Friday essay: how the moral panic over 'sexual sadists' silenced their victims
- Written by Joanna Bourke, Professor of History, Birkbeck, University of London
Portrait of Marquis de Sade (1740-1814), whose name and writings gave us the term 'sadism'Wikimedia
Between the 1920s and the 1950s, sexual sadism was widely discussed in Australian newspapers. Ironically, attempts to ban the Marquis de Sade’s books gave journalists an excuse to write about them, thus spreading knowledge of this...
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