oursin | A certain amount of thematic connection, sort of (Reply)

Queer Fascism and the End of Gay History, Interesting, though it doesn't seem to name-check the macho-macho strand within the German homophile movement, very much opposed to Hirschfeld, post WW1, trying to dredge up details from memory: anyway, already looking proto-fascist in the 20s.

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Old face from the early 90s floating crap-game of sex historians who always all turned up at the same conferences and now we hardly ever see one another (even before More Recent Events): Harry Oosterhuis, 'Sodomy, Possessive Individualism, and Godless Nature: Eighteenth-Century Traces of Homosexual Assertiveness' (wonder if he cited van der Meer on the situation in the C18th Netherlands, where persecution actually created sense of identity? - and has Theo's work yet been translated into English?)

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Medicine, morals, and masturbating women: John Marten and the changing face of female self-pleasure – Elizabeth Schlappa - interesting on the changing moral/medical perception - how far did the wider context of the increasing pathologisation of male masturbation inflect it?

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What Made a 17th-Century Midwife Good at Her Job? Swingeing smack at male 'historians' - i.e. male professionals dabbling in the history of their field and erasing/dissing on women precursors. Though on the licensing system for midwives I remember looking out some ecclesiastical licences for midwives for a talk/demonstration I was giving and boy, they sounded terrifying 'a God-fearing woman and she bringeth up her children in the fear of the Lord' - yes, that is totally the person I want when I'm having babby....

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This sounds terrible and I am so glad nobody came near me with invites to be involved: Sex: A Bonkers History review – the relief when it ends is indescribable.