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"Ganev, Robin"
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Milkmaids, Ploughmen, and Sex in Eighteenth-Century Britain
The remainder of the song describes the act of lovemaking between the ploughman and the village girl in similar terms, concluding with an invitation to drink the ploughman's health.6 In these instances and others milkmaids and ploughmen were used interchangeably for \"plebeian\" sexuality (a contemporary term that I will use interchangeably to describe the rural laboring classes or peasantry). Bridget Hill, while arguing that chastity was not of great importance for the working class during the eighteenth century, asserts that respectability became more sought after during the Victorian period.121 Yet popular culture continued to celebrate frank sexuality, and bawdy songs continued to be printed diroughout the nineteenth century, indeed, increasing during Victorian times in spite of the moralists and eventually developing into music hall entertainment.122 Representations of the sexual vigor and playfulness of milkmaids and ploughmen in the long eighteenth century, of course, reflected broader cultural discourses about sexuality, and that is likely why they remained such a lasting theme in eighteenth-century texts.
Journal Article
