Queer as Fact

Today's episode is on the 3rd-century North African saints, Felicity and Perpetua! Join us to hear about queer dreams, the mysterious absence of Felicity and Perpetua's husbands, and why early Christians wanted to abolish gender.

Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact.

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[Image: Mosaic of Felicity and Perpetua, Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Concept...

In today's episode, Jasmine, Irene and Alice discuss the 2017 Academy Award-winning Chilean film Una mujer fantástica (A Fantastic Woman). This film's grounded and sometimes surprisingly hopeful depiction of a trans woman's grief provided such a realistic depiction of legal barriers facing trans people in Chile that it contributed to positive changes in legislation around gender transition. Join us to talk about a three-dimensional trans protagonist, how queer suffering is not inevitable, and what made us genuinely love this sad queer movie.

Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is...

Today's episode is on asexual and aromantic history! We're talking with Luciella Scarlett, the curator of Nonlimerent // Monosexual: An Aromantic and Asexual History. Join us to hear about the first self-identified ace person, the evolution of ace and aro terminology, and how much we can learn from looking at history through an asexual lens.

You can check out Nonlimerent // Monosexual: An Aromantic and Asexual History online here and see Luciella talk more about her work in the Aces Never Ever Sleep stream here.

Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as...

Today's Queer as Fiction episode discusses David Lowery's 2021 adaptation of Arthurian legend, The Green Knight.

Join us for a romp through allegorical adventures of identity, whale-like giants and dissapointingly unsexy ents. 

If you'd like to read Jude Doyle's review (that we discuss fairly extensively towards the end of the episode), you can do so here: https://judedoyle.medium.com/the-green-knight-is-the-existential-queer-folk-horror-we-need-843be5fbd1d6

If you never got around to our episode on the original Arthurian legend that this movie is based on, you can check that out here: https://queerasfact.podbean.com/e/s...

Today we’re talking about the Nigerian performer Area Scatter. Learn about her successful career as a trans performer in 1970s Nigeria, gender diversity in Igbo culture, and how we approach research when academic sources are limited.

Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact.

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(Image credit: Still from Jeremy Marre's Beats of the Heart: Konkombe (1979))

Today's episode is on Italian-British sculptor Fiore de Henriquez, whose art reflected her own complicated relationship with gender and sex as an intersex person. Join us to hear about Fiore distracting Nazis with crepes, seducing everyone around her whether she meant to or not, refounding a town, and ruminating on the gendered nature of clay.

Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact.

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Today we're bringing you a little bonus episode to tide you over until March! We're chatting with George Savoulis, the curatorial director of Qtopia, Sydney's centre for queer history and culture. Join us to hear about queer shoes, the complexities of sharing queer history in an old police station, and why you should visit Sydney!

Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact.

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Today's episode is on Jane Schoenbrun's breakout 2024 horror film - I Saw The TV Glow.

Join us for a discussion that is alternately haunting and deeply silly, featuring playground parachutes, TV-based queer awakenings and Alice's love of soup. 

Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact.

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[Image: A cropped poster for the movie I Saw The TV G...

Today's episode is on the Spanish-Chinese pilot, diplomat, and concentration camp survivor Nadine Hwang. Join us to learn about Parisian lesbians, the skills of the ultimate modern women, and Nadine's war-time romance with her life-partner Nelly Mousset-Vos.

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[Image: Black-and-white photo of Nadine Hwang amongst refugees arriving in Malmö, Sweden, April 19...

Today we're talking about Megillus, a trans-masculine character in the 2nd-century text Dialogues of the Courtesans. Tune in for three separate queer characters, the complexities of discussing transness in the ancient world, and a whole host of mythological examples of ways to be queer.

If you want to listen to the episode on Roman women for some background, you can check it out here. 

If you want to read the dialogue we're discussing, you can find it here. 

Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is...

Today's episode is on the 17th-century nun, saint, and religious leader Walatta Petros. Join us for Queer as Fact's first visit to Ethiopia, as we learn about 17th century religious conflicts; discuss Walatta Petros' lifelong relationship with Eheta Kristos; and wade into scholarly debate on exactly what the nuns in her community were getting up to.

Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact.

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Today’s episode is on 2021’s Rwandan/American science fiction musical, Neptune Frost. Join us for a discussion of cyberpunk fashion choices, technomagical gender transitions and some of the worst pigeon acting you’ve ever seen. 

Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact.

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[Image: A poster for the film Neptune Frost, featuring the two words of the tit...

Today's episode is on the US Civil War soldier Albert Cashier. Tune in for some heartwarming trans acceptance in the 1910s, a wild genealogy trip, and an unpleasant discovery about how often Civil War soldiers bathed.

Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact.

