The word masturbation first appeared in the 18th century and to give you an idea of how it was considered at those times, it should suffice to tell you that the etymology of the word comes from Latin masturbari or rape with a hand. Its history, however starts at the beginning of times.
Older lesbians are not an invisible artifact of the times, but rather the keepers of a rich history of the lives of women who love other women. We have found that there is a struggle for our stories to be heard. As many of us age, we risk losing this rich history. But lesbian oral history archival projects — like ours — are helping counteract this.
A notoriously, obviously effeminate homosexual, Quentin Crisp saw his mission in life to make the invisible and hidden visible, to make people realise that homosexuals existed.
In the 1760s and 1770s, there was an explosion of public interest in fashionable society gents because the press of the day felt they committed such cardinal sins as rejecting good old English roast beef for dainty foods from Europe such as pasta.
