When the Telephone Was Considered Feminine
Being difficult to understand on the other end of the line was a badge of masculinity.
In Han Dynasty China, Bisexuality Was the Norm
So tender was Emperor Ai’s love for his "male companion" that, when he had to get up, instead of waking his lover, he cut off the sleeve of his robe.
The History of Mourning in Public
After a massive factory fire in 1911, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to stage a "symbolic funeral."
From Gay Liberation to Marriage Equality
One scholar explains how the LGBT movement became focused on advancing the rights of a narrow set of people at the expense of its once-radical vision.
Walter Rodney, Guerrilla Intellectual
Walter Rodney’s radical thought and activism led to his eventual killing by a bomb in Guyana, in 1980.
Ye Olde Morality-Enforcement Brigades
The charivari (or shivaree) was a ritual in which people on the lower rungs of a community called out neighbors who violated social and sexual norms.
The Soup of British Colonialism
Mulligatawny soup started as a simple South Indian broth but was changed to appeal to British palates.
Joan of Arc, for Fascists and Feminists
As Catholics mark the centennial of her canonization, it’s clear that there is more than one Joan of Arc. How did that happen?
Doctors Have Always Been Against High-Heeled Shoes
Every generation of medical professionals has issued the same warnings about high heels. For hundreds of years.
The Black Nurse Who Drove Integration of the U.S. Nurse Corps
In World War II, Mabel Keaton Staupers tirelessly fought for the integration of the Army and Navy Nurse Corps—and eventually won.