Calling men "closeted" in this period is very inappropriate. The concept closeted can only exist in modern terms; there is an option now to live openly whereas back then there was not. The history of Molly houses are intrinsically tied to LGBTQ historyso there's nothing in this video that's misleading. Regardless of what class you were from, Molly houses were the only relative safe places to be openly homosexual.
I remember as a kid being totally confused by the line in the song Yankee Doodle, “...stuck a feather in his hat and called him Macaroni.” No matter how many adults I ask, none of them could explain it to me. I was in my 30’s before I discovered what that really meant.
For those still confused, macaroni was a term for flamboyant accessories, such as stick on moles, objects in hair/hat (as in "...feather in his hat") and other fashion trends.
No, no it would not at all! “Drag queens“ back during those times were men dressed up as women because women were not allowed to be in theatre. Had there ever been such a breakdown in society in the 18th century, there would’ve been a lot of heads rolling down Tower hill, and the better the world would have been for it.
@@laurasmith14 you need to google princess Seraphina from the 1700’s. The drag you’re referring too was in 1500’s during Shakespeare’s time. By then 1600’s women were permitted in theater. Also, gay men’s heads didn’t “roll” they were hanged after psycho king Henry 8th banned men being together. Tf you talking about the world being a better place for it, the first recorded homosexual was 2400 bc. They’ve always been around. The world would be better if your head rolled down Tower Hill.
Believe it or not, there are plenty of living history events focused around representing Molly houses in the greater anglosphere! Not only does it include lgbtq, drag, and sex worker history, but typically other counterculture history such as underground fighting rings, gambling, subversive art and theater etc.
THIS honestly. I do Victorian/Old West, Edwardian, and Onnagata/Oyama drag. I really want to see this as a popular thing. Kept classy, historical, and realistic of course.
seeing Aziraphale and Crowley fanart in this made me laugh cause the moment molly houses were mentioned I immediately thought of Azira doing the gavotte.
The title is misleading. It should be called "what it was like to be labeled as a sex worker when you're just a gay man in the 18th century". The molly houses weren't brothels, they were "safe places". I heard no money exchange in this video. Another thing: you show Thomas Wright the astronomer who would have been only 15 years old in 1726, and who also died in 1786, so you got the wrong Thomas Wright up there. This one you're talking about was hanged in May 1726, shortly after the trial in April. Probably should correct that for historical accuracy.
I like Weird History, but kind of disingenuous to call the men who frequented 'Molly Houses" LGBTQ. They were men. Are we not allowed to say gay men anymore?
@@bradrose15 Cuz they weren't acknowledged at the time...& it wasn't as easily prosecutable crime...."buggery" was on the books (in-law/illegal) while "L", as such, was not....i.e. less threatening to men...but yeah, still a difficult life, just not deemed as "worthy of death" by men & their weird fear of other penises...the irony....cuz, well, anyways...✋😂
Man, that's something. It's like what happened at Stonewall Inn. People snitched, went to jail, and sentenced to death. Except Stonewall, no one was sentenced to death. First time hearing about something like this.
@Gisele Matthews not surprised that you would misunderstand stand completely and then get mad at the commenter. It’s the norm nowadays for certain people.
As a history professor, I love this channel and subscribe, but please find images that relate to the period in the script. Having a banner say 1720s on top of a series of images from the late 19th and even 20th centuries is pretty jarring. There are great images in the public domain that better correlate to the content.
I am no history professor, but I wonder that u haven’t stumbled over the many many inaccuracies, that occur again and again in ,,Weird History’s“ videos… especially as a fan of this channel…
Professor, most pictures are subject to copyright laws. I suspect they are using pictures available on public domain, or otherwise free of charge, or for a nominal fee. If they had a phenomenal or bloated budget, I feel certain they would upload the finest and most accurate pictures they could find. The banners are used to 'indicate' the era they are speaking of while the pictures are used to 'represent' that era. Generally speaking, this channel is made for children. I believe the viewers understand the story. The inquisitive mind would conduct their own research to verify anything published on RU-vid, particularly college students. I hope this information will help to ease your mind. PS But then again, since you already know the aforementioned, maybe you should download the pictures you spoke of and send them to WH. Wouldn't they be delighted! Everybody's a critic.
I'd also love to learn more about indigenous peoples from all over! Australian Aboriginal people especially, there's so little understanding about their culture
I love this channel. Although, I think the title of this video should be changed. Molly houses were only 1/100th of the sex work in London during this period. Why not call the video what is is? It is a video about the lgbtq community in London, not just sex work.
Don’t u mean the LBG community... the T and Q etc have nothing what’s so ever to do with the homosexually ... as a gay man I am sick to the back teeth of being associated with the T and Q...
When I clicked on this video I didn’t expect it to be about LGBT history but I’m so pleasantly surprised. It makes sense though, gay people have existed everywhere for a very long time, it’s just not usually talked about. Our history has been erased and covered up for hundreds of years. It’s so refreshing to actually be seen. This is a very important and very interesting video. I love history, especially queer history. Thank you.
Society has certainly changed a lot but not enough, as evident in some of these comments. Plus gay men are generally more accepted than transgender people.
@@dinosaurasher because weirdos don’t use the concept of homosexuality to pretend to be women to beat them at sports competitions or enter women’s bathrooms and than get protected by any criticism because “muh Transphobia!!!”
@@Hiphop618 you straight up comment nothing but rude and arguably sexist things on this channel. get a life other than commenting on videos you evidently don’t enjoy watching 🤦🏼♀️
Dude after learning what "macaroni" meant back in those days... I started thinking of how during the Revolutionary War, the new Americans would sing "Yankee Doodle" at the Brits (usually after a battle that the British lost at), and I realized "Dude, the founding fathers were talking MAD sht at those guys" 😂 Also the dude in the video that got caught perusing one of those "cruising" alleys (got sentenced to the pillary and then two months in jail) and got caught and used the ol "I was just peeing" excuse 😂 anyone remember that movie "There's Something About Mary"? There's a part where Ben Stiller is driving on the interstate at night and sees a trucker rest stop and he pulls over to get down bc he has to pee, but it's dark out and there's no city lights, so he trips while walking to the restroom and realizes he tripped on a man on the ground and one other random man says something like "watch where you're going" or whatever, and then Stiller tries to get up and walk and he like accidentally finds another guy on the ground, and then these bright ass police lights come on, and there's TONS of dudes out there on the ground having a secret orgy and the cops arrest Stiller bc they assume he's one of them, and he ends up on the news and people he knows see his face on the scene and the reporters say it's a secret meeting place where men do strange stuff, and the whole time the cops are detaining Ben Stiller, he's shouting "I JUST HAD TO PEE!" And all the other boys out there start stealing his (real) excuse saying "Oh right! Yeah! Uh, I was just peeing too!" 😂 1698, 1998, sonethings never change lol
That would be ahistorical. "Gay" is a modern concept. Particular acts were described, and people committed those acts--but were not categorized as being . Except maybe Sodomites--though engaging in sodomitical behavior was not seen as an intrinsic status.
Loved this video, but the title is totally inaccurate. This has almost nothing to do with sex workers, and everything to do with gay men, most of whom - it sounds like - were not sex workers.
@@alexiscaldera3793 Yeah, but it didn't sound like THESE men were sex workers though. Kind of sounded like they just wanted a safe space to hang out and were falsely labeled as sex workers. At least, that's what this video makes it sound like
You mentioned "certain areas/streets of London that were popular for 'cruising'" and my brain spontaneously kicked up a chorus of "West End Girls" by the Pet Shop Boys. This was a stellar upload (as most Weird History videos are!)--thanks for bringing such quality and education to our 'entertainment.' :)
This reminds me of the show Harlots. They mention molly boys & there's a house with them too. It would be cool if the producers of Harlots could make a male version of their show. Harlots is super entertaining & i think a Molly house spinoff would be just as entertaining.
4 minutes in and not ONE single bit of background on "Sex Workers". This video was mis-titled. It should be called "What it was like to be LGBT+ in 18th Century London" or instead of LGBT+ use Molly Boys. Since it is only about cross dressing and gay men. Not even about them being sex workers. Just that they had trouble being a gay man or a cross dresser or cross dressing gay man. Nothing about Sex Workers
@Jon Well, first of all: ancient Greek, Roman, and Spartan societies weren't widely accepting of homosexuality. However, since you think the Roman Legions would still be marching today if not for those "darn dirty gehys", then it's obvious you have never opened a book in your life.
Thank you so much for examining our gay history. I would love to see a tv series made out of this. 3 years later we are not far off our 17th wedding anniversary. How things have changed (here in New Zealand anyway).
It's not a whole series but alit of the clips in this video was used from Tom Hardy's Taboo. Very good and super weird show. That's where I learned about Molly Houses.
THIS is why LGBT visibility is so important. There's literally people who think being gay is a "new" thing that only happened in the 1980s. LGBT folks have existed forever but look at the great lengths they had to take to be who they are and how unfriendly the laws of history have been to them. I'm glad I live in modern times where its pretty rare that someone can be hanged for going to a gay bar. I think the height of privilege is being able to live in any era in history you wanted and things would have been great for you whenever you existed. I dont pretend to forget there is still places in modern times where gay people can be arrested for just existing but at the very least, its no longer a certain death sentence.
It can still be a death sentence if no one else is looking. Your awareness and interest in history, indeed, is commendable and important, since thinkers like you are critical for our culture and humanity to move forward towards improved understanding and legal development. I send my brotherly love.
We all know. I think most people are genuinely sick to death of talking about LGBTQ. Except those who perhaps are LGBTQ or those who are virtue signalling. No one cares. Whatever. Consenting adults. You're visible ffs.
@@Candlewick14 then you clearly don't understand this issue then. This is the same argument as "oh I don't see color" when POCs are complaining that their lives matter. Ignorance breeds more ignorance which breeds more fear and then hatred of something you dont understand. If you don't understand why representation matters then you're just never gonna get why it's so important
How did a boy or a man know about molly houses in the first place? Coming outs are difficult today but I can't imagine how it was for a young person to realise that they were "different" from society, have nobody to talk to out of fear of punishment and than eventually find out about the molly houses and underground LGBTQ community.
