Another good example was DaVinci, the ass he gave god in the Sistine chapel in itself is a damn good argument for him being gay and a troll along with his journals (though a theology major once argued with me it'd be blasphemy to give an artistic rendition of god anything but the best ass possible).
A sculptor who hated painting btw. Was basically kidnapped and forced to do it. Got paint in his eyes and almost went blind. Also probably closeted gay.
Yea that's what we ended up agreeing on, that and a lot of the Renaissance artists probably saw love and divinity as the same thing. To have a poor art history major in that room lol.
Ikr, his argument was 'oh it wasn't as severe in those days' (total horseshit) also something about pre-modern man seeing the world-universe as perfect, not just sacred, and by extension the human form. Idk about that neither, in those days pretty much just existing and being born was a sin, there's a gap between whatever he was arguing and real world shaping things imo. Whatever, too much religious exhilaration in an academic setting poisoned him.
History is gay AF. That's why they only teach the marketed versions in school. Even the bible... Pretty sure Lucifer and God just had a sloppy breakup.
If I can't have you no one can! Leviticus write this down!!
??? There's certainly a Satan-like figure (Ha-Satan) in the Bible, specifically in the Books of Job and Zechariah. Many Jews interpret that figure as a metaphor, like the "idea" of evil, not a fallen angel type dude, but Satan is definitely real and in the Bible.
My understanding is that that's pop history and that the ancient Greeks were very, extremely, violently homophobic. MLM sex was about the worst thing you could do and if you got caught you'd be publicly shamed for the rest of your life if not outright killed.
This post calling Alexander the Great gay is questionable too but eh.
It varied hugely by city-state, but most were at least pretty OK with pederasty. A young boy having a sexual relationship with an adult man was seen as a pretty normal part of most educational/mentorship relationships. In the city-states where it was more frowned on, it was the "receiver" role that tended to be stigmatized, rather than the relationship as a whole. Hence all the references to eunuchs here: since they didn't have to worry about being emasculated, it tended to be a lot more acceptable. Adult men who preferred to bottom were definitely stigmatized in a lot of places, though.
Eunuch essentially means trans woman or enby fyi, unless forcefully made one by someone else. The cult of Cybele was very prevalent in Greece and they referred to themselves with female pronouns, many similar cases in the Levant and Persia. So let's not assume that it's gay, but it definitely was a queer situation
Very few people (some asexuals for example) would willingly become a eunuch outside of being trans or as a punishment.
I know from the courses I took that in the Byzantine world, becoming a eunuch could be an avenue to familial advancement, if you could get employment in the imperial palace bureaucracy in Constantinople. Some eunuchs even became powerful enough that they made their brothers emperor, like with Michael IV. It's all very interesting history to learn about.
yes, i actually know a trans lady that is wanting to write a book about trans history through a marxist lens, and a lot of societies were like this before industrialization and the spread of mercantilism. ive been helping her get into contact with people so she can touch on every region of the world, im mostly parroting what she has told to me. eunuchs (re: usually trans people) held an immense amount of power due to 'checking out' of inheritance, which was necessary for primitive accumulation and allowed bureaucracies and impartial judges to appear. to the point that eunuchs were THE people to please, and were given all sorts of things for free, like primitive hrt, food, money, surgeries, leniency for homosexuality in some homophobic societies, ability to create laws and solve marital and inheritance disputes, and so on
Didn't Alexander share a tent with his best friend Hephaestion though? With descriptions of them reading letters together, kissing a ring to the others lips to keep a secret, and Alexander "yielding to Hephaestion's thighs". And after Hephaestion died, Alexander showed immense grief.
That sounds very gay to me. Or bisexual and polygamous considering they also had wives. To be honest applying modern conceptions of sexuality to ancient Greek rulers probably doesn't work too well.
Didn't Alexander share a tent with his best friend Hephaestion though?
Yes and Hephaestion had died less than a year before Alexander. His body had to be physical pried away from Alexander because he wouldn't leave it for the entire day. He wept and didn't eat for three days after and had the doctor looking after Hephaestion hanged. He declared an empire wide period of mourning. They also both married daughters of Darius and Alexander hoped that a child who was related to the both of them would one day rule. You know ... normal heterosexual things.
Hephaestion's wikipedia page is where they put all the gay stuff since I guess it's too offensive to have in Alexander's.
With descriptions of them reading letters together
Fellas, is it gay to read correspondence with another bro?
Jokes aside, I think we should be careful applying the sexual and cultural standards of modern western culture across borders and time. For example, it's still very common in the middle east for men who are friends to hold hands while walking down the street. To us that's a sign of homosexuality, to them it's just bros being bros.
That all being said, taking a stance that any ancient Greek figure was straight as we know it is hilarious.
so thats a later thing in the catholic church, but you can also find people that referred to themselves as women or a 'third gender' in that context. some however were also forced because the catholic church is problematic. in this catholic idea, eunuchs are sexless and do not have sex, but this was obviously not the case in so many instances.
eunuchs also had various roles in different cultures. there was a jewish king for example that had a eunuch in his harem was implied to be treated as a woman as a result (re: fucked like a woman). theres also some theories that Puyi was in love with his 'eunuch', and they lived together after the revolution in China (was told this by chinese friends) and might have been a big part of why he was spared (no progeny)
Eunuch essentially means trans woman or enby fyi, unless forcefully made one by someone else.
that vast majority of eunuchs were forcibly made eunuchs, and this is true across different cultures. Eunuchs would usually be servants or slaves who had been castrated to make them less threatening servants of a royal court where physical access to the ruler could wield great influence.
Did people really not know Alexander the Great was bisexual or gay in some way? I remember it because I watched some terrible movie about him nearly 20 years ago as a kid. The one with Collin Farrell and Angelina Jolie in it.
According to Wikipedia there are four versions of the film lmao
Four versions of the film exist, the initial theatrical cut and three home video director's cuts: the "Director's Cut" in 2005, the "Final Cut" in 2007, and the "Ultimate Cut" in 2014.
They never mentioned it to me in school, and I didn't know. But tbh I'm very fuzzy on that part of history... I remember studying the decline of Rome, and I remember studying Mesopotamia. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention.
To be honest I found out about it from this terrible movie well before I even learnt about ancient Greece in school. Made for some interesting questions to my history teacher years later lol.