UK Museum Rewrites History, Says 3rd Century Emperor Was A Transgender Woman
A museum in the United Kingdom has changed the pronouns of a third-century emperor because woke historians believe he was actually a transgender woman.
That is the dumbest sentence I have ever written.
The North Hertfordshire Museum said it is being "sensitive" to the supposed pronoun preferences of Emperor Elagabalus, who ruled from 218-222 AD. The museum claims the switch is based on classical texts that show Elagabalus asked to be called a "lady" and a "wife," the Telegraph reported.
Ah, yes. What monsters we would be if we hurt the feelings of someone who died 1,800 years ago.
"We try to be sensitive to identifying pronouns for people in the past, as we are for people in the present," executive council member Keith Hoskins said — calling it "only polite and respectful."
Which is ironic, given that "polite and respectful" is not at all how anyone would describe Elagabalus.
Emperor Elagabalus was a piece of work.
Taking power at just 14 years old, Elagabalus was known as a tyrant and sexual deviant.
He loved to play deadly "pranks" on dinner guests. At one feast, he had several of his guests tied to a water-wheel, which turned slowly and drowned them as their horrified fellow diners looked on.
He also regularly unleashed wild animals, like leopards and lions, on his guests. And on at least one occasion, he let poisonous snakes loose among the crowds at the gladiatorial games. Lots of people died.
Elagabalus was so awful, in fact, his own soldiers revolted and murdered him just four years into his reign.
But no, we mustn't misgender!
According to ancient texts, Elagabalus married multiple women, but only for the purpose of learning their bedroom habits. He also had male lovers and married a male chariot driver.
He allegedly wore wigs and makeup, moonlighted as a female prostitute in Roman brothels, and offered large sums of money to any doctor who could perform a gender reassignment surgery by creating a vagina.
The Roses of Heliogabalus — depicting the time Emperor Elagabalus smothered his dinner guests in rose petals. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)
But while the woke historians praise Elagabalus as a pioneer of transgenderism, others aren't so sure. These early accounts of the hedonistic emperor's life came from his successor, Cassius Dio — who apparently wasn't a big fan. As such, the accounts could have just been character assassination.
"The Romans didn't have our idea of 'trans' as a category, but they used accusations of sexual behavior 'as a woman' as one of the worst insults against men," Cambridge classics professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill told the Telegraph.
In other words, calling a man a woman used to be an insult. Now it's brave.
I think I speak for all women when I say we don't want credit for this guy.
Follow Amber on X at @TheAmberHarding or email her at Amber.Harding@OutKick.com.