Butt Pirates: A History of Queer Piracy (feat. Rebecca Simon)

Historical Homos

🏴‍☠️ Before there was BRAT, there were Butt Pirates. 🏴‍☠️

This week we're hoisting our slutty sails – that's what I call my underpants – to plunder the treacherous homosexual deep, with pirate historian and author Dr. Rebecca Simon (Pirate Queens; The Pirate’s Code) to answer the age-old question:

Why are men on a ship always kinda gay?

First of all, when we say "pirate," we mean the real 17th- and 18th-century swashbucklers who sailed the high seas. This is not Johnny Depp in eyeliner, but actual rum-soaked, textile-stealing anarcho-queers of the Caribbean.

Join us as we dive into the Golden Age of Piracy (c.1650–1730), and reveal the surprising egalitarianism of pirate society (it was pretty democratic and they had health insurance!) and its complex manifestations of queer desire — from situational sodomy to full-on civil unions (bonjour, matelotage 👬).

We also discuss:

• The difference between freelance pirates and government-backed privateers
• How pirate ships fucked up the burgeoning capitalism (and monopolistic tendencies) of 17th century imperial powers
• Their extraordinarily lush accessories budget
• How to board and charge a ship naked
• The 1720s pirate Anne Bonny's discovery that her crush “Mark” was actually a "Mary"
• The romance of John Swan and Robert Culliford: gay historical roommates... who were, tragically, actually roommates
• And, finally, a story about a French colony that proves the bonds of sodomy may be stronger than the bonds of (straight) marriage

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Parrot and peg leg sold separately.

📚 Grab a copy of Rebecca's book ⁠The Pirate Queens at our shop on Bookshop.org

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Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash.

Guest: Rebecca Simon.

Edited by Alex Toskas.

Produced by Dani Henion.