Sex, Booze and Flatulence

Dr Toni Weller, a senior lecturer in history at De Montfort University, explains that by putting the word 'sex' in a title you're bound to get people's attention, and, judging by the impressive turn out this afternoon, it worked. The full title of the talk was 'Sex, Culture and Politics: The Art of English Satire from Georgian Debauchery to Victorian Morality'.

For the next hour Dr Weller transported her audience back to the mid 1700s, and covered over a century on the evolution of English satire. We were given examples of work from contemporary satirists and caricaturists such as James Gillray, Thomas Rowlandson, George Cruikshank and William Hogarth.

Satire from the Georgian era was steeped in crude imagery, particular favourites consisting of farting monarchs and public fornication. George, Prince of Wales, later Prince Regent and George IV, hated James Gillray's representation of him as grossly overweight and dissolute in A Voluptuary under the horrors of Digestion (1792), but to be satirised meant you were important. So he couldn't really condemn it.

Victorian satire, however, settled for a more conservative representation of culture and politics, with sex being almost completely removed. As a result it became less humorous, implicit, and more realistic. For example Cruikshank's The Bottle (1847) was a moral tale against drinking.

Dr Weller closed the talk with modern examples of pictoral satire. Has the style changed? Today satirists focus more on the government than the monarchy, but thankfully the sarcastic humour hasn't been removed.

Fashionable Contrasts; – or – the Duchess's little shoe yeilding to the magnitude of the Duke's foot
James Gillroy (1792)

A New Court of Queen's Bench, As it Ought to Be -- Or -- The Ladies Trying a Contemptible Scoundrel for a "Breach of Promise"

George Cruikshank (1849)

All images taken from Wikimedia Commons

Sarah Beckley

Sex, Culture, Politics

To be quite honest, I had absolutely no idea when the Georgian period was before this lecture. I'm hopelessly, and rather shamefully, clueless when it comes to British history. So I can't really answer as to why I decided to attend this event - perhaps, as Doctor Weller suggested, we were all there simply because the word 'sex' appeared in the title. Nobody argued with that.

The word 'lecture' doesn't really do Toni Weller's talk justice. When you say "lecture" many people automatically think "boring". Yet this was engaging, interesting, well-presented and pleasantly humorous. Whether you were a history and satire buff, or like me, a clueless student, she was educational and interesting in the ideas and themes she presented. The images were well chosen and connected; not once did I feel lost.

I took a great deal of information from this session, and one of the most appealing things that kept the audiences attention was seeing Doctor Weller's passion for the subject. I am definitely glad the title had 'sex' in it - I would never have gained this much-needed historical context without it!


Terri Baker