Introduction

Abstract

This edition is dedicated to the memory of Professor Roy Porter, who died on 3 March 2002. In keeping with the many conversations I had with him on the history of sex, gender and the body, the articles in this special issue are all concerned with just those topics.This issue is an attempt to retrieve women''s voices, women who found alternative ways to express themselves and their ideas on shocking subjects such as sex, crime, disease, the hysterical female body, spiritual corruption, travel and female independence. All relay the difficulties in pursuing an independent role in their time.The articles range from the early eighteenth century through to the end of the nineteenth century. The first two articles, by Bonnie Blackwell and Julie Peakman, investigate definitions of the sexual woman: ''jilt'', ''slut'', ''woman of pleasure'' and ''whore'' were just a few of the many names attached to women who stepped outside of the moral confines of their day. Certain images were devised to co)