Staying Cool with Hand Fans
Fans are much more than convenient cooling devices. They make fashion statements, serve as status symbols, and silently spread political propaganda.
Policing Abortion
A study on the criminalization of abortion in the late 1800s through the 1940s reveals that the law was often used against working-class women.
Visualizing Trans Identities
Photography played an important role in determining gender categories and presentations for both scientists and trans individuals in interwar Germany.
Palmyre’s Belle Époque Lesbian Bar
By providing sexualized entertainment to tourists, the bar owners of Montmartre made visible and even celebrated the quarter’s queer culture.
Can a Woman Be a Genius?
Many Edwardian progressives and utopians put their hopes in the exceptional individual who was able to overcome obstacles with a force of will.
Paying Moms to Breastfeed in Medieval Europe
The idea of offering remuneration to women for breastfeeding—even their own children—wasn’t unusual in late medieval and early modern Europe.
The Long History of Same-Sex Marriage
Same-sex marriages, in all possible configurations and with all possible motivations, have taken place throughout the history of the United States.
Women, Men, and Classical Music
As more women embraced music as a profession, more men became worried that the world of the orchestra was losing its masculinity.
The Scholars Who Charted Black Music’s Timeline: Tony Bolden
Tony Bolden explores the spiritual principles that inform the foundation of Afrofuturist music.
Transgender Legal Battles: A Timeline
New laws regarding transgender youth are based on the assumption that the gender binary is natural.