Festive Special Part 1

What is the queerest thing you did this year? Listen to the festive special to find out how queer our guests and listeners made 2025!   References: Happiest Season Kristen Stewart Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid Joe Jukes https://www.hiss.sydney/ Virginia Gay’s Cyrano Qtopia Sydney Queer Britain @guildfordgaybookclub New House Art Space (Guildford) Juno Dawson’s Stay Another Day Layla McCay’s The Queer Bookshelf: A Reader’s Guide (June 2026) Libro.fm Pillion Arzner @Arznercinema  

Share the queerest thing you did this year by 6 December to be featured on the end-of-year special and for the chance to win a special gift (if you are based in the UK). Send an email or voice recording to [email protected] by 6 December.I can't wait to hear from you!

Medusa, Medea, Artemis… we’ve all heard their stories before but what do they sound like when not told by (or centred on) men? Mara Gold, the sapphic scholar, is here to tell us all about these figures and about how there is always more than one side to a story and more than one reading to a myth. Come for the lesbian legends, stay for the witty witches and follow us @queerlitpodcast and @sapphic_scholar.  ReferencesMara Gold’s Ancient Myths and Legends Without Men (2025)Mara Gold’s “Rebels Against the Tyranny of Men’: Women Performing Greek Comedy in Early Twentieth-Century Britain” in Women Creating Classics (2025) https://mara-gold.com/@sapphic_scholarBeyond the Binary Pitt Rivers Museumhttps://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/beyond-the-binaryAshmolean MuseumRebellious Bodies audio tour https://app.smartify.org/en-GB/tours/ashmolean-rebellious-bodies-tour?utm_campaign=ashmoleansmartifywebpage&utm_medium=webpagelink&utm_source=ashmoleanwebsite&utm_content=rebelliousbodiestourSmartifyHélène Cixous’ “The Laugh of the Medusa” (1975)Femme fataleGorgonsApotropaic figureAthenaHeraNatalie Haynes’ Stone BlindMadeleine Miller’s CirceRosie HewlettPat BarkerMadeleine Miller’s CirceSirensOdysseyDurham CastleHans Christian AndersenSelkieDemeterPenelopeMedeaMaenadDionysusBacchusTrue BloodAmazonAtalantaNataly BarneyLesbos-en-SeineArtemisDouble Slicehttps://doubleslice.studio/ActaeonCallistoZeusAphroditeJasonArgonautsGlauceSuranne JonesDoctor FosterGentleman JackChildren of Srikandi (2012)Hector and HephaestusRadical Book FairLighthouse Books EdinburghThe Bookish TypeCaper bookshopThe MagiciansPersephoneCassandra  Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:     What is sapphism?     What is classical reception? How is this relevant to Mara’s work?     What are the archetypes that Mara uses to structure the book? Which one are you most interested in and why?     What does Mara say about Srikandi and Srikandi’s role in LGBTQIA+ activism in Indonesia?     How can we draw on ancient myths for queer activism today? What does Mara say about this? What are your thoughts?     Do you have a favourite figure from mythology or legends?  

Are you ready to descend into the weird world of queer Gothic writing, spooky sexology, and gay ghouls? Brontë Schiltz is an expert on all of these and so much more. We speak about the televisual Gothic and about several of Brontë’s favourite Victorian writers, including masc heartthrob Vernon Lee. If you’re into fun facts about blood transfusions and half-human, half-snake main characters, this episode is for you.  References:Manchester Centre for Gothic StudiesVernon Lee (1856-1935)Ali SmithSarah WatersTelevisual gothicA Ghost Story For ChristmasM.R. James“The Dead Room”Mark GatissThe Oxford Book of Gothic TalesChris BaldickNigel KnealeMatthew Lewis’ The MonkOscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian GrayJen Beagin’s Big SwissKarl Heinrich Ulrichs’ ManorSexology“Plain Reasons Against Sodomy”Horace WalpoleJohn Addington SymondsDraculaGeorge Haggerty’s Queer GothicJohn Singer SargentClementina Anstruther-ThomsonAffect studiesVernon Lee’s Hauntings“A Wicked Voice”“Prince Alberic and the Snake Lady”Megan MilksAli Smith’s Hotel WorldMiskatonic Institute of Horror StudiesThe Horse Hospital https://www.thehorsehospital.com/events/miskatonic-televisualgothic  Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:     What is the Gothic? What did you know about the Gothic before listening and what did you learn from Brontë?     How is the Gothic queer?     Why is the Victorian period an interesting time to look at queerness?     How does Brontë speak about queerness in relation to illness?     What is your favourite spooky story?          