Open secrets, I wager. Also, you may have confessed to "that weird guy down the block, who is a total molly!" Likely, there was also a bit of grooming going on...
What I'm about to mention is mostly based on how these things were in the Victorian Era, but I'm sure plenty of it was more or less the same a century prior since Molly Houses were still a thing in Victorian times, and homosexuality was still punished by the law (even after the death penalty for this type of "crime" was abolished) Back then, gay men had "secret gay codes" they implemented to their everyday life. You see how the average male fashion tended to be mostly sober and sometimes "dull" in colors and whatnot? Well, gay men (those who were more open or were looking for a partner or for more people "like them") used that to their advantage and would usually add some colorful accessories to their outfits. Think of adding a colorful feather on their hats, a bright tie, or even a colorful flower pinned to their lapels, and so on. Gay men would also use other forms of "secret communication", such as growing their hair long and keeping their faces as cleanly shaven as possible, as these two things were considered "feminine" by the standards of the time and thus were unacceptable for a man to sport (and, basically, an "open secret" to everyone, taking advantage of the fact that speaking openly about homosexuality was taboo and pretty much no one wanted to get caught even talking about such a "indecent" thing). Green color was also associated with homosexuality as, reportedly, it was deemed to be an "unnatural" color and, thus, the gay men of the time adopted it in a tongue in cheek way since they were also labelled as "unnatural" by society due to their orientation. In addition, they also used their own "coded language": Polari, which was slang/cant that was most commonly used by specific groups, most largely used by gay men. Using Polari, they could even exchange words between them in public without most people knowing what they were actually saying, with the advantage of pretending they were speaking some foreign language if they got caught. And, like someone else pointed out, open secrets, too! Most of the people who knew about Molly Houses learned about them from other gay men who already knew the place or the owner of said place. The same thing happened with gay men themselves, as all the "codes" I mentioned above were meant for them to easily spot each other out from unsuspecting "regular people" without putting them or their safety at risk.
Not only is Weird History some of the *best researched* and *most accurate* history content on RU-vid, it's *wildly entertaining AND incredibly respectful* to boot!! I was honestly overflowing with joy and pride when the narrator spoke about "Princess Seraphina" (who specifically presented as a woman even in her life outside the Molly houses) by using feminine pronouns! It's brave people like her who paved the way for the rights of the LGBT+ community today-- I can't even imagine her struggle to simply exist in 18th century England-- and I *love* Weird History for talking about her with the respect and dignity she deserves ❤️
This video is poorly done. The picture they use for Thomas Newton is in fact a man of that name, but not the one they are talking about. They used a Bishop's picture.
I’m not sure if you already did the event, but you could do one about the “dance of the 42” this was a gay ball in Mexico during Diaz times and it included high ranking officials
Interesting history but I'm confused by the heading. This wasn't about sexworkers it was about homosexuality and the consequences of such lifestyle in the past. But very informative. Thanks👍
Hi Weird History Team, I have 2 Question. "What it was like living in Sengoku Period real condition?" And "What it was like life during World War 2 for Japanese people?" Thanks :)
My grandmother never says anything in depth about that. She was a nurse in Naruto, JP during WWII. Didn't immigrate to Hawaii until 1958. My grandfather is a nisei(2nd gen Japanese American). They weren't sent to an internment camp since they lived in Hawaii and weren't prominent community leaders.
The Japanese people were well indoctrinated. They didn’t have food shortages as Somme comments suggest, but their lives were far from easy. At the end, the authorities handed out what weapons they could (including sharpened bamboo sticks) and told the civilians that if the Americans invaded, it was better to die defending your country than to live, because you would be raped and murdered by the savage GI’s. They trained people to dive under tanks with explosives 🧨. Things like that. And it was a totalitarian state at that time. Not to mention that virtually every city had been hombre to ruins. So life was prob not that great.
It makes me terribly sad that people could be hanged just for being themselves. It's as awful as being hanged for the color of your skin or religious practices. And we have made progress, but not enough. People should be just that....People. Not black people or gay people...just people. I so enjoy meeting and hearing the stories from every person I am lucky enough to interact with....what's inside is the only factor that really matters.
Religion, STDs, and just shifting cultural morays. For example most hostility to the LGBT community now isn't caused by what they do in private, it's because of what they do in public(convicted sex offenders in drag reading/copping feels at kids library events, the San Fran gay men's choir bragging about going after your kids, etc). The Overton window Shifted and in general nobody cares about the sexuality/sex activity itself anymore.
@@Nope_handlesaretrash I don’t think those crimes happen regular but if they do it’s wrong and they are bad ppl in every community I could list out a list of heterosexual ppl who did heinous things at the same time claim god heterosexual men back then transfer the most
The title of the video doesn’t really match the content here. Early on in the video it’s stated that these houses were much less about sex work and more for LGBTQ men to congregate.
Making the video look like it's talking about sex workers and then just talking about the life of gay men in the 1700s feels off. Only a few of these men were sex workers.
