Transcript Slide 1
POPULAR CULTURE IN
THE EARLY MODERN
PERIOD
-sexuality, marriage,
terminology
POPULAR CULTURE
• locality, age, gender, religion,
class.
• ambiguous, complex,
contradictory, divided, dynamic,
fluid, fractured, gendered, hybrid,
interacting, multiple, overlapping,
plural, resistant, shared.
SEXUALITY
Women were often the focus of
differing interpretations of
sexuality and were physically
considered to be ‘deviant’
males.
SEX
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marriage
sex
sex
marriage
pregnant bride
OK
Meadows, ditches, hedges, stiles,
barns, dairies, master’s house, woods,
inns, alehouses, churchyards, woman’s
home
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Through friends
Relatives
As servants
Sent letters
Segregated in church
Kissing, fondling, groping
Unrequited love, romantic love,
quarrels
• Troubled courtships
TERMINOLOGY
• Sex as an act of war
• Siege
• Entered
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Bang
Beat
Charge
Grill
Grind
Hit
Knock
Mount
Pierce
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Poke
Punch
Ram
Ride
Stab
Strike
Stuff
Thresh
Thump
MALE PENIS
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Arrow
Awl
Blade
Bolt
Club
Engine
Flail
Gun
Hammer
Hanger
Instrument
Knife
Ladle
Lance
Loom
Mast
Maypole
Oar
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Pestle
Pistol
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Plough
Pole
Rod
Rolling pin
Rudder
Shuttle
Sickle
Spade
Stake
Standard
Sword
Tool
Truncheon
Weapon
Whip
Yard
FEMALE GENITALS
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Box
Cabinet
Cage
Castle
Cave
Cellar
Chamber
Corner
Fishpond
Fort
Gap
Gash
Gate
Glove
Gulf
Hive
Mark
Mouth
Nick
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Oven
Pit
Port
Pot
Premises
Pulpit
Purse
Quagmire
Quiver
Room
Ruff
Scabbard
Shoe
Slit
Socket
Trench
Tub
Well
Wound
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Punching
Whore
Patriarchal
Unruly
Loose mouth
Cuckold
MARRIAGE
• Economic and emotional
• Guides and friends
• Patient, loving, sweet, modest, quiet,
obedient
• No divorce
• Twenties
• 20-25% thirties
• 3-4% women and 11-13% male under 20
• 25% never married
ILLEGITIMACY
• 30% illegitimate babies had already
married fathers
• Different types of illegitimacy
• 20-25% brides pregnant
RAPE
• Sexual freedom and satisfaction for
women
• Rape hard to prove
• Syphilis impacted on women’s
sexuality
ADULTERY
• Sex outside marriage
• Common in upper classes
• Female adultery worse because it
impacted on men
• Married women could be adulterers
while married men were just
‘fornicators’
HOMOSEXUALITY
• Did occur but seen as a behaviour
trait of an individual rather than
that of a group
• Did not impact upon a man’s
masculinity
PUNISHMENTS
• Church courts – premarital sex and
adultery
• Secular courts – illegitimacy whipped
WIDOWS AND SINGLE
WOMEN
• Unmarried women – suspect
• Sexual predators
• Women had to be ‘attached’ to a
male relative to be acceptable
Bibliography
Reay, Barry. Popular Cultures in England
1550-1750, Longman, London, 1998.