83
votes
Did Arthur Conan Doyle code Holmes and Watson as a gay couple?
No.
They cared deeply about each other as friends, but there was never anything romantic in it.
Holmes was asexual. He wasn't just uninterested in women, he was uninterested in romance.
All ...
- 70.7k
35
votes
Accepted
Is there any textual evidence to support that Dumbledore was gay?
In terms of explicit confirmation, the answer is a very solid no. At no point did any character, nor the omniscient narrator, identify Dumbledore's sexuality in simple terms.
Signs and portents.
...
- 4,686
29
votes
Accepted
What suggests Edmund might be gay?
As someone who rather likes the totally non-canonical idea of gay Edmund, there is really no textual evidence to support this idea and you are right to point out that it is extremely unlikely that ...
- 1,177
17
votes
Did Arthur Conan Doyle code Holmes and Watson as a gay couple?
It should be noted that the Sherlock Holmes stories (with exception to "His Last Bow", "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone", "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane", and "The Adventure of the Blanched ...
- 187
14
votes
Accepted
What does violence have to do with a 'bodice ripper' romance novel?
TL;DR: Lots.
Introduction
The post isn’t very clear about exactly what it’s asking, so I’m going to interpret it as asking the following questions:
What does the term ‘bodice-ripper’ mean?
In what ...
- 52k
10
votes
Are there recorded instances of asexuality in the body of ancient Greek writings?
There are a few gods and goddesses in ancient Greek mythology (assuming you count that as part of literature) who lead virgin lifestyles. Athena, Artemis, and Hestia come to mind as examples. Now of ...
- 70.7k
9
votes
Accepted
Is there any evidence for a gay relationship in The Merchant of Venice?
There is a modern tradition of Antonio and Bassanio, and the rest of The Merchant of Venice, being interpreted in queer terms.
A common starting point for this is the first line of the play. "In ...
- 1,379
7
votes
What suggests Edmund might be gay?
It is worth noting in this conversation that Lewis had very level-headed opinions about homosexuality and did write directly about the subject outside of his children's fiction; in his private life, ...
- 198
6
votes
Accepted
What evidence do we have that, after her death, Christina Rossetti's brother destroyed some of her poems before he published the rest?
William Rossetti’s The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti (1904) contains an appendix listing the titles of poems that were neither printed in Works nor in New Poems (1896):
Appendix B.—...
- 52k
6
votes
Are there recorded instances of asexuality in the body of ancient Greek writings?
Perhaps a case can be made for Hermaphroditus. The son of Hermes and Aphrodite, he was a remarkably beautiful youth, but uninterested in sex. Or at least, the way Ovid tells it, "he did not know what ...
- 21.2k
5
votes
Is there any evidence for a gay relationship in The Merchant of Venice?
There are many, many quotations that reveal the homosexual relationship. Why is Antonio sad? Because he is in love with a male prostitute and, in performance of anal sex with a client, Bassanio has ...
5
votes
What does the "Tell the neighbors I'm not sorry" line in "Girls Like Girls" mean?
The song as a whole is written from the point of view of a woman who is having a relationship with another woman who, in turn, appears to be in an existing relationship with a man.
I'm breaking ...
- 20.9k
4
votes
Accepted
Does Vivien sleep with Merlin in Tennyson's "Idylls of the King"?
Your interpretation is a common way to understand this passage. Mid-Victorian literary conventions required some delicacy in alluding to sexual activity, so this kind of suggestive imagery is all we ...
- 52k
3
votes
Accepted
Does “The Picture of Dorian Gray” contain any explicit content?
Sex between two men is implied, but not outright stated
From the book (Basil to Dorian):
"There was that wretched boy in the Guards who committed suicide. You were his great friend. There was ...
- 10.3k
3
votes
Why is the painful deflowering of a virgin motif in romance novels so common?
The hymen is a thin membrane which covers the entrance to the vagina.
It can be broken during the first time a woman has penetrative intercourse, but that is not the only way. The hymen is not ...
3
votes
Was "Earthly Powers" actually based on Burgess' private, and secret life?
tl;dr
Nope. The straights can keep him.
Deets
There is no evidence that Burgess was homosexual or bisexual. In the first volume of his memoirs Little Wilson and Big God, he writes of Earthly Powers:
...
- 21.2k
2
votes
What suggests Edmund might be gay?
No, there's absolutely no textual evidence for this. There's really not anything in the text that would come even vaguely close to supporting this. I suppose that you could say that, strictly speaking,...
2
votes
Are there recorded instances of asexuality in the body of ancient Greek writings?
The Greek myths are seldom consistent.
However in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, we read
Muse, tell me the deeds of golden Aphrodite the Cyprian, who stirs up sweet passion in the gods and subdues ...
- 5,812
2
votes
Are there recorded instances of asexuality in the body of ancient Greek writings?
There is a case to be made about the humanity itself (or some of it) being asexual at first. In some myths, Pandora is the first woman, created by Hephaestus for Zeus to punish humanity. Pandora's ...
- 6,802
2
votes
Accepted
What exactly drove Humbert’s preference for preteens?
Humbert is primarily a hebephile, sexually attracted to young pubescent females. His relationships with adult females are entirely to facilitate access to their children, and they are unfulfilling.
As ...
- 10.3k
2
votes
Were the early sexual experiences of Lolita and her classmates inspired by the real experience of children in New England in 1947?
While it's hard to prove a negative, it is extremely unlikely that Nabokov based this passage on any kind of real-world or second-hand knowledge.
As the essay The Long 1950s in the collection Vladimir ...
- 20.9k
1
vote
Accepted
What does Fingersmith say about the relationship between feminism and pornography
The key to understanding this is to see that the character of Maud herself is a metaphor for the male presumption of entitlement over women. She is taken by her Uncle from an environment where she is ...
- 20.9k
1
vote
Is Ozma a lesbian character?
Well, Ozma makes Dorothy the princess of Oz and a "constant companion", they spend time walking in the garden kissing, Ozma was a boy when she first appears in the series, there's an army of pissed ...
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