A Little Gay History: Desire and Diversity Around the World

by R.B. Parkinson

How old is the oldest chat-up line between men? Who was the first ‘lesbian’? Were ancient Greek men who had sex together necessarily ‘gay’? And what did Shakespeare think about cross-dressing?

A Little Gay History takes objects ranging from Ancient Egyptian papyri and the erotic scenes on the Roman Warren Cup to images by modern artists including David Hockney and Bhupen Khakhar to consider questions such as these. Explored are the issues behind forty artefacts from ancient times to the present, and from cultures across the world, to ask a question that concerns us all: how easily can we recognize love in history?

Concise and beautifully illustrated with objects from the British Museum’s far-ranging collection, A Little Gay History provides an intriguing and valuable insight into the range, diversity and complexity of same-sex experiences.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, LGBT, Queer, Art, Gay, Historical

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2013

Reviews

[Michael Belcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compact but incredibly useful overview of LGBTQ resonances throughout history. Although my taste ranges towards more thorough deep dives, I was educated and moved by this "little" gay history. And, if anything, it has me itching to explore the life of the Roman emperor Hadrian and his lost love, Antinous, who he "publicly commemorated...in huge numbers of statues, figures, portraits and coins across the known Roman world."

[Kara Babcock · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate listicles. I’ve gotten to the point where I just don’t click on any post that starts with a number in its title. I know, I know, #notalllisticles, some are well-written and informative.

A Little Gay History is, when you think about it, a listicle; you could retitle it “82 Objects from the British Museum Related to Gay Sexual Desire”. Listicles were around before the Internet, and I suppose they will outlive the Internet too. I have a few other books that are like this—The Math Book and The Physics Book come to mind. They are much heftier, much longer versions of a similar idea to this book. I always find these types of books difficult to read, let alone review. They aren’t really books in the narrative sense, not even in the non-fiction sense. They are closer to encylopedias—they are, essentially, lists. How do you review it. “Good list”?

As R.B. Parkinson explains in the preface, this book exists in other forms, including a web trail you can view online. The intention behind this book, then, is to bring to the forefront historical objects and art that depict same sex desire. Parkinson makes a lot of good points about how prejudices in history and historians influence the way we think about homosexuality and same sex relations in the past. This is a really difficult topic to discuss, because even the language is weird and filled with bias! A Little Gay History tries to demonstrate that humans have had same sex relations throughout human history, but that the attitudes towards these relations—and the extent to which they were considered “normal” or allowable or on the same level as other types of relations—varied a great deal by geography and period.

Like many books of its ilk, A Little Gay History is beautifully designed. I never went to the British Museum while I was in England (I did visit the Natural History Museum, which was awesome), and I don’t know if I’ll ever get the chance to go. So it was nice to see the photographs of these objects reproduced in such high quality detail and colour. Parkinson’s write-ups are informative and interesting. They spark a desire to learn more. I really want to read more Virginia Woolf now….

I don’t think I would have picked this up if it weren’t a #BangingBookClub book. If I wanted to learn more about historical attitudes towards homosexuality, I’d probably search out a meatier book with more writing and less photography—but that’s just how I roll, and you might differ. In this case, I got more out of the brilliant podcast discussion than I did from the book itself. Hannah, Leena, and Lucy do an excellent job talking about the issues this book raises—Hannah in particular is in her wheelhouse here, and the two others ask great questions that made me flip back through this book to give some of the pages a second look.

In the podcast, Leena observes that the book makes some pointed comments about Britain’s role in making homosexuality illegal throughout the world. Hannah says that sometimes she thinks of the British Museum as “here are all the things that we [the British] stole” and that gave me a laugh—but it’s also a thought I had while reading this book. There is something ironic about a book focuses on objects from the British Museum to discuss history and sexuality around the world, since Britain and its imperialism has been such a problematic actor in those forums.

I was surprised and amused to discover my library had a copy of this (sometimes my library seems to have copies of the most esoteric things). A Little Gay History is what it says: little, gay, and a history. It’s fine. It didn’t blow me away, but it was a nice enough way to spend the afternoon and made me think about things in a way I hadn’t thought of before.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by a museum curator, this book is like a charming portable exhibit, with really, really good explanatory text. Wonderful illustrations take us through history from the most ancient times down to today (2013 copyright), across cultures as well as through time. I have read as much gay history as I could get my hands on over the years, and still learned new things from this very short book of around 125 pages. For example, until now I did not know that the earliest recorded pick-up line is found in an Egyptian poem from around 1800 B.C., where one male god is trying to seduce another (here's hoping that "what a lovely backside you have!" sounded better in ancient Egyptian). Trust those Brits to discover this sort of vital historical knowledge! Highly recommended.

