When people are asked about the most prudish time in history, most people immediately think of the Victorian Age. Known for its high collars, fancy dress and focus 
on image and class, the Victorian era is well known for being a bit stiff. While it’s true that the culture was one where purity reigned supreme, that didn’t mean they were above discussing sex on a regular basis. Sex manuals, books and other literature was widely published and some of the advice survives today in one form or another. Here we’ll take a look at 5 of the weirdest pieces of sex advice, some of which still affects our sexual attitudes today.
- Competing for the Best Orgasm
In the 1850s Eugene Becklard, a French physiologist, published a book called “Becklard’s Physiology: Physiological mysteries and revelations in love, courtship and marriage”. The book offered up advice and education on sexual relations and dubious insights into how the body works. One of his theories was that when a couple had sex that resulted in conception, the child would end up being more like whichever partner had experienced the more intense orgasm.
- Masturbation Leads to the Asylum
Myths about masturbation from this era are fairly well known, but the pervasiveness of them is sometimes overlooked. While we may laugh at the idea of anyone believing masturbation would lead to blindness, madness or even death, during the Victorian Era these beliefs were treated as medical facts. There were dozens of different devices sold to prevent children and adults from masturbating and even alarms that could be rigged up to a person’s bed which would alert parents or spouses in other rooms to what was happening. This attitude towards masturbation would certainly mellow but, even today, there are a number of conservative organizations which claim the practice is unhealthy.
- Lie Back and Think of England
Women were rarely encouraged to enjoy sex during marriage. According to the infamous “Instruction and Advice for the Young Bride” there are three rules when it comes to marital sex: Give little, give seldom and … give grudgingly. To engage in sex happily or with any sort of enthusiasm was thought to lead down a path of debauchery and would eventually lead to the erosion of the marriage itself. This particular attitude about women and sex wouldn’t change a whole lot until the 1950s and 60s.
- Don’t Move!
Sex for Victorians was usually about creating offspring and less often about just having fun. As a result, there are a number of articles and books about ways to help improve your chances of getting pregnant and, as a result, of not having to have sex as often. But the advice on how to improve conception was rarely as fun as Becklard’s orgasm competition. Pieces of advice for successful conception included:
- Laying very still throughout the sexual encounter
- Not sneezing or coughing after sex
- Remaining silent during and after sex as talking could ruin conception
- Having sex only on flat surfaces
- Strictly missionary position only
- It’s Gotta Be Dark
Who doesn’t like a bit of (flattering) mood lighting to enhance the mood? While most people today stick to candles and soft lighting, Victorians typically opted for total blackout. In “Instruction and Advice for the Young Bride” the author recommends allowing husbands to stumble around in the dark so as not to be seen as encouraging an orgy like approach to sex.
These sexual attitudes strike us as ridiculous today but, at the time, they were taken very seriously. While the Victorians did all they could to suppress their natural desires, the truth was that there was already a thriving pornography industry operating beneath the surface. In many cases, the rigidity of these bits of sexual advice and “education” prove just how strong human sexuality is. Not even the efforts of an entire culture movement could suppress it for long.
