Stripping History: Pubic Hair Flair, Sex Clubs, and Jack the Ripper

Written by Alaina Parsons

Coming off of the heels of the interview with Michelle L' Amour and Franky Vivid my mind is going a million miles a minute about the Everleigh sisters and how revolutionary their approach to sex work was. I recently saw a video that was talking about the Victorian practice of pubic hair flair. Men in Victorian-era England would receive locks of pubic hair from their lovers. Like, pretty frequently. And sometimes they would pin those little curled locks to their hats like cockades. Some men wore them as a sign of their virility. Sometimes they were worn as protective talismans. 

Of course, we know that the British monarchy has always led one life in public and another very secret life in private. This was just the same in the Victorian era. Regency would have incredibly elaborate courting practices that were extremely lengthy and often politically or financially beneficial. But they were still people and people are animals and animals need to fuck. So they would turn to these sex clubs where they could engage in whatever sexual practices they desired without the pomp and circumstance of the courtship rituals. Publicly, the upper crust of society would deride and chastise the lower class for living according to their vices, but would then turn around and partake of those very same vices. Sex work at this time was incredibly popular and widely available, but so was syphilis. In order to hide the signs of emerging syphilitic infection people, women, in particular, would wear black velvet spots mimicking beauty spots or thick makeup. 

There's actually a pretty common theory that Jack the Ripper was someone who suffered from syphilis because the way he brutalized his victims was congruent with the way that syphilis attacks the body. There's another theory that Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's son, was Jack the Ripper. He was known to fly into fits of rage caused by what? Syphilis. Who knows?

One thing we do know is that the Victorian-era obsession with sex and morality was one of the strangest time periods in history. Without the staunch rejection of sex in Victorian England, we probably wouldn't have Freud's hyper-sexualized theories of the mind. And we certainly wouldn't have fun what the fuck stories like these about people peacocking their pubic prizes. Do you know of any more weird Victorian practices like this?

Some interesting reads:

About British Sex Clubs and the Pubic Hair Flair

https://slate.com/human-interest/2009/12/secrets-of-the-great-british-sex-clubs.html

The Underbelly of England

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/brand-connect/fx-taboo/

Jack the Ripper Possibly Identities

https://www.history.com/news/who-was-jack-the-ripper-6-tantalizing-theories