Are you ready to become a showgirl? Poet, scholar, and Swifty extraordinaire Stephanie Burt joins me to talk about Taylor Swift’s musical genius, queer fandom and relationship to femininity. There was simply too much to squeeze into one episode, so make sure to listen to part one first and hear all about the Gaylors, before switching to part two, to learn about Taylor's relationship to femininity, class and race. Stephanie will also tell you why she thought the “You Need To Calm Down” video was a big mistake…Follow Stephanie and myself at @notquitehydepark and @queerlitpodcast for even more content!  ReferencesStephanie Burt’s We Are Mermaids (Greywolf Press, 2022)Stephanie Burt’s Super Gay Poems (2025)Stephanie Burt’s Taylor’s Version: The Poetic and Musical Genius of Taylor Swift (Basic Books, 2025)Stephanie Burt’s “Prayer for Werewolves”Poetry UnboundJohn DonneKatherine PhilipsGeoffrey ChaucerWalt WhitmanCharlotte MewSarah RecordsHeavenlyTender TrapBlueboyElla DarlingMotownCarole KingDolly Parton“You Belong With Me”RedReputationMiss Americana (2020)LoverRachel Hartman’s Tess of the RoadGaylorismGaylors and Hetlors“When Emma Falls in Love”“All Too Well”Joe JonasTaylor LautnerJake Gyllenhaal“Back to December”John MayerThe Life of a Show GirlElizabeth TaylorKatharine HepburnOphelia HamletJulia SeranoFrozenMononormativityEvermore“Tis The Damn Season”The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection“Christmases When You Were Mine”CrassGrace PetrieTaylearning podcast“Clara Bow”Britney SpearsMiley Cyrus“You Need to Come Down”Adeem the ArtistJourney to FearlessLara Heimert@notquitehydeparkRachel Gold’s In the SilencesImogen Binnie’s NevadaX-Men Gold 30D.A. PowellTeam Dresch’s Captain My CaptainSlater KinneyHeartbreak HighSex EducationRachel Hartman’s Seraphina  Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:     How does Stephanie speak about the relationship between poetry, lyrics and music? Where does this become relevant in Taylor Swift’s work?     What does the term ‘Gaylor’ refer to and why are there so many of them?     We speak about sapphic forms in this episode. What makes a form sapphic for you?     What is feminophobia and why could being femme be read as giving up power? How does this relate to trans femininity?     What does Stephanie suggest about the representation of class in the “You Need To Calm Down” video?     Why does Stephanie stress that Taylor knows that she is white? How does Stephanie describe Taylor’s engagement with race and the music of Black women?     Does Taylor’s music speak to you? Why or why not?

Are you ready to become a showgirl? Poet, scholar, and Swifty extraordinaire Stephanie Burt joins me to talk about Taylor Swift’s musical genius, queer fandom and relationship to femininity. There was simply too much to squeeze into one episode, so make sure to listen to part one first and hear all about the Gaylors, before switching to part two, to learn about Taylor;s relationship to femininity, class and race. Stephanie will also tell you why she thought the “You Need To Calm Down” video was a big mistake…Follow Stephanie and myself at @notquitehydepark and @queerlitpodcast for even more content!  ReferencesStephanie Burt’s We Are Mermaids (Greywolf Press, 2022)Stephanie Burt’s Super Gay Poems (2025)Stephanie Burt’s Taylor’s Version: The Poetic and Musical Genius of Taylor Swift (Basic Books, 2025)Stephanie Burt’s “Prayer for Werewolves”Poetry UnboundJohn DonneKatherine PhilipsGeoffrey ChaucerWalt WhitmanCharlotte MewSarah RecordsHeavenlyTender TrapBlueboyElla DarlingMotownCarole KingDolly Parton“You Belong With Me”RedReputationMiss Americana (2020)LoverRachel Hartman’s Tess of the RoadGaylorismGaylors and Hetlors“When Emma Falls in Love”“All Too Well”Joe JonasTaylor LautnerJake Gyllenhaal“Back to December”John MayerThe Life of a Show GirlElizabeth TaylorKatharine HepburnOphelia HamletJulia SeranoFrozenMononormativityEvermore“Tis The Damn Season”The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection“Christmases When You Were Mine”CrassGrace PetrieTaylearning podcast“Clara Bow”Britney SpearsMiley Cyrus“You Need to Come Down”Adeem the ArtistJourney to FearlessLara Heimert@notquitehydeparkRachel Gold’s In the SilencesImogen Binnie’s NevadaX-Men Gold 30D.A. PowellTeam Dresch’s Captain My CaptainSlater KinneyHeartbreak HighSex EducationRachel Hartman’s Seraphina  Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:     How does Stephanie speak about the relationship between poetry, lyrics and music? Where does this become relevant in Taylor Swift’s work?     What does the term ‘Gaylor’ refer to and why are there so many of them?     We speak about sapphic forms in this episode. What makes a form sapphic for you?     What is feminophobia and why could being femme be read as giving up power? How does this relate to trans femininity?     What does Stephanie suggest about the representation of class in the “You Need To Calm Down” video?     Why does Stephanie stress that Taylor knows that she is white? How does Stephanie describe Taylor’s engagement with race and the music of Black women?     Does Taylor’s music speak to you? Why or why not?

