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Stories

  • Article

A body apart from the head

We look back at the importance of the head, from how it’s influenced our language to the bold political statement of having it removed.

  • Article

How trauma affects the body and mind

The long and devastating aftermath of an attack have given writer and broadcaster Bidisha unique insight into the suffering of other victims. Here she explores survival and healing in those who have experienced trauma.

  • Book extract

A history of sex for sale

Kate Lister’s cultural history of the sex trade puts sex workers centre stage. In this extract, she argues why the way we write, think and talk about sex work matters.

  • Article

Witches

Many of the women persecuted as witches in the 16th-century “witch craze” were over 50 and exhibited signs of menopause. Helen Foster suggests that the stigma of the wicked witch still affects older women and how they deal with menopause.

All stories (6)

Images

  • Three different methods of punishment and torture, including scourging the bare buttocks of a culprit. Etching.
  • The punishment and torture of the "Peacock" dervishes by order of Emin Pasha's rebel officers: the dervishes are lined up and seated to have their ears sliced off. Coloured wood engraving by P. Naumann after W.H. Overend after A.J. Mounteney-Jephson.
  • Methods of torture through the ages: including a rack, the man in the iron mask? and Roman and Tudor punishments. Halftone.
  • Woman wearing a Scold's Bridle.
  • A Chinese man is hanging up from a rope attached to a wooden structure and resting on a bamboo stick held by two Chinese men. Coloured stipple print by J. Dadley, 1801.
  • 'Dr. Dooreslaer' appearing with mythological figures and scenes of feasting and execution. Line engraving, c. 1650.
  • Four faces of the damned in Dante's Hell. Drawing, c. 1791.
  • The British Museum: working-class people attending a guided tour and looking at exhibits of English history in glass cases and on the walls. Etching by G. Cruikshank, 1843.
  • A prisoner in Sing Sing Prison, New York, having water poured over him by a guard as a punishment, while restrained at the ankles and wrists: he dies. Wood engraving, 1869.
  • A star falls into the pit of hell as locusts torture those unelected to heaven. Woodcut, c. 16th century.
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Catalogue

All works (138)