Deviant sexuality was not tolerated in the nineteenth century. Oral sex, anal sex, genital touching, and masturbation were considered sexually deviant acts. Pornographic periodicals, such as William Lazenby’s The Pearl (1879), which shared explicit narratives discussing these acts, were considered obscene and could legally be destroyed under the Obscene Publications Act of 1857. Interestingly, though these periodicals were considered socially unacceptable, some of the pieces they contained seemed to explore sex, sexuality, and gender in a more favorable way than some mainstream novels and instruction manuals of the time did.
“The Wanton Lass,” an erotic poem found in The Pearl (1879), is about a woman’s experience with masturbation. The speaker shares that the lass wanted “a jolly good fucking” then devised “a plan” that would allow her to “shag without shame” (l. 4-7). The lass’ active choice to seek out a way to experience sexual gratification displays her agency, as she is the one taking charge of her sexual life. Additionally, by suggesting that there is no “shame” associated with this choice, the speaker seems to indicate that her choice is not morally wrong.
After deciding that she wants to explore her sexual desires, the lass retrieves a carrot “with a point rather blunt, / And she ram[s] it and jam[s] it three parts up her cunt” (l. 8-9). Using the carrot, the lass fashions a dildo and uses it to pleasure herself. With this, she shows that men are not necessary to women’s sexual pleasure. Instead, they can create their own pleasure on their own terms. The carrot, therefore, becomes emblematic of sexual liberation.
In a humorous twist, the carrot breaks during the middle of one of the lass’ masturbation sessions and a piece of it gets “stuck in her quim” (l. 15). After experiencing pain as a result of the carrot being stuck inside her vagina, the woman calls a doctor and he assists her in the carrot’s removal. The carrot ends up being flung “bang into the street” where “a sweep passing by” sees it and precedes to “[pick] it up” and “[eat] it” (l. 33-7). The sweep’s consumption of the carrot suggests that eating and sex are connected; much like a person might devour food, they might metaphorically devour their sexual partner. Therefore, sex transforms into a necessary act that is required for sustained human life and bodily nourishment.
The sweep notes the carrot’s buttery flavor (i.e. the taste of the woman’s vaginal fluids) and laments the fact that “people should throw” such carrots away (l. 39). If the carrot, being the woman’s dildo, is emblematic of sexual liberation, then the sweep’s distress at seeing it discarded suggests that it would be “a damned shame” for sexual liberation to be thrown away (l. 38-9). Therefore, “The Wanton Lass” seems to do more than simply titillate its readers. Rather, through its positive depiction of the wanton lass’ sexual curiosity and agency, demonstrates and promotes sexual liberation for women.
I love the way that you connect the use of the carrot, as a food required to sustain human life, to sex. Because the most base form of sex is to procreate, it really is required to sustain humanity, just as the carrot is. You note that “The Wanton Lass” is suggesting it’s a “damned shame” for women’s sexual liberation to be thrown away or frowned upon. The affirmative action the man on the street takes by eating the dildo-carrot and enjoying it reinforces that. But I wonder at the way that the poem explicitly reinforces sex as a desirous, enjoyable act to be pursued by a woman rather than sex as an act necessary for women to perform in order to procreate. The link, as you point out, is that sex should be liberating and accepted. Now I wonder: How is “The Wanton Lass” addressing the difference between sex as pleasurable and sex as necessary to procreate, if it is at all?
This reading of female sexual liberation in “The Wanton Lass” is so cool! I wonder what the doctor’s relationship to this female sexual liberation is. By eating the carrot, the doctor seems to suggest he enjoys and is turned on by her sexual independence. This idea of independent/sexually independent women being a turn on for men is present in other literature we’ve read this semester (such as Vanora and St. Vincent or Marian and Fosco). Further, this concept seems tp still be very present today, both in people’s personal sexual lives and characters like the femme fatale in media.