Our favourite feminist killjoy is back! Sara Ahmed joins me to talk about her brand-new book No Is Not A Lonely Utterance: The Art and Activism of Complaining. In her first ever (how special are we) public conversation about the book, Sara speaks about becoming a feminist ear and a complaint collector, sharing stories of her own complaints as well as those shared with her in community. Explaining how the power of complaining lies in creativity and collectivity, Sara shows why saying no is a powerful queer method.  References:Sarah Ahmed’s No Is Not A Lonely Utterance (Allen Lane, 2025)Sarah Ahmed’s The Feminist Killjoy Handbook (Penguin, 2023)Sarah Ahmed’s Complaint! (Duke, 2021)Sarah Ahmed’s What’s the Use (Duke, 2019)Sarah Ahmed’s On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life (Duke, 2012)OnomatopoeiaJean PorcelliRace Relations Amendment ActCARD Complaint Against Racial DiscriminationKennetta Hammond Perry’s London is the Place for Me: Black Britons, Citizenship and the Politics of Race (2018) https://global.oup.com/academic/product/london-is-the-place-for-me-9780190909949?cc=gb&lang=en&Heather Love’s Feeling BackwardChelsea Watego’s “Always Bet On Black (Power)” (2021)https://meanjin.com.au/essays/always-bet-on-black-power/  Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:     What is a feminist ear? How might you become one?     We speak about the role of energy in complaining. Where can energy come from or disappear to? To quote Sara: ‘puff, puff’     How does Sara define institutional fatalism and why might it be an illusion?     What makes complaint a queer method?     This is a question from Sara’s book: What is the first complaint you remember making? How do you feel about it now?

How many times have you watched the sweaty lesbian fever dream that is Love Lies Bleeding? As you might be able to guess from this episode, Michelle Devereaux and I have stopped counting. Michelle is a feminist film-philosophy expert who joins me to talk about Rose Glass’s super queer neo noir, the interplay of genre conventions and gender dynamics, and all the fun intertexts and easter eggs that we found in Love Lies Bleeding. Whether you’re into bodybuilding and gender transgression or lesbian romance against all odds, this episode is for you.  ReferencesRose Glass’ Love Lies Bleeding (2024)Devereaux, Michelle. "Suspicious Minds and Dead Bodies: Queer Romance and Skepticism in Rose Glass’s Love Lies Bleeding." Film Quarterly 78.2 (2024): 24-32.Devereaux, Michelle. The Stillness of Solitude: Romanticism and Contemporary American Independent Film. Edinburgh University Press, 2019.Devereaux, Michelle.“‘A lot of people are creative’: Process, Perfectionism and the Everyday Sublime in Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up and First Cow”. Kim Wilkins and Bruce Isaacs, eds. A24: Culture, Aesthetics, Identity. Edinburgh University Press, 2026 (expected).Devereaux, Michelle.“Inherited Trauma, Postcolonial Scepticism and the Harmony of Voice in Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale”. Film-Philosophy and Australian Cinema. Saige Walton and Matilda Mroz, eds. Edinburgh University Press, 2026 (expected).Devereaux, Michelle and Lash, Dominic (eds.). Love, Desire and Stanley Cavell. London: Routledge, 2026 (expected).MAI: Feminism and Visual Culture: www.maifeminism.comRussian DollSofia CoppolaCavell, Stanley. Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage. Harvard University Press, 1981.Cavell, Stanley. Contesting Tears: The Hollywood Melodrama of the Unknown Woman. Harvard University Press, 1996.Comedies of RemarriageScrewball ComedyOut and WildSleater-KinneyBristol Butch BarLindner, Katharina. Film Bodies: Queer Feminist Encounters with Gender and Sexuality in Cinema. Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.Bound (1996)The Incredible HulkKristen Stewart TwilightPumping Iron II: The Women (1985)Bev Francis David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive (2001) and Lost Highway (1997)Winkie’s DinerLauren Berlant’s epistemic frenzyTeresa de Lauretis [email protected]: @michelleldevereauxKelly Reichardt’s Showing Up (2022)Michelle WilliamsDerek Jarman’s Caravaggio (1996)Tilda SwintonSean Bean  Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:1.      What is Love Lies Bleeding about and why does Michelle suggest it might be more about gender than about sexuality?2.      How does Michelle describe Lindner’s ‘space of transgender potential’? Can you think of an example for this?3.      Which genres does Michelle mention to discuss and describe Love Lies Bleeding? How are these genres queered in the film?4.      What role does the setting play in the film? How might this relate to the ‘space of transgender potential’?5.      What is your favourite lesbian and/or trans film and why?

