Talk:Princess Isabella Maria of Parma

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An entry from Princess Isabella Maria of Parma appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 8 August 2006.

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[edit] By modern standards...

...would it be fair, then, to consider Isabella Maria to have been a lesbian? DS 01:30, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, the very first sentence of lesbian uses the word "exclusively", so I would say that no, we couldn't count her a lesbian, since we have no evidence (or at least, there's none presented in the article) that she wasn't also attracted to men. We certainly have evidence, though, that she had sexual relations with men. Binabik80 02:33, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

As a matter of fact, this article presents somewhat of a skewed impression—it was not uncommon for women (and, at times, even men) to speak of familial love in such terms in those days—in modern English, the expressions used have a different connotation. Such language was often used to show religious love for God, as well. Take St. John of the Cross' poem "Dark Night of the Soul", which refers to his relationship with God as that of between "lover" and "beloved one." (Though he was Spanish, the idiomatic usage carries equally into the English of his day, and some time after) The Jade Knight 03:24, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

Quite. Is there any indication that this expression of love had any sexual element? -- ALoan (Talk) 10:00, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

None whatsoever, to my knowledge. The Jade Knight 18:17, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

A claim that Isabella Maria was lesbian or bisexual needs to be sourced. Pending that, I will remove the category from the article. Thuresson 10:36, 17 August 2006 (UTC)