Again. Everything old is new again. Skipping chapter I, II, III... Etc...
History of Orgies in Various Times and CulturesVIII: Modern and Contemporary Ages. XV - XX centuries.The Medieval period saw all forms of sexual freedom stamped out. During the early Renaissance, a humanist, Pietro Aretino (1492-1556) brought sexuality into the limelight. He wrote at the beginning of the XVI century sexually explicit works that included lesbianism and orgies (Ragionamenti (Dialogues, 1534–1536). His texts, and others inspired on them, would see several printings during the next three centuries.
Nevertheless, the Renaissance and Reformation (Protestants) did not alter the repressive stance towards sex, Medieval attitudes prevailed. In England and northern Europe, Puritanism and strict protestantism repressed all outward manifestations of joy (as shown above regarding Maypoles). The common people had forgotten the old rites and their orgies.
Some exceptions to the populace’s puritanism can be found among extreme radicals of sects such as the Ranters, whose beliefs were similar to the Bretheren of the Free Spirit: we find group sex, nudity and wife swapping in this sect during the 1650’s, which we can still find, until the early XVIII century in certain parts of England.
It was not until the Restoration of Charles II in England (late XVII century), and the Louis kings in France (XIV and XV) that the nobles in both countries (and other European countries) began to indulge in covertly in orgiastic behavior. In England aristocratic circles at court practiced sexual libertinism and debauchery.
During the XVIII century, among the well-born, we see the figure of the aristocratic rake, a promiscuous character who wastes his (usually inherited) fortune on wine and women. We can mention: Cagliostro, Giacomo Casanova, Marquis de Sade, among other notorious rakes.
Regarding Casanova, he indulged in several menage a trois, and regular group sex (actually a menage a quatre) involving the French ambassador to Venice, and two nuns (C.C.- Caterina Capretta and M.M.) which continues until the ambassador's return to France.
Historical Chronicles tell us of the orgies of Madame Du Barry, king Louis XV’s mistress at Versailles, and of French Queen Marie Antoinette.
Literature reflects these events, such as John Cleland’s Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1749), a pornographic narrative, describing lesbianism, voyeurism, experimentation and group sex, in which pairs take turns in having sex before the group.
After the tranquil Romanticism that followed the Napoleonic wars despite the grip that Victorian culture held on the XIX century world, in the US, there was a racy style of literature, which, as literary historian David Reynolds has pointed out, alluded to a wide range of sexual practices, such as " incest, sadomasochism, homosexuality, group sex, miscegenation, child sex, [and] mass orgies" indicating that there was a market willing at least to read about these practices.
At that time (1840s and 50s), American writer George Thompson’s described in one of his novels "… a dinner party served by naked adolescents that turns into an orgy between the teenagers and the adult guests, a scene he claims has actually taken place in New York".
In 1856, George Akarman published in New York a weekly sexual magazine named " Venus’ Miscellany" It included supposed correspondence between readers, one who confesses being " an avid ’free-lover,’ a reference to the free love movement of the 1850s, a middle-class, bohemian cause that opposed marriage and supported sexual relationships rooted in ’passional attraction’ rather than law....[my husband and I] are both pleasurists. He enjoys whom he pleases. Perhaps I sometimes wander myself.’"
They pursue a menage a trois with their female neighbor, Martha, every Saturday night, there are also descriptions of lesbianism. The New York Times commented on the police raid on Akarman’s magazine: “It is a disgraceful fact, that out of 3,300 subscribers, nearly one half were females.
We finally reach the XX century, where a more enlightened (but not less bestial world - witness the bloody World Wars I and II) opened its minds to enjoyment and pleasure, trying to shed the tight corset of religion and social traditions.
During the second half of the century, we see a slackening of sexual taboos in most societies around the world, an improvement of women’s status and freedom, a rebirth in sexual freedom (free-sex, the pill, swinging lifestyle, gays and their coming out), and also a growing concern due to the terrible epidemic of HIV Aids, and the increased fundamentalism in several religions that openly attack these positive changes.
This interest in orgies and group sex is shown in the Janus Report48 that said that in the US, 8% of women 14 % of men had engaged in "group sex" that is nearly one person out of every eight, 11% of adults is quite a significant figure.
http://godrules.net/articles/history-orgies.htm-------------------------------------------------
Until we mate with aliens (from outer space) we've been playing with the tools between our legs since the beginning of time... Orgy of sex, then orgy of food, then orgy of being bored to death, then orgy of killing each other.
Stop. Reset. Start over. Sell a book with a monkey on the cover.
