Benkov reviews how the squeamishness of medieval legal texts in indicating how the word "sodomy" is applied to women's acts effectively erases the lesbian nature of their activity: “women with each other by detestable and horrible means which should not be named or written about.” Which text is placed beside for more simple and clear descriptions of men participating in anal intercourse. Crompton (1980) addressed the question of prosecutions of women for sodomy up to the French revolution, but little additional material has been added since.
dildo
References to the use of an artificial penis for sexual pleasure, either as a solo activity (when mentioned in the general context of lesbianism) or used by two women, including as part of gender disguise. The use of dildos, especially by one woman on another, was a major focus of sexual anxiety in Western history. There were two general motivations for this anxiety. In some views, only penetration was “real sex” and therefore the use of a dildo was the dividing line between “harmless” activity and transgressive activity. And the use of a dildo between two women was considered the violation of gender boundaries, not simply sexual ones.
LHMP entry
Homoeroticism cannot be identified in historic contexts without letting go of modern notions of what it would look like or what other relationships it would be compatible or incompatible with. There are few explicit images of sexual activity between women in Roman art. Brooten (1996) gives two examples of female homoeroticism, only one of which is sexual: a grave relief of two freedwomen clasping hands (dextrarum iunctio) in a manner normally used to symbolize marriage, and a wall painting from Pompeii that appears to show two women engaging in oral sex.
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