“I would rather give a healthy boy or a healthy girl a phial of prussic acid than this novel. Poison kills the body, but moral poison kills the soul.”

— James Douglas, Editor, Sunday Express, August 19, 1928

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Cover of first edition of Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness, 1928

The raciest line in The Well of Loneliness, the novel excoriated by the editor of one of Britain’s largest newspapers (are you sure you can handle this?) is “…and that night, they were not divided.” A British court judged the book obscene because it defended “unnatural practices between women.” (Marguerite Radclyffe Hall, 1906-1936, was an English poet and author.)

Yep. It’s about lesbian love. One of the very first such novels in English, and possibly the first to portray the “unnatural practices” in a sympathetic manner. And certainly the first to bring lesbianism to a wide audience—such is the power of forbidden fruit. Published in France, innumerable copies found their way to Britain where readers, alerted by James Douglas’ campaign, lapped it up. It was finally released in Britain in 1949. And still in print.

But, you might ask, wasn’t love between women well known? What about Sappho, the ancient Greek poet who lived and taught on the island of Lesbos, thus providing us with the handy tag “lesbian”? And thus, 2,600 years later, providing endless stimulation to boys and girls from puberty to old age? Well yes and no. Yes, Sappho’s poetry—what remains of it, maybe 600 lines out of 10,000 she reputedly wrote — can be read as breathless girl-on-girl desire. But it can also be read as simply a woman teacher instructing her young charges in how to live life to the full, nothing about lady-love.

Image of Sappho on a vase dated to about 470 BC (Bibi Saint-Pol, public domain)

(Trivia, per usual: Ancient Greeks linked the word “lesbian” not with gay ladies but with fellatio, the inhabitants of Lesbos supposedly having a particular skill set in that arena.)

Not that the question had much effect on young women in the English-speaking world in the between-war world of the 1920s and ‘30s. Apparently, lesbians and their “deviant behavior” were not a topic of conversation (unlike male gays, who were regularly condemned and thrown into jail, Oscar Wilde’s prosecution being the most notorious). So The Well of Loneliness, by frankly discussing lesbian love (in emotional rather than physical terms), opened up the floodgates.

Most popular porn search term, by state (Pornhub)

All this must seem incredible these days when the term “lesbian” is the most-searched for term on Pornhub by men worldwide (and the second-most-searched one—after hetero sex — for women) on porn on-line sites. With the term “lesbian scissoring” just a few spots down the list. (Full disclosure: I just found out what that means. I know, I know, it’s obvious now…how did I miss it all this time? It’s not like I deliberately avoid gay lady videos.)

Not scissoring. Eroticized painting of Sappho (and mermaids!) by Édouard-Henri Avril. (Public domain)

Which actually brings up a question for which I hope some of you commentators can explain to me: What’s the attraction for straight men and women to lesbian sex? As journalist Olga Khazan wrote in a witty and perceptive article in The Atlantic last year, “Lesbians are the only group of women who will categorically never be interested in a straight man. This is like someone named Steve entering a lottery called ‘Mega Millions for Anybody But Steve.’” Khazan tries (unsuccessfully) to rationalize straight men’s tastes in porn: “…the extent that lesbian erotica is popular…can be explained by the fact that men are most aroused by visual cues that emphasize youth and downplay drama and emotional complexity. Lesbian porn, therefore, works for straight men by ‘doubling up’ those visual stimuli.”

Back to 1928 and the why and wherefore of banning The Well of Loneliness in Britain. The Director of Public Prosecutions was swayed by Sir William Henry Willcox, consulting medical adviser to the Home Office and physician at St Mary’s Hospital in London, who wrote that lesbianism “is well known to have a debasing effect on those practising it, which is mental, moral and physical in character,’ he said. ‘It leads to gross mental illness, nervous instability, and in some cases to suicide in addicts to this vice. It is a vice which, if widespread, becomes a danger to the well-being of a nation…” It’s all here.

So I guess we’ve come a long way from that strange era (it was nearly, but not quite, banned here in the U.S. too). But if gay lady porn isn’t to your taste, take heart. Occupying spots 2 and 3 on the Pornhub (“23 billion views in 2016”) favorite searches list are “step mom” (#1 in the U.S.) and “MILF.” All tastes catered to.

We watch more porn than anyone else. (Pornhub)

And here’s something, I guess, ironic. You know those Bible-thumping Southern states? Turns out they top the list of “average time per visit per state” — Mississippi wins, followed by Alabama and Arkansas and Louisiana. But maybe you already knew that Blue States are just, you know, more efficient.

(Pornhub)