Dirty Sexy History

Eighteenth-century pornography was surprisingly progressive, challenging gender roles and the very definition of sex. This week, we talk to Dr Kathleen Lubey about that, plus dildos, gender fluidity, LGBTQ+ content, female empowerment, and the link to modern Romance novels. Dr. Lubey’s new book is What Pornography Knows: Sex and Social Protest Since the Eighteenth Century.

This week, we talk to Craig Seligman about the history of drag in the US and Australia and look at the extraordinary life of artist, filmmaker, and drag icon Doris Fish. We’re talking drag shows, drugs, glitter, Vegas in Space, and how San Francisco battled the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. Craig’s new book is Who Does That Bitch Think She Is? Doris Fish and the Rise of Drag.

At least 385 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced so far in 2023, targeting everything from books to gender-affirming care and even marriage equality. It all sounds a bit familiar, and that’s what we’re talking about this week. Today we talk to Dr Jake Newsome, author of Pink Triangle Legacies: Coming Out in the Shadow of the Holocaust about anti-LGBTQ legislation in Germany from the 19th century until the 1970s, Nazi policies and how the public enabled them, and how the pink triangle went from a symbol of imprisonment to one of gay liberation.

The art of the Rider-Waite tarot deck is iconic, but not everyone knows the artist behind it, Pamela Colman Smith. This week, we talk to actress, tarot reader, and historical fiction author Susan Wands about Pamela’s life, her art, and her involvement with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Susan’s new book is Magician and Fool, a historical novel about Pamela Colman Smith

You know about the Women’s Suffrage Movement, but what you might not realize is how many of early suffragists were queer. This week, we talk dress reform, free love, jiu-jitsu, and queer love stories with Dr Wendy Rouse, author of Public Faces, Secret Lives: A Queer History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement

Following on from Episode 2.8, Dr Nicole Dittmer joins us for a discussion about the Victorian view of women as inherently monstrous and how this widespread fear of women influenced the gothic fiction of the time, notably Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Literary nerds, rejoice! This week we’re talking Catherine Earnshaw, Bertha Mason, hysteria, demon uteruses, and…werewolves?! Plus, this episode comes with merch! Join the Monstrous Women squad with our new “Demon Uterus” design, up now at Tee Public teepublic.com/user/dirtysexyhistory

We think of “friends with benefits” as a modern phenomenon, but it really isn’t. This week, we talk to historian Dr Cassandra Good about 18th century friendships between men and women, answering the important questions: Who sent the first “tit pic”? How did Benedict Arnold win over Peggy Shippen? And crucially, what was really going on between Alexander Hamilton and his sister-in-law?

Christmas shopping is hard, so this week, we’re taking the advice of 1930s holiday beauty ads and looking into radium! Our guest is Lucy Jane Santos, author of Half Lives: The Unlikely History of Radium and an expert in toxic beauty history. We’re talking about radioactive skincare, X-Rays in beauty salons, radium condoms, snorting radium, and other *very* bad ideas. As always—do NOT try this at home!

This week, we talk to Dr Anne Linton, author of the groundbreaking new book Unmaking Sex. The book focuses on intersex and gender-nonconformity in 19th century French life and literature, and we also discuss marriage laws, medical erotica, popular fiction, and permits for pants!

Fake news a modern problem, right? Not exactly. In fact, the US was founded on it. In this very special Thanksgiving episode, we talk to Dr Jordan Taylor about 18th century newspapers, the Revolutionary War, and how misinformation started everything.