“Rough Winds Do Shake the Darling Buds of May”: a Note on William Acton and the Sexuality of the (Male) Child

Abstract

William Acton is now more widely known as a doctor specializing in sexual medicine than he ever was during his lifetime and any other time prior to the 1960s. Acton’s work is considered mostly in terms of what the British medical profession said about female sexual response. There is a lot more to Acton, even if we ignore the fact that he said virtually nothing about female sexuality. He published numerous articles in the British medical press, which have been all but ignored. He also was one of the first English doctors to give advice on how to educate one’s children in sexual matters. This article considers Acton’s writing in this area and compares it with other British medical practitioners in order to establish that Acton was not insane but, rather, that he was merely a member of the English medical profession.