What It Was Like Being a Sex Worker In 18th Century London

What is a molly boy? In the 18th century, Londoners began calling young gay men and male pros "molly boys," using the term as a derogatory term for those men they found effeminate or soft. Molly boys might walk the streets of London looking for johns (clients), while others visited molly houses - secret and discreet meeting places for gay men. In molly houses, men could dress in drag, have relations with other men, and even perform play marriages and pretend to give birth, all while avoiding society's condemnation. Molly house culture led to the flourishing of London's LGBTQ+ community - at least until the police raids started.

#MollyBoys #LGBTQHistory #History

[montyollie]

The title is all wrong. This is not about sex workers at all. It's about closeted gay men.

[ZydecosGirl]

Love the very subtle Good Omens fan art at 3:31. To be fair, Aziraphale and Crowley definitely would’ve visited a Molly house.

[monkeygraborange]

I remember as a kid being totally confused by the line in the song Yankee Doodle, “...stuck a feather in his hat and called him Macaroni.” No matter how many adults I ask, none of them could explain it to me. I was in my 30’s before I discovered what that really meant.

[A.J.Crowley]

Just casually including Good Omens fanart to this, love it🤭

[RachelSWhite]

The title is misleading. It should be called "what it was like to be labeled as a sex worker when you're just a gay man in the 18th century". The molly houses weren't brothels, they were "safe places". I heard no money exchange in this video.
Another thing: you show Thomas Wright the astronomer who would have been only 15 years old in 1726, and who also died in 1786, so you got the wrong Thomas Wright up there. This one you're talking about was hanged in May 1726, shortly after the trial in April. Probably should correct that for historical accuracy.

[megan]

I love how at 3:34 you just casually included Good Omens fan art 😂

[Auron]

Considering what women’s fashions were like during the 1700s it would be interesting to see a drag show from that time period

[leeannbliss]

I would love to see an 18th century themed drag show now.

[rubygold]

Came here for the Good Omens reference but stayed for the history

[zach]

Man, that's something. It's like what happened at Stonewall Inn. People snitched, went to jail, and sentenced to death. Except Stonewall, no one was sentenced to death. First time hearing about something like this.

[citrus]

seeing Aziraphale and Crowley fanart in this made me laugh cause the moment molly houses were mentioned I immediately thought of Azira doing the gavotte.

[christinaw]

Would love to see a video about life as a Japanese Geisha

[jtgyk]

Interesting video, but is it just me or is the title a bit on the confusingly inaccurate side?

[drdanieltravers]

As a history professor, I love this channel and subscribe, but please find images that relate to the period in the script. Having a banner say 1720s on top of a series of images from the late 19th and even 20th centuries is pretty jarring. There are great images in the public domain that better correlate to the content.

[BertLensch]

The Macaroni dressing style... now Yankee Doodle sticking a feather in his cap suddenly makes sense.

[sir_boasts_alot]

NO FUCMING WAY THEY PUT AZIRACROW FANART IN THIS IM DYINF

[fastpotatoes]

I love this channel. Although, I think the title of this video should be changed. Molly houses were only 1/100th of the sex work in London during this period. Why not call the video what is is? It is a video about the lgbtq community in London, not just sex work.

[kandyburra]

THE AZIRACROW FANART IM FUCKING DYING AHHAHAHA

[Aetheretic]

The title of the video needs to be changed, it's misleading and not at all what the content of this video is about.

[fluffyg]

Weird History, please do more about African history both post and pre colonialism.