc. I’m also pretty sure I remember Charlemagne being quoted as telling some buxom wench “On your knees ****. Happy Middle Ages!!”

Edited November 16, 2022 by Sacks 'n' Stuff

[CousinsCowgirl84]

8 minutes ago, Renegade7 said:

Truly the Dark Ages, if there was ever a doubt...

 

Now, is this specific to Mideval Europe, because I'm not buying that's true for the rest of the world.

Pretty sure if you do the research you’ll find the Mayan empire was built on the back of oral sex.

[Renegade7]

3 minutes ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

Pretty sure if you do the research you’ll find the Mayan empire was built on the back of oral sex.

 

Yep, that's just for starters, no way that wasn't happening in Ancient Rome prior to Christianity and when they actually had indoor plumbing pretty commonly in their cities (something Europe for the most part forgot how to do for close to 1000 years after Western Rome fell)

[China]

8 minutes ago, Renegade7 said:

 

Yep, that's just for starters, no way that wasn't happening in Ancient Rome prior to Christianity and when they actually had indoor plumbing pretty commonly in their cities (something Europe for the most part forgot how to do for close to 1000 years after Western Rome fell)

 

If you've ever been to Pompeii, the brothel there has paintings that depict various sexual acts (including oral sex) that were used so customers could request specific services.

[mistertim]

"It's possible that a lack of hygiene played a role here"

 

Um, yeah.

 

Also..."It was commonly suggested that a man should stay on top of the woman for at least an hour, even if he (or she) was bored"

 

Like...doing what? Chatting about the weather?

[Riggo-toni]

1 hour ago, fullnelson9999 said:

Imagine being the person that invented oral sex.

Still not as big a pervert as the first guy to try dairy.

28 minutes ago, China said:

 

If you've ever been to Pompeii, the brothel there has paintings that depict various sexual acts (including oral sex) that were used so customers could request specific services.

Yeah, I was thinking about that too.

[Jabbyrwock]

2 hours ago, China said:

No oral sex in the Middle Ages

 

That blows.

[skinsmarydu]

1 minute ago, Jabbyrwock said:

 

That blows.

All I could come up with is Popeye:  "Well, blow me down..." 

[skinsmarydu]

36 minutes ago, mistertim said:

"It's possible that a lack of hygiene played a role here"

 

Um, yeah.

 

Also..."It was commonly suggested that a man should stay on top of the woman for at least an hour, even if he (or she) was bored"

 

Like...doing what? Chatting about the weather?

She's looking at the ceiling thinking, "We could use a coat of paint up there..."

[mistertim]

4 minutes ago, skinsmarydu said:

She's looking at the ceiling thinking, "We could use a coat of paint up there..."

 

For some reason this made me think of that scene from Monty Python's Meaning of Life when the teacher was doing a sex ed class and had his wife come in and had sex in front of the class and they were just talking normally and he was chastising students for not paying attention.  

 

I would add the video but there are boobies in it.

[Jabbyrwock]

4 minutes ago, mistertim said:

I would add the video but there are boobies in it.

 

Nice pair to

Spoiler

 

[TradeTheBeal!]

When was dentistry invented?

[CRobi21]

1 minute ago, TradeTheBeal! said:

When was dentistry invented?

 

And a follow up question: genital hygiene?

[mistertim]

2 hours ago, CRobi21 said:

 

And a follow up question: genital hygiene?

 

When was trimming invented? If you think 70s bush is impressive, wait till you see medieval bush.

[China]

7 minutes ago, mistertim said:

 

When was trimming invented? If you think 70s bush is impressive, wait till you see medieval bush.

 

And teeming with life.

[TradeTheBeal!]

 

[mistertim]

2 minutes ago, China said:

 

And teeming with life.

 

[China]

2 minutes ago, mistertim said:

 

 

Aren't you the spider guy?  Lice are arachnids.