GETTING CURIOUS | Who Were History’s Queer Seamen? with Dr. Seth LeJacq

Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness

Sony Music

Science, Self-improvement, Comedy, Education, Society & Culture

4.9 • 21.5K Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2023

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sea daddies! Sea queens! Land hoes! This week, we’re getting wet and wild with Dr. Seth LeJacq to learn what life was like for queer sailors in the British navy from the 15th century to the 19th century. How did these sailors express their gender and sexuality? What did they risk—legally and socially—when they pursued queer relationships? And were their ship hammocks really sturdy enough for a night of deep sea “exploration”? Dr. Seth Stein LeJacq is a historian specializing in the history of gender, sexuality, and medicine. He is currently a Caird Fellow at the UK National Maritime Museum. You can follow Dr. LeJacq on Twitter @SethSLeJacq, and learn more about his work at sethlejacq.com. His Routledge collection Sexual and Gender Difference in the British Navy, 1690-1900 will be available for pre-order soon. Here's a portrait of Captain Edward Rigby, here's an etching of Captain Whiffle and Mr. Simper, and here's a rendition of "Backside Rules The Navy." We'll be sharing more resources on our @CuriouswithJVN Instagram account throughout the week. Curious for more? Check out these episodes from our archives: Why Is The Titanic So Iconic? Who Were History’s “Female Husbands”? Do Beauty Standards Need A Glow Up? Follow us on Instagram @CuriousWithJVN to join the conversation. Jonathan is on Instagram @JVN. Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Find books from Getting Curious guests at bookshop.org/shop/curiouswithjvn. Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our producer is Chris McClure. Our associate producer is Allison Weiss. Our engineer is Nathanael McClure. Production support from Julie Carrillo, Samantha Martinez, and Anne Currie. Our theme music is “Freak” by QUIÑ; for more, head to TheQuinCat.com. Curious about bringing your brand to life on the show? Email [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Getting Curious
0:06.2	I'm Jonathan Van Ness.
0:09.2	Every week I sit down for a gorgeous conversation with a brilliant expert to learn all about something that makes me also curious.
0:14.8	Now you'll find today that it's very hard for me to slip out of my Blanch Devaro voice and when I
0:19.5	introduce to you the topic of today's conversation you will understand why.
0:24.4	Earlier this year, we took our maiden voyage
0:26.6	into British naval history.
0:28.0	Our guest, Dr. Megan Walker,
0:29.4	taught us all about slop clothes and the sinking of the Titanic. We also asked about queer
0:34.5	sailors and this week we are getting some answers because you know every
0:38.2	episode I always ask about gay stuff. Today's episode is going to be all
0:41.9	about gay stuff which I'm well it's what I'm anticipating.
0:45.2	And like I said, we're going to get some answers.
0:46.7	So let's welcome to the show Dr. Seth Lechach, who is a historian whose research looks at sexual and gender diversity in the British Navy from the
0:56.7	15th century to the 19th century. Dr. Lechach is currently a cared fellow at the National Maritime Museum researching queer
1:05.1	sailors. How are you? Are you slaying your day? You're absolutely
1:08.1	fucking gorgeous. We're so excited that you're here. Tell us everything.
1:10.4	I'm doing wonderful. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me today.
1:14.8	You know, we know that good stories have good characters and one of yours is Edward Rigby.
1:19.6	Can you introduce this to Edward? What was his story? Was he first, top, bottom, what was going on? Do we know from the historical
1:26.3	writings about Edward's life?
1:30.5	Captain Edward Rigby was a fashionable, well-connected young naval captain at the end of the 17th century.
	...

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