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[Image: Portrait of Albert, a young man in Civil War uniform, c.1864]

Today's episode is on the mystery of Australian banker and rower John Lempriere Irvine. Join us to hear about rollerskating balls, rowing drama, and the possibilities of gay life in 19th century Australia.

Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact.

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[Image: tintype photograph of John, who has large mutton chops and a moustache, from Wayne Murdoch's The Mys...

Today we're joined by Lazou from Nuances: Our Asian Stories to discuss her series Queering Premodern Asia. Join us as we chat about the complexities of queer history, the importance of non-Western stories, and queer Chinese ghosts.

You can check out Nuances here.

Visit out our website, where you can find everything there is to know about Queer as Fact.

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Today's episode is on a passage from the work of 14th century French Jewish writer and translator Qalonymos ben Qalonymos. Join us to learn about Qalonymos' life, explore their understandings of gender through a passage from their work the Even Bochan, and discuss its connections to historical and modern Jewish practice.

Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact.

If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on Patreon, checking out our merch, and following us on Instagram, Tumblr and Bluesky.

...

Today's episode is on the 19th-century Japanese artist Okuhara Seiko. Join us to learn about gender in Japan's Meiji era, an 1860s coming-out party, and getting a doctor's certificate to cut your hair.

Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact.

If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on Patreon, checking out our merch, and following us on Instagram, Tumblr and Bluesky.

[Image: Black-and-white photograph of Okuhara Seiko, an older Japanese person with short hair, Wikimedia Commons]

Today's episode is on Cassandro, the 2023 biopic of luchador Saúl Armendáriz. Join us as we learn about the history of lucha libre, the growing visibility of queer wrestlers and whether a luchador could become president of Mexico.

Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact.

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[Image: Actor Gael García Bernal as Cassandro, wearing a lon...

We're back! Today's episode is on the Australian singer and male impersonator, Nellie Small. Join us to hear about the experiences of people of colour in 20th-century Australia, Nellie's extensive and stylish suit collection, and an unfortunate reminder that, regardless of your gender presentation, your boss will always try to steal your wages.

Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact.

If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on Patreon, checking out our merch, and following us on Instagram, Tumblr...

Today's episode is on the Dutch cellist, conductor, and WWII resistance fighter Frieda Belinfante. Join us to hear about Frieda's groundbreaking career as a female conductor, the many women who fell in love with her, and how to forge a 1940s Dutch ID card in excruciating detail.   

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[Image: Frieda dressed in a men's jacket and...

Today's episode is on the Hungarian palaeontologist, geologist, spy and ethnographer, Franz Nopcsa. Join us as we discuss dinosaurs, Franz's travels in Albania, and the world's first plane hijacking.

Check out our website, where you can find out everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. 

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[Image: Franz in traditional Albanian dress, 1913]

We're back!

Today's episode covers depictions of queerness throughout the history of tabletop roleplaying games, including Dungeons & Dragons, Vampire: The Masquerade and many, many more.

Join us for a discussion spanning nearly 50 years of D&D and TTRPG history, featuring masochistic clerics, gay vampire gangs and lesbian political satirists.

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[Image: The front cover of the 1983 Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set]

Today's episode is on the English writer Jane Austen. Join us as we discuss whether Jane was queer, on-stage lesbian Mr Darcy, and the evolving queerness of Austen adaptations.

Check out our website, where you can find out everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. 

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[Image: sketch of Jane Austen by her sister Cassandra Austen, c.1810 - source.]

Today's episode covers the 1940s All American Girls Professional Baseball League, and the 2022 television series based on it, A League of Their Own.

Join us for a discussion featuring shoes deemed "excessively masculine-looking", perhaps too many women named Dottie, and more "close, life-long friends and roommates" than you can shake a stick at.

Check out our website, where you can find out everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. 

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In today's episode, Irene and Alice interview historian and author Danielle Scrimshaw about her new book, She and her Pretty Friend. She and her Pretty Friend is the first book of its kind, exploring the history of Australia's queer women. We discuss the queer generation gap, how to navigate changes in queer language and identity as a historian, and the experience of doing research in the spaces between recorded histories.

Check out our website, where you can find out everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. 

If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us...

Today's episode is on Hijra in 19th-century India. Listen to learn about who these 19th-century Hijra were, how they structured their society, and their resistance in the face of British colonial oppression.

Check out our website, where you can find out everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. 

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[Image: A Hijra and her companions in East Bengal, 1860s]

Today's episode is on US dancer Isadora Duncan. Listen to find out how she revolutionised dance, what the Singer sewing machine had to do with it, and enjoy some sapphic love poetry.

Check out our website, where you can find out everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. 

