Female Sexual Inversion: Same-Sex Desires in Italian and British Sexology, c. 1870-1920

An examination ofhow female same-sex desires were represented in a wide range of Italian and British medical writings, 1870-1920. It shows how the psychiatric category of sexual inversion was positioned alongside other medical ideas of same-sex desires, such as the virago, tribade-prostitute, fiamma and gynaecological explanations.