Period

The 2005 Ridley Scott epic Kingdom of Heaven is really a Kingdom of Hell for anybody who is not a straight white rich man played by Orlando Bloom. Once the only female character appears an hour in, we'll discuss the fetishisation of Middle Eastern women in cinema. We speak with Natasha Hodgson, who is an Associate Professor in Medieval History at Nottingham Trent University. She knows pr...

Before Taylor Swift ignored Joe Alwyn's whining in T he Tortured Poets Department , Emma Stone ignored Joe Alwyn's whining in The Favourite (except with even more corsets and ballgowns). We look at what The Favourite (2018) tells us about 18th century lesbians, who, despite what your school history textbook told you, funnily enough did exist. Heather Rose Jones from the Lesbian Historic Motif Proj...

Reader, we look at the film Jane Eyre (2011). Kate Walker from the Brontë Parsonage Museum tells us all about how the author Charlotte Brontë's siblings influenced the original novel. We discuss what the hell is going on with that wife in the attic, and why Jane Eyre is studied so much in schools. Charlotte Brontë's true calling was as a BookTok dark romantasy writer and we will die on this hill (...

ALEXANDRIA. 391AD. THE WORLD CHANGED FOREVER... or did it? It's all Greek to us! In the next episode of Period, we discuss Agora, a historical epic about Hypatia, one of the few female philosophers of the ancient world. We talk to Justin Pollard, one of the historical consultants on the film about how they made it and discussed our own thoughts in manner so philosophical, you may as well stick us...

Extraordinary people, extraordinary news! Dearest gentle reader, the next season (of Bridgerton) is almost upon us, so it it only fitting that these authors revise how the women of the ton have been portrayed in the last two seasons. The most esteemed literary professor, Valerie Estelle Frankel, called upon us this week to share her thoughts. Does our love of the ton perchance cloud our understand...

Unfortunately, Oppenheimer has more atomic energy than Kenergy. We analyse the role of women in Oppenheimer (or lack thereof). The head of the Atomic Heritage Foundation, Cindy Kelly, tells us about all the real women who worked on the Manhattan project but aren’t in the film. Why does a film about atomic bombs show Florence Pugh’s boobs but not Japan? Does Barbie deserve a Nobel Prize for he...

On the pilot episode of Period, we look at how women are portrayed in Pride & Prejudice (2005). We interview the director of the Jane Austen House Museum, Lizzie Dunford, about which Pride and Prejudice adaptation Jane Austen would have liked the best. Does this film accurately represent the lives of Regency era women? (Sort of.) Is everything Mr Bennet's fault? (Probably.) Should Matthew Macf...