56
votes
Accepted
Were Alexander the Great and Hephaestion lovers?
The author of that particular claim appears to have been Diogenes the Cynic. This is the same man who was said to carry around a lantern in broad daylight, claiming to be (futilely) looking for an ...
- 119k
19
votes
Accepted
Was Celtic society promiscuous?
The perception that the Celts were promiscuous seems to be based on, at least in part, ancient writers’ interpretations of marital relationships and / or a superficial knowledge of Celtic customs and ...
- 108k
18
votes
Accepted
Kissing in early Icelandic law
If the kiss was between unmarried, heterosexual youths the boy would be criminally liable to the girl's father, guardian, or another male family member. "... if a woman was an aggrieved party and ...
- 27.7k
18
votes
Accepted
What are the "sexual causes" for the French Revolution cited in Wikipedia?
That section seems to have been added without any supporting citation by an anonymous user on 1 November 2019. Given France was a Catholic country in which polygamy was illegal at that time, I'd say ...
- 77.5k
18
votes
Accepted
Why was there so little information about sex in Eastern Block countries?
Was it "taboo"?
This is just not correct on a lot of levels.
First of all, the "Eastern bloc" was not a so much like a real 'bloc'. Differences existed for each and every country. Then over time, ...
- 81k
13
votes
Were Alexander the Great and Hephaestion lovers?
We do not know and cannot be sure. But it seems neither likely nor unlikely, but quite possible.
It seems as if many would like to get an answer that either gives the most intimate biographical ...
- 81k
12
votes
Why did emperors of India and China have so many mistresses?
I think you're finding this odd because you are looking at it from the point of view of your own culture, and assuming that is "normal". In fact, different cultures evolved with different standards ...
- 119k
12
votes
Were Alexander the Great and Hephaestion lovers?
As the author of the long quotation, let me address the issue of whether they remained lovers later. I say they may not, not because Alexander got married (he was almost 30 by the first marriage!), ...
- 121
12
votes
Accepted
How difficult would be to watch a porn movie in US/UK before the WW II?
Note: this answer relates to the Unites States unless otherwise stated.
Porn (stag) movies could be seen in brothels, and were also shown by secret societies, fraternities, American Legion chapters ...
- 108k
11
votes
Have breasts been proudly and publicly uncovered, in any culture, without general disapproval?
Umhlanga
A ceremony in which everyone dresses up, very colourfully, but curiously without any special attention to covering up any part of the breasts.
Reed Dance ceremony, is an annual Swazi and ...
- 81k
10
votes
Accepted
Six pregnant maidens from Kamchatka
I think I found Semyonov's "old book"! This is Sgibnev's Historical Essay of Most Important Events in Kamchatka, 1650-1855, published in 1869. The story there is more or less as follows:
On January ...
- 27.7k
10
votes
Accepted
Were there any ancient cultures that accepted homosexuality?
A note: it's important to draw a distinction between modern and ancient concepts of sexuality. Our paradigm where one is classified as somewhere on a spectrum between hetereosexual and homosexual ...
- 2,037
10
votes
Accepted
Have breasts been proudly and publicly uncovered, in any culture, without general disapproval?
Zambia - Kankanga Dance
This dance focuses very much on the breasts and is a coming of age celebration. It is practiced among the Ndembo, Northwestern Province. Scott D. Taylor in Culture and Customs ...
- 108k
9
votes
Was rape common in Europe during the Middle Ages?
The only honest answer to this question is We don't know.
To state that rape, or any crime, or any activity, was more or less prevalent at one period of time than another requires written records to ...
- 730
9
votes
Were there any ancient cultures that accepted homosexuality?
At least some ancient Greeks accepted homosexuality. Thebes and Sparta are both reported to have military units made up of homosexual couples, the reasoning basically being that this would inspire ...
- 313
9
votes
Accepted
How did the Mughals view homosexuality?
Homosexuality or at least homoeroticism was actually quite common in Mughal court life.
None other than Barbur, the first Mughal Emperor himself, was known to have had a crush on a boy he saw in ...
- 97.6k
8
votes
How public was sex in 1800s America?
"Sex is a private affair" is one of the Human Universals.
IOW, most people in most cultures strongly prefer to do it in privacy.
"One-room home" has been the dominant arrangement throughout human ...
- 27k
8
votes
Have breasts been proudly and publicly uncovered, in any culture, without general disapproval?
Europe
In Europe from roughly 1550 to 1700, it was considered fashionable to bare breasts up to the nipple, a style called décolletage, which caused inadvertent but frequent "wardrobe malfunctions". ...
- 2,429
7
votes
Accepted
When in history did people start seeing a girl's breasts as being inherently sexual?
We know this goes back before history actually for at least two reasons.
They are depicted in exaggerated form in some of the earliest representational artwork we've found, way back in the ...
- 119k
7
votes
Has there ever been a society that viewed prostitution as a prestigious vocation?
In Japanese culture during the middle-late periods there was a specific type of courtesan called an oiran which held a middling social class, definitely not stigmatized though. Oiran were accorded ...
- 6,685
6
votes
What was the first recorded instance of sex or violence being inappropriate for children to see?
In the Western Han anthology Garden of Stories, collected by Liu Xiang some time in the 1st century BC, there's a passage which asserts that:
討有罪而橫奪，非所以禁暴也；恃力虐老，非所以教幼也；愛子棄法，非所以保國也
When ...
- 97.6k
6
votes
What are the "sexual causes" for the French Revolution cited in Wikipedia?
Q: “Sexual causes” for the French Revolution?
Ouh, oui!
Sexual mores, or simply biopolitics or biopower did play a role.
Morals, social norms and social problems related to sex and gender roles: ...
- 81k
5
votes
In XIXth century lower classes families, was it common for kids to witness their parent's intercourse?
Parents would wait for the kids to fall asleep before intercourse and try to do it quietly.
If a kid would wake up, s/he would usually not understand what was happening.
PS. "sex usually in private" ...
- 27k
5
votes
Who first outlawed homosexuality in the Indian sub-continent?
tl;dr
No, it would have been the Portugese, see here and here.
Questions
Was this the first time homosexuality was outlawed in India? If not, who was the very first to do so in the Indo-Pak ...
- 2,726
5
votes
Was rape common in Europe during the Middle Ages?
Literary Sources are Unreliable, Legal Sources are Unreliable, Legal Records are Unreliable.
Let's start with literary sources. If rape shows up a lot in literary sources, it could mean that it's ...
- 1,815
5
votes
What was the rate of premarital conceptions in England from 1850 to 1890?
What was the rate of premarital conceptions in England from 1850 to 1890?
The short answer is that we don't know.
The reason we don't know is not neglect, but the nature of the evidence available ...
- 77.5k
5
votes
Why would "loose women" give you bad health?
Short answer: Gonorrhea and syphilis, neither of which was curable until around WWII (with the advent of penicillin). There were other lesser-known incurable (at the time) STDs as well. Your ...
- 442
5
votes
Did Man Ray photograph Nimet Eloui Bey in the all together?
Your question was helpful for my own research on Lee Miller. Nimet Eloui born Khairy was alive in 1935. After divorcing Aziz Eloui (who married Lee Miller) she eventually married a Russian prince, ...
- 71
5
votes
Accepted
Is there any evidence of heterosexual men being sexually attracted to women breasts pre-Victorian history?
"The very past" and "especially Victorian era" does not mix well, so it is unclear what era you are looking at.
"The very past" would, in my interpretation, be something ...
- 13.9k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible