Debate over the question of whether you can have "lesbian identity" without the use of the word "lesbian" as a type of person sucks a lot of oxygen out of the discussion of queer history. After all, a number of other words were clearly in use for a long time to describe women who have sex with women. But because the specific word "lesbian" is so iconic and is often a theoretical sticking point for questions of continuity, this one specific text bears a disproportionate amount of weight.
LHMP
Blog entry
Because I enjoy doing clusters of related publications, here's the first of two talking about the semantics of the word "lesbian."
Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode Sexology Changed Everything: or, Why the LHMP Ends Around 1900 - transcript
(Originally aired 2025/07/20 - listen here)
Introduction
This is the second of the two papers on the history of sexology that I pulled out in preparation for a podcast.
In addition to tackling some USA-related articles, I've picked the rise of sexology as this month's podcast topic, hence the choice of a couple of items on this topic to post. Sexology and its consequences are about half the reason why the Lesbian Historic Motif Project cuts off around 1900. The other half of the reason is that information on lesbians in the 20th century is so much more plentiful that it would swamp earlier material (and the earlier material is where my heart is). But mostly, models and understandings of lesbianism changed significantly around 1900.
Today's article is a survey of recent research in trans (and to a lesser extent, intersex) research on the middle ages.
When I see pirate novels in the new book listings, I sometimes sigh over how all of them are based on a Hollywood-fantasy version of history. But then, this is part of a grand tradition, because the story we have about Anne Bonny and Mary Read is, itself, a fantasy version of their lives, written within existing fictionalized genres and carefully tailored to audience expectations.
Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 318 - On the Shelf for July 2025
- Transcript
(Originally aired 2025/07/08 - listen here)
Welcome to On the Shelf for July 2025.
I did one of those things where I started out writing a blog intro to the LHMP entry and ended up with an essay that needed to move into the entry commentary instead. (I really do need to do an explainer on the underlying structure of the data here.)
This is just a placeholder for a cross-reference. Go about your business.
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