[Helene Fosse · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting coffeetable book for the casually interested, since it's too short (only about 120-130 pages) to actually cover LGBT+s history properly. I like how the author makes very clear at every piece that "This MIGHT mean," instead of claiming that something is a certain sign that something is referring to LGBT, which I feel like a book for the casual reader would maybe do. One thing that I learnt from this book is how big a negative role Britain (especially) and other Christian coutnries has had for LGBT rights throughout the world, like in India and Japan.

All in all I recommend this book if you want to learn a little bit about LGBT throughout history, but if you're actually properly interested in this subject, then maybe find some other book.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up at the bookshop at the British Museum. It was a rather spontaneous purchase, seeing as I was hiding there from the masses. But it was a lucky find - in a way I had been looking for a book just like this the whole week I was in London.

It’s a very short overview of “desire and diversity across the world”. With the help from artifacts collected in the museum, we travel through history and all over the world. Since it is a slim volume, there’s no space to delve very deeply, but I appreciated the way the author shows how there have been diverse forms of love, identity and desire at all times and everywhere. I also liked how he made a point to say it’s not helpful to judge people in other times and cultures according to our concepts of sexuality and gender, but at the same time we have to be aware a lot of what is preserved was preserved by a “heteronormative” society, so a lot of what didn’t fit their values was destroyed.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

An LGBT equivalent of the History of the World in 100 Objects, showing the ever shifting attitudes to sexuality and gender over time via exhibits in the British Museum. Necessarily often speculative but fascinating nonetheless.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 1 out of 5]

A superficial but perfectly nice book but it is hard to imagine who it is supposed to appeal to presumably a gay man, with plenty disposable income, who is utterly ignorant of gay or any other history but wants something gay and attractive to put on a coffee table to signal his taste. Probably a temporary substitute for life-style magazines like Homes & Garden, Architectural Digest etc.

Aside from my sarcastic dismissal above I dislike this book and, to be honest, all books which attempt without careful definition, to project back into history the term 'gay'. So much of what is discussed in this book as 'gay' history would not have been seen as 'gay' at the time it happened - this is particularly true of anything predating Christianity.

I could discuss what I am trying to say in detail but I will repeat a criticism I had of '300,000 Kisses: Tales of Queer Love from the Ancient World' by Seán Hewitt because in that anthology Hewitt defines the poems by, for example Catullus, praising boys as called 'gay' were as in the ancient world they were just love poems, or erotic poems, but they weren't separated off from everything else as gay. So much of gay life still uses the disparaging definitions of 19th century science which were based unquestioningly on the shibboleths of Christianity. It is time for 'gay' thinkers to define themselves not by what their enemies said they were but by what they are.
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[Yasendle · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting position, but only as a souvenir/an extended written version of the "Desire, love, identity: LGBTQ histories trail" from The British Museum. Insufficient as a stand-alone book.

[Mashiara · Rating 4 out of 5]

As advertised, it's a short book, centered around individual museum objects. It doesn't claim to be a complete history of queer life and it isn't. It only gives us spotlights, very much following the original museum trail concept that was the book's inception.

[Alena · Rating 5 out of 5]

"History does not belong only to 'mainstream' victors, and 'minorities' should not feel that they are marginal. On a long view, no one occupies the centre. It belongs to all of us."

This is a book I would recommend to everyone, regardless of their interest in history. It is respectful and considers the possible different aspects of gender and sexuality and shines a light on different gay, lesbian, bisexual, non-binary and transgender lives. It leaves the historic discourse open and reminds us how hard it is to fully understand forgotten cultures, but it also stands fiem in its fundamental message: Queer people have and will always be there.
Through a diverse collection of art and literature from all around the world this book gives a brief but captivating history of queer desires and identities throughout human history.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think James Joyce sums it up best in Ulysses...."love loves to love love." This beautifully illustrated little book is a love story that began a long time ago. There are stories from ancient Egypt, Pompey, The Secretum, Shakespearean literature and much more. Did you know the term "homosexual" was first coined in Germany and first used in English in 1891? So much "insight, thought and wit" in this wonderful revelation of the history of human desire. Love unique histories like this!

[Johann Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

A historian on Egypt extrapolated a possible little gay world out of some artifacts at the British Museum. It reads as a labor of love and as such is really endearing. Seeing these worlds open up from a few selected objects displays the intellectual process in a way that really drew me in. It is not a complete survey of queer history, it is not evenly balanced between L, G, B, T, Q, I, and A, and it doesn’t claim to be as it is only based on items in the museum’s collection. The language is that of the early 2000s. The images of Hadrian and of the Egyptian gallery and its use as filming location for “Maurice” serve as beautiful bookends and structure-providing vehicles. Worth the [very quick] read.

