Remaking the Maternal Body in England, 1680–1730 (original) (raw)

Journal of the History of Sexuality, 2017

Abstract

A r i s t o t l e ’ s M A s t e r p i e c e wa s the most popular medical book about sex and babies from its first publication in London in 1684 through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; it quickly became a steady seller on both sides of the Atlantic, going into hundreds of editions. The book’s anonymous author advised readers about how frequently a married couple should have sex: “The Bridegroom should remember, that it is a Market that lasts all the Year, and to be careful that he does not spend his Stock too lavishly.” Sexual relations were thus imagined as market relations, with men as active purchasers and women as the passive objects of consumption. Since in early modern England most actual markets were not open every day of the year but only on market days once or twice a week, in this metaphor marriage grants men privileged sexual access to women. Married men can spend sexually every day, so that they need to—pardon the pun—husband their resources carefully.

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