Women's S#xual hygiene in Europe in the 1800s
Women's bodies were increasingly medicalized and scrutinized by the medical establishment in the 18th and 19th centuries. Doctors advised women to maintain cleanliness and purity through hygienic practices like bathing and avoiding strong scents.
There was a growing emphasis on "hygiene" as the new fashionable means of achieving health and beauty, replacing the complex grooming rituals of the aristocracy. Doctors encouraged women to bathe more frequently and use water instead of oils. Public baths became more common, though private bathtubs remained infrequent.
However, this medicalization of women's bodies was not a one-sided story of oppression. Women actively shaped the definition of medical bodies and discredited certain theories, though male doctors still carved out a professional niche for themselves.
More broadly, Victorian society had very strict sexual double standards. Women were expected to be sexually chaste and monogamous, while men's extramarital affairs were more socially acceptable. Women who engaged in premarital or extramarital sex were seen as "ruined" or "fallen". This was reinforced through literature, art, and laws that punished women for sexual transgressions.
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