{"id":2460,"date":"2025-04-24T22:14:02","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T22:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/?p=2460"},"modified":"2025-04-24T22:14:02","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T22:14:02","slug":"have-your-carrot-cake-and-eat-it-too-masturbatory-practices-in-the-wanton-lass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/2025\/04\/24\/have-your-carrot-cake-and-eat-it-too-masturbatory-practices-in-the-wanton-lass\/","title":{"rendered":"Have Your (Carrot) Cake and Eat It, Too: Masturbatory Practices in “The Wanton Lass”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s The Pearl <\/em>(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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Wanton Lass,\u201d an erotic poem found in The Pearl <\/em>(1879), is about a woman\u2019s experience with masturbation. The speaker shares that the lass wanted \u201ca jolly good fucking\u201d then devised \u201ca plan\u201d that would allow her to \u201cshag without shame\u201d (l. 4-7). The lass\u2019 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 \u201cshame\u201d associated with this choice, the speaker seems to indicate that her choice is not morally wrong.<\/p>\n

After deciding that she wants to explore her sexual desires, the lass retrieves a carrot \u201cwith a point rather blunt, \/ And she ram[s] it and jam[s] it three parts up her cunt\u201d (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\u2019s sexual pleasure. Instead, they can create their own pleasure on their own terms. The carrot, therefore, becomes emblematic of sexual liberation.<\/p>\n

In a humorous twist, the carrot breaks during the middle of one of the lass\u2019 masturbation sessions and a piece of it gets \u201cstuck in her quim\u201d \u00a0(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\u2019s removal. The carrot ends up being flung \u201cbang into the street\u201d where \u201ca sweep passing by\u201d sees it and precedes to \u201c[pick] it up\u201d and \u201c[eat] it\u201d (l. 33-7). The sweep\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The sweep notes the carrot\u2019s buttery flavor (i.e. the taste of the woman\u2019s vaginal fluids) and laments the fact that \u201cpeople should throw\u201d such carrots away (l. 39). If the carrot, being the woman\u2019s dildo, is emblematic of sexual liberation, then the sweep\u2019s distress at seeing it discarded suggests that it would be \u201ca damned shame\u201d for sexual liberation to be thrown away (l. 38-9). Therefore, \u201cThe Wanton Lass\u201d seems to do more than simply titillate its readers. Rather, through its positive depiction of the wanton lass\u2019 sexual curiosity and agency, demonstrates and promotes sexual liberation for women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s 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 … Continue reading Have Your (Carrot) Cake and Eat It, Too: Masturbatory Practices in “The Wanton Lass”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4744,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135984],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2025-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4744"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}