Kate Aaron's Blog, page 14
September 9, 2015
People in Fiction: Zeus and Ganymede
One of the most enduring of the Greek myths concerns Ganymede, the son of Tros, a great king for whom Troy and the Trojans are named. Tros had three sons,all perfect, but Ganymede was said to be the most beautiful boy who had ever lived. One day, while still a youth, Ganymede was resting in […]
September 8, 2015
People in History: Alexander and Hephaestion
Born in Pella, Macedon, in 356BC, Alexander was the first son of Philip II and his principle wife, Olympias. Almost from the moment he was conceived, Alexander became something of a legend. His mother,a princess of Epirus in her own right, was a follower of an orgiastic, snake-worshiping cult of Dionysus, and was widely believed […]
September 7, 2015
The History of Homosexuality: Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece stands as something of a shorthand whenever we think today of a “history” or even “origin” of homosexual behaviour. On the surface, the correlation is a fair one. There’s enough in the written record — to say nothing of statues, art, and pottery — to convince us that male same-sex sexuality was known […]
September 6, 2015
People in Fiction: Fanny Hill
We’re going back a little in time from the Labouchere Amendment, to 1748 and the perhaps surprising choice of an erotic novel told through the eyes of a female prostitute. Female prostitution and homosexuality have long been linked in British law (Labouchere’s Amendment was to an Act concerned with the former, after all, and the […]
September 5, 2015
People in History: Oscar Wilde
It’s impossible to discuss the criminalisation of homosexuality without discussing Wilde, the most famous victim of the infamous Labouchere Amendment. What most people don’t know is that Wilde wasn’t a victim, so much as a martyr. “Where your life leadsyou, you must go,” he famously said, and refused to move from his hotel room until […]
September 4, 2015
The History of Homosexuality: Criminality
As science moved from acts to identities, so too did the public consciousness and, very quickly, the law. In England, consensual male-male sex was first prohibited by the Buggery Act of 1533. Plenty of sources will cite it as the first British anti-homosexual law, although of course it wasn’t anything of the sort. It was, […]
September 3, 2015
People in History: Christopher Marlowe
Christopher “Kit” Marlowe (February 1564-30 May 1593) was a contemporary of Shakespeare’s, and consideredthe most popular and talented tragedian of his time. Were it not for his murder at the age of 29, cutting him off at the height of his success, it is highly probable it would be Marlowe’s name which becamethe bane of […]
September 2, 2015
People in History: William Shakespeare
England’s most famous playwright, darling of the Elizabethan and Jacobean court, and beloved of schoolteachers ever since, Shakespeare might seem an odd choice for a biography, not least because so little is known about it. We don’t even know the day he was born, although from the existingrecords it’s pretty clear he died if not […]
September 1, 2015
The History of Homosexuality: Identity
We often think of sexuality as though it exists on a linear continuum: we talk about homosexuality in Ancient Greek society, for example, when in fact there was no such thing as a “homosexual” before 1868, when the word was coined by German sexologists. It wasn’t used in English until the 1890s. There were, obviously, […]
August 31, 2015
Being A Good Blogger: An Experiment
I’ve had this blog well over fouryears now, and I’m quite proud of it. I enjoy having my own space in which to rant or celebrate or discuss the news of the day. I can spend hours playing with widgets and plugins and colour schemes. What I don’t do is blog consistently, and I know […]
