Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Episode 147 [PATREON EXCLUSIVE] -- Lesbian Nuns (Patreon)

Published:
2026-07-31 02:52:42
Imported:
2026-09

Downloads

Content

For this episode, Moira walks Adrian through hundreds of years of history in search of lesbian nuns -- and in search of the various meanings that were attached to the lesbian nun throughout the centuries in a patriarchal system. Walk-on cameos by the Derry Girls, nunsploitation films, Canadian immigration law and an angel named Splendatello!

Comments

Anna

Guys this is the best day of my life as a Butch Lesbian who considered becoming a nun before discovering lesbianism. From the bottom of my heart thank you.

Aaron

Haven't listened yet but I'm really hoping they cover Lauren Groff's Matrix. That book was so fucking cool and fun to read.

testosteronefemme

lets fucking gooooooooooo this shit was tailor-made for my cradle Catholic gay ass

Lauren Rothgeb

this is the exact content I joined patreon for thank you 🙏🙏🙏

SimoneDeBoudoir

Oh hell yeah this is my jam ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

Jamie Madden

WATCH DERRY GIRLS!! And also How to get to heaven from Belfast.

Chris Lutsko

I absolutely love the assumption by Moira that all listeners have had gay sex! 😅

Gwynedh Van Allan

Oh man there is a whole world of turn of the century nun porn too! And it's silly and dirty and wonderful. Lol

Emily Hardy

No Hildegard von Bingen? I demand reparations!

Yulia

Just so it's out of my head while I'm listening, two newish works about gay nuns I love and recommend are Xeecee's "Misericorde" and Jemma Topaz's "Lo, Nuns!"

Yulia

I screamed when I saw the subject, it's a favorite of mine.

Louzie

Moira, did you leave out De Sade's Juliette on purpose, for its blatand misogyny? (it was actually my first introduction to the idea of lesbian nuns, sweet 14, I was 😂)

Bea

Oh wow what a treat. I was waiting all episode for Moira to mention Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence and she did not disappoint! Moira, it's one of my favourite books too. I read it in my early 20s as a role model-starved young lesbian, and even though I'm neither Catholic nor American it changed my life. It's so uplifting, reading first person accounts of queer women discovering themselves, and picking themselves up after going through love and heartbreak and ostracism and having wonderful lives. There's something really special about that book.

lou

Now I want a In Bed with the Right x Strange Æons crossover

Teresa Ritterhoff

Thanks for the nerd shit, great start to the day! Made me think in new ways about a writer I am currently researching (Patricia Highsmith, curmudgeon extraordinaire)…

Charlotte

This is somewhat self-serving, but I love how you've been leaning into the queerness more and more as the podcast progresses. Fantastic episode once again. ♥️

Charley

While not exactly a direct lesbian nun character, but nun-adjacent, the late 60s British film The Killing of Sister George with Beryl Reid & Susannah York is a bit of a camp lesbian classic. Also, if you can access it in the US, The Great Pottery Throwdown is a pottery competition show in the vein of baking shows, and is hosted hilariously by the actress who played Sister Michael, Siobhán McSweeney.

Lu

Ladies, is it gay to have free time?

Charlotte

Reading this was part of the final stage of my queer awakening. :D

Lu

There is a documentary about two nuns that fell in love in a convent in Croatia. It's called Nun of your business. I think it's available to rent on vimeo for a small fee. Their story made the national news a few years ago. I found it very inteteresting. They talk about how they met, sexual violence in the convent, everyday life and exiting the church. One girl told her first step towards defying the church was buying a pair of chuck taylors when she was out of the convent to go voting. (Interestingly enough, the church does sway their clergy into voting for a certain political party) Anyways, the ex nuns are together now and live on an island. I recommend the movie.

Lu

Also, not about lesbian nuns, but an interesting book on confessing sexual sins in church. Two journalists recorded over 600 confessions in churches in italy and analysed the conversations about sex. From the type of sins (masturbation, sex before marriage, homosexuality etc.) to how the priests reacted and what kind of advice they gave. I am not sure it was translated in english, the original is called: Il sesso in confessionale by Norberto Valentini and Clara Di Meglio Apparently it was popular in yugoslavia, because i keep seeing its translation in used book stores in the area...

