Image description: Francesca Bridgerton sits across fro her husband, both looking away.
In Season 4 of Bridgerton, we find Francesca Bridgerton digging around to discover what a “pinnacle” is, after her husband encourages her to have one to help them produce an heir. While there has historically been some belief that the female orgasm might aid conception—often attributed to uterine contractions—it is now widely understood that successful conception does not require female orgasm. Still, if conception is the narrative justification for Francesca’s curiosity, I’m fine with that. After all, even Francesca Bridgerton deserves to learn about female sexual pleasure.
Francesca finds no help from her abashed mother, and only some help from her friend and sister-in law Penelope Bridgerton who describes the sensation without any pointers on how to achieve it. While her wishes for straightforward, non-metaphorical sexual education goes unmet, I wonder if one of her friends in society, if not her husband, could clue her in to where her clitoris is. While it would still take until late 1800s for the electric vibrator to be invented, Francesca’s well-read peers would have known about the need for most women to have clitoral stimulation in order to orgasm. Dr. Alexandra Vasti writes that sexual education books existed during this period, including Aristotle’s Masterpiece, containing descriptions and diagrams of sexual anatomy, including an explanation of the clitoris as crucial to female pleasure. Importantly, the book reflects the early modern “one-sex” model of the body in which male (penis) and female (clitoris) anatomy were seen as variations of the same structure which we know to be true today.
Let us all hope that Francesca Bridgerton finds her clitoris, and subsequently her pinnacle, in the second half of Bridgerton Season 4.