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[Image: Isadora Duncan in ancient Greek-inspired clothing - source]

On today's Queer as Fiction, we discuss the 1961 British noir film Victim.

Join us for some dramatic performances, heavy-handed messaging and a surprising result from a government inquiry. 

A link to the film's trailer: https://youtu.be/Ems3u2ZA9SA

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[Image Description: The poster for the movie Victim, starring...

Today's episode is on Elke Mackenzie, British lichenologist, Antarctic explorer and trans woman. We'll tell you about Elke's incredible devotion to her research, as well as penguin egg facts and one of the coolest landscapes known to humankind.

Check out our website, where you can find out everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. 

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Queer as Fact is back from hiatus! Today we're talking about relationships between women in ancient Rome. Join us to hear a queer creation myth, read some ancient love poetry, and find out which whether your star sign made you gay.

Check out our website, where you can find out everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. 

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[Image: Relief of two Roman women holding hands]

This week's episode is on the West African soldiers known as the Agojie, sometimes called the Dahomey Amazons. Join us to hear about how women became the backbone of the Dahomean army, a very dubious cocktail recipe, and not one but two kinds of same-sex marriage!

Check out our website, where you can find out everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. 

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[Image: drawing of Agojie Seh-Dong-Hong-Be by Frederick Forbes...

Welcome to Season 10 of Queer as Fact! This week’s episode we're talking about a 1971 article from the Village Voice memorably titled ‘Asexuals Have Problems Too’. Join us to hear about being invited to orgies to pour the wine, why 101 Dalmatians is a piece of ace cinema, and how this satirical article became a surprising source of ace visibility.

This episode was originally released on our Patreon as a bonus episode.

Check out our website, where you can find out everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. 

If you enjoy our content...

In today's episode we discuss Qiu Miaojin, a well-known Taiwanese lesbian writer. We've got details about Taiwanese lesbian gender identities, an experimental queer literary movement, and a very lovable crocodile.

Check out our website, where you can find out everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. 

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[Image description: a photo of Qiu Miaojin, an ethnically Chinese person in thin-rimmed glasses, a dark blue coat, and a short, masculine hairstyle.]

On this week's podcast, we're talking about the queer micronation, the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands. Join us to hear about the joys and tribulations of founding a country, the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom's war with Australia, and of course, the Royal Dog.

Check out our website, where you can find out everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. 

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[Image description: A sign on a beach wh...

This week's episode is on the 5th-century Irish abbess Saint Brigid. Join us to hear about a miraculous abortion, powerful women in the Catholic Church, and a flying priest.

Transcript available here

Check out our website, where you can find out everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. 

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[Image: stained glass window of St Brigid holding a lamp]

In today's Queer as Fiction episode, we follow up our previous episode on historical piracy with a discussion about David Jenkins' 2022 pirate comedy Our Flag Means Death.

Join us as we explore the historical figures of Major Stede Bonnet and Captain Edward "Blackbeard" Teach, discuss the evolution of pirate tropes and how they became associated with queerness, and revel in the multifaceted ways OFMD depicts its predominately queer characters.

Check out our website, where you can find out everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. 

If you enjoy our content, consider sup...

Avast me hearties! This week's episode is about queerness during the Golden Age of Piracy. Join us to hear about the raging party culture of pirate ships, Eli and Jason getting gay pirate married, and our treasure hunt for evidence on the stormy seas of historical documents.

Check out our website, where you can find out everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. 

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[Image description: a engraving of pirate captain...

Today we'll be talking about a recently discovered and possibly fraudulent archive of Frida's paintings, letters and possessions. Join us to hear about how to authenticate an artwork, Chavela Vargas' smoking gun, and 200 entire dogs.

This episode was originally released on our Patreon as a bonus episode. The episode we intended to release today, on queerness in the Golden Age of Piracy has been delayed and will hopefully be released on August 15th. 

Check out our website, where you can find out everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. 

If you enj...

This week on Queer as Fact, we're talking about the 8th-century Arabic poet Abu Nuwas. Join us to hear about wine poetry, sexuality in the Abbasid caliphate, and fun facts about cheetahs.

Transcript available here

Check out our website, where you can find out everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. 

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[Image: sketch of Abu Nuwas drawn by Khalil Gibran in 1916]

Today’s episode of Queer as Fiction, as chosen by our patrons, is on the 1926 play “The Captive”. Join us as we discuss the sale of violets, the padlocking of theatres and the diverse ways a story can be interpreted by audiences and critics.

Thank you to our Patrons for voting on this episode!

Check out our website, where you can find out everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. 

If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on Patreon, checking out our merch, and following us on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook.