Why Do You Think A Lot Of Historians Don't Think That Alexander (and, By Extension, Other People In History)

why do you think a lot of historians don't think that alexander (and, by extension, other people in history) was gay? sorry if this is worded strangely by the way

Anon I’m not yelling at you I love you but I have to yell because everyone on tumblr spreads such bad misinformation. NO HISTORIANS THINK ALEXANDER WAS STRAIGHT. NOR ANY OTHER OLD TIME GAYS. LITERALLY NONE. THIS IS A MYTH PERPETUATED ON TUMBLR AND IT ISNT REAL STOP BELIEVING IT IM LOSING MY MIND !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay. Now that I am. Calm. Sorry. Even tho plenty of historians were homophobic back in like last century — no one currently writing, period — they still could not DENY that Alexander who kept a MALE CONCUBINE , FUCKED MEN. Even the MOST homophobic ones were like “it was his worst vice” but they couldn’t DENY it. NOBODY EVER sorry normal volume nobody ever denied it in the whole history of the world never. Never. No one. That is fake. People who say that do not know what they are talking about.

On the OTHER hand , historians will say that for example Hamilton was “straight” because there IS NO DEFINITIVE EVIDENCE OTHERWISE. no, a few gay letters are not hard evidence. YES, male friendship mores were WAY DIFFERENT in old times, and it’s WAY too much extrapolation to assume from a few gay sounding TO US letters that he was fucking that twink Laurens. That is BAD METHODOLOGY. that is not homophobic it is BAD METHODOLOGY. you cannot publish that kind of thing cuz it’s simply not got enough evidence. I don’t care if they probably were, there is EMPIRICALLY NOT ENOUGH EVIDENCE.

Okay. Also. Last point. l hate the misinformation on this hell site. Last point.

Gay and straight were not labels that existed until the late 1800s. Historians do not write about sexuality in terms of gay and straight because gay and straight did not exist as we know them to people prior to the late 1800s. We can only judge how people in history had sex based on their actions. If a historian says Alexander wasn’t gay or bi it isn’t because they’re saying he didn’t fuck men. It’s because they’re saying it’s extremely reductive and bad scholarship to ascribe modern definitions of sexuality and modern sexual mores to the ancient world. When we’re just hanging out and talking one on one or casually, no problem saying gay and straight! It helps us conceptialize how they lived! It’s something we understand. But in a PAPER you are trying to PUBLISH, you CANNOT say that because it misinterprets the workings of their society.

Okay. Thank you. I hope this clears things up for every dumbass who makes those posts and misinforms my innocent fellow classics people who are new and do not know. I hate y’all. Not you anon. Y’all who peddle this ….. homophobia nonsense. Stop it