341. The Trials of Oscar Wilde: Sex and Scandal

[@baltasarnoreno5973]

Wow! You left on a total cliffhanger, with poor old and handcuffed Oscar being bundled into the back of a Hansom cab! I take it that you will soon upload a sequel podcast about his criminal trial, imprisonment and slide into obscurity in Paris?

[@locngo]

Everyone must read the Picture of Dorian Gray. Oscar Wilde was a genius that history would never come across again.

[@martiwilliams4592]

Excellant podcast! I find myself yelling (silently) at the screen. "WHY CAN´T YOU PEOPLE MIND YOUR OWN @@@@ING BUSINESS!!!!!!! You guys make all my other lit. classes seem now boooooooring. Thank you.

[@Tom-kt8lu]

Now do Alan Turing.

[@shamsam4]

That was splendid!

[@simonkubelec6352]

Really interesting

[@donaldskinner-reid8998]

In Scotland, adulthood behind at 16.

[@derrymullins-fp8pl]

Thank you.Absolutley brilliant.

[@Secretname951]

Can we have an episode to look more deeply into the Labouchère amendment?

[@papi8659]

Now do Roger Casement, the real gay martyr of the British crown.

[@helmutsecke3529]

Do you lot hold w/ Ellman's work?

[@brianbooth679]

I believe that roseberry was "fond" of young men, so wilde was doomed. Also gay brothels and rent boys were known to exsist it was a complete double standard. Didnt help that he was IRISH.

[@j0nnyism]

Sounds to me as if Wilde had prepped by reading some of ciceros defence speeches and believed he could persuade through a great piece of oratory

[@naomiseraphina9718]

One always wonders, when confronted by the spectacle of inflamed and rampant homophobia, whether jealousy may in fact be at the heart of a hater's opprobrium toward the queer individuals he professes to despise. Is it the queer world that he hates, or is it the fact that he himself is not admitted to that very world? I can't help but speculate that the Marquise of Queensbury may himself have been a closet case, considering his love of "man-on-man" action in the boxing ring, and considering the level of near-fanatical wrath with which he pursues the destruction of Oscar. Nonetheless, it was undoubtedly idiotic to charge him with libel. What did the ape do? Enlisted the help of the devil himself, in the form of the demonic Edward Carson. Say what you like, but Carson was Beelzebub incarnate. Carson was always far more cruel and fanatical than his causes required him to be, and his causes were never just to begin with. Brilliant podcast as always!

[@Johnconno]

Wilde should have kept his trap shut, he made it easy for them.

[@DaveSCameron]

Clearly missing the majority of the book...

[@bilinguru]

Clearly the Buggery law and the subsequent laws enacted to make homosexual overtures misdemeanors were unjust and in a sense barbaric, it doesn't change the fact that mid-30 year old Wilde's behaviour and predelictions for very young boys is paedophilic. Kissing hotel staff on the mouth, regardless of whether they were gay or not, is predatory and exploitative. I have always believed that people should be able to love whomever they like, but that does not extend to inappropriate relationships between adults and children. Wilde's conviction and imprisonment for carrying on with Bosey was obviously unjust, as they were two consenting adults,however it would have been entirely just for him to have been convicted under the buggery act for sodomizing 14, 15 and 16-year old children, rather than the less lenient misdemeanor, and sentenced to a much longer and harsher sentence. Being a literry genius is not a get out of jail free card. Being erudite and flamboyant makes for a charming diva, but diddling kids makes you a criminal, and rather than portray Wilde as a martyr and shining light for gay culture today, it would be more apropos to characterize him as a sexual deviant who is lucky the offenses no longer carried with them a death penalty, whch is what paedophiles shoud get.

[@personalsigh]

You clearly don't understand what paedophilia is

[@eshaibraheem4218]

​@@personalsighQuite

[@heatherstephens9295]

@@personalsighwhat is your interpretation of it?

[@personalsigh]

@@heatherstephens9295 I don't have an interpretation I have an understanding of what it is and what it isn't. And it definitely isn't a cover all word to define sexual acts with anyone under the legal age of consent. By using it so it lessens the impact of what it truly is.

[@CL-we8tn]

Is it technically history?

[@noodleperson17]

er it happened in the past so yes.

[@carlsmith8815]

Wilde the Martyr is a very sectional opinion . Something that is not dwell upon by our wonderful podcasters is the reason why homosexual acts were criminalised for centuries. They convene Christian theology ( derived from Judaism, and why such acts are still hanging and flogging offences in many Muslim countries ) . The law was intensified in the Reformation and the 1886 Act was intended as an liberalising measure because it abolished capital punishment and range extreme sanctions for homosexual acts. This happened throughout the empire (. often misquoted by the ill informed as a tightening of native punishments for it, which often followed the earlier model ) Britain in the late C19th was a faith society that would basically continue well into the C20th century. The Liberal measure lessened. penalties but also widened the gambit as touched upon because it was recognised that there were such people as male homosexual. These people were conceived as being often upper class predators especially by people further the income scale. It's to be doubted whether Wilde had any noble motives such as striking a blow for current or future male homosexuals. He was wound up with the drama and his obsessional relationship with the toxic Bosie .