LHMP

Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 34c - Historic Lesbians on the Screen: What We Love - Transcript

(Originally aired 2019/05/18 - listen here)

Although this article only briefly notes the same-sex examples of Egyptian love magic that suggested potential relevance, it's an example of how the specific anecdotes and texts discussed in articles that focus on sexuality need further elaboration to be used effectively in building stories. Brooten's focus is on how same-sex desire was a recognized part of the social landscape in Roman-era Egypt, with the magical texts being used as evidence. This is useful as fictional inspiration, in and of itself.

This is an admission that I'm not going to manage to translate the French article on cross-dressing heroines in medieval romances for the foreseeable future...ironically, because I've been spending all my time on writing an article about medieval cross-dressing narratives including the ones covered in the article. Life is complicated. But enjoy this tidbit on the belated inclusion of lesbians in the Oxford English Dictionary.

There are always at least two layers of historic information about non-normative sexuality: the normative, prescriptive narratives of authorities, whether religious, medical, legal, or other; and the individual, concrete, descriptive accounts of everyday experience. It can be enlightening to see where and how these come into conflict. The cases where records acknowledge that actual human beings often fail to follow the paradigms the experts have set out.