Culture
Worst and Wildest Sex Advice from Days Past
Created on 30/03/2022
Updated on 13/10/2022
Advice columns have a really neat history in our cultural experiences of sex and relationships. They were one of the few consistent and widely available public forums for discussions around interpersonal relations, sex, gender roles, marriage, family, etc. These columns also allowed a platform for women writers where there may not have been many other opportunities to reach a large audience. Most of us are familiar with Dear Abby and Ann Landers, but advice columns and advice and self-help books have been around since much earlier than the 20th century.
What we know of as the contemporary advice column—and their more current iterations of online chat forums, blogs, and social media groups—became pretty popular in the early/mid 20th century. These early advice snippets were, however, very, very suspect in the advice they dolled out to women.
So suspect, in fact, that on March 18th, 1970 feminists stormed the offices of The Ladies Home Journal to demand that the content written for women actually be written for women rather than the dictatorial, patronizing, and sexist content that was being promoted. But what’s better than spending your afternoon snuggled up with some vintage sexist and downright wrong advice for women? So, without further adieu, here are some of our favorite cringe-worthy excerpts from sex advice columns spanning from the 19th century to today.
…with long, slow, broad tongue strokes." Nothing sexier than a systematic and thorough licking. Forget the hairballs.