They were shepherds, not cowboys.

[chavvah]

I find it fascinating that Brokeback Mountain, a.k.a. the "gay cowboy movie," is causing a renewed interest in historical male/male relationships, even ancient Egyptian ones.

Comments

love notes

[archaica.livejournal.com]

"Oh, Niankhkhnum, weird eye, weird eye, GUY WITH A STAFF, bird man, bird man, squiggly line, weird eye, Osiris, Set, set, set, set, SET! And, bird with bleeding heart.

Love, Khnumhotpe"

Re: love notes

[october31st.livejournal.com]

Archaica for the win, forever and ever amen.

Re: love notes

[archaica.livejournal.com]

Man, now I need a title belt with heiroglyphics all over it. :)

Re: love notes

[chavvah.livejournal.com]

Will you settle for a postcard from Karnak? :)

Re: love notes

[archaica.livejournal.com]

KARNAK!!

*ahem*

Yes, yes I will :)

Re: love notes

[chavvah.livejournal.com]

E-mail me your mailing address and I'll add it to the pile.

Re: love notes

[archaica.livejournal.com]

Loverly, thank you! :)

Re: love notes

[chavvah.livejournal.com]

Nice.

[nightkitchen.livejournal.com]

hmm ... why do you think this is related to Brokeback Mountain? (I'm not trying to be a facetious jerk, btw! I just didn't see any reference to the film in the post.)

[chavvah.livejournal.com]

I've just noticed that ever since the movie started to get buzz, the mainstream liberal media has been finding "new" information queering historical figures--like, cowboys in the sixties can be gay! How exciting! Let's see who else might have been gay!

The story about the two manicurists has been around for a dog's age, and there was always speculation about their sexuality--why, now, is it suddenly news?

[archaica.livejournal.com]

Because America has caught Teh Gay.

I actually get a little annoyed at historians who go around insisting that every famous person was either queer or a stoner. But that's because I'm crotchety.

[jandyle.livejournal.com]

And jealous that you didn't get to be a famous queer stoner? ;)

[nightkitchen.livejournal.com]

I just reread the Egypt Scholars post - it says it's become news mainly because a paper was just presented on it, so I guess that's why it's news in that community. but I hope the mainstream media keeps queering historical figures! the academic world has been doing it for a little while, it's about time everyone else caught up.

(basically, I just want a queer universe.)

[chavvah.livejournal.com]

Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that more attention is being brought to homosexuality in ancient Egypt, but Reeder has presented the same paper a few times; I remember hearing about it a couple of years ago. The new information he's supposed to have discussed in December actually deals with another possible couple, not the manicurists. There was buzz about the tomb long before that, with academics coming down on both sides of the issue. I'm just curious: why pick up the story now, as opposed to back in 1997, when the paper garnered very little media attention (http://www.egyptology.com/niankhkhnum_khnumhotep/dallas.html), or in 2000, when most of the attention came from queer media? I think it has partly to do with the media buzz around Brokeback Mountain. Unconventional gay relationships are "hot" right now.

I used to be in journalism studies before I got bitten by the literature bug, so I find this interesting. ;)

Also, here (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/6/story.cfm?c_id=6&ObjectID=10362660) is an article that explicitly makes the connection between Brokeback and the tomb.