Three FASoS students successfully presented the result of 4 months of research during the MABP fair last week.
Maxime Hallatu’s focus was on marriage and health advices by gynecologist and physician Theodoor Hendrik van de Velde. Nabilah Noordin researched Japanese erotic woodblock prints from Edo Japan. And Yasmin Geradts researched the sexual morality from the Beyart Brothers collection.
All students were supervised by Annemieke Klijn.
Marriage and health advice
Maxime Hallatu’s focus is on Haarlem gynecologist and physician Theodoor Hendrik van de Velde (1873-1937). Her research constitutes of books, photographs and diagrams from all three archives. Van de Velde made history by dispelling the taboo around talking about sex. His expertise lies in giving sexual advice for married women and health advice for married men. He is well known for his marriage trilogy where the first of books, ‘The Perfect Marriage (1926) had up to 46 editions. The numerous translations and reprints of this books shows how popular this book was.
Taboo, nudity and erotica in Edo Japan
Nabilah Noordin researched a different facet of erotica. Japanese erotic woodblock prints or Ukiyo-e from Center Céramique provide an insight into the Japanese experience of eroticism between the 17th and 20th century. Her focus is mainly on the sub-genre of bijin-ga (beautiful women), called abuna-e (risky images). While some prints are voyeuristic in nature, some can be rather subtle. The Japanese did not experience restrictions and taboo in regards to nudity, and thus was more free in exposing body parts that would be considered taboo in the West.
Sexual morality as educational material
Yasmin Geradts researched 52 meters of unknown educational material from the Beyart Brothers in the Center Céramique archives. Her research focused on books on sexual morality. Their educational materials were based on their own Catholic morals and practices in daily lives. Their materials also include books regarding catechism, etiquette and pedagogy. Catholic books on sexual morality and education typically resonates with the 6th and 9th commandment which are: Thou shalt not commit adultery and Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife. There are other sexual morality that can be found in the archive such as in the Nazi biology books, the ‘reward booklet’ from the 19th century given to good school children that talks about slut shaming*, as well as sultry illustrations from the book 1001 Nights.
