Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash: Piracy, Sexuality, and Masculine Identity

An examination into the homoerotic and other transgressive aspects of the pirate's world

Despite, or perhaps because of, our lack of actual knowledge about pirates, an immense architecture of cultural mythology has arisen around them. Three hundred years of novels, plays, painting, and movies have etched into the popular imagination contradictory images of the pirate as both arch-criminal and anti-hero par excellence. How did the pirate-a real threat to mercantilism and trade in early-modern...