[edwinland]

An increasing number of woke teachers are refusing to study the Bard — accusing his classic works of promoting “misogyny, racism, homophobia, classism, anti-Semitism, and misogynoir.”

OK. But homophobia? Is that just an automatic part of the litany, or did Shakespeare actually address the issue??

[Labyrinthos]

I always that assumed Shakespeare was gay.

[Buttons12]

There were some moments in comedies of error but “addressing the issue” as we understand it today would have landed him in the pokey.
Actors then as now were often narcissists with arrested development. Flaming, as best they could without risking a hanging.

[ponygirl]

Effeminate males were consistent sources of hilarity to the Elizabethan crowd, much like it has been throughout history until very recently. Think the comedy of Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, In Living Color ("two snaps and a swirl!"), etc. Some scholars think that Mercutio harbored a guy crush on Romeo. This was one of the reasons I thought Baz Luhrmann's version of "Romeo & Juliet" was so brilliant—when Mercutio enters the masquerade ball, he's dressed in drag. To the Elizabethans, this would not have been openly discussed, but would have been acknowledged with a wink and a nod. So there is a lot of oppositional opinion to this so-called professor's theories. Mercutio was one of the most extraordinary characters ever created in literature.