Queer as Fact

Julius Caesar

Today's episode is on Julius Caesar! Join us for a discussion of Caesar's dress sense, old men yelling at clouds, and our theories on what did happen in that bedroom in Bithynia two thousand years ago.

You can also check out our introduction to male sexuality in ancient Rome.

Sources

Bohemian Rhapsody, Colette, and Vita & Virginia

Happy New Year! Today we bring you a very special episode of Queer as Fiction, covering not one, but three queer, historical films from 2018. Join us as we discuss depictions of mental illness in Vita & Virginia, trans representation in Colette, and historical accuracy in Bohemian Rhapsody.

Time-stamps for each film:

Vita & Virginia: 00:42

Colette: 20:00

Bohemian Rhapsody: 48:21

Note this episode contains one instance of mild swearing which snuck past our editing and isn't mentioned in the content warnings.

Freddie Mercury

Today we are talking about the frontman of Queen, Freddie Mercury! Tune in to learn about Freddie’s college antics, his rise to fame, and his many, many cats.

December is AIDS Awareness Month, and Freddie lived with HIV for the last years of his life, dying in 1991 of AIDS-related illness. We encourage you check out these links for resources in the ongoing fight against AIDS:

The UN's 2018 World AIDS Day site, Know Your Status

The Mercury Phoenix Trust, founded by members of Queen in honour of Freddie

The International AIDS Society

An announcement, some milk, and some whiskey...

Back in October, we promised that if our episode on Oscar Wilde reached 2000 downloads, we would try milk punch - the drink Oscar and his fellow queer poet Walt Whitman shared when they met in 1882. Today, we bring you the fulfillment of that promise, as well as an announcement about what's coming up for Queer as Fact!

Yona Wallach

We are back from our hiatus with an episode on the bisexual Israeli poet, Yona Wallach. Join us as we visit Tel Aviv's 1960s gay scene, learn about gender in Hebrew, and read some of Yona's most controversial poetry.

Sources

Oscar Wilde: Part 2

This is the second part of our two-part episode on Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde! We're talking about the latter half of Oscar's life, including the wittiest comedy in the English language, the tumultuous relationship between Oscar and Alfred Douglas, and Oscar's trial and imprisonment.

Listen to Part 1 here.

Oscar Wilde: Part 1

It's time for our much-anticipated episode on Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde! Today we're covering the first half of Oscar's life, from his birth in 1854 to the publication of his homoerotic novel The Picture of Dorian Gray in 1891. Tune in to hear about his rise to notoriety, his scandalous fashion choices, and whether he and Walt Whitman ever had sex.

Moche Sex Pots

Today's episode is on the erotic pottery of the Moche people of 1st to 7th century Peru. Tune in for skeleton sex, dragging bad scholarship, and the possibility of a third gender in ancient Peru.

Sources

[Image source: Janusz Z. Wołoszyn and Katarzyna Piwowar's "Sodomites, Siamese Twins, and Scholars: Same-Sex Relationships in Moche Art" in American Anthropologist, Vol. 117, No. 2 (2015), p.288]

Wú Zǎo

Today's episode is on the 19th-century Chinese poet and playwright Wú Zǎo. We'll be reading queer love poetry, talking about gender, and discussing the relatable experience of drinking wine while reading sad books.

Sources

[Image: text from Wú Zǎo's play Qiáo Yǐng]

Billy Tipton

Today's episode is on Billy Tipton, well-known jazz player and transgender man.  Tune in for a man who could play the piano and the saxophone simultaneously, a nude portrait featuring an erupting volcano, and more dogs than you could possibly wish for!