Of Gays Gone Bi

Ray Stevenson/REX/Shutterstock
Johnny Rotten photographed in 1976.

Bricolage

Currently, I am doing my Bachelor of Arts degree at University, my main focus is Cultural Studies. Many people think that Cultural Studies is mostly just watching films, listening to music, reading plays, reading books and consuming media like that, but in reality, we take the other humanities and we put them through a cultural lens. We talk about everything from Sociology to Psychology, and one of the terms that we use is Bricolage. Bricolage is the act of taking something, be it a person, a thing, a word, a symbol or really anything and changing or subverting it to represent something else. One of the most common ones you may have heard talked about is the safety pin. While it was originally a common household item for women serving purposes from holding dresses together to holding diapers together. In the 1980's Punk Scene it began to decorate every piece of clothing imaginable, some people even just put them through their ears as jewelry. They began to be a symbol instead for resistance against gender roles within the household.

Julius Caesar

Seeing the subheading and the topic above you are probably wondering what these two things have to do with one another. Well, the answer is that Julius Caesar is known as the biggest THOT (a slang term standing for That Hoe Over There, meant as a more affectionate and gentle way of saying someone sleeps around) in most queer history circles. Am I suggesting that he was Gay? No, in fact, the term Homosexual hadn't even been invented in that time period, but evidence suggests that he was not particular on which gender the person he slept with identified as. You see in ancient Rome it was actually encouraged, at least in the military, as men were more likely to kill to protect one another if such a bond had been made. As well there was the theory that all that testosterone and other chemicals from having sex made a soldier stronger, happier and more on their toes. Where did I learn all of this? Well in Jr. High I had a teacher who was especially in the study of history through a cultural lens, I have a story about Male anatomy, a whiteboard and a Permanent marker that I will hopefully get to tell you later about Mr. G but isn't relevant to the current topic so I'll save it for later.

While Caesar has many rumors about his sex life, two of the most notable are as follows:

1. Caesar is said to have fathered one of Cleopatra's children. 
2. Caesar is said to have been the consort of King Nicomedes IV of Bithynia, even having been called The Queen of Bithynia by a few.

It is rumored that both of those are how Caesar rose to power, by sleeping around. Truthfully though, either way, Caesar is an Icon of modern Queer Liberation movement, whether he really was a THOT or not. The idea alone of the possibility that it could, in fact, be true represents the endless possibility in all of history. You see, Queer historians are now fighting to reclaim all of our histories that has been lost over the centuries as most historians are very notably homophobic and chose to bury, hide and destroy any evidence that someone may not have been completely straight or cisgendered. So now Caesar represents the possibility that lies in our history for those searching.

Sappho of Lesbos

Manchester Art Gallery, UK / Bridgeman

Similar to Caesar, Sappho of Lesbos has many stories that circulate about her, most notably being that her supposed husband never existed and was simply a lie she told. One thing we know for certain is that she is the source of the word Lesbian. Many ideas circle around about her, the use of gender in her poetry and the name of her husband, Kerkylas, from the island of Andros, which translates roughly to "Dick of Man". The problem is that Ancient Greece translations could be lost to time, and the facts about her life are not ridged and none of them really hold any water.

However, it is the idea of her, the myth that she has become and the stories that are shared about her that young Queer historians latch on it. Slowly they work to uncover more about iconic historical figures that may have been queer, together we explore and learn more about a past we could never hope to know all of.

Hopefully, someday historians will acknowledge the magnitude of gender and sexuality in history, like the original copy of Anne Frank's diary where she may talk about girls like a young tween exploring her sexuality might.

Until then,
Keep Dreaming of Freedom,

Rei

References

A Queer History | Outlawing of Homosexuality | Part 3. (2012, August 30). Retrieved from http://www.polarimagazine.com/features/queer-history-outlawing-homosexuality/

Mendelsohn, D., & Mendelsohn, D. (2017, November 13). How Gay Was Sappho? Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/03/16/girl-interrupted

Homosexual Wedding for the Roman Emperor. (2017, May 26). Retrieved from https://untoldhistorytour.com/homosexual-wedding-for-the-roman-emperor/