Pirate gay
History of Gay Pirates
I had set out to document a light hearted story about gay pirates this week; however, along my journey, I found out some pretty horrible data about pirates. This is my warning: while this story sounds very humorous, and has some pleasurable moments, there is a discussion of sexism and prostitution. Be mindful of the difficult topics this article includes.
The best way to begin this article is by establishing the social context for the time. Same sex relationships were highly stigmatized on land and illegal in most places. Piracy however was known for rejecting societal standards and expectations. Some pirates went as far as baptisms in sea water, new names, and completely leaving behind their past identities.
Queer relationships at sea were not uncommon during the Golden Era of Piracy (1650-1730s). Relations between men was often encouraged. At the time, men on ship knew more about their crew mates than even their wives and children on land. This drew in a lot of queer men to piracy.
Pirates had their own build of civil union called matelotage. These unions could range in meaning (fraternal, platonic, romantic, etc.) but were respected among most pirate crews.
READING HISTORY
On 28 December 1720, a court was convened in Spanish Town, Jamaica, whose audience bore witness to one of the Golden Age of Piracy’s penultimate acts of defiance. The final verdict decreed that the prisoners: ‘go from hence to the Place from whence you came, and from thence to the Place of Execution; where you, shall be severally hang’d by the Neck, ‘till you are severally dead.’ A single moment later, the prisoners played their trump card, claiming that they were both pregnant, and so the court was brought to a standstill. By ‘pleading their bellies’ as it was called, both women could not be hanged for their piratical crimes, and so they were granted a stay of execution, standing for a unique moment in the wider history of piracy. The two women in question were Anne Bonny and Mary Study, now known the nature over as the plunder queens, or the Hellcats of the Caribbean.
As we have previously explored in Pirates Legends III, Bonny and Read’s story represents one of the Golden Age of Piracy’s most notable acts of defiance. In their challenging of the norms of their age in such a spectacular way, they sustain to epitomise the social rebellion view of pira
But I don't think this answers the question. Pirates were referred to at the time, as "Gaye Fellowes". What's up with that? Why is the synonyms so often used?
The evidence is, pirates WERE queer . They were NOT homosexual.
The secret here is that words change in definition, and the word "Gay" has changed a lot since it came into the English language.
When I write this - that words change in essence - I can almost hear someone shouting, "No, they don't! Words represent things. They always signify the same things. Just look in a dictionary!" Yes, I know, the idea that language isn't always the same is disturbing to some people. But language NEEDS to change, to keep up with our changing planet. And if you question me, get a duplicate of the Oxford English Dictionary, which gives the history of the sense of each word it contains, and start reading up on how the meanings of some words has evolved.
Sometimes new words come
So my family has a Gay Pirate Plate.
Stay with me.
We do not comprehend how the hell the Gay Pirate Plate was first acquired. This creature a point of contention is actually pretty plot-relevant; the saga of the Gay Pirate Plate began with my grandmother and her sister, who, for some ungodly reason, both BADLY wanted the Same-sex attracted Pirate Plate and believed it to be rightfully theirs.
I should back up, firstly, to establish: The Gay Pirate Plate is the cheapest, tackiest, ugliest plate in existence.
It is in no way a collector’s item. It is physically impossible for it to complement anyone’s decor, because the colors in it are garish. It’s just a ceramic plate with a gay plunder painted on it, and the painting is, this cannot be emphasized enough, extremely bad.
(How do we know the pirate is gay if he’s just posing on a plate? Listen. Fully 100% to stereotype, but he is. He is gay. There’s an energy. That steal is a flaming queer. That pirate has sex with men and does it frequently. That plunder is fucking gay, all right, he just is.)
Anyway. The point is that this is an extremely cheap and ugly plate with a poorly-executed painting of pirate on it who is like a nine on t
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