If you can’t find me, I’m probably still browsing shelves of queer joy at Lighthouse, Edinburgh’s superb radical bookshop. The delightful owner Mairi Oliver took some time to chat with me about the long history of radical and queer bookshops that have come before and exist alongside this absolute gem of a queer space. We speak about queer spaces changing hands and transforming, rather than disappearing, about the magic of queer and trans book events, and about why radical booksellers are so important for local community.  References:Word PowerElaine HenryConstant Reader BookshopLavender MenaceWest & WildeSigrid NielsonBob Orr June Thomas’s A Place of One’s OwnJane Cholmeley’s A Bookshop of One’s OwnSilver Moon BookshopJames Ley’s Love Song To Lavender MenaceNaomi KleinSara AhmedRadical Book FairCategory is Books (Glasgow)Gay’s The Word (London)Housmans (London)Five Leaves (Nottingham)Alliance of Radical Booksellers https://www.radicalbooksellers.co.uk/Bread and Roses AwardJake Hall’s Shoulder to Shoulder: A Queer History of Solidarity, Coalition and ChaosN.S. Nuseibeh’s Namesake  Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:     Mairi speaks about how Lighthouse builds on a lineage of queer spaces. How do you feel about queer spaces transforming versus disappearing?     In this context, we also speak about the higher expectations for queer spaces. Have you experienced this? Do you think queer spaces should be held to a higher standard? What is the effect of this?     When we speak about the relationship between readers, booksellers and authors, Mairi makes some interesting points about how the role of writers is changing. What struck you as particularly important here?     Mairi ends the episode with a note on the urgency with which we need to address current political discussions. How can books and bookshops help us do this?

What makes Hong Kong queer? Alvin K. Wong joins me to speak about how queer and decolonial thought can help us better understand Hong Kong and its relation to the Sinophone world, to Eurocentric queer theory, and to global protest culture. Alvin speaks about queer and trans photography, films and novels from Hong Kong and sprinkles in some excellent theory reading recommendations. Listen now to learn more about Hong Kong and why it is such a frequent site of (unruly) comparison.  References:Wong, Alvin. Unruly Comparison: Queerness, Hong Kong, and the Sinophone (Duke UP, 2025)Wong, Alvin. “Transgenderism as a Heuristic Device: On the Cross-historical and Transnational Adaptations of the Legend of the White Snake,” in Transgender China, ed. Howard Chiang (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 127-158.https://complit.hku.hk/index.php/faculty/alvin-wong/[email protected] for the Study of Globalization and CulturesSociety of Sinophone StudiesMichel FoucaultJudith ButlerRey ChowAckbar AbbasUmbrella Movement in 2014Milton FriedmanRoderick FergusonJosé Esteban MuñozQueer of colour critiqueGayatri Gopinath’s Impossible Desires (Duke UP, 2005) and Unruly Visions (Duke UP, 2018)Emily Apter’s The Translation Zone (Princeton UP, 2006)Nelson Tang Chak-man’s Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been? (2019-20)Ann StolerJacques DerridaAnjali ArondekarWong Bik-wan’s Lienü tu 烈女圖 (Portraits of martyred women, 1999)Ma Ka Fai’s Long tou feng wei 龍頭鳳尾 (Once Upon A Time in Hong Kong, 2016)Lisa LoweScudMak Yan Yan’s Butterfly Jun Li’s Tracey (2018)W v. Registrar of MarriagesA Woman is A WomanMimi WongChen Ran’s A Private Life  Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:     What happened on 1 July 1997? Why was 2019 a central year in Hong Kong’s history?     Why is Hong Kong such a frequent site of comparison? What makes Hong Kong (seem) exceptional?     What does Alvin observe about Eurocentrism in queer studies? Which other power dynamics does he put this in relation with?     Alvin speaks about juxtaposing different types of texts. What does he juxtapose and why?     Several of Alvin’s reading recommendations have been published in translation. How often do you read translated texts?