Now that’s an arresting image, isn’t it? Why, that Victorian-era gentleman has his hands right up her skirt and, you know, it looks almost like the good Dr Swift is rummaging around in her bloomers and….you know…?

At this point, we really need to dispense with anything resembling decorum. It looks like he’s tossing her off, doesn’t it? That’s right. And there’s a really good explanation for why it looks like he’s tossing her off too. It’s because that’s exactly what he’s doing. Allow me to explain…

Nowadays we have lots of helpful terms for mental disorders affecting women. Typical examples include PMS, anxiety, depression, Bipolar and lots of other sexy diagnostic terms. The sort of thing we’d expect to see treated with anti-depressants, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and all those other groovy 21st century things. None of these treatments existed in the 19th century, when the good Dr Swift was practising, however. Because of that, treatment of women’s ailments were dramatically different. Rather than thinking that all of these ailments were mental disorders, our Victorian ancestors were convinced there was a physical cause for them- namely “hysteria”. Hysteria was a blanket term used to explain a whole swathe of inconvenient behaviour in women, ranging from expressions of sexual desire (because women were considered essentially sexless at the time) through crippling depression, right up to really outlandish behaviour like wanting the vote- and it was all believed to be caused by misalignment of the uterus.

What do you do if something is considered misaligned? Try to move it? That sounds logical, doesn’t it? And while uteruses are a bit buried away in an inconvenient internal location, what if you did the next best thing by giving something vaguely near it a jolly good rubbing? That should work. And the vaguely nearby thing they gave a good rubbing was the Lady Garden.

And that’s why, in the 19th century, respectable middle-to-upper class women experiencing a range of mental disorders could hire a respectable professional man of medicine to cure it by ensuring their wombs were correctly aligned. By giving their foofoo a really good rubbing until a “hysterical paroxysm” was achieved and everything was better. In case you were wondering what a “hysterical paroxysm” is, it’s the sort of thing we’d now refer to as a “thunderously massive orgasm.” And these good doctors had many, many satisfied female clients too, which should probably surprise nobody. It’s probably not very surprising given the attitudes to sexuality at the time, which saw the serious marketing of anti-masturbation devices like this one-

So a whole industry sprung up around this notion that just about any troubling behaviour in women was caused by “hysteria”. We have no reliable data on whether any of the female patients actually experienced any degree of cure from these professionally-administered handjobs, but I’ll bet it probably cheered them up for a bit.
Science got a look-in too, as doctors sought a more efficient way of delivering those paroxysms (probably experiencing repetitive strain injuries in their wrists)- this lead to the invention of vibrators. At first they were clockwork, but before the advent of the electrical versions there were even some alarming-looking steam powered devices

If that brings to mind an image of a stoker frantically shovelling coal into its smoke-belching boiler as its pistons shriek under the strain, well that’s Victorian romance for you.

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As cities across the U.S. are celebrating Pride this month, I wanted to spotlight one of my favorite queer literary icons: Oscar Wilde. Wilde was an Anglo-Irish writer best known for classic literary works like his satirical play The Importance of Being Earnest and his Gothic tale The Picture of Dorian Gray, as well as for his tragic downfall when he was put on trial for the "crime" of homosexuality. Before all of this, however, Oscar Wilde was largely known as the face of the Aesthetic Movement.

Aestheticism was a movement in art and literature during the 19th century that emphasized beauty and "art for art's sake," rather than the need for art to have a deeper meaning or utilitarian purpose. It was also strongly associated with decadence and dandyism. Wilde was introduced to these ideals by his tutors at Oxford and he soon began to embody them in his writings and in his daily life.

By the 1880s, Aestheticism was both highly popular and often mocked or ridiculed. In 1881, the famous theater duo Gilbert and Sullivan produced a comic opera called Patience, which satired the movement. In a clever marketing move, a friend of the theater invited Oscar Wilde to go on a lecture tour of America and be the poster boy for Aestheticism, so that American audiences could recognize what was being mocked in the opera. While aware that he was being set up to be made fun of, Wilde accepted the invitation and thus launched his lucrative career as a public figure.

The flamboyant image that we have of Oscar Wilde today was largely cultivated during this 1882 lecture tour. Many of the famous photographs of Oscar Wilde with long flowing hair and dressed in luxuriant velvet or fur-lined coats were taken by the American photographer Napoleon Sarony. Wilde was caricatured incessantly in American magazines, but his audiences loved him. When Wilde returned to Europe, he continued to lecture on art and fashion and dabbled in journalism. It was with the publication of The Picture of Dorian Gray in 1890, however, that he became a literary sensation.

At the height of Oscar Wilde's career, everything suddenly came crashing down. In 1895, the father of one of Wilde's male lovers had him arrested on charges of sodomy and "gross indecency." Wilde's literary works were used against him in court, as evidence of his homosexuality and general lack of morals. Wilde used the philosophy of Aestheticism in his defense, claiming that "No work of art ever puts forth views. Views belong to people who are not artists." While his answers entertained the audience at his trial, they were ultimately not enough to save him. Wilde was found guilty on the charge of gross indecency and sentenced to two years hard labor. After being released from prison, he fled to Paris and died in poverty a few years later.

While his story has a sad ending, Oscar Wilde's image will always be one associated with beauty and decadence. What are your thoughts on Oscar Wilde and the Aesthetic Movement? Let us know in the comments!



Written By: TheGothicLibrarian

Announced for Dark Side Of The Con!



The Dreaming / Stabbing Westward

From the ashes of Stabbing Westward – The Dreaming is an LA based electronic rock band signed to Metropolis Records. Featuring members of Stabbing Westward, Christopher Hall and Walter Flakus, The Dreaming will be performing some Stabbing Westward classics for Dark Side Of The Con as a headline performance!
In addition, Stabbing Westward has agreed to do a special intimate acoustic-electric set which is available as a separate ticket which is limited to 75 tickets.
The Dreaming on VampireFreaks

Also performing at Dark Side Of the Con:

Aesthetic Perfection
Bella Morte
Ego Likeness
Panzie
The Rain WIthin
Adoration Destroyed
Interface
Third Realm
The Long Losts
Spider Lilies
nTTx
Abbey Death

More announcements coming soon!