queeratlast

[queeratlast]

New episode is out!! This week we're exploring the queer stories behind Harriet's favourite statue of David in Florence - spoiler, it's not the one you think... 😱😱😱

Listen at the link in bio, or wherever you get your podcasts (and if we aren't available on your favourite platform yet then please let us know!)

Content warnings can be found in the episode description.

Bronze sculpture of David by Donatello, 1440, now in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello

[queeratlast]

Tag yourself I'm heretic magician 🧙‍♂️

And most importantly LISTEN TO EPISODE 3 OF QUEER AT LAST to find out more about the queer 16th century man of mystery, Christopher Marlowe 👀

[queeratlast]

Tag yourself I'm heretic magician 🧙‍♂️

And most importantly LISTEN TO EPISODE 3 OF QUEER AT LAST to find out more about the queer 16th century man of mystery, Christopher Marlowe 👀

[queeratlast]

Queer at Last Episode 3 is out now!! This time we're chatting about KIT MARLOWE - queer playwright, man of mystery and for legal reasons definitely not secretly Shakespeare...

Unknown portrait from Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts!

[queeratlast]

Bacchus: can't believe I have to jack off over this dead shepherd's grave just to keep my promise

Literally everyone else: you really don't have to -

Bacchus, already whittling a dildo from the closest tree: no, I'm gonna

[queeratlast]

If you haven't heard the Dionysus dildo story I PROMISE you it's time to remedy that - it's so worth it.

🎧 Listen to the full story in episode 2 of Queer at Last

[queeratlast]

Hands up who had Bacchus gestating the baby like a seahorse on their Bacchus bingo card? 👀

Listen to Episode 2 of Queer at Last now to hear about everyone's favourite queer party god from Greece and Rome - trust us, his life only gets more wild from this point on... 🍇

[queeratlast]

IYKYK 👀👀👀

[queeratlast]

Episode 2 of Queer at Last is out now!! This week we are chatting about Dionysus aka Bacchus - Ancient Greek god of theatre, wine, frenzy, debauchery and, perhaps most importantly, dildos… is there anything this guy can't do?!

This is the artefact we'll be discussing in the episode! A restored 2nd century Roman statue of Bacchus that is currently in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Give it a listen wherever you get your podcasts. Remember that content warnings are included in the episode description.

[queeratlast]

Episode 1 - La Maupin

Take a closer look at the illustration we discuss during Episode 1, which focuses on Julie d'Aubigny, or La Maupin as she was known - an incredible figure whose life blurs the boundaries of fact and fiction. See end of post for references.

The image (shown above) is an illustration by Aubrey Beardsley made for Gautier’s Mademoiselle de Maupin A Romance of Love and Passion. It has several queer connections in its own right.

The book

Mademoiselle de Maupin A Romance of Love and Passion was published by Theophile Gautier in 1899. The story was inspired by the life of La Maupin, but rather than attempting to be a facts-based portrayal of her life, it takes her identity as a cross-dressing swordswoman and runs with it. The story centers around a young couple, Chevalier d’Albert and his mistress Rosette, who have both fallen in love with the dashing "Théodore de Sérannes". Unbeknownst to either of them, Théodore is in fact a woman in disguise.

While d'Albert has a sexual identity crisis (a classic trope: the Li Shang of the 19th century, if you will), Rosette attempts to seduce "Théodore" in a very erotically charged scene. Finally, the truth is revealed and "Théodore" reveals herself to both her lovers, spending half the night with d'Albert and the other with Rosette. The reader is left to draw their own conclusions about what could have transpired between the two woman, something that could not be explicitely written at the time.

In the morning their mysterious lover has gone, leaving only a note:

Comfort poor Rosette as well as you can, for she must be at least as sorry for my departure as you are. Love each other well in memory of me, whom both of you have loved, and breathe my name sometimes in a kiss.

