I've been pondering this and I want to say yes, tentatively, but with the reservation that what people in the nineteenth century consider "sans sex" doesn't exactly map onto what we consider "sans sex." Almost anyone in 21st century America would consider it sexual for two girls lying in bed together passionately kissing each other's faces and declaring their love for each other, whereas a 19th century person would see it as... really affectionate friendship, or something like that. (In the first half of the nineteenth century, young men could express their friendship this way too. My impression is that the curtain came down on that earlier and faster than it did for intense girlhood friendships, but I may be wrong.)
There's a 20th/21st century tendency to see physical affection, and really intense emotion even if not physically expressed, as necessarily sexual. In the 19th century that's much less prevalent, and you end up with situations that seem OBVIOUSLY sexual to a modern person - the face-kissing! face kissing with literal avowals of love! - and seemed just as obviously pure sweet beautiful David-and-Jonathan friendship to the participants at the time.
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Date: 2021-04-12 02:33 am (UTC)There's a 20th/21st century tendency to see physical affection, and really intense emotion even if not physically expressed, as necessarily sexual. In the 19th century that's much less prevalent, and you end up with situations that seem OBVIOUSLY sexual to a modern person - the face-kissing! face kissing with literal avowals of love! - and seemed just as obviously pure sweet beautiful David-and-Jonathan friendship to the participants at the time.