Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

Definitions of what can and cannot be described as sexual violence vary widely across time and place. In 48 countries around the world today, for example, men cannot be prosecuted for sexually assaulting their wives. So what can a global history, comparing the differing interpretations of victims, survivors and perpetrators from different societies, tell us about sexual violence? And how might it...

Who was Loki having sex with? What is a horse penis cult? And were the Vikings as brutal as we think they were? Betwixt the Sheets today, Kate is joined by Dr Cat Jarman, one of the hosts of our sister podcast Gone Medieval . From the recollections of Ibn Fadlan to Icelandic sagas filled with pick up lines, we find out the truth about being in bed with the Vikings. *WARNING there is adult language...

Football, or soccer depending on where you are in the world, is quite unsuitable for women, wouldn’t you agree? No? Well the Football Association thought so when they issued a ban on women’s football in 1921, which stayed in place for fifty years. Off the back of England's Lionesses winning the Euros (it's also the 20th anniversary of Bend It Like Beckham, which must mean something) Kate is joined...

Can a sex robot really fulfil our needs in the bedroom? And what attempts have been made in the past? Sex robots may sound like a thing of the future, but for centuries humans have been fascinated by their desire for intimacy with the inanimate. From Greek tales of steamy encounters with wax statues to beautifully crafted sex dolls with AI technology; Kate Lister is joined Betwixt The Sheets by ar...

Was Rasputin really Russia’s greatest love machine? Did he have any healing powers? And why might his penis be pickling in a jar? In this episode, we are drawing this mystical man out of his cloud of green smoke to find out which of the things we know about him might actually be true. Kate is joined by Douglas Smith, historian, translator and expert in Russian history, who has emerged from the arc...

Yo ho ho, a pirate’s life for me - but what is a pirate’s life, and what was it like for women? This is the story of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, a pair of reputably vicious pirates, and their journeys onto and across the seas. With the help of Julie Walker, author of 'Bonny & Read', find out whether Bonny and Read's fellow crew mates knew that they were women, their reasons for being there, and what...

As the right to decide whether to terminate a pregnancy is challenged on the other side of the Atlantic, today Betwixt the Sheets we are looking at the history of abortions here in Britain. This is the second episode in our two-part series on abortion in the US and the UK. First, Kate speaks to Elinor Cleghorn, author of Unwell Women, about the history of abortion law in the UK, and the significan...

What comes to your mind when you think of a witch? Broomsticks? Black cats? Warts? Early modern witchcraft expert, John Callow, is Betwixt the Sheets with Kate to explain the history behind the stereotypes we have today. They also chat about the Bideford Witches, the last three women to be hanged for witchcraft in England, as well as the misogyny in witch trials throughout the ages. You can find o...

When the Bender family disappeared from Labette county, Kansas, in 1873, they left a dozen bodies buried in the garden of their home. But who were they? Who were their victims? And why did people take bricks from their well as souvenirs? Today Betwixt the Sheets, Kate is joined by Susan Jonusas to explore the mystery of the Benders, a family of serial killers, and finding out how their crimes...

From facilitating affairs to public facilities, how has shopping changed our lives? And where did the one-stop shop, the palace of splendour and opportunity that is the department store come from? Kate talks to Erika Rappaport about the birth of shopping culture, the mark that department stores have had on our everyday lives and how exactly women could have their husbands sent to jail by buying an...

In this episode we are looking into the first time abortion was made illegal in the US. This is the first of a special two-part series looking at the history of abortion in the US and the UK. The overturning of Roe v. Wade in June ended almost half a century of the option to choose whether to continue a pregnancy in the US.  But abortion had not always been illegal before Roe v. Wade. So when...

From a rifle-carrying brothel madam to missionaries walking for months on end; from the Native American First Ladies of settler outposts to the mormon pilgrim whose name meant ‘rotten vagina’: the women of the American West were a varied group. Usually when we talk about the ‘Wild West’ we think of men in cowboy hats, but today Betwixt the Sheets, Katie Hickman tells us about the women who are int...

