Talk Dirty - Victorian Style

Living in the sexually liberated 21st century, where we are accustomed to being open, honest and 'authentic', we usually assume that the Victorians were uptight and prudish. We imagne tea parties, dinners and dances with women dressed in constricting stiff crinoline and whalebone, where only polite conversation was allowed. Are our assumptions accurate?

The Victorian era lasted as long as the reign of Queen Victoria - from 1837-1901; it was a time when women wore bathing garments even in the privacy of their own bath. The hems of Victorian skirts went to the floor, and the mere glimpse of a woman's ankle or leg was risqué. Victorians even pulled stockings over the legs of their pianos!

Sex was to be engaged in only within a marriage, as a means for producing children and heirs to the family name. It was a regular custom for married, upper class Victorian couples to have their own bedrooms.

It was a different story outside of aristocratic, 'polite' society. Sex before marriage was common among the poorer classes as was the use of vulgar slang.

A gentleman parched for sex would not be averse to consorting with prostitutes or keeping a mistress, so vulgar, sexual slang would also have been used by polite gentlemen looking for a quick roll in the hay - a bit of dirty sex that they could keep nice and separate from their respectable, polite marriage and social life.

Prostitutes and procuring love for money were rife in the Victorian era. Prostitution was big business in Victorian cities. You had toffers (upscale prostitutes) and bawd-houses ranging from gritty, cheap affairs to fancy brothels catering to exotic, expensive or even simply mundane tastes. Prostitution was a common outlet for a man frustrated with the inhibition of polite Victorian ladies. 

Mistresses (known as one's 'Convenient') were not uncommon - a mistress being a lover you had alongside your wife, who was 'kept' with housing, money and presents. A mistress could range from a woman well-versed in arts and educated conversation to a street girl, but a mistress was - at least to her benefactor - a prostitute who only had one client - the benefactor.

Sexual slang offered Victorians a form of protection. If a gentleman wanted to hook up with a woman, he could use victorian slang as a kind of code. Using real words could lead to potential embarrassment, but the intricacies of Victorian sexual slang would mean no embarrassment or harm done either way. A polite woman wouldn't understand what he was talking about, and a naughty lady would nod understandingly and take his hand.

Come back on Friday for a list of Victorian sexual slang words...  

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