Gender identity, gender fluidity...
Gender is on everyone's
lips right now.
We've seen some profound changes -
like the legalisation of gay marriage
in many countries and a more
open approach to sexuality.
And we're grappling as a society
with the idea that gender
is not purely biological.
But is this really so new?
We could learn a lot
from the poet Sappho,
who lived in the 6th century BC
on the Greek island of Lesbos.
It's because of her that
we use the word "lesbian"
which originally just meant
"someone from Lesbos".
"Sweet mother, I cannot weave -
slender Aphrodite has overcome me
with longing for a girl."
Her poetry made her famous
in antiquity.
But the ways in which
she and her work have been treated
show only too well
what it is to be judged and labelled.
If Sappho were alive now,
would she identify as a
lesbian woman?
Would she celebrate the freedom
of identity choice?
What would she think of our
debates about gender?
Answering these questions
is a challenge
because much of
Sappho's work is lost.
But the little we have is remarkable.
In her day, it made her one of the
few women to be pictured on pottery -
the ancient Greek equivalent
of appearing on primetime TV.
We can't know for sure whether she
had sexual relationships with women
and, if so, whether she was
open about them.
But in ancient Greece, it would
have been no cause for scandal.
Although men and women
were expected to marry,
homosexual feelings and
relationships were seen as normal.
So, all we have to go on
is the poems themselves.
Sex and sexuality is everywhere here.
Sappho's poems play with
our expectations of gender
and set up teasing questions
about sexuality.
Who is speaking? Male or female?
Who is the beloved? Male or female?
One of her best known poems
is spoken by someone
looking at a beautiful girl,
and envying the man talking to her.
"That man seems to me
to be equal to the gods.
He who sits opposite you
and hears you nearby
speaking sweetly
and laughing delightfully,
which indeed makes my heart
beat faster."
Translators from the 15th Century on
have assumed that the speaker,
the person who desires
the beautiful girl, is another man.
But in the original there's
a big hint that this isn't so.
There's a line...
The word "chlorotera" in the Greek
is the form you would use
if it were a woman speaking.
Sappho wanted her poetry to make
people think about experiences
that are transgender,
or that transcend gender.
She wanted them to imagine
the feelings of a gender to which
you do not, or may not, belong.
Sappho's poems on her most
important subjects - sex and love -
are about everyone.
They are gender fluid,
and they are gender blind.
Sappho does not care who we love.
It is still love.
So, she might tell us,
"Don't worry about labels.
Just get on, and..."
After all - she did write…
"Some say an army of horsemen,
others say foot soldiers,
still others say a fleet of ships
is the finest thing
on the dark earth.
I say it is whatever one loves."
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