The idea the Romantics were rock stars is sometimes espoused by those who want to sex up a subject that to a readership weaned on a predominantly visual culture might be thought to have limited appeal. Romantics were precursors of the modern rock star, but that would be to ignore contemporary attitudes: as one historian notes, the widespread availability of sex coincided with ‘the closing down of traditional female occupations, such as midwifery, and the increasing denigration of traditional forms of female knowledge, such as those associated with magic and healing all contributed to a set of circumstances which undermined the negotiated nature of women's power and position’. When the case is argued for the Romantics at large, it is on the basis of what we call lifestyle choices, drug abuse and sexual proclivities being high on the list.