[Damián González · Rating 3 out of 5]

Como se aclara desde la introducción es un libro que no pretende abarcar mucho. Trata sobre objetos del British Museum que, de alguna forma u otra, se relacionan con el deseo/relación entre personas del mismo sexo.

En general transmite claramente el mensaje de que la cultura hegemónica, que por mucho tiempo condenó o condena este tipo de deseo, no es única y se ha transformado y se sigue transformando según el tiempo y la ubicación geográfica. Esto es lo que rescato de esta pequeña obra.

Algunos objetos me resultaron muy interesantes, dan para un análisis más profundo. En otro objetos la relación con el tema LGBT me pareció estaba medio débil.

Como dice otra reseña por acá, más que un libro, hay que tomarlo como una mini enciclopedia, con un alcance muy acotado.

[Angela · Rating 0.25 out of 5]

Dear readers, I am writing about factual inaccuracies in the British Museum's online audio content on Hadrian and Antinous, narrated by Fiona Shaw and Simon Russell Beale and produced in connection with Professor Richard Parkinson's A Little Gay History.

I assume if the audio guide contains this bombastic nonsense, the book must be worse.

The content states as fact several things that NO ANCIENT contemporary SOURCE actually supports:

1. "They seem to have been inseparable."
Antinous was one member of a large imperial retinue. There is no evidence of exclusive, constant proximity between the two men specifically, as opposed to Antinous simply travelling with the court.

2. "Antinous became the emperor's lover. But this was much more than just a sexual relationship."
This asserts a sexual relationship as fact and then builds a further claim on top of it. No source contemporary with Antinous's life states this. The evidence consists of a contemporary hunting poem that describes no such thing, and later, mutually contradictory accounts of Antinous's death written decades to centuries afterward (Cassius Dio offers accident, suicide, and ritual self-sacrifice as competing explanations; the Historia Augusta - the most detailed narrative source - is a compilation from roughly 200 years later with a well-documented reputation for unreliability and invention).

3. "Hadrian had sex with the young Antinous."
This most problematic sentence from Professor Richard Parkinson is stated as settled fact. It is not. It is an inference commonly repeated in popular writing, resting entirely on sources written long after both men were dead, and it is presented here with no qualification at all.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is exactly what the title suggests, a little gay history.

The book covers some of LGBT history and explores some of the artefacts that give us a glance into that history and what we understand about their relations towards gender and sexual desire.

Informative and insightful, this book is a good little book if you’re wanted to learn a little more about history or you’re interested in art.

[Agota Molnar · Rating 0.25 out of 5]

If the professor was ambitious enough to write this sexualized fan fiction as an educational book about real historical figures, he might also claim that the Stargate Goa'uld are real. This would be fitting, given that his area of expertise is Egyptology.

Emperor Hadrian has seen worse, so he can put up with another bad book. This one is based entirely on gossips written after his death.

[mack · Rating 4 out of 5]

portable museum exhibit to pull up whenever you need to prove a point

[piratesPencil · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read, especially after visiting the British Museum and seeing many of the objects discussed in this book.

[charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Little Gay History is a succinct introduction to the history of global same-sex desire, explored through the lens of objects in the British Museum. The bulk of the book is various artifact profiles from 9000 BC to 1997, discussing their features, meaning, and culture context. An archaeologist specializing in one of these eras/cultures might find it rudimentary but this book is not called A Dissertation On Same-Sex Desire In The Han Dynasty, it’s A Little Gay History, and I’m not an archaeologist. It was a quick and accessible read would be a wonderful coffee table book if my new apartment had a coffee table.

Two minor quibbles:
• The introduction could have done more to explain how gender nonconformity and same-sex desire and sex acts have merged and shifted into contemporary gay identity (think Halperin’s "How to Do the History of Male Homosexuality"); the front cover says "gay" but the introduction claims to cover gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender history. I can see where it is coming from but without additional context the book seems (and is, to an extent) disproportionately weighted towards gay male history. Which would be a fine project but not what the book purports to pursue.
• All of the artifacts are from the British Museum, and I think partially as a result the book is very light on non-ancient Egyptian African and Latin American gay history.

[enja reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

What's something that seems British but isn't?