Bea

I laughed when Moira called it "straight nerd shit". This is the gayest nerd shit I've ever heard 🥰

MWD

me too

testosteronefemme

oh my god. they were roommates. and enemies. this is some fanfic shit jesus CHRIST.

testosteronefemme

i'm now at the swussy point of the podcast, hell yeah i love this shit

Andu Z

god I love this podcast

Eva Suarez

the theological history of sex/sexuality and embodiment is deeply fascinating. and to add some clarity to adrian’s early question about celibacy as a moving target: the catholic church did not mandate celibacy for the clergy (priests) until the 11th century (so post-“great schism” of catholicism and orthodoxy, pre-reformation). religious orders (monks and nuns) have their own rules of life that usually clearly mandate celibacy, and those predate the rule of celibacy for the clergy.

A Felt

Thank you for this delightfully nerdy deep dive! Moira’s concluding point about all nuns being analogous to lesbians in the popular imagination because they are women who are unavailable to men is SO good and pinpointed the source of my fascination with nuns as a non-Catholic.

miller

I was also coming here to say this!! fearsome indomitable lesbian nuns start an autonomous commune!!!

Lucie Grant

I think we need an explicitly lesbian convent tbh. Just bring it all above board

Colleen

As a queer cradle Catholic woman who went to a single sex Catholic high school taught by nuns, this episode felt made specifically for me. Those Patreon dollars are hard at work 😂 seriously though another fabulous episode!

Lu

Isn't celibacy also a way for the church to control clergy's assets? If the priest can't marry, there is no family that could inherit any property.

Joy

But is she wrong… 😂

Joy

God I love when you guys dive into Christianity and I love when Moira talks about lesbians. Huge win for me today

Ben Schwabe

Re: Wolf Cut Never heard that name. As a GenXer i feel it should be named after the Wilson sisters from Heart.

Rosie

My sister has a couple of friends who are nuns and married to each other. They are nuns because they started their own episcopalian order, of which they are the only members.

Z F

~8:00 - Isn't celibacy basically mandated for all unmarried Catholics? As someone who left the Church because I couldn't uphold (or make sense of) the prohibition against masturbation, the idea that there are clergy who see those rules as "aspirational" is breaking my brain

themme

BE STILL MY HEART??? haven’t listened yet the title alone has me quaking in my leatherdyke boots!!

themme

only like 5 mins in I AM LIVINGGGGGG thank u dear gender pondering friends 🥹 i frackin love this show 😤😤😤

Geneva Samuelson

Yessss I am waiting for the hot schism summer!

Foxhilt

It's covered, and glowingly! I loved it as well.

Foxhilt

In terms of entering the side wound, there's also an enchantingly weird passage in Julien of Norwich's visions, too!

Meep Matsushima

I am super curious why nunsploitation took off in Japan, a country where ~2% of the population is Christian (any denomination). Exoticism?

Laura

I think the Vatican II schism summer is relevant now, especially in light of SSPX being excommunicated. I would be interested in an episode about it!

Daniel

If you're caught up on the lore you'll know that it's also gay to love your wife, so really what they're assuming is that any cishetmale listeners they have are loving partners 😂😂

