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The Scottish case of Argyll v Argyll, an infamous and nasty divorce case that made headlines in the 1960s, is being brought back into public awareness thanks to the new 大象传媒 One drama A Very British Scandal. It has a star-studded cast, beautiful shots of Scotland (with an unrealistic number of sunny days) and an exploration of societal issues that are as relevant today as they were in the swinging sixties.

On a special holiday episode of the Bad People podcast that’s now available exclusively on 大象传媒 Sounds, we interviewed the writer of the show, Sarah Phelps. She told us how after following the story of the Duchess of Argyll for decades, she created this perfectly posh world of controversy. The duchess was a woman who fought back against patriarchal norms and laws, resisted gender-norms, and refused to bow down to the slut-shaming narrative that was weaponised against her.

The drama tells the story of this case mostly from the perspective of the Duchess of Argyll, Margaret Campbell, played by actress Claire Foy. While the divorce proceedings were ostensibly about money, both the news coverage and the legal arguments made it clear that what people really cared about was whom the widely nicknamed “dirty duchess” had slept with.

The duchess had many sexual partners over the course of her life, and she seemed unashamed of this. While this kind of sex-positivity was already gender non-conforming, even more defying was the reveal that she kept letters from, and photographs of, some of her lovers. One photo in particular, which included her giving a blowjob to a man whose head wasn’t visible, was widely shared against her will and led to a frantic search for the headless man.

Sex pics, lewd letters, and multiple sexual partners were the perfect storm for a spiteful duke to use against the woman he was divorcing. He also quickly found allies, with the news and the plethora of men involved in the legal proceedings all seemingly in loud agreement that such behaviour was wholly unacceptable.

We have come a long way since the 1960s. We are seeing more women in the legal profession, public shifts in how sexism is understood, and more laws that protect women. These are having dramatic positive effects on how women are perceived and judged in legal contexts. However, old norms die hard. Shaming women for their sexual history is unfortunately still relevant today, and not just in court rooms.

Shaming women for their sexual history is unfortunately still relevant today, and not just in court rooms.

For example, for a study published in 2018 thousands of participants were asked to think about a male or female friend whose sexual history they had some knowledge of. Participants evaluated women more negatively as their number of sexual partners increased. The same was not true of men, where the number of sexual partners was not related to what they thought of them. It didn’t matter if the woman was a best friend or a more distant one, the same judgement happened. There is still a sexual double-standard.

Unfortunately I’m sure that many women can still relate to what the character of the duchess says of herself in episode three of A Very British Scandal - “that’s what’s on trial. That I got on my knees and I enjoyed it. And I have to be sorry”.

To learn more about this landmark case, and plenty of extra details about the real duke and duchess that couldn’t make it into the show, listen to our Bad People interview with writer Sarah Phelps. It is available now, only on 大象传媒 Sounds.

Dr Julia Shaw is a research associate at University College London and the co-host of the Bad People podcast on 大象传媒 Sounds.

She is an expert on criminal psychology, and the author of two books “Making Evil: The Science Behind Humanity’s Dark Side” and “The Memory Illusion: Remembering, Forgetting, and the Science of False Memory".

Her website: , and Twitter