Scientific eroticism, beauty theorists, and the borders of the erotic

John Roberton’s Kalogynomia and Alexander Walker’s Beauty

Dados Bibliográficos

ID13086214
AutoresAlexander Maxwell (0000-0002-5332-5795, Victoria University of Wellington, autor correspondente), Carol Harrington (0000-0003-1548-0310, Victoria University of Wellington), Sarah Bracey (Victoria University of Wellington)
Ano2020
Volume8
Fascículo2
Páginas138-153
Data de publicação2020-06-02
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPorn Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2326-8743 • E-ISSN: 2326-8751
EditoraTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/23268743.2020.1754889
OpenAlexW3033834764
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas14

John Roberton’s Kalogynomia (1821) and Alexander Walker’s Beauty (1836) claimed to be scientific works teaching readers to appreciate female beauty. The books present explicit sexual content in technical anatomical prose. We situate these books in the context of late-Georgian radical publishing. We argue that they occupy an interesting intersection between the scientific and the erotic. By treating women’s beauty as a question for science, the books promised to teach readers sexual connoisseurship, which offered erotic pleasures. The scientific status they claimed for their books enabled them to depict nudity and sex while maintaining their respectability as men with medical training. The pseudo-scientific study of female beauty offered possibilities for publishing erotic material in late-Georgian London, producing an unusual genre which became all but extinct in the twentieth century

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Beauty · Context (archaeology · Eroticism · Georgian · Human sexuality · Literature · Publishing · Sociology · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · Gender Studies · Historical and Literary Studies · History · Philosophy · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices