this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2025
148 points (99.3% liked)

History Memes

3403 readers
1076 users here now

A place to share history memes!

Rules:

  1. No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, assorted bigotry, etc.

  2. No fascism, atrocity denial or apologia, etc.

  3. Tag NSFW pics as NSFW.

  4. Follow all Lemmy.world rules.

Banner courtesy of @setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 12 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 60 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Explanation: The Roman Emperor Elagabalus was noted for having an... atypical gender presentation at the time. It's commonly accepted nowadays that Elagabalus was probably trans or NB as we would recognize it in the modern day, asking to be called the feminine form of address, wearing women's clothing, marrying men and women, and offering half the Empire (!!!) for a good SRS doc. As with all matters historical, the details are always up for debate, though, especially the reliability of the sources and the applicability of modern labels to pre-modern individuals.

Unfortunately, they were not good rep, as they were a teenager who was given sudden control of an entire Empire and all of its fabulous wealth and potential for abuse, and used that as one might expect a teenager to do.

[–] cyrano@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 45 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Sex Reassignment Surgery - they offered up to half the Empire (this may have been meant metaphorically) for any surgeon who could give them a vagina in place of their penis. Supposedly.

No physician was willing to try on the Emperor, apparently.

[–] cyrano@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 week ago
[–] sad_detective_man@leminal.space 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

oh man this is like the ultimate queer history barfight. I don't remember what the original text of this comic said but this fits it so much better

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I think it was "Is Spongebob a furry?"

[–] sad_detective_man@leminal.space 12 points 1 week ago

okay that is pretty funny

[–] shneancy@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

hey PugJesus, i don't know if you get it a lot but thanks for those memes & also historical context behind them :) i really enjoyed finding them in my feed, i appreciate your good work!

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] sga 4 points 1 week ago

you do more than your civic duty, sire

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 week ago