Did One Man Change Labor?
Whether spelled labor or labour, it's a historical controversy
Hey horny readers! This Monday marks Labor Day in the United States, so let’s talk about a different kind of labor. This week’s newsletter is about the way women give birth and a historical myth about King Louis XIV. Was he a perv that changed labor forever?
As always, thank you so much for reading the Adult Sex Ed newsletter. If you’re enjoying it, please share with friends, so they can be hilariously informed.
Adult Sex Ed comedically challenges why we think what we think about sex. In case you’re new, I’m Dani Faith Leonard, a comedy writer, film producer, and performer. In 2018, I started a comedy show called Adult Sex Ed and launched this newsletter last year. Each week, I take a fun deep dive into a topic that I’ve been researching. Want to know more? Read the whole description on substack here.
Ready to plug the holes in your education? Okay, let’s go!
I’ve never loved baby shower games (or bridal shower games). I don’t need to guess which substance someone used to make fake poop on a diaper and I don’t need to play a guessing game about which features the baby will have. There’s something eugenics-like about that, no? But there is one game I’ll play—porn vs. labor. It’s a game where guests are provided with a set of photos of women’s faces, either screaming or moaning, and you have to choose whether that face belongs to someone birthing a child or having a twisted orgasm. Not to brag, but I nail that game every single time.
The thing that makes the game work is that the woman is in the same position in most of the photos. On her back, pillows a bit destroyed, hair a mess, eyes bulging. In most images we see of women giving birth in the western world, especially in movies and tv, women are lying on their backs. But there are many birthing methods and experiences, and prior to the modern era, most women gave birth upright. This brings us to a big historical myth.
There is a viral story that King Louis XIV of France was a total perv who loved to watch women give birth. He wanted a better view of his mistress’s vagine (pronounced the French way), so he had his doctor deliver the baby with her lying down. This altered the way that women gave birth…forever. This is more than just an internet tale—it’s been shared by historians and medical professionals. So, is it real?
Here’s some background: King Louis XIV anointed himself ‘The Sun King’ and had art commissioned so he would be commemorated that way. Since he was at the center of the universe, he had to surround himself with heirs, both legitimate and illegitimate. He had many mistresses and possibly a sex addiction, according to historians. He was most likely a perv—so many of the royals were! But there’s no concrete evidence that he had preggophilia, which is a rather common sexual fetish (also known as maiesiophilia or maieusophoria).
As for the crux of the myth, it seems to be mostly false. Here’s a long video from a historian that de-bunks it. Just like the mythical history of chastity belts that I wrote about earlier this year, there are elements of the myth that tell us about the time period, and those elements are true. So while King Louis XIV may not have made the order that women give birth on their backs, there were things going on during that time period that did have an impact.
Prior to the 1500s, women in western civilizations gave birth the same way that women did all over the world—in whichever position most suited them, aided by other women. In Europe, there were birthing stools and most women gave birth kneeling or standing, so that gravity would aid in the birth and the baby would be caught by midwives. There are even paintings that depict Cleopatra giving birth this way.
In the 16th Century, doctors became involved in the process of childbirth and it was recommended that women give birth in a reclining position. To put this in perspective, doctors were exclusively male and also served as barbers at the time. By the end of the 17th century, Parisian women used a special reclined bed while women in England began to deliver birth while on their side. A French doctor name François Mauriceau is credited for making the change to the lying down position, which was recommended in his book The Diseases of Women With Child and in Child-Bed, published in 1672. He argued that the position was more convenient…for the physician. There is no evidence that a king’s fetish made any impact, but Louis XIV was the ruler at the time.
Today, women in the United States still mostly give birth on their backs in a hospital setting, even though it’s widely recognized as being incredibly uncomfortable. Birthing suites in international hospitals have been given an update to include apparatus for a variety of different positions. The World Health Organization recommends that women who have not had an epidural (which would require lying down) be able to chose their own position. If it bothers you that we stick to a plan set forth by barber-doctors, I don’t blame you. And no matter the position, as long as we commit to a close-up of the face, we can still play porn vs. labor.
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mind blown!!!🤯