Saturday, 3 October 2026

Cartoon “The Great Social Evil” and the meaning of the word gay in 19th-century England

Black-and-white cartoon of two women in crinolines talking by a doorway in the rain, with a La Traviata poster on the wall and the caption The Great Social Evil.

Ah, Fanny! How long have you been gay? In nineteenth-century England the word "gay" was used of those working in the sex trade. In the background is a poster for La Traviata, an opera about a courtesan, for the especially slow on the uptake

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