Theophile Gautier, Mademoiselle de Maupin: A Romance of Love and Passion

In 1922, the novel was condemmed for its portrayal of adultery and homosexuality by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice.

The artist

Aubrey Beardsley published six illustrations for this work in 1898 - he had originally intended to illustrate the entire novel, but the project proved too intensive and costly and was abandoned. You may well recognise the style of the illustration - Beardsley was a very well known artist from the 19th century whose distinctive art nouveau style was inspired by Japanese woodcuts. He was deliberatively provocative: as Tate Britain put it, "his works explore the erotic and the elegant, the humorous and grotesque."

His works explored sexual freedom and gender fluidity, and he loved to include provocative elements in his drawings. Some of his drawings were particularly explicit and "obscene" - so much so that they couldn't be published, but were instead distributed to private collectors through discrete channels. Beardsley was part of the asthetic movement, a group of artists who strove to create art freed from Victorian notions of morality and rigid establishment ideas, to create a "cult of beauty."

As part of this movement he came into contact with Oscar Wilde, and Wilde comissioned the young artist to illustrate his play Salomé. Beardsley's drawings were incredibly erotic and upturned conventions for portraying women in the era. This was a daring take for a play already in hot water for its depictions of biblical characters. When Wilde was arrested on charges of gross indecency, Beardsley was dammed for his percieved association with the playright. A mob attacked the office of the magazine Beardsley worked for and he was forced to resign from his position as editor.

"I have one aim – the grotesque. If I am not grotesque, I am nothing"

Aubrey Beardsley, 1897

References and further reading (and listening!) for this episode:

Illustration:

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/aubrey-beardsley/exhibition-guide

https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/an-introduction-to-the-aesthetic-movement

https://archive.org/details/mademoiselledema00gaute/page/n1/mode/2up

La Maupin's life:

Dictionnaire Des Théâtres De Paris, Volume 3, 1757

Women In Men’s Guise, Oscar Gilbert, 1926

Gallant Ladies, Cameron Rogers, 1928

By the Sword, Richard Cohen, 2002.

https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/julie-daubigny-la-maupin-and-early-french-opera

https://www.historicmysteries.com/history/julie-daubigny/26646/

https://kellygardiner.com/fiction/books/goddess/the-real-life-of-julie-daubigny/

https://podbay.fm/p/bad-gays/e/1679976000

https://clairemead.com/2022/06/17/la-maupin/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0cncgq8

[queeratlast]

So how many monasteries did YOU burn down before your 20th birthday? 🔥

Harriet and Katherine discuss the scandalous exploits of Julie d'Aubigny while she was still a teen, and take a long hard look at their own life achievements to date... 🫠

Listen now to Episode 1 of Queer at Last, an LGBTQ+ history podcast where two pals chat all things queer! Available wherever you get your podcasts (or via the link on our homepage) 💪

[queeratlast]

What would you do...? 👀

Find out more about the utterly wild and iconic life of Julie d'Aubigny, aka La Maupin, in our first episode of Queer at Last. I guarantee, whatever shenanigans you're imagining, she got up to worse ⚔️

Listen wherever you get your podcasts!

[queeratlast]

When you burn down a convent to run away with your nun lover

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Teacher: "In this class we want you to draw-" Me: "You got it!" -> has already drawn Julie D'Aubigny, famed bisexual sword fighting opera singer Pose credit (x) goes to @adorkastock !

[image id: A painting of historical figure Julie D'aubigny, in an exagerrated illustrative style. A white red headed woman wearing a 17th centuary dress has her back to the viewer while looking over one shoulder. She is holding a rapier. The solid black background and red curtain to the side makes it appear as though she's on stage]

[queeratlast]

Badass bisexual cross-dressing sword-fighting opera-singing nunnery-burning women? In our podcast?? It's more likely than you think 👀

Check out our first episode on Julie d'Aubigny, aka La Maupin, to hear about the absolutely WILD shenanigans this incredible lady got up to in 17th century France ⚔️