Sex and power: Why we love it when historical fiction gets a little racy

I've been reading Lauren Chater's The Beauties (Simon and Schuster, $32.99). It's the story of Emilia Lennox, who loses everything after her husband's land and titles are confiscated. She goes seeking the favour of King Charles II, who's happy to restore order, only if Emilia will become his mistress. (What is it with royal Charleses and mistresses?). But Emilia is no pushover. She's a good sort and will only become the king's plaything if her portrait is hung among the famed collection of the Windsor Beauties, paintings commissioned by The Duchess of York to showcase the fairest women in the royal retinue.

And here's the thing. The portraits are on display at Hampton Court Palace this very day. Ten portraits of the women who were considered the most alluring and powerful women in the king's court in the 17th century. They were like pin-ups of their day, it's even been suggested the series was the equivalent of today's Maxim Hot 100.

More than half of them were actually the king's mistresses, a status which led to party invitations, financial security and even an apartment located close to the king's bedchamber. It's a fascinating story, both on the page and in real life.

If I'm completely honest, there's something of a thread between the historical fiction I do find myself drawn to, whether it be on the page or on the screen. It's how women have had to use their looks and guile to change their lives, particularly at times when the outcomes for women weren't great. Sex is power, and it has been since Eve first took a bite of the forbidden fruit.

If there's something a little saucy in a show, I'm in. Didn't Bridgerton take us all by surprise? Let's hope things didn't get out of hand in Bowral a couple of weeks ago.

One of my favourite watches was Harlots, currently screening on Stan. In the opening credits, you'll learn that in 1763, one in five women in London were making a living selling sex. It was the only way they could earn, and keep, their own money. The series follows a couple of rival brothels, one a little more high-end than the other, but the women at both are quite in charge.

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I also have this theory, that the whole direction of Game of Thrones changed when Daenrys got atop Khal Drago in episode two of season one. Even though it might not have been the Dothraki way, she was no slave.

Another series worth seeking out is The Serpent Queen, starring Samantha Morton as Catherine de'Medici, the 16th century French Queen. It's sexy and violent and terribly engrossing.

So too are the novels of Philippa Gregory, who I had the good fortune of interviewing a while back. While her books aren't too racy, they're a great insight into the lives of women. She was pleased to see a resurgence in history through popular culture. She mentioned television shows like Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, Bridgerton, Outlander, even The Crown.

I loved that she got a little cross with me when I asked her if she ever made stuff up.

"My books are best sellers because they are anchored in the historical reality and that's what people like about them," she said. She knows we're Googling. And learning things.

But maybe what we're not learning - or we've learned, but have not seen any change from those lessons - is how women then and now still have to deal with inequality.

Gregory's book Normal Women won the New Statesmen Book of the Year in 2023. It's the history of the United Kingdom, from 1066 to modern times, told through the stories of everyday women.

"I wanted to show that murderers and brides, housewives and pirates, whores and weavers, farmers and milliners, female husbands, hermits, the chaste, the jousters, painters, nuns, queens, witches and soldiers mattered, even if not documented," Gregory wrote in the introduction.

Women's stories deserve to be told. Stories from the past, present and future. If, by reading a novel, or a work of non-fiction, watching a television show or taking in a film, we learn more about how women have always been strong, resilient, sexy creatures, then we can take those lessons into our own lives.