logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2024
1h 7m

Marianne Woods and Jane Pirie (with Indi...

Huw Lemmey & Ben Miller
About this episode

Today's special guest is the researcher and museum worker Indigo Dunphy-Smith, who is bringing her expertise to the case of Marianne Woods and Jane Pirie, two Edinburghian school teachers who found themselves embroiled in a sex scandal and court case in the early years of the 19th century. Their legal woes followed accusations by a pupil about sapphic goings-on at their small private school, and raised issues regarding attitudes to sex, race and colonialism in late Georgian era Scotland.

Subscribe to Extra Bad Gays, our monthly subscriber-only show for conversations about contemporary queer culture and advice segments from your favorite Gagony Guncles. ----more----   SOURCES:   Clerk, John, The notorious Drumsheugh Case of 1810: Miss Marianne Woods and Miss Jane Pirie v. Lady Cumming Gordon of Altyre, The Signet Library, Roughead Collection R343.1 H865
Singh, Frances B, Scandal and Survival in Nineteenth-Century Scotland: The Life of Jane Cumming, NED-New edition, Boydell & Brewer, 2020
Rupp, Leila J, Sapphistries: A Global History of Love Between Women, Beacon Press, 2009
Donoghue, Emma, Passions Between Women: British Lesbian Culture 1668–1801, HarperCollins, 1993
Faderman, Lillian, Scotch Verdict: The Real-Life Story That Inspired “The Children’s Hour”, Columbia University Press, 1983
Faderman, Lillian, Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present, William Morrow & Co, 1981
National Records of Scotland, Burgh Register of Sasines for Edinburgh B22/4/31   Our intro music is Arpeggia Colorix by Yann Terrienn, distributed under a Creative Commons license. Our outro music is by DJ Michaeloswell Graphicsdesigner.
Up next
Jun 24
TRAILER: Extra Bad Gays June 2025, The Second: Touring, Representation, and Gaggony Guncles
For full episodes of Extra Bad Gays, subscribe on our Patreon or directly through Apple Podcasts. Join our community of nefarious nellies and help support the show! 
12m 10s
Jun 10
Special Episode: Gavin Arthur (with Maurice Casey)
Join our community of Extra Bad Gays on Patreon or Apple Podcasts for special episodes and more! Have you ever wondered who the sexual link between Edward Carpenter and Allen Ginsburg was? Wonder no more, and meet Gavin Arthur: grandson of US President Chester Allan Arthur, astro ... Show More
1h 7m
Jun 5
Extra Bad Gays June 2025, The First: Weird Vibes Pride, Edmund White, and Bisexual Dilemmas (TRAILER)
This is just a trailer! For the full episode, join our community of Extra Bad Gays on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Weird Vibes Pride Month, nefarious nellies! What is this Pride Month's vibe? Who is its target audience? We're confused. How do we build power as queer movements hollo ... Show More
16m 46s
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2025
Robert Dudley: Elizabeth I's Forbidden Love
Passion, scandal, and power collided in the tumultuous relationship between Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley. Rumours of secret trysts between them set the court ablaze, but their love was doomed from the start. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Dr. Joanne Paul unravel the complex tap ... Show More
58m 10s
Jun 10
What Did Jane Austen Know About Sex?
She wrote some of the most enduring romances in literature. But what did Jane Austen really know about love ... and sex?From longing looks and flirtation, to seduction and elopement, in this episode we're investigating how much of Jane Austen's works was based on experience.Kate ... Show More
48m 56s
Aug 2023
William J. Mann, "Bogie and Bacall: The Surprising True Story of Hollywood's Greatest Love Affair" (Harper, 2023)
From the noted Hollywood biographer comes this celebration of the great American love story—the romance between Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart—capturing its complexity, contradictions, and challenges as never before.In Bogie and Bacall: The Surprising True Story of Hollywood's ... Show More
51m 59s
Nov 2024
38. Fanny Davies - Uncommon Thief
In this new series Lucy Worsley switches her attention from Lady Killers to Lady Swindlers - con women, thieves and hustlers. This is where true crime meets history - with a twist. Lucy and her team of all female detectives travel back in time to revisit the audacious and surpris ... Show More
28m 12s
Sep 2024
Best Of: Marguerite Duras
This back to school season, we're bringing back some of our favorite Womanica episodes you might have missed. Today's Womanican is Marguerite Duras (1914-1996). She was a pioneer of autofiction and one of the most widely-read French writers in the postwar era. She specialized in ... Show More
8m 3s
Jun 2024
Wordsmiths: Anita Cornwell
Anita Cornwell (1923-2023) made history as the first Black woman writer to openly identify as a lesbian in her published essays. From the 1950s to the 1980s, she wrote passionately about Black power and Black lesbian identity in magazines like Negro Digest, The Ladder, and Femini ... Show More
6m 31s
Oct 2024
35. Women Who Dare
Lucy Worsley, historian Professor Rosalind Crone and author and journalist Helen Lewis, explore the lives of four notorious Lady Swindlers. They’ll be discussing underworld boss Tilly Devine, fake heiress Violet Charlesworth, queen of shoplifting Alice Diamond and fake Princess M ... Show More
28m 31s
Dec 2023
Marguerite de Navarre
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Marguerite, Queen of Navarre (1492 – 1549), author of the Heptaméron, a major literary landmark in the French Renaissance. Published after her death, The Heptaméron features 72 short stories, many of which explore relations between the sexes. Howev ... Show More
46m 12s
May 2024
Workers: Sue Cowan Williams
Sue Cowan Williams (1910-1994) was a teacher in Little Rock, Arkansas, who filed and won a lawsuit to end pay discrimination against Black teachers in the segregated South. Hher case helped shape the organization’s legal strategy for civil rights in schools across the country. Sp ... Show More
6m 14s
Mar 2024
Women of Sound: Florence Violet McKenzie
Florence Violet McKenzie (1890–1982) was Australia's first female electrical engineer, and founder of the Women's Emergency Signalling Corps.  For Further Reading: Florence Violet McKenzie (1890–1982) Radio Girl: The Story of the Extraordinary Mrs Mac, Pioneering Engineer and War ... Show More
4m 41s