These are some of the most influential, famous, and historically important human beings of all time... who also happened to be huge, shameless perverts and/or deviants. Sure they were all a little predatory, but we wouldn't be where we are without these forward-thinking men who, in modern times, would have a red dot above their house in a government database.
You will definitely recognize some of these famous perverts, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart himself. Turns out he wrote a bunch of very untoward songs, including one about licking a certain body part that rhymes with grass.
These historical perverts were musicians, philosophers, emperors, kings, and writers. Were you surprised to learn these gasp-inducing facts? Check out more below.
Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary, and writer. He's most famous for bringing explicit material to people in a time when showing off your ankles was scandalous.
Why is he famous?
Marquis de Sade became famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle (i.e., a person without moral restraint), but mostly for his suggestive novels. He also left the world with the practice of S&M. That's right, the man invented S&M. How? Well, first of all, it's named after him.
The term "sadism" is based on Marquis de Sade: the idea of developing pleasure as a result of inflicting pain. "Masochism" is first seen in some of Sade's more Gothic-inclined sexual novels, where, for example, the female character is bound and tormented, but also fondled, and develops a kind of attraction to her tormentors.
So, why is he a pervert?
Sade's tales include that time when he and his wife kept five young women and one young man captive in their house. For six weeks, Sade used his victims for sex. He would even lure young women from the surrounding village by drugging them with a "Spanish fly" aphrodisiac.
Aleister Crowley was a British writer, prophet, and magician, though not quite the bunny-in-a-hat type that most people love. The real kind. The kind that does a lot of drugs, doesn't shower, and makes love with people as part of his religion.
Why is he famous?
He was a well-known occultist. As the prophet of his new religion, Crowley developed Thelema, a polytheistic religion that ushered in the belief that its followers should follow their own "True Will" and neglect their ego. Basically, he was a famous almost-real-life-warlock who stirred up a bunch of people at a time when it was relatively easy to stir people up.
Apparently, the faith follows the idea that the 20th century would usher in a new ethical code that would be followed: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law."
So, why is he a pervert?
Crowley not only founded a religion based on magick, but he also founded something called "Sexual Magick" which is basically just using climax and/or arousal (and sometimes fluids) as parts of a spell.
James Joyce was an author responsible for seminal works like A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Dubliners, Ulysses, and Finnegans Wake. He's one of the greatest Irish writers of all time.
Why is he famous?
He is one of the most remembered figures of the Modernist movement and helped usher in a new way of writing language. His writings experimented with structure in ways that have never done before and changed the way people read words.
He is responsible for some of literature's greatest moments and has taken people to new places and emotions they've never felt before. He proves that words live on forever.
So, why is a pervert?
Well, for one thing, he liked to hear his partner's flatulence during intercourse. He even wrote really passionate letters about it. Check it out right here.
A few favorite fart quotes:
[I]f I gave you a bigger stronger f**k than usual, fat dirty farts came spluttering out of your backside. You had an arse full of farts that night, darling, and I f**ked them out of you, big fat fellows, long windy ones, quick little merry cracks and a lot of tiny little naughty farties ending in a long gush from your hole.
We are not kidding. These are real quotes from one of literature's greatest voices:
It is wonderful to f**k a farting woman when every f**k drives one out of her. I think I would know Nora's fart anywhere. I think I could pick hers out in a roomful of farting women. It is a rather girlish noise not like the wet windy fart which I imagine fat wives have. It is sudden and dry and dirty like what a bold girl would let off in fun in a school dormitory at night. I hope Nora will let off no end of her farts in my face so that I may know their smell also.
King of England from 1509 to 1547. Famously, he was married six times. He separated the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church, dissolved the monasteries, and oversaw the legal union of England and Wales.
Why is he famous?
Without a very distinctive name (Henry), he is quite possibly most famous for his dissatisfaction with marriage (he was married six times).
So, why is he a pervert?
Never satisfied with any of his wives, Henry VIII had them offed if they could not produce a male heir.
He went through six wives (and countless other women) and was never reprimanded for being such a scoundrel.
When Henry passed in 1547, he weighed almost 400 pounds and was suffereing from a variety of diseases.
Henry VIII Wanted To Divorce His Fourth Wife Before They Even Got Married#253 of 347 The Most Important Leaders In World History#322 of 2,443 The Most Influential People of All Time
