Female Sexual Agency as a plot point (French novels / Wanton Dairymaid)
DiscussãoRegency Romance
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1parlerodermime
It seems a relatively common for regency-era heroines who have some knowledge of sex to have it based on reading "French novels," but I stumbled on a new trope: books about dairymaids.
In Tessa Dare's Goddess of the Hunt & Surrender of the Siren, there is a book about a Wanton Dairymaid that the heroines find instructional.
While in Eva Leigh's Temptations of a Wallflower, the heroine initially had a "French book" misdelivered to her: La secrete de la fille de laiterie - The Dairymaid's Secret by Jean-Louis LeBrun
Is Eva Leigh referencing Tessa Dare's Wanton Dairymaid invention, or is this a true historical phenomena? Were dairymaids more likely to be sexualized in the regency era? (Due to the relative freedom of common-class women + the fact that their work involves udders??)
In Tessa Dare's Goddess of the Hunt & Surrender of the Siren, there is a book about a Wanton Dairymaid that the heroines find instructional.
While in Eva Leigh's Temptations of a Wallflower, the heroine initially had a "French book" misdelivered to her: La secrete de la fille de laiterie - The Dairymaid's Secret by Jean-Louis LeBrun
Is Eva Leigh referencing Tessa Dare's Wanton Dairymaid invention, or is this a true historical phenomena? Were dairymaids more likely to be sexualized in the regency era? (Due to the relative freedom of common-class women + the fact that their work involves udders??)
2spiralsheep
>1 parlerodermime: Through much of Early Modern European history the working class women were seen as more sexually available, yes. Dairy maids who went into nearby towns or cities to sell their wares also sometimes sold their bodies (more famous vendors would include Nell Gwyn who was supposedly an orange seller when she became King Charles II's mistress). I'm not sure the udders are relevant though as seamstresses and ladies' maids were also supposedly free with their favours. Of course, all these women were also in positions where they were more vulnerable to sexual assault than protected middle class women.
Not Regency but... I just finished reading the 1658 pick-up manual The Mysteries of Love & Eloquence, or, The arts of wooing and complementing as they are manag'd in the Spring Garden, Hide Park, the New Exchange, and other eminent places : a work in which is drawn to the life the deportments of the most accomplisht persons, the mode of their courtly entertainments, treatments of their ladies at balls, their accustom'd sports, drolls and fancies, the witchcrafts of their perswasive language in their approaches, or other more secret dispatches. The book includes many examples of poorer women supposedly being freer in their behaviour.
The "polite society" imposed by women in the 18th century is usually seen by historians as a reaction to earlier less, ahem, "polite" behaviour.
Not Regency but... I just finished reading the 1658 pick-up manual The Mysteries of Love & Eloquence, or, The arts of wooing and complementing as they are manag'd in the Spring Garden, Hide Park, the New Exchange, and other eminent places : a work in which is drawn to the life the deportments of the most accomplisht persons, the mode of their courtly entertainments, treatments of their ladies at balls, their accustom'd sports, drolls and fancies, the witchcrafts of their perswasive language in their approaches, or other more secret dispatches. The book includes many examples of poorer women supposedly being freer in their behaviour.
The "polite society" imposed by women in the 18th century is usually seen by historians as a reaction to earlier less, ahem, "polite" behaviour.
3spiralsheep
>1 parlerodermime: And there's the whole shepherdess trope... which someone else can cover, lol. From classical antiquity to Marie Antoinette playing dress-up.
