Helen King
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helenking.bsky.social
Helen King
@helenking.bsky.social

Sort of retired (not), Professor Emerita, The Open University. Classics, history of medicine/the body/gynaecology. Writer, blogger, C of E lay preacher, chair of Together on General Synod (formerly Gender & Sexuality Group). She/her. Likes flowers. .. more

Helen King is a British classical scholar and advocate for the medical humanities. She is Professor Emerita of Classical Studies at the Open University. She was previously Professor of the History of Classical Medicine and Head of the Department of Classics at the University of Reading. .. more

History 52%
Philosophy 21%
Pinned
If you fancy reading something about the history of women’s bodies, and about what has been taken as defining a ‘proper woman’ (and how dodgy that is)… a reminder that my book came out in paperback last month! Immaculate Forms, Profile Books profilebooks.com/work/immacul...
Immaculate Forms - Profile Books
profilebooks.com

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

The Kings are nearly there…

Just remind me, at what point do hostile actions become ‘war’? Because I am hopelessly steeped in ancient history and haven’t kept up with the current rules

He’s another superb human being

And from my blog on history, yet again the winning piece was mistakinghistories.uk/2017/08/08/c... - now at nearly 100k reads since I wrote it
Cleopatra and the vibrator powered by bees
One of the most far-fetched myths about ancient sexuality, repeated online but also in print, is that Cleopatra invented the vibrator. Some sites date this event to ‘circa 54 BC’ while others go fo…
mistakinghistories.uk

On Via Media News, the most-read article of 2025 was - by a huge margin - the Dean of Canterbury Cathedral’s searingly personal piece viamedia.news/2025/10/22/w...
Winded After the Death of LLF - ViaMedia.News
by the Very Revd David Monteith, Dean of Canterbury Much metaphorical ink has already been spilt on the announcement from the House of Bishops of the death of Living in Love and Faith (LLF). These ref...
viamedia.news

Some context for current C of E debates on sexuality: Neil Patterson writes “30 years have seen a sea-change in attitude that is much wider than the over-publicised divisions about homosexuality’ viamedia.news/2026/01/01/a...
A Tale of Two Reports - ViaMedia.News
by Revd Canon Neil Patterson, Vice-Dean of Bristol Cathedral and Chair of Together for the Church of England A little while ago I heard for the first time of the 1995 Board for Social Responsibility r...
viamedia.news

E.g. “are you saying that you believe it’s fine to mention murder when you are talking about two people in a committed loving relationship?”

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

My most-read blog post of 2025, at least on my personal Church of England blog, turns out to read very well as a warm-up for my most recent one: shared-conversations.com/2025/06/07/a...
Another one bites the dust: resignation, LLF … and murder?
updated (bits in bold) 15 June 2025 Friday 6 June was ‘interesting’, in the ‘may you live in interesting times’ sense. I wasn’t at home but my phone kept registering messages. The first was drawing…
shared-conversations.com

Those calls in the CofE for a ‘third province’ - we’ve been there before and it went nowhere. Which hasn’t stopped conservatives even giving it a name … shared-conversations.com/2025/12/29/t...
The Third Province: Welcome to Mercia
Mercia? I wonder how many of those who read this blog realise that the ‘third province’ which some conservative evangelicals are promoting already has a name, even though it doesn’t exist? These co…
shared-conversations.com

Thanks Neville!

So bitty, so not what tennis is about… can’t see how this would make anyone think tennis is interesting

And I wrote that before Sabalenka called a time out so she could do a little dance…

Well, the tennis Battle of the Sexes is a waste of a Sunday afternoon

It’s nearly 2026, when the Church of England elects General Synod again. And a lot hangs on this. viamedia.news/2025/12/28/t...
The Archbishop and the Ballot Box: Why 2026 Will Be a Critical Year for the Church of England - ViaMedia.News
by Nic Tall, National Co-ordinator of Together for the Church of England When future church historians look back at 2026 and judge what most shaped the direction of the Church of England in that year,...
viamedia.news

It’s normal. It’s also normal then to delete the whole flipping paragraph!

Apart from the annual experience as altar server of having my chair nearly in this crib with the scary stare-y doll looking at me, lovely!

Well thank you and I am delighted to hear that you enjoyed it!

Echoing that!

That’s a lovely thing to say - thank you!

I go a bit funny if I haven’t written any Words for a while so I get this

I’m just going upstairs for a bit… theretiringacademic.com/2016/12/27/c...
Christmas for academics
I may just be going upstairs for a few minutes…
theretiringacademic.com

Reposted by Helen King

Will an anthropologist be able to identify your sex and gender from your bones 100 years from now? I sure hope so!

Read my essay on the limited and limiting methods we currently have for sex estimation to learn where the science has room to improve.

www.prosocial.world/posts/an-ant...
An Anthropologist’s Perspective on Sex and Gender in the Skeleton
Anthropological methