The non-chronological way in which I read and blog about existing scholarship means that I'm often reading articles from a context that includes theories and analysis that was not available to the author at the time. It is, perhaps, not entirely fair of me to rail at an article, "But how can you conclude this when a decade later So-and-so will write a clear refutation of your claim!" For some topics, the entire context in which the subject is discussed has changed so drastically that the value of an earlier analysis is badly obscured by what are now considered invalid ways of approaching it.
I'm dealing with that problem at the moment as I read Garber's Vested Interests (on the general topic of cross-dressing and transvestism). The current conversation about gendered clothing and the contexts and meanings for wearing clothing that contrasts with one's assigned gender is very different from the conversations on that topic in 1992. Different enough that I'm not sure the book has any value today except as a snapshot of cultural attitudes at the time it was written (as opposed to its potential value as a historical study of the topic).
So keep that in mind as I splutter my interjected comments and objections in the summary below. Hallett is an excellent scholar, and her article on female homoeroticism in classical Roman literature is great. But today's article doesn't feel like it stands the test of time when set alongside other authors on the difficult question of the historic Sappho's sexuality.
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