Photo Scavenger

I confess I'm most intrigued by Mother Clap's Molly House. It's a very strange title indeed.

That one caught my eye, too!

You will notice there are also books on Gender and Secret Sexuality... D-d's dissertation for her History Degree was on The Role of the Societies for the Reformation of Manners in the Rise of the Molly House Culture.

Let me put that into English! The SRM were set up in the late seventeenth century principally to suppress profanity and lewd behaviour' such as brothels and prostitution. But they found it was actually easier to claim successes by pushing the police to arrest homosexuals - nobody had really bothered before that.

So there developed the first 'homosexual culture' - and their meeting places became known as Molly Houses - Mother Clap's was the most famous.

You will notice there are also books on Gender and Secret Sexuality... D-d's dissertation for her History Degree was on 'The Role of the Societies for the Reformation of Manners in the Rise of the Molly House Culture'.

Let me put that into English! The SRM were set up in the late seventeenth century principally to 'suppress profanity and lewd behaviour' such as brothels and prostitution. But they found it was actually easier to claim successes by pushing the police to arrest homosexuals - nobody had really bothered before that.

So there developed the first 'homosexual culture' - and their meeting places became known as Molly Houses - Mother Clap's was the most famous.

Fascinating! And entirely new to me. Thanks for explaining. (I guess "clap" wasn't yet "the clap" back then, huh?)