Unmasked, or the Science of Immorality. To Gentlemen

by Mary Edwards Walker, Pamela Nagami (Narrator)

Mary Edwards Walker was a physician and surgeon who served in the Civil War. An abolitionist, prohibitionist, and cross-dressing leader of the women's dress reform movement, she published this lively sex manual in 1878. It is a curious blend of useful information and Victorian sexual mythology, at once puritanical and explicit. (Summary by Pamela Nagami)

4 pages, Audiobook

First published January 1, 1878

About the author

Mary Edwards Walker, commonly referred to as Dr. Mary Walker, was an American abolitionist, prohibitionist, prisoner of war, and surgeon. She is the only woman to ever receive the Medal of Honor.

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book about sex from the Victorian era and it is every bit as horrifying and hilarious as you might expect. Ironically, Mary Edwards Walker was an early feminist and indeed, some of her points and arguments are good ones. She attacks sexual double standards, for example, and recognizes the existence of marital rape, which was still legal in many US states through the 1990s. On the other hand, she rigidly adheres to the Victorian belief that sex is for procreation only, and that healthy women desire it only to become mothers. Her views on masturbation are downright demented and she just about loses her mind over oral sex, which is apparently the worst and most repulsive thing in the whole entire world ever. So yeah, pretty much Anthony Comstock levels of purity obsession.

Walker further stigmatizes rape survivors under the guise of advocating for them. According to the theory of "magnetism," a predator basically imprints on his victim and leaves her morally susceptible to promiscuity. It goes downhill from there. A lot of the "science" Walker puts forth is truly bizarre, like the notion that a white woman can give birth to a baby with African features if her white husband had sex with a black woman at some point, because something something "language of the nerves."

What a fascinating book that was. I'm surprised this audiobook seems to be the only modern edition. This thing is a goldmine for gender studies and social history.