Bras are an everyday item for around half of the adult population, and for as long as humans have developed breasts they have been faced with the question of how to keep them contained within intricate outfits and during strenuous activity. But how has the modern day bra developed from strapping and so-called bra bags? When did cups and cup sizings make their debut? What about underwires and paddi...

Warrior. Diplomat. Queen. From fighting alongside her father and negotiating with the Portuguese on her brother’s behalf, to campaigning for the freedom of Ndongo and Matamba until her death aged 82, Queen Nzinga’s life was full to the brim with drama. So who was the Mother of Angola? Why did she have to lead an army for three decades? And what is her legacy? To get some answers, Kate spoke to Ast...

Outside Medieval London’s city walls, Southwark was a land without rules. It was the place where people went to partake in theatre, watch bear baiting and visit brothels. It was also under the control of the Bishop of Winchester. Kate is joined Betwixt the Sheets by Matt Lewis from History Hit’s Gone Medieval to talk about the sex workers of Southwark, once known as the Winchester Geese. They expl...

On 29 August 1867, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs stood in front of the Congress of German Jurists in Munich and urged them not to extend sodomy laws across the soon to be unified Germany. He was booed off stage, but this stands as the earliest public queer protest in history. Similarly, his definition of his own identity and sexuality serves as one of the first times this was put into words.  So how...

Pint, bottle, schooner, tinny … no matter how you drink it, beer is undeniably a part of social life here in Britain and around the world. But how did it come to hold this position? Why has this been more true for British men than for British women? And what did beer taste like before mass production and microbiology? Kate has a pint with author, broadcaster and beer lover  Pete Brown  t...

We’re used to exhibits in museums detailing our ancestors’ home lives and work lives, but what about their sex lives? On a sunny day in London, Kate met Deborah Sim, the Keeper of the Museum of Sex Objects, who brought along a collection of objects that represent just that. From a china figurine to a mysterious mudlarking discovery, what can these objects tell us about the history of sex and sexua...

In 1870, two young women were arrested after leaving a theatre in London. These women, so-called Fanny and Stella, were in fact Ernest Boulton and Frederick Park, and they were charged with ‘buggery’. So who were Boulton and Park? What was the evidence against them? And why did this create such a stir across the front pages and the world? Neil McKenna joins Kate Betwixt the Sheets to share Stella...

*WARNING There are adult themes and explicit descriptions of drug use in this episode. All drugs come with their own risks and legal implications. For more information please see the links below* Angina treatments, room aromas and leather cleaners: amyl nitrite has had a wide range of reported uses over the years. But in reality the substance, better known as poppers, is usually used as something...

This is the story of Marguerite Steinheil, the woman who shook Paris at the turn of the 20th century with one scandal after the next…one of which involving the French president apparently dying in the midst of a sex act. Marguerite is an ambitious woman, but being born into a middle-class family and trapped in a marriage with a failed artist 20 years her senior, she knows her life choices are limi...

Who was Sarah Baartman? Why was she paraded across Europe as part of a 'freak' show? And why did it take until 2001 for her remains to be repatriated to her birthplace of South Africa? Born around 1770, Sarah, who was derisively named as the 'Hottentot Venus', was publicly examined and exposed inhumanly throughout her life. Her brain, skeleton and sexual organs remained on display in a French muse...

From goddesses to demons, witches to saints, women have held power of many shapes and sizes throughout history and around the world. Whether they were bringers of chaos, salvation, desire or justice, this year these women are being given the spotlight. On this Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, Kate went to see the British Museum’s new exhibition ‘Feminine Power: The Divine to the Demonic’. C...

Have you ever been told you’re bringing women’s rights back one-hundred years because of what you’re wearing? The guest on Betwixt the Sheets today has. And it was a corset. Dr Alanna McKnight has dedicated her career to researching the social and cultural history of corsets, and to challenging the idea that corsets were imposed on women as a tool of patriarchal control. Find out why people starte...

Genital warts fashioned into necklaces, teeth harvested from the battlefield and blood vessels eternalised in wax: these are some of the things that you might find inside Edinburgh’s Surgeons’ Hall Museums . But who did they belong to? Kate is talking to Thomas Elliot, head of learning and interpretation, to find out. *WARNING this episode includes themes of an adult nature* Produced by Charlotte...