Women were not immune from sodomy accusations and trials, although there were only a handful in all of Europe during the early modern period. In part this was because, in the minds of most male authorities, true sexual intercourse involved penetration by a penis, so that female–female sex was not really sex. The cases that did come to trial generally involved women who wore men’s clothing, used a dildo or other device to effect penetration, or married other women. The horror with which they were regarded sprang more from the fact that they had usurped a man’s social role than that they had been attracted to another woman.