The contents of the British Museum

I've been to London twice and both times I have avoided the British Museum like the plague, an emblem of British hegemony and colonialism, filled with priceless artifacts from around the world - some which I would truly love to see, but have avoided on principle. The book A Little Gay History is a collection of writings by British Museum curator R.B. Parkinson and looks at several artifacts from around the globe which can be interpreted through a queer lens. On the one hand, Parkinson (who is himself queer) warns against judging artworks based on contemporary values and judgments. At the same time, he opens works up to multiple interpretations and considers the plausibility of certain recent queer interpretations, even if admitting that such analyses are problematic and historical record lends greater weight to alternative stories.

Starting with the Ain Sakhri figures, which date from Palestine, c. 9000 BC, Parkinson notes that while the stone which seems to represent two people making love is generally thought of as representing a male and a female, there is nothing to suggest concretely that the figures represented are heterosexual at all. So we are already prepared to check our biases at the door.

From there the work proceeds chronologically, looking at art from Greece, Africa, Mesopotamia, Iran, Japan, Europe, the Pacific Islands, and many places in between, from the depiction of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep kissing - sometimes interpreted today as the first direct depiction of a male couple, which the author does not completely discount, but which he says historical record supports that it is more likely a depiction of twins - to the self-fellating iconography from Egypt which represents the self-sustaining powers of the Earth, telling us to pay attention to what we are seeing but to also be aware of limitations and biases in our judgement.

In artworks that undeniably depict same sex relations, there is often a class and power dynamic at play. In Ancient Greece, as in many other societies, while same sex relations among two people of the same age were sometimes depicted (though very rarely), more often it was a symbol of pederasty, which was very common in these civilizations of antiquity (and even later). Typically, the older partner was expected to be dominant and it was a show of not only power in terms of age difference but of class structure. It was among the elite class that such liberties were usually allowed (and even expected); and in this case not so very different from the present with the horrors revealed in the Epstein files, with pederasty which most of us find rightfully repugnant still practiced privately in elite circles.

As Parkinson moves through time, even up to the last century, the idea of the rich being permitted to engage in same sex relations - within accepted social boundaries (power and class dynamics remaining in check) - was the norm, whereas the commonfolk were more likely to be prohibited from engaging in such behaviors, sometimes with the penalty of imprisonment or death. And even the elite were not always immune from this, especially if they deviated from the boundaries respective societies had constructed for engaging in same sex behaviors, punished at times by the government and other times by the mob.

In certain tribal societies from Africa to the Americas, same sex relations (even among those of the same age) and gender fluidity were often depicted, but prohibitions were soon put in place by European colonizers who imposed European value judgments upon them (and not without hypocrisy). Writings or depictions of Natives being attacked by settlers for engaging in sodomy or even of Dutchmen being hanged at City Hall by their fellow citizens for the same crime became not uncommon from the 1500s up to the 1800s.

By the late 20th century, queer art works in the West became more blunt in their statements, whereas in other places where homosexuality is still proscribed by law and with severe punishments (which have only recently been lifted in the West), it is still coded in ambiguity and is more likely to lend itself to misreadings - often through a Western lens of intepretation.

Parkinson admits that his little book is largely a compilation of web descriptions he put together through the years, with some added artifacts and analysis. It functions as an interesting collection of images and interpretations, filled with nuance, it concludes that same sex desire and gender variations have existed across virtually all geographical places and historical periods, and will always exist, but cautions us about how we 'read' those artworks of the past today.

The Marxist culture theorist Stuart Hall noted that we can read a piece of media (or in this case art) in three ways, we can give it a dominant-hegemonic reading, fully accepting the intended reading and its place in society; we can give it a negotiated reading, mixing acceptance with resistance; or we can give it an oppositional reading, contrary to what was intended. When approaching works of art from the past and from different cultures, we are automatically approaching them with our own judgments and biases and are less likely to read them as intended. And yet, even if we become 'experts' on a specific epoch and location, it is unlikely that we will read something entirely as intended (though that always remains a possibility). When we look at art that would today be considered "gay" or "queer", we should always reflect on how our own historical milieu influences our reading, being aware of differing interpretations and factors that contribute to our analysis.

It is often said that life is short but art is long, and part of the reason for this is due to its subjective and universal nature. Our lives are in many ways very different from the lives of the couple - man, female, third gender - depicted in the Ain Sakhri figures. Yet, separated by thousands of years, we cannot lose track of the fact that this stone was created to represent something - religious beliefs, fears, desires, who knows what. The people then were born and died, they bled, they thought, they did what they had to in order to survive. And here we are thousands of years later, trying to think of what they intended to communicate, and never can we be sure.

[zack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is there such a thing as the first lesbian? Or the first queer pick up line? Is that an ancient painting of two friends or two lovers? Parkinson takes us back to our very early history and all the way up to current events by showing us gay history; the kind we know and the kind we didn't know. It's everything from how the ”Greek gay society” really worked to the evidence of Leonardo da Vinci's possible homosexuality.

