Queer as Fact

Welcome to the longest episode of Queer as Fact yet! In today’s podcast we’re talking about the author of Dracula, Bram Stoker. Join us to read Bram’s intense fanmail to Walt Whitman, discuss his complex relationship with masculinity, and meet a pet monkey. Also featuring a guest star appearance by Oscar Wilde! We’ll be following this episode up on the 1st of October with a companion episode on Dr...

Today's episode is on gendered pronouns in Mandarin! Join us for a journey through thousands of years of Chinese language, featuring paleo-pronouns, neo-pronouns, and the complexities of expressing gender when your phone has a limited character set. For those of you who would like a visual to go along with the Chinese characters we discuss in this episode, they are 他 (masculine/neutral tā), 她 (f...

Today's episode is on queer representation in museums - what it looks like, what queer people want it to look like, and how we can get there. This episode was originally released on our Patreon in 2024. It is based off Alice’s Masters research, which you can read here . Check out  our website , where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. If you enjoy...

Today's episode is on the Iraqi singer, Masoud El Amaratly. Join us as we visit the unique marshlands of southern Iraq, hear what may be the oldest known recording of a trans person, and learn about mustarjil, the traditional transmasculine identity in Masoud's Ahwari culture. Check out  our website , where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. If yo...

This Queer as Fiction episode is on Kenyan director Wanuri Kahiu’s 2018 lesbian romance film, Rafiki. Join us for a rich exploration of Kenyan culture through the lens of the director’s self-titled “Afrobubblegum” genre, the real-world ramifications of releasing a lesbian film with a happy ending in a country where homosexuality is criminalised, and a DJ named after an Australian cartoon character...

Today's episode is on Hwarang, a group of elite youth in first millenium Korea who have come to simultaneously represent nationalism, masculinity, and gay love. Join us to learn about the most talented and beautiful men in the Korean Peninsula, enjoy some historical song lyrics about gay love, and hear us discuss about the challenges of approaching queer history across cultures and centuries. Chec...

Today's episode is a nice light-hearted look at something near and dear to many sapphic hearts - Subaru!  We take a look at WHY lesbians loving Subarus is such a stereotype, what the car company did to encourage this, and laugh at some pretty saucy innuendos.  This episode was originally released on our Patreon in 2024. Check out  our website , where you can find our sources, as well as everything...

Today’s episode is on the South African performer and hairdresser, Kewpie! Join us to learn about queer life in Cape Town’s coloured community under apartheid, find out how you can get your hair done at 3am, and hear about a prize-winning Marie-Antoinette costume. Check out  our website , where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. If you enjoy our c...

Today's episode is on the Catterick skeleton, the excavated remains of person buried in 4th century CE Roman Britain, identified by archaeologists and the press as a 'transvestite'. Join us to hear about what a bead found in the ground can tell us about gender in local jewellery trends, how press reactions to the skeleton have changed over time, and a bonus ancient Roman board game interlude. This...

In today's episode we interview author, academic and political commentator Dennis Altman about his new book - Righting My World: Essays from the Past Half-Century.  Join us for a discussion that spans 60 years of queer activism, from discussing the differences in public health policy responses to the HIV/AIDS crisis in Australia and the United States to the state of queerness as an inherently revo...

Today's episode is on the Irish mythological figure Cú Chulainn. Join us to experience tragically poetic anal penetration, some universal themes that have compelled humankind of millennia, and the two coolest cows in the universe. Check out  our website , where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on ...

Happy New Year! Today we're discussing the 1988 Korean intersex lesbian film Sa Bangji.  Join us as we learn about the real 15th-century woman behind the film's main character, discover how 1980s government policy inadvertently led to the creation of a queer movie, and admire some historical hats. Check out  our website , where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about...

Today we're talking about the ancient Italian ice-mummy known as Ötzi the Iceman. Join us to learn about the world's oldest pants, the ethics of archaeology, and and whether there really was sperm in Ötzi's anus. This episode was originally released on our Patreon in 2023. There are few points throughout the episode where the sound becomes crackly. It happens three or four times, and none of the i...

