In the eyes of pagans as well as Christians, women were cosmic, nocturnal, & infernal powers. Women’s menstrual cycles bound them to the cycles of the moon. Couples needed help to keep the moon from making the bride bleed every month. howsexgotscrewedup.com #HoneyMoon #WmnHist

In 744, the Council of Leptines had to outlaw paganism (again). In particular, it condemned the rituals,“vince luna,” that women used to end the eclipse of the moon, restore their fertility, or capture the hearts of men. howsexgotscrewedup.com #TransHistory #WmnHist

DYK until 1870 most doctors refused to treat nervous men because they believed they didn’t exist? Anxiety & #hysteria were emotional disorders for ladies only. Many medical professionals believed the cause was a #WanderingUterus. HowSexGotScrewedUp.com #GenderHistory #WmnHist

“contraceptives be made open to all. … Only upon a free, self-determining motherhood can rest any unshakable structure of racial betterment.” Ghosts of #WmnHist still haunt. HowSexGotScrewedUp.com #Equality #WomanRights

DYK the most common #BirthControl in the 1950s was sterilization? #MargaretSanger & #KatharineDexterMcCormick (in their 70s) developed the pill to offer women reversible contraception, preserve fertility, & prevent the need for #abortion. HowSexGotScrewedUp.com #HistSex #WmnHist

DYK David Reuben’s 1971 “Any Woman Can! — Love and Sexual Fulfillment for the Single, Widowed, Divorced … and Married” made all sorts of patriarchal claims such as the center of all women’s lives was to have kids. Ghosts of #WmnHist still haunt. #patriarchy

Men in traditional marriages communicated less & didn’t take responsibility for the couple’s emotional lives, expecting wives to be caretakers in exchange for bringing home the bacon, but economic dependency led to dishonesty & secrecy. HowSexGotScrewedUp.com #WmnHist

Hochschild found that only 1 of 5 husbands did an equal share. Seven of 10 did more than a third but less than half. One of 10 did less than an third. Men w/working wives had more control over their own time. Ghosts of #WmnHist still haunt. HowSexGotScrewedUp.com

“ Women expect sexual satisfaction, & the lay press has educated them to demand it.” Ghosts of #WmnHist still haunt. HowSexGotScrewedUp.com #patriarchy

They believed that their warmth & empathy could keep marriages stable. That would make the country secure & strengthen its fight against Communism. Ghosts of #WmnHist still haunt. HowSexGotScrewedUp.com #patriarchy

But #SexWork in NYC & other towns remained on the fringes of city life until 1820. All in all, there was little commercial sex in the colonies & early republic. Compared to Europe, it was quite rare. Ghosts of #WmnHist still haunt. HowSexGotScrewedUp.com #DecrimNow

DYK “How Sex Got Screwed Up” is now available as an eBook? To learn #GenderHistory& #HistSexof the world, including #QueerSex, #WmnHist, & #Zoophilia, go to VernonPress.com: Book One ISBN 978-1-62273-69-11 Book Two ISBN 978-1-62273-584-6

DYK Carol Cassell says this #HistSex, HOW SEX GOT SCREWED UP, is “…a masterpiece about “…why we feel and act the way we do about sex” from the #StoneAge to #MeToo? HowSexGotScrewedUp.com #GayMarriage #QueerHistory #QueerSex #SexWork #TrumpKKKristian #WmnHist #Zoophilia

Other parents left unwanted infants at the doors of monasteries. When these kids got a little older, they might choose to take lifetime vows of sexual #abstinence & obedience & join the monks or nuns who took care of them. HowSexGotScrewedUp.com #WmnHist

DYK it wasn’t until 1969 that #coverture came to an end in U.S. law? In “Eisenstadt v. Baird” Justice William J. Brennan declared that marriage was “an association of two individuals” & a wife was no longer an extension of her husband.
Ghosts of #WmnHist still haunt.

DYK “How Sex Got Screwed Up” is now available as an eBook? To learn #GenderHistory& #HistSexof the world, including #QueerSex, #WmnHist, & #Zoophilia, go to VernonPress.com: Book One ISBN 978-1-62273-69-11 Book Two ISBN 978-1-62273-584-6

“… no legal rights to any part of her husband’s earnings or property during the existence of the marriage, aside from a right to be properly supported.”
Ghosts of #WmnHist still haunt. HowSexGotScrewedUp.com #patriarchy

6. She doesn’t disturb her husband with “idle chatter”.
7. She respects her husband’s need for privacy.
Ghosts of #WmnHist still haunt. HowSexGotScrewedUp.com #patriarchy

DYK #Aristotle was such a misogynist that he taught mothers weren't parents? They just provided the soil of their wombs in which a man’s seed could grow. His daft idea prevailed in the medical profession for millennia. HowSexGotScrewedUp.com #GenderHistory #WmnHist

DYK novelist Émile Laurent (d.1897) described some women’s theft of silk as a #fetish & sexual turn on:

HowSexGotScrewedUp.com #HistSex #kleptomania #WmnHist