Category Archives: Sex

March 04

Karolina Widerström: at the Frontiers of Sexual Education

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On the 4th of March 1949, Swedish gynaecologist, sex educator and activist Karolina Olivia Widerström, died in Stockholm at the age of 93. She was the first official female physician with a university education in her country. Her best-known work was Kvinnohygien (Women’s hygiene), published in 1899, and reprinted until 1932. She was chairman of […]

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February 16

De Sade, Pornography and Women: A Reappraisal by Angela Carter

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On the 16th of February 1992, Angela Carter, one of England’s most valuable female writers of picaresque fiction, magical realism and cultural thought, died in London of lung cancer at the age of 51. In her obituary in The Telegraph, she was remembered for “the exuberant fantastic invention, the interest in archetypal fairytale patterns, and […]

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January 29

Vito Acconci’s ‘Seedbed’: Art and Pornography

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On the 29th of January 1971, the American performance artist, mostly known for his landscapes and architectural designs, Vito Acconci, finished his installation/performance piece, Seedbed. The installation took place in the Sonnabend Gallery in New York, where a special floor was constructed in the form of a ramp, over which the viewers walked. For two […]

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December 16

Denny Fouts – From Escort and Literary Muse to Gay Idol

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On the 16th of December 1948, Louis Denham Fouts died in Rome of a heart attack at the young age of 35 after years of excess – drugs, cigarettes, alcohol and a wild and promiscuous lifestyle. In the 1930s and ‘40s, he became notorious as America’s luxury gigolo, socialite and muse to literary greats such […]

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December 04

Jeanne Manford: Parenting and Homosexuality

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On the 4th of December 1920, schoolteacher and gay rights activist Jeanne Sobelson Manford was born in Queens, N.Y. She was known as the co-founder of the support group organization Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). In October 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama remembered Manford’s role in the establishment of PFLAG in […]

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November 17

Deviation and Art: The Eric Gill Case

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The urine of the stallion fertilises the fields more than all the chemicals of science. So, under Divine Providence, the excess of amorous nature fertilises the spiritual field. (Eric Gill) On the 17th of November 1940, British artist Eric Gill died of lung cancer in Hillingdon, UK. During his lifetime he was recognised for his […]

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November 02

Hite’s Sex Study that Aroused Feminists

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American-German sexologist Shere Hite was born on the 2nd of November 1942 in Missouri, U.S.A. In 1976, at the height of a second feminist wave in America, when she was still a young, unknown graduate student, she published The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality. The book sold some 50 million copies worldwide. […]

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