It was such an interesting read, it was over before I knew it. Some of it was facts I already knew or had heard of but it was such a nice thing to read about history that has to do with me for once. I'm so tired of cishet history; I want queer history more than anything. And whilst this book only briefs through most of the facts it brings up, it was such a joy to have a history book about queers. I'm kind of disappointed I didn't buy it instead of borrowing it, but this might be one of those books I'll spend a lot of money on even though I've already read it. It feels like an important thing to keep in my bookshelf.

[Kit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute coffee table book, using objects from the British museum to exemplify lgbtq lives throughout history and the world. Good for what it is, but impossible to forget that this was written by and for the imperialists/colonizers who condemned queer identity and practice so much so that it is still erased (if not criminalized) in the nation's affected. Also, it was written in 2013, so less than ideal language about trans folks in particular.

[Elena · Rating 3 out of 5]

v informative
v gay
v interesting
if you ever want to see images of super-duper ancient imagery of dudes with penises over a meter long, this is the book for you(!)

I don't know if there's anything else to say about this lol. I was at the British Museum and saw this in the gift shop and I needed to buy it and so I did and while I was not overwhelmed, I was not disappointed because what it promised, it delivered on.

[Patricio Borvarán · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un libro con excelentes registros visuales y escritos de personas gay en diferentes momentos y lugares de la historia humana. Quedo confuso con la conceptualización, se habla de "gay", "homosexual" y de personas "que desean". La introducción intenta aclarar el porqué de cada uno de aquellos conceptos pero me parece insuficiente a modo de discusión.

[Jasmin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clear and concise glimpse into diverse history from around the world. A very good basis for further research. Easy to understand and follow. I enjoyed it!

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could see the exposition, but I'll take second best :D

[Amanda K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool, interesting book about the history of homosexuality. It brings up many different views from all around the world, and I learned quite a few things that I hadn't known before.

[Vincent · Rating 2 out of 5]

Personally I was bored. It was various pieces of art and literature with a one to two page description and that was that. I don’t feel like I learned anything new or anything honestly.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short-length, small book with art pieces from the British Museum depicting gay culture through history. Nice concise write-ups about each piece as you go through the book, which arranges them chronologically. Definitely unequal time spent on each of the L-G-B-T themes.
Not big enough to be a coffee table book, is the only amendment I'd make to Charlie's review on GR below:
Scanning some previous reviews, I found one that captured my thoughts incredibly well, by Charlie:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I'll copy/paste Charlie's review here (I hope that's OK Charlie)

A Little Gay History is a succinct introduction to the history of global same-sex desire, explored through the lens of objects in the British Museum. The bulk of the book is various artifact profiles from 9000 BC to 1997, discussing their features, meaning, and culture context. An archaeologist specializing in one of these eras/cultures might find it rudimentary but this book is not called A Dissertation On Same-Sex Desire In The Han Dynasty, it’s A Little Gay History, and I’m not an archaeologist. It was a quick and accessible read would be a wonderful coffee table book if my new apartment had a coffee table.

Two minor quibbles:
• The introduction could have done more to explain how gender nonconformity and same-sex desire and sex acts have merged and shifted into contemporary gay identity (think Halperin’s "How to Do the History of Male Homosexuality"); the front cover says "gay" but the introduction claims to cover gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender history. I can see where it is coming from but without additional context the book seems (and is, to an extent) disproportionately weighted towards gay male history. Which would be a fine project but not what the book purports to pursue.
• All of the artifacts are from the British Museum, and I think partially as a result the book is very light on non-ancient Egyptian African and Latin American gay history.

[Isaiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

To see more reviews check out MI Book Reviews.

I picked this book up on a whim at the library. The BPL had just gotten it in so I gave it a shot. I am not a fan of history so bear that in mind.

The book was short and mostly based on artifacts that have been found. For each part of history that was discussed there was a bowl, plate, statue, or other artifact recovered that was used as an example of being from that time period. It was a new way for me to conceptualize gay history, so while the artifacts did nothing for me visually it sort of solidified the time periods in my head.

While gay is often used to mean anyone not straight this book like so many others pretended to be all about the whole gay community but instead focused on gay men. There were a few artifacts about lesbians, but there were none on bisexuals or any other not straight identities. While this is disappointing, it is not unexpected.

Overall the book was informative and easy to read. It was in chronological order and very point blank. There were a few times where the book referenced later works or earlier works, but they were all works that were included in the book so there was not an expectation of previous knowledge on the subject. The book while it was a beginner book was not overly simplistic. It was a book that a range of experiences could enjoy.