Amelia Dyer: Baby Killer

Amelia Dyer was one of the most prolific murderers in Victorian Britain. She made a living as a “baby farmer”, or someone paid to care for unwanted or abandoned infants - except she killed around 400 of them.
How could a mother and nurse murder so many defenceless babies? Was Dyer not only a baby-killer but also the real “Jack the Ripper” (as some sleuths have speculated)? Was she insane, or simply an “ogress” in feminine form?
A lecture by Joanna Bourke
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and...
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[@richard_d_bird]

since infanticide has a history that goes all the way back in history, and into prehistory, in which it was generally and pretty routinely practiced for pretty much the same motives exploited by amelia dyer for money, does that make this kind of story an illustration of the modern turn in moral fashions, in which, like today, killing babies is seen as an incredibly evil thing to do, despite the fact that a lot of our ancestors did it all the time and didn't think twice about it

[@ashleyKennedy5]

Does she even notice that the tribal book of myths isn't even the first religious texts? There are lots of religious texts and the UK is predominantly atheist.

[@cliveholloway1259]

Baby abandonment is found in other species also, so it is not entirely unnatural.

[@davidu8688]

Yeah we're not animals however we're thinking, calculating, and feeling beings with a conscience. Also it is rare that animals do this overall and most animals are very protective of their young as well even other animals will take turns caring for young in many different animal groups. So it is unnatural generally and for the most part.

[@KINTIN3549]

This lady creeps me out

[@brainstormingsharing1309]

👍👍👍👍👍

[@peccantis]

Interesting talk. I'll have to note though that at 10 £ per baby, the mothers cannot have been all that impoverished.

[@josephswafford7578]

History. Of. World.

[@DigitallyRemasteredMusic]

Here. You. Are. Again. Typing. With. A. Full. Stop. After. Every. Word. Strange.

[@josephswafford7578]

Trying. To. Say. We. Are. All. Related. Asks. Boy??

[@DigitallyRemasteredMusic]

Why. Are. You. Writing. With. A. Full. Stop. After. Each. Word. ?

[@user-bb5kk5lt6u]

Does it seem to me or the lecturer is really too much excited about the topic? This is a bit worrying and not very pleasant to listen to.

[@beycat6507]

You seem determined to blame men for "seduction of woman". What power!

[@kemwittalltree9650]

In my opinion, murdering 300-400 babies is truly evil. To rationalize the murders is evil as well. Academia is truly in a state of degeneracy at this point in history.

[@peccantis]

Understanding has nothing to do with justifying. Would you prefer that Victorians would have just gasped and wept and wrung their hands at the fate of the baby farm victims and done nothing to seek and cut the roots of the phenomenon to prevent further suffering and death?

[@kemwittalltree9650]

@HotHand069 That's not true. Babies could be dropped off at any Roman Catholic church. It's the same today.

[@bewilderedbrit8928]

Impressed at how man hating feminism can be shoe horned into every subject imaginable.