Daniel

You only mentioned Japan briefly, in that they independently developed some nunsploitation films, but this touches on my highly autistic special interests (Japan, "girls' love") so I thought I'd share. TL;DR: Japanese has no native word for lesbianism, but the *euphemism* is actually tied to the Catholic Church. "Yuri" (百合) is Japanese for "Lily", and has long been a euphemism for lesbianism, and also the name of a literary genre. What's interesting about yuri is that it's not simply "lesbian fiction, but Japanese" -- it's often described as a "uniquely Japanese" mode that can (at times) be hard to make sense of if one isn't aware of the history of lesbianism in Japan (which is fascinating to read about)! Many western fans bounce off it or write it off as "bad representation". It's been described by some scholars as "lesbian content without lesbian identity". The role of the Catholic Church and cloistered all-female environments is huge. Japan first began educating (rich, elite) girls in the Meiji era, in secluded boarding schools often run by the Catholic Church. In these schools, "particular friendships" (I love this phrase thanks for teaching it 🤣) were VERY common. So common that the phenomenon acquired a name: "Class S" (sister). There developed a tradition where the older girls would "court" their juniors with flowers and love letters, enter into a "sisterhood", wherein it was the job of the senior to instruct her junior in the performance of proper, elite femininity. This system was tolerated, perhaps even encouraged, as they were seen as practice marriages, and crucially, these relationships were *normative*, since they could be seen as merely another form that female friendships could be expected to take. Notably, these friendships were not seen as perverse or even sexual at all. Although I'm SURE that some of these girls were banging, there was no preoccupation with that concept. It was rather seen as something gentle, pure, and warm, much like the normative concept of elite femininity. Of course Japan was no lesbian paradise. These relationships were inherently temporary, and expected to end when the girls graduate and enter heterosexual society. This is why one of the Yuri genre's biggest themes is the impending end of one's youth, and why its characters struggle with the upcoming graduation as a threat to their very selves. Anyways, Yuri gets its name from these Catholic schools, since the Lily flower was associated with the Virgin Mary and was the sigil of many such schools. Words like "lesbian" and "identity" are English loan words with no native equivalents, but the euphemism is called what it is in part due to the influence of the Catholic Church. I think that's very interesting.

Will Robinson

bi man here who visited several pre-seminarian programs here: also enjoying this

Leena

loved this episode of under the tuscan nun

Enname

Medievalist here: for most of the middle ages women were seen as being uncontrollable sexual beasts. Rather the reverse of today, where men are those who can't control themselves. So any woman who could - i.e. nuns - are walking the fine line between very holy and truly damned. It is also why some of the first witchcraft trials were for nuns lead astray by the devil. Implicit in this is lesbianism, but it only becomes a risk when men are involved. There is other evidence for earlier medieval accounts of lesbianism. My friend wrote a doctoral thesis on 12th century monastic correspondence, identifying much of it as actually being from women to women - especially the Tergensee letters. Male monastic correspondence is renowned forr its erotic yearning, which of course historians frequently debate as to whether they are rhetorical learning techniques or actual love letters. But I think, either way there was definitely someone who truly meant the passion and not just a clever genre play. Similarly all of the guides for convents and beguinages - religious rules and commentary by confessors - emphasise men and women (both male and female houses) sleeping separated and fully dressed, even in summer. In the presumption that sex will happen.

Enname

Nothing before Boccaccio! None of the Beguins or Franciscan sisters either!

In Bed With the Right

In all seriousness, I think that LBGT cultures were a first historic glimpse into lives where the free time of childless adolescence could in principle continue into middle and old age. It's also why the old canard of queer people being bourgeois or elite comes from, I think: visible queerness is all about spending time that others would spend on reproductive heterosexuality.

In Bed With the Right

I got a text from our editor Mark out of the blue when he was mid-edit: "GET MOIRA TO WATCHING FREAKING DERRY GIRLS"

In Bed With the Right

Look, we do our market research! [taps earpiece] I'm now being told we do zero market research...

In Bed With the Right

WHAT??? Is everyone as sweet to each other as on Bake-Off, or does she bring Sister Michael energy to the proceedings?

In Bed With the Right

Late-period Highsmith is definitely someone I thought of when Moira talked about the various nuns! We need to do an episode on her sometime!

In Bed With the Right

Thank you so much! Yes, I knew I'd come across that somewhere, but I was very fuzzy about the timeline. And it also sounds like the reasons for the mandate shifted?

In Bed With the Right

Woah, that's fascinating! So the lesbian became sayable through this religious import!

In Bed With the Right

We're working on it! It's honestly been a matter of finding an interlocutor knowledgeable enough to walk us through it! If you know anyone, point us their way!

In Bed With the Right

There's a comment a little higher in the thread that I think suggests an answer!

