Inside Europe's Biggest Red Light District
Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society
02/21/25
•51m
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Between 1860 and 1925, tens of thousands of women worked in Dublin's Monto, the largest red light district in Europe.
It was a world of narrow alleyways full of brothels busy with sex workers, at a time when the Catholic church was trying to establish ideas around what a woman should be. Hint: it was very different to the women of Monto.
What was life like for the women who lived and worked in Monto? How did these 'poor unfortunates', as they were known, create a community and support each other amidst such hard times? And how did they influence fashion trends of the time?
Joining Kate today is the fantastic Caroline West, author of Wrong Women: Selling Sex in Monto, Dublin's Forgotten Red Light District, which is available now.
This episode was edited by Tom Delargy and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.
If you'd like to get in touch with the show you can contact us at betwixt@historyhit.com.
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All music from Epidemic Sounds.
Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.
Voting is now open for the Listener's Choice Award at this year's Podcast Awards! UK & Ireland listeners please place your vote on the Spotify mobile app here: https://open.spotify.com/s/xhg6PJa
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Previous Episode
The Dark History of BMI & Fatphobia
February 18, 2025
•46m
Dark ideas and stigma around different body sizes really took hold in the Enlightenment.
Very unenlightened, if you ask us.
This started all sorts of awful movements, and one result was BMI - or Body Mass Index - which is still used as a measure of health by doctors today.
What even is the BMI? Why are women and people of colour particularly affected by these harmful ideas? And what's the future of fatphobia and BMI?
Joining Kate is the fantastic Amy Farrell, professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Dickinson College and author of Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture, to take us back to the dark origins of BMI and fatphobia.
This episode was edited by Tom Delargy and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.
Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.
You can take part in our listener survey here.
All music from Epidemic Sounds.
Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.
Voting is now open for the Listener's Choice Award at this year's Podcast Awards! UK & Ireland listeners please place your vote on the Spotify mobile app here: https://open.spotify.com/s/xhg6PJa
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Next Episode
Sex & Scandal in 1920s Soho
February 25, 2025
•31m
When and why did Soho become a hedonistic hotspot, the home of sex, drugs and music?
Kate is Betwixt the Sheets with Dan Snow to talk about post-WW1 London - when a dark underworld of shady characters are soundtracked by an exploding jazz scene, fuelled by a roaring drugs trade.
At the heart of it are the so-called 'dope girls'. Women who fascinated and appalled society in equal measure.
How did a post war mindset influence the 1920s? How did the press react to all the scandal? And, who were some of the major players involved?
Historic Soho has been brought to life in the new BBC show Dope Girls, which tells the story of Soho when female gangs ran the nightclubs after the First World War. You can watch it on BBC iPlayer now.
You can listen to Dan's podcast, Dan Snow's History Hit here.
Voting is now open for the Listener's Choice Award at this year's Podcast Awards! UK & Ireland listeners please place your vote on the Spotify mobile app here: https://open.spotify.com/s/xhg6PJa
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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