THE HISTORY OF CASUAL SEX

1714

George I takes the British throne and, with him, ideas from the Enlightenment wash in from the continent. Sex starts to be considered as private and not something to be meddled with by state or church.

1750 By the mid-18th century, most forms of consensual extramarital sex, aside from homosexuality, have been legalised.

1811 The Prince Regent, later George IV, takes control of the country and, between his six known mistresses, fathers many illegitimate children. Regency society follows suit. Aside from debutantes on the marriage market (as depicted in Bridgerton), wealthy men and married women conduct their extra-marital sex lives with discretion.

1837 Victoria’s rule begins and with her virtuous husband Prince Albert, respectful family values become the height of fashion.

1857

Gynaecological doctor William Acton publishes The Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs and, in it, announces that “the majority of women (happily for them) are not very much troubled by sexual feelings of any kind”.

1887

Out-of-wedlock sex is unspeakable in respectable society and women of all classes are warned against it. Yet, medical journal The Lancet concludes that the demand, for men at least, is still there, estimating that more than 80,000 prostitutes are working in London at this time.

1911 Suffragette Christabel Pankhurst asserts that more than 75 per cent of men have contracted some form of venereal disease prior to marriage.

1914

“Khaki fever” breaks out in the UK: young women are said to be enamoured by young men in military uniform and start engaging in risky behaviour such as drinking and behaving immodestly in alleys and parks.

1921 Marie Stopes opens the first birth control clinic in Britain.

1941 A “live-for-the-moment” attitude takes hold during the Blitz and flings are common, especially among parents, unshackled from their children who have been evacuated.

1963 The contraceptive pill is introduced and the Swinging Sixties begin in earnest.