Catherine II and the Horsecock myth By TDS in TDS's Diary Sat Jun 23, 2007 at 02:24:59 PM EST Tags: Horsecock (all tags)
	Catherine II of Russia, "Catherine The Great" was immediately after her death, said to have died during a tryst with a horse. The exact rumours varied from saying that a special harness constructed to restrain the stallion failed and she was crashed to the claim that the sheer size of the engorged horsecock rendered internal injuries. None of this is of course true.

Catherine actually died of a stroke in bed (albeit the stroke afflicted her whilst straining  on the toilet, rather like Elvis). So what is the story behind the horsecock-related fiction itself? Snopes suggests that it was the work of critics who wished to undermine Catherine's prestige and reputation, suggesting that to have a strong female ruler was considered unnatural. Others blame the French (as is usual). Still others point to the fact that whilst Catherine didn't have sex with animals, she was certainly well-known for being "hot to trot" with well over two hundred men. The wider point here, relevant to feminist analysis, is the way in which sexual innuendo has always been used to undermine powerful women. Marie Antoinette was also accused of zoophilia within her lifetime, and whilst beastiality is rarely mentioned today, sexual innuendo is still used as a weapon in the armoury of the patriarchy against women in the public eye. An interesting footnote to this is that in Nancy Friday's books interviewing women about their sex lives zoophilia is surprisingly common and there are a number of allegedly true stories of intercourse with dogs. But not horses. And with that Kuronia, I leave you, but see, diaries can contain both horsecock and rendeeming historical and sociological content.

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Catherine the Great Died in bed 37% The butler did it in the library with the horsecock 62% Votes: 8 Results | Other Polls

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