1. General

2. The female sexual object
     The fallen woman  

3. Homosexuality and erotica
     Alfred Gilbert    Schoolboy homosexuality     The trials of Oscar Wilde  

4. Lesbian erotica

5. Pornography

6. References

General

Art and Literature provided Victorians with an avenue to express transgressive and repressed sexual desire.^[6][7] Sex was a prominent feature in much of Victorian art,^[5] especially in theatre and literature. Sex was often illustrated by stories of deviance and scandal.^[7][8] It is argued that some Victorian erotica rests on techniques of implication and allusion to sexual desires and activity,^[9] such in the cases of Wilde's, Dicken's, and Field's works. Yet, there are also explicitly sexual works, as compiled in Henry Spencer Ashbee's Forbidden Book’s of the Victorians, in which the books describe sex in much detail. Victorian erotic works include The Romance of Lust, My Secret Life, and Venus in Furs. Additional Victorian artists and authors include Audrey Beardsley and George Eliot.

The female sexual object

A main component of Victorian Erotica was the female sexual object. At this time, sex roles between men and women were being developed and redefined.^[3] Women were increasingly being defined in terms of femininity, subordination, and were becoming the object of sexual desire.^[5] Aesthetic and medical procedures were targeting women to accentuate their sex appeal.^[3] In real Victorian life, female's sexuality was problematic, and was only to be expressed in terms of domestic life.^[3]

On the stage, in art, or in literature, women were inscribed with sexuality, positioned as the sexual object.^[10] Societal expectations tied women to ideas of purity and virginity.^[2][3] Erotic plot lines and themes sought to shatter these expectations, crafting women as whores, prostitutes, and adulterers.^[10] Women were symbol of vice and temptation.^[5] Men were thought to be victims of the female seductress, and were the primary spectators and consumers of the female erotic.^[10]

Erotic stimulation was usually implied or suggested.^[10] The female erotic was marked through clothing, hairstyles, corseted silhouettes, and headgear.^[10] Explicit nudity was rare, with arousal coming from the process of uncovering.^[11] Rather than the breast or buttocks, legs were a major source of sexual arousal.^[11] Veiling and silhouetting were popular modes of titillation, with brief uncovering of legs, or silhouettes outlines of naked women creating voyeuristic arousal.^[12]  

The fallen woman

The fallen woman was a key stereotype for Victorian Erotica. The fallen woman was characterised in opposition to the Victorian moral standard for women.^[11] Women were expected to be sexually pure and virtuous, with their role being mothers and domestic caregivers.^[3] The fallen woman was a prostitute, sexual deviant, or wife unable to perform her domestic duties.^[11] This woman, whether driven by economic problems or greed, was though to have fallen from virtue. Social anxieties over the sexuality and independence of women produced the image of the fallen woman.^[11] Erotic images and narratives often portrayed these fallen women needing to be rescued from her vices, and to be reformed into the proper position in family life.^[11]

The fallen woman is features in much of Victorian erotic works, including works by Thomas Hardy, Augustus Egg, and William Bell Scott.

Homosexuality and erotica

Before sexologists like Karl Ulrich, Benkert, and Havelock Ellis started to define sexual identities in the 19th century, the category of homosexuality was virtually non-existent.^[13] Homosexuality arose out of Victorian beliefs that heterosexuality was normal and natural.^[1][3] Male sexuality was not as much of a problem as female sexuality, yet was still defined in terms of prescribed gender roles.^[3] There were few categories for male sexuality, being the fertile and continental man,^[14] and there was a social expectation that men should find an innocent and pure female partner.^[3] Homosexuality was the primary form of male sexual deviance.^[14] Prior to sexual cataloguing, intimate and emotional relationships between men were normal.^[1] As discussions of homosexuality were brought to the mainstream, these relationships became suspicious.^[1] Homosexuality was a threat to heterosexuality and symbolised unnatural sexual desire.^[1][3] Homosexuality in the Victorian era had series legal repercussions, resulting in imprisonment or the death penalty.^[15] Homosexuality was then casual, with it developing as a subclass in society, rather than a lifestyle.^[1] Often, homosexual activity had political, not local repercussions, and could be overlooked if it were hidden.^[15]

Art and literature allowed the construction and expression of the homosexual identity.^[14][16] Art and literature were the primary mode in which positive images of homosexuality could be produced.^[17] Sculpture and art allowed the male body to be beautiful, and the male naked body featured yearly in The Royal Academy.^[17] Homosexual artists such as Pater, Wilde, Symonds, and Solomon, threaded homosexual themes and identities through their work.^[18] Homosexual themes were common in Victorian art, and were accepted in society if they were subtle.