Eva Suarez

@lu: yes! talking about any church decisions from before like, the 20th century is hard because there is “the theological explanation” which (some) people like to pretend is separate from any social/cultural explanations (of course it’s not), but any reasoning for church rules is basically always also bound up with political and economic power and government structures and all of that. so a lot of very interesting and corrupt interplay in the history of different nation-states and which popes had illegitimate (or legitimate!) kids, which powerful families placed their second born sons in which important church positions, and all of that. it’s also part of what splits the eastern and western churches in general.

Eva Suarez

yes! the reasons definitely shifted/were arguably never static in first centuries of the church. it’s honestly hard to talk about anything christianity-related without having to do a bunch of place-setting about like…all of western cultural/political history. so really overall a great episode in terms of pulling a coherent chunk out of all the everything. (i remain slightly salty about the catholic vs protestants take but one cannot have everything 🙆🏻‍♀️. thank you both for making this show in general, i have learned so much from it and have even quoted it in a sermon!)

Maud McInerney

If you ask me, Hildegard von Bingen totally had the hots for Richildis.

Tiaragram

Another banger!! I always end the episodes with notes of books, films, music to pursue and thus IBWTR enriches my life. Thank you💐✨

Daniel

Yes and no I think. Maybe something I wasn't clear enough about in my first comment is that "yuri" almost exclusively refers to a literary mode. Usually manga and anime, but there are also plenty of novels and light novels that fit the bill. The way to refer to lesbianism as an *identity* in Japanese is レズ (rezu) or レズビアン (rezubian), which you'll notice are English loan words. While there are native words that generally mean "identity", their meaning is closer to the identity in "identity theft". So in the context of gender and sexuality, the loanword アイデンティティ (aidentitii) is used. However what's interesting is that these terms only enter the vocabulary much later, around the time that concepts of queerness as an *identity* and something with *political implications* actually enters the culture. The fact that such... Pivotal terms are loanwords tells us a little about the "native" conceptions of sexuality and how they conflict with Western views. Japanese has an incredibly rich vocabulary to describe all sorts of friendships and relationships and companionship and comradery, but sexuality? Next to none. It seems like the term itself "yurizoku", "lily tribe", was only used to refer specifically to lesbianism much more recently. However, the term "Class S" was *very* common even in the late 1800s; girls' magazines at the time were even asking their readers to stop sending in letters about Class S because there was simply too much 😂 I was reminded of this as well when in the episode you mentioned that being a nun actually gave women a lot of freedom they otherwise missed out on: I read an article that posits the Class S system was one of the few ways young girls were able to exert some control over their choice in partner, in a society that favored arranged marriage and was violently misogynistic. It's fascinating stuff, and I'm very happy I was finally able to contribute something to this discourse. (I translate Yuri manga into English, so you could say this *very* particular niche is something I could talk about for hours, haha) Thank you for the thoughtful content as always. This episode in particular was such a treat!

Daniel

P.S. in case this has piqued Moira's interest, which I think is possible considering the overlap with her lesbian nun rabbit hole, I can't recommend this article enough. It talks in a *lot* more depth about the clash between how the Yuri genre depicts same-sex relationships, and the expectations of an audience that is coming from the Western discourse around queerness: https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/07/baited-a-tropical-fish-yearns-for-snow-and-the-anglophone-reception-of-japanese-yuri-romance-manga/

Becky Robison

Right up my alley. Also gotta give a shoutout to the 1977 Mexican horror film “Alucarda” for some atypical Nunsploitation. Still misogynist & etc, of course, but also a good, campy horror film.

Charley

A certain level of Sister Michael energy! Sassy & funny with the contestants :)

Moira Donegan

A weird and hopeful little gem that saved my life, as only weird and hopeful things ever have.

Jamie Madden

Irishness, gender, queerness, and the 90s....

Rosie

I guess, except it's just them. So it's like a marriage. Except they are also married? Idk, it's a very queer high church episcopalian crowd (lotta goths). Clearly I need to ask my sister for more details!

