The American fascination with the private lives of celebrities has always been inflamed by the mix of sex with scandal. In 1907, the country was enthralled by what was deemed the “Trial of the Century” after railroad heir Harry Kendall …
The curse of the Dutch sodomite
Spare a thought for the sodomites. In Dante’s Inferno they are condemned to run for all eternity through rains of fire. At the Duomo in Florence, you can still see Giorgio Vasari’s immense fresco of The Last Judgment beneath the …
Are you a fictosexual?
Akihiko Kondo is the face of fictosexuality. Often understood as a niche expression of asexuality, this is the label given to those who are only attracted to fictional characters. And like people who experience “objectum sexuality” — a sexual attraction …
How I lost my sexuality
In hospital, one of the things that is never mentioned, and there really is no reason for it to be, is sex. There are no jokes, double entendres, or exchanged looks. The place is antiseptic in all senses. Of the …
Foucault foresaw our identity crisis
A common experience these days is being told that people don’t talk about things that people are constantly talking about. “Let’s Face It” — declared a recent headline on the website of McLean Hospital, the famous psychiatric facility in Boston …
The shadow of Pax Romana
To his army of ardent followers, Tom Holland has a unique ability to bring antiquity alive. An award-winning British historian, biographer and broadcaster, his thrilling accounts offer more than a mere snapshot of life in Ancient Greece and Rome. In …
Why gay men ignored MeToo
An explicit tweet about social etiquette at a condomless gay orgy recently went viral as the mostly heterosexual public grappled with the sheer perversity of what they were reading:
Is it unethical to attend a “no loads refused” pimped-out cumdump …
Scotland’s Tavistock must fall
Sinéad Watson didn’t mean to become an activist for vulnerable women. At the age of 20, she began to identify as a man, binding her breasts and using the name Sean. But at 27, after four-and-a-half years on testosterone, she …
Can you really be non-binary?
Everyone, it seems, has had enough of the boring old binary; non-binary people are having a moment. Celebrities are embracing “they/them” pronouns in droves; non-binary fashion lines are springing up like mushrooms; authors are riding the wave.
Two new books …
The taboo trans question
“Sexuality is who you go to bed with, gender is who you go to bed as.” Learn it, remember it, drill it into your brain: this is one of the most important precepts of gender identity activism, and one of …