Bundling: An Old Tradition on New Ground
Common in colonial New England, bundling allowed a suitor to spend a night in bed with his sweetheart—while her parents slept in the next room.
Sex and the Single Witch
On witch-hunting and the pursuit of sexual knowledge in early-modern England.
Fruit and Veg: The Sexual Metaphors of the Renaissance
Using peach and eggplant emojis as shorthand for sex may seem like a new thing, but Renaissance painters were experts at using produce to imply intercourse.
Jane Birkin’s Famous Love (Sex) Song
How the songs of the 1960s and ’70s captured the sexual liberation of women.
Pro-Sex Feminists of the 1920s
In the early decades of the twentieth century, political and social activists saw separating sex from marriage and reproduction as an issue of freedom.
“It’s Tight Like That”
A "dirty" song recorded by Georgia Tom and Tampa Red in 1928 launched the "hokum" blues.
Sex-Cult Rocket Man
Jack Parsons, one of the “suicide squad” trio of young rocket-boy founders of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, had an improbable extracurricular life.
“Zombie” Anthony Comstock Walks Among US (Again)
Or, how a moribund act of legislation continues to shape the fight for reproductive rights in the United States.
June Miller: More Than An Erotic Muse?
Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller, two writers in search of sexual and literary inspiration, modeled their most seductive characters on June Mansfield Miller.
Sex Panic at the Department Store
Were shopgirls selling more than scents at the perfume counter? Three investigators were determined to find out.