A Little Extra Information Below!!
After marriage, the husband and wife became one legal entity. During this time in history, married women could not own property in their own right, and were property to their husbands. Unclear when the ritualized custom of selling a wife by public auction first began, in most reports, the sale was announced in advance... perhaps by advertisement in a local newspaper. It usually took the form of an auction, often at a local market, to which the wife would be led by a halter (usually a rope) looped around her neck, arm, or waist. The woman was then auctioned off to the highest bidder and would join her new husband after the sale was complete. Wife selling occurred very often in the 18th century.
Women considered to be suffering from hysteria exhibited a wide array of symptoms: including faintness, insomnia, fluid retention, heaviness in abdomen, muscle spasms, shortness of breath, irritability, loss of appetite for food or intercourse, and “a tendency to cause trouble.” During this time, female hysteria was widely associated with sexual dissatisfaction. For this reason, the patients would undergo weekly "pelvic massages". During these sessions, a doctor would manually stimulate the females genitals, until the patient experienced repeated "hysterical paroxysm." Pelvic massages we're used as a medical treatment on women. |