Episode Details

A History of Lesbian Sex in Pornography The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 225 with Heather Rose Jones

Note: This episode has an accompanying slide show, which can be accessed through the YouTube version of the podcast. (See transcript link.) Please note that the video includes explicit sexual imagery.

In this episode we talk about:

• A brief history of pornography/erotica as a social and legal category
• The varied and changing place of sex between women in pornography
• The rise of pornography as a socio-political force across the 18th and 19th centuries
• The intertwined history of pornography and sensational medical literature
• How pornography of the “decadent” era both objectified lesbian sex and opened doors to lesbian self-representation
• Images—all images are sincerely believed to be in the public domain, based on the evidence cited in Wikimedia, which is linked when available.
  • 1. From Jean-Charles de Latouche(?) Histoire de Dom Bougre, portier des Chartreux 1748
  • 2. From I Modi (The modes), sonnet by Pietro Aretino art by Marcantonio Raimondi, mid-16th c
  • 3. Marcantonio Raimondi Woman with a dildo mid-16th c
  • 4. Johann Heinrich Tischbein Diana & Callisto 18th c
  • 5. Pompeii - fresco in a bathhouse
  • 6. Illustration of “sodomites” from a Bible Moralisée Vienna MS 2554
  • 7. Jean Mignon Women bathing ca. 1535-1555
  • 8. Nicholas Chorier L’Academie des Dames 1660
  • 9. L’Ecole des filles (The School for Venus) 19th c. illustration
  • 10. Jean Barrin Venus dans le Cloitre, ou La Religieuse en Chemise (Venus in the Convent) 1683
  • 11. Delarivere Manley The New Atalantis 1714
  • 12. Denis Diderot La Religieuse (The Nun) 1797 edition
  • 13. Thérèse Philosophe (Therese the Philosopher) 1748
  • 14. From Jean-Charles de Latouche(?) Histoire de Dom Bougre, portier des Chartreux 1748
  • 15. Illustration from Giacomo Casanova A History of My Life by Jules-Adolphe Chauvet, late 19th c illustration for 18th c text
  • 16. Marquis de Sade Juliette 1797
  • 17. Illustration from Le paysan ét la paysane pervertis; ou Les dangérs de la ville (The Perverted Peasant-man and Peasant-woman; or the Dangers of the Town by Restif de La Bretonne 1787
  • 18. Political attack pamphlet showing Queen Marie Antoinette in a lesbian embrace
  • 19. Political attack pamphlet showing Queen Marie Antoinette in a lesbian embrace