A Short History of Queer Women

by Kirsty Loehr

Overview

Queer women have always existed – let’s put them back in the history books

No, they weren’t ‘just friends’!

Queer women have been written out of history since, well, forever. ‘But historians famously care about women!’, said no one. From Anne Bonny and Mary Read who sailed the seas together disguised as pirates, to US football captain Megan Rapinoe declaring ‘You can’t win a championship without gays on your team’, via countless literary salons and tuxedos, A Short History of Queer Women sets the record straight on women who have loved other women through the ages.

Who says lesbians can’t be funny?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780861542840
Publisher:	Oneworld Publications
Publication date:	11/08/2022
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	308,490
Product dimensions:	4.30(w) x 6.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Kirsty Loehr is a writer and English teacher. She has a master’s degree in transnational creative writing and loves football, history and humour – but not necessarily in that order. She lives in Brighton with her partner and their son.

Editorial Reviews

10/24/2022

English teacher Loehr debuts with a witty survey of LGBTQ women and their resistance to patriarchal and heteronormative oppression. Beginning with Sappho, the ancient Greek poet who was exiled from the island of Lesbos because of her forbidden desire, and ending with Naome Ruzindana and Li Tingting, queer activists who have been persecuted by the governments of South Africa and China, respectively, Loehr draws on a diverse range of first- and secondhand sources to portray the queer dimensions of her subjects’ lives. Also included are Marie Antoinette, who “was caught drooling over English writer Mary Robinson’s tits,” and Charlotte Brontë, who wrote 500 love letters to Ellen Nussey and considered marrying Ellen’s brother, Henry, just so they could live in the same house. (“But Henry was too dull, even as a beard,” quips Loehr.) The biographical sketches are full of vivid details and amusing word play, and Loehr makes historical figures and events accessible to contemporary readers. For example, 18th-century diarist Anne “Gentleman Jack” Lister is classified as a “lesbian player,” a type who “usually comes in the shape of a well-dressed, arrogant arsehole, with a charming nickname.” Some readers may quibble with Loehr’s tendency to label her subjects as lesbians, rather than bisexual or somewhere else along the spectrum of sexuality. Still, this is an invigorating and often amusing tour through queer history. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

‘I absolutely adored it, quite literally couldn’t put it down once I started and devoured it in one sitting. It was heartfelt and hilarious, and full of so much love for, not just all lesbians, but all walks of the LGBT+ community.

A real witty sucker-punch of lesbian history - reading it is like uncovering a secret; it’s shocking, romantic, infuriating, and all of it clawing at the pages with a need to finally be heard.’

Connie Glyn

'Fast paced, fun, and delightfully filthy.'

Kate Lister