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

How Nudes Changed Britain

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

History Hit

Society, Sex, Scandal, Education, History

4.81.6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2024

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Why were nudes so significant in Victorian England? What role did painting them play in wider social change at that time? And why didn't men think that women had the capacity for genius?


Joining Kate today is Tabitha Barber, curator of the Tate Britain exhibition Now You See Us, which explores women artists in Britain over the last 500 years.


You can also watch Kate in a documentary all about this, called The Fight To Paint, over on History Hit - simply follow this link.


This episode was edited by Tom Delargy and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.


Voting is open for the Listener's Choice Award at the British Podcast Awards, so if you enjoy what we're doing, we'd love it if you took a quick follow this link and click on Betwixt the Sheets: https://www.britishpodcastawards.com/voting


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Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Literally hundreds if not a thousand needles came down like the heavens were falling.

0:07.5

I'm Natalia Petrozella.

0:09.0

From BBC Radio 4, this is Extreme. Muscle Men.

0:14.0

When you're muscular, when you're big, you get respect.

0:18.0

This is the story of the biggest illegal steroid operation the United States had ever seen and

0:24.2

the lengths to which will go in pursuit of perfection. Extreme muscle men.

0:30.0

Listen wherever you get your podcast. See in you round here. I'm so glad that you've dropped by because I do enjoy our time together

0:44.7

but before we can get going I have to tell you this is an adult podcast spoke

0:49.3

by adult to other adults about adult things in an adult way covering a range of adult

0:52.4

subjects and you should be an adult too.

0:55.0

Well I certainly feel a lot safer. Let's get on with it. Oh hello betwixters I am just applying the finishing touches to a painting I've been working on and as you can, it is really starting to come together.

1:14.7

Just adding a little bit of shadow to this buttock dimple, and yes, perfect.

1:20.8

The year is 1894, and here in England it was only last year that a ban was lifted on women from drawing nude life models.

1:30.0

I mean somebody has to protect our modesty after all.

1:34.0

Yes, the expectation was that women artists should stick to painting suitably delicate subjects,

1:41.0

watercolours of flowers genuinely, which some did and they did it marvelously,

1:46.4

of course, because they were artists, but men were expected to learn how to paint people

1:52.2

in the buff and women were banned from doing it.

1:55.1

But thank Fuck, we can now draw and paint as many dicks and balls and fannies and boobs and bottoms as our art education can possibly supply.

2:07.0

Hurrah!

2:08.0

But why was women being able to paint people in the bollicky buff a big deal. Well I am ready to find out if you are.

2:24.0

What do you look for a man? Oh, money, of close.

...

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