December Talking Meme - Day 4: What was your first fandom? Are you still involved with it?

Watch me do the December Talking Meme and fall behind after two days! In my defense, last week was super-intense; I had an exam and two hand-ins on friday and spent all week studying for that, spent most of the weekend baking and being with friends from the corridor, and yesterday I read in the library for hours and cleaned my room in the afternoon. I've barely been on Tumblr, much less had time to write several LJ entries.

Day 3 was blank, so I'm not sure I'm gonna try to fill it (maybe if I have time), but Day 4 had a question from spaciireth, who asked: "What was your first fandom? Are you still involved with it?"

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December Talking Meme - Day 5

dhampyresa asked: Are there any figures you've come across in your studies that you think are lgbt, for any reason?

I love this question, but it's also... surprisingly difficult to answer? I think this has to do with the material, in more ways than one; with fictional characters there's a comprehensive narrative and inside perspective, while historical sources (at least from the time periods I mostly work with) don't necessarily let you get to know a person enough for you to get an impression of their sexuality or gender identity? I guess I just don't make a habit of developing headcanons about historical figures.

Also, my field is religious history, and while deities and other creatures are almost inherently queer, or at least have the possibility of being queer due to existing outside of normal social and uh, physical boundaries, that's the very thing that makes trying to define their sexuality or gender identity kind of difficult, almost superfluous.

(I'm using the term queer because it encompasses a greater variety of sexuality and gender expressions-- which feels more appropriate, especially when talking about deities).

But that doesn't mean I don't have any!!

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