We're back! The first episode of this block of episodes covers Maryam Touzani's 2022 drama film, The Blue Caftan. Join us for a discussion of queerness in Morocco, the "ostentatious nudity" of the bathhouse, and resolving the tension between differing modes of love with grace and deep affection. Check out  our website , where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Q...

Today we are discussing Ursula K. Le Guin's Hugo and Nebula award-winning 1969 science fiction novel, The Left Hand of Darkness. Join us to hear about ambisexual beings who defy gender norms, the initially sexist man who comes to love them and a sexually charged journey across a glacier.  Check out  our website , where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as...

In today's episode, we discuss the Daoist god Tu'er Shen, who is considered to be a patron god of homosexuality. Join us to learn about intimacy between men in 18th century China, a secret gay statue, and one Daoist priest's desire to create a safe space for queer youth. Check out  our website , where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. If you enjo...

Today's episode is on Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic consulting detective! Join us as we talk about aromanticism, turn-of-the-century masculinity,and whether Watson is, in fact, a woman. Link to the article Watson was a Woman? discussed in the episode Check out  our website , where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. If you enjoy...

In today's episode, we're discussing the Circle of Sex, a 1960s astrological representation of sexuality, and its eccentric creator Gavin Arthur. Join us to hear about how to have sex à la Walt Whitman, how to figure out if you're a Sappho or a Club Woman, and whether there is a faint possibility, just maybe, that the Circle is a tiny bit flawed.  If you would like to follow along at home, please...

Today's marathon episode is about the French revolutionary figure Maximilien Robespierre, whose apparent lack of sexuality has been a point of discussion for scholars ever since his death. Join us as we try to find the real man behind more than two hundred years of conflicting propaganda, explore methods of approaching history on the asexual spectrum, and add to the pantheon of Queer As Fact histo...

Today's episode is on the Haitian Revolutionary religious leader Romaine-la-Prophétesse whose identity as a prophetess of the Virgin Mary was key to his leadership of an insurrectionary camp in pre-revolutionary Haiti. Join us to learn about Romaine's divine mission to abolish slavery, a definitely legitimate and not at all excommunicated priest, and the implications of getting topped by the Virgi...

Today's episode is on the 3rd-century North African saints, Felicity and Perpetua! Join us to hear about queer dreams, the mysterious absence of Felicity and Perpetua's husbands, and why early Christians wanted to abolish gender. Read the 3rd century Passion of Saints Felicity and Perpetua, discussed in the episode, here. Check out  our website , where you can find our sources, as well as everythi...

In today's episode, Jasmine, Irene and Alice discuss the 2017 Academy Award-winning Chilean film Una mujer fantástica (A Fantastic Woman). This film's grounded and sometimes surprisingly hopeful depiction of a trans woman's grief provided such a realistic depiction of legal barriers facing trans people in Chile that it contributed to positive changes in legislation around gender transition. Join u...

Today's episode is on asexual and aromantic history! We're talking with Luciella Scarlett, the curator of Nonlimerent // Monosexual: An Aromantic and Asexual History . Join us to hear about the first self-identified ace person, the evolution of ace and aro terminology, and how much we can learn from looking at history through an asexual lens. You can check out Nonlimerent // Monosexual: An Aromant...

Today's Queer as Fiction episode discusses David Lowery's 2021 adaptation of Arthurian legend, The Green Knight. Join us for a romp through allegorical adventures of identity, whale-like giants and dissapointingly unsexy ents.  If you'd like to read Jude Doyle's review (that we discuss fairly extensively towards the end of the episode), you can do so here: https://judedoyle.medium.com/the-green-kn...

Today we’re talking about the Nigerian performer Area Scatter. Learn about her successful career as a trans performer in 1970s Nigeria, gender diversity in Igbo culture, and how we approach research when academic sources are limited. Check out  our website , where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us...