Aliya de Grazia

“MOSTly jesuits” immediately added to the catch phrase list

Ashley Frament

My great aunt was a nun straight out of HS through her 20’s and the 1960’s (she got a college education and left right as she started a masters degree) and consequently she had a lot of friends in the convent by us and we visited quite a few times a year. I definitely met the first identifiably lesbian couple in my life there!! (They worked in the office, think they had left the convent but still worked there.) I think about the freedom from convention being a nun would afford a young woman not interested in marriage back in the 1950’s all the time!! My aunt never married and had one long term but long distance heterosexual relationship, so we wonder about her actual sexuality. She had many many great long term friendships with other women. I had a college professor who had also been a young nun, then met her husband who was a monk. They left together, got married and had two kids! That generation of nuns really fascinates me.

Katherine Peterson

Solid agree, as long as Moira is honor bound to tell which beverage she spits across the room when she sees the Sister’s car. I still snort every time I think of that scene.

MARIA PRAMAGGIORE

Nonfiction lesbian nuns. contemporary lesbian nuns with major social impact—Rosemary Curb and Nancy Manahan, who appeared on Irish TV in the 1980s to discuss their book on lesbian nuns. https://www.upi.com/amp/Archives/1985/09/14/Lesbian-ex-nuns-cause-furor-in-Ireland/1194495518400/. At the time in Ireland sex between men was still criminalized under the Offenses of the Person Act of 1861 (that changed in 1993 thanks to the EU Court of Human Rights). Not the only catholic clergy to support the lgbtq community in Ireland.

Cecilia McNeel

There is Netflix mini series of The Decameron featuring that main story that heavily features the actress who plays Shoshanna from Girls. It was kind of fun.

ehollinger

I think Moira could also greatly appreciate portions of the International Congress of Medieval Studies (ICMS Kalamazoo). Lots of really amazing scholars of cloistered life & medieval queerness. I'm not affiliated with this panel but it is thematically aligned with this discussion: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2027/prelim.cgi/Session/8444

ehollinger

Could we get a part 2 crossover episode with Melissa Febros? Parts of this conversation remind me of "Episode 56: Abstinence & Horny Nuns with Melissa Febros" on The Feminist Present (03 June 2025).

Enname

I am sad I cannot get to Kalamazoo next year. So many good panels! And younger academics coming up doing really interesting work that doesn't just retread the same old paths.

Alex Thomasson Lee

This is EXACTLY the gay nerd shit I come to you guys for. Book rec very on subject: Mere by Danielle Gillies. Medieval lesbian nuns, cosmic happenings, women wielding power and scandals, illegitimate kids and wise women galore.

M. Caroline Herrera

I'm uncultured and immediately thought you meant The Decameron on Netflix which I loved, but hey, I learned something knew. Did anyone else watched that?

M. Caroline Herrera

Also, while there are a lot of straight shenanigans in The Netflix show, the sapphic storyline is probably the most genuine one.

Susan Olson

As someone raised in the Lutheran church, here's the pitch of protestantism as it was presented to me: 1. Why is the church taking so much of your money 2. Wouldn't it be cool if you could read and understand religious texts for yourself instead of just taking someone's word for it 3. You don't have to eternally torture yourself with guilt that you haven't done enough repentance/good works (unless you're Calvinist) 4. You can be a religious leader and have a spouse if you want. To be fair though, the synod of Lutheranism I grew up in was described as "off the deep end liberal" by a Catholic college friend, so there's stuff I miss out on. Calvinism is the one that has always baffled me, particularly as regards predestination and peoples' responses to it. Surely if you believed your actions had no bearing on your salvation, the logical response is hedonism? Side note: an episode on the Oneida community might be fun

Astraea

Off the deep end liberal Episcopalian here, and that's pretty much my understanding as well. I would also add (to point #2) "you shouldn't have to go through another human to talk to God, you can just hit him up yourself." Like you, I also do not understand Calvinism. Also like . . . if the point is freedom from the extensive strictures of the Catholic church, why are we now implementing new extensive strictures in Calvinism? I really only learned about it in school though, so if there are any practicing Calvinists in the comments, feel free to explain all the ways I'm wrong. :)

Astraea

I think celibacy is aspirational for everyone in Catholicism. The presence of confession as A Thing kind of assumes that you'll be fucking up some part(s) of your religious practice regularly, so you will need to confess about it regularly.

