A trans soldier in the ancient Roman army?:
Today I learned about the Roman queer/nonbinary term ‘cinaedus.’ I feel that this may be of interest to my
queer/trans/nonbinary followers.
Unfortunately it doesn’t sound like the Romans used it as a positive term. It seems to boil down to ‘effeminate man,’ but the exact application of it seems to have been blurry (as pejorative terms so often are). It carried definite implications of homosexual activity, but it was definitely not only about sexuality, as it also carried distinct connotations of gender performance.
What’s really interesting about it, though, is that while the Romans clearly derided cinaedi (in particular, cinaedus characters in Roman poetry and literature are often shown as comedic, in that unfortunate ‘this person is a punchline’ way), there’s documentation of people actively applying this label to themselves!
The article itself provides a bit of context, and takes a look at the parallels between the lives of people labeled with this term in their time and trans people today. The links in the article lead to additional very informative reading.
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2uZrawh