Examples of homosexual erotica include Solomon’s The Bride. The Bride depicts a man peripherally touching another man, while embracing a woman. Additionally, Wilde’s uses homosexual undertones in the Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde alludes to homosexual tendencies throughout the novel. Other forms of Victorian homosexual erotic include Two College Friends by Frederick W. Loring, depicting a romantic relationship between a college student and professor.

More explicit forms of homoerotic art from the Victorian era, include:

Don Leon by Lord Byron. Don Leon explores what it is life to be homosexual in the Victorian Era, describing themes of guilt, secrecy, and shame. Lord Byron is known for writing about sodomy and championing homosexual acceptance.

Alfred Gilbert

The Shaftesbury memorial by Gilbert caused moral scandal and outrage, as the sculpture was deemed subversive of heterosexual standards of the time.^[18]

Schoolboy homosexuality 

The trials of Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was a famous Victorian author who was trialed three times for Victorian homosexual 'crimes' in 1895.^[20] This was a significant case, as legal punishment in Britain for homosexuality were rare.^[20] This case was deemed by Adut^[15] as unusual, because Wilde's homosexuality was widely known prior to his trials. Most of his written work were inclusive of homosexual themes, depicted through the characters and plot lines.^[15] It seemed the public accepted Wilde's covert homosexuality, and he remained publicly popular until he was arrested.^[15] Wilde was found guilty for “acts of indecency”,^[15] and convicted and imprisoned, where the harsh conditions of the prison were thought to have contributed to his death.^[20][15] Wilde's figure emerged from these trials as a significant marker for homosexual identity in the Victorian period.^[20]  

Lesbian erotica

In the Victorian period, loving relationships between women were thought of as romantic friendships.^[9] The term "lesbian", was not used in the Victorian period, rather lesbian relationships were undefined and covert.^[70] Unlike male to male friendships, intimate female friendships were considered normal, due to feminized gender roles.^[9] Female sexuality was understated, with dominant perceptions claiming women lacked sexual passion.^[3] Havelock Ellis in The Sexual Inversion cautioned women, "that sexual desires might arise for another women without them knowing.^[70]" This is argued to reflect a social anxiety over female pleasure, and is contrary to the reality reflected in Victorian works.^[9] It is also argued that women feigned ignorance of sexuality between women as a weapon against social expectation and discrimination.^[21]

School Life in Paris, (1897). This is a book made from a complication of letters from a young British girl, who boarding at a finishing school in Paris, sent letters to her cousin in England. These letters are erotically descriptive, especially of clothing, and describes her mistress as “handsome”. The letters also include an explicit scene in which Blanche had to lay naked on her dorm bed, as an initiation into the school's “lesbian society”.  

Other Lesbian erotic works include The Nunnery Tales (1886), Astrid Cane (1891), and The Mysteries of Verbena House.

Pornography

In the Victorian period, pornography on the market boomed, and was produced in abundance.^[1] Before 1864, pornography was described as “obscenity”.^[22] Only in 1864 was the word “pornography” placed in the dictionary.^[1] Pornography was not a clear cut genre, but a general category of sexual explicitness.^[22] There were political concerns that pornography “corrupted private morality” disturbing social order.^[22]  For the Victorians, pornography was a medium in which they could illustrate repressed and controlled sexual fantasy and desire.^[23]  

Victorian pornography often depicted the rape, abduction, and subordination of women.^[23] Cases and trials of sexual misconduct were a class of their own.^[2] Castration was also a theme of Victorian pornography, with it being alluded to the male orgasm.^[22] Female characters would threaten to dismember a penis in the high of orgasm, like in By Force of Instinct (1883) by Abigail Reynolds^[23] and The Lustful Turk.^[23]

Obscene Publications Act 1857 – There was Victorian legislation against pornography, but it was against its distribution and sale, rather than its possession.

References

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