Astraea

"Catholic Drag" is a delightful term for Episcopalianism, and one that I as an Episcopalian will be stealing. FYI, our own internal description of it is usually stolen from Robin Williams' "Top 10 Reasons to be an Episcopalian." Number 3: "All of the pageantry – none of the guilt." Sometimes also described as "Catholic Light." 😀

Astraea

@Louzie Um. Uh... I want to say something clever but that piece of art really, REALLY speaks for itself....

Astraea

Well, and in the first centuries especially, it wasn't so much "the" church as it was innumerable little sects all claiming that theirs was the One True Interpretation of Christ's life and teachings. I don't want to be flippant, but really and truly, the "Follow the shoe!" "No, follow the gourd!!" sequence in Life of Brian pretty much nails it.

Astraea

Please, you guys have GOT to do an episode (or several) on Martin Luther! And in particular, how the Protestant Reformation affected the roles available to women in both the church and society at large. That dude has a LOT to answer for!! There's a good introduction on the "Stuff You Missed in History Class" podcast about three women who helped shape the Protestant Reformation (episode title is "3 Reformation Women," ran originally in 2017 and then again in Nov. 2024). I also cannot recommend enough the book "The Making of Biblical Womanhood" by Beth Allison Barr, which starts with contemporary conservative Christian understandings of complementarianism and then goes back to the early church up through the medieval (European) church. It examines the various roles women held in religion and society, or wats they held power and religious authority, that were NOT, in fact, the traditional gender roles we've made up today. So yeah, "we think the distant past was the same as the recent past and therefore the past is better," basically. Third verse same as the first, etc.

Maggie

Bridget Coll is my new favorite person thank you so much for bringing her to my attention

Tim Olson

At the very least reach out to Matt Sitman for anything catholic related, I can tell he knows a lot.

Tim Olson

Medieval Queer autistic icon!

Melanie Mayne

At the 44:15 mark and my partner goes, “Under the Tuscan Nun.” 🤭

Megan

Damn, that is an insight. The refusal, even on the left, to recognize domestic labor as labor, with all the hierarchies and expropriations that entails, obscures this. Federici vindicated again.

Erin

I can't believe this hit on two of my formative gay experiences - 12 years of openly homophobic Catholic school with a lesbian nun principal at the helm, and getting in trouble for my "particular friendship" at all-girls summer camp where relationships where prohibited ☠️

Mo’

A great episode, but I gotta say this cuz it’s been rattling around my head for weeks - categorizing “The Devils” as nunsploitation is an insane read on that movie. I also believe that dismissing it as merely misogynistic is gonna lead you to miss a lot of what’s really artistically interesting about that movie.

Grashford

Longtime listener, first time commenter. Loved the fck out of this one, and was delighted to hear the shoutout for Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence. It must have had a slightly wider distribution than I originally thought — I have a paperback with considerably less jaunty cover art. I was waiting for you to mention one of my favorite pieces of lesbian nun content, the 1966 Hayley Mills film Trouble with Angels, wherein a pair of catholic school girls wreak havoc on the abbey. It is not explicitly gay, of course, but even as a young person I could tell there was something particularly intense about the female friendship. Turns out the movie was based on a memoir by noted by noted lesbian Jane Trahey who may or may not have run off with at least one nun later in life. Anyway, if you are interested in a lil mid century treat…

isa

Late to the episode, but I’m in Canada and some lesbians I know just got married precisely to take advantage of the immigration benefits. Thanks Bridget!

Sarah

I feel personally called out by this episode because uh well I may or may not have written about lesbian nuns as a teen. Allegedly. (And my friend and I have a long running joke about joining a convent and how we’d probably just end up getting crushes on our fellow sisters there) Oh and also I laughed out loud at Moira saying “Catholicism just seems kinky” lmao

Sarah

fellas is it gay to be a priest

Eleanor Howell

I could listen to like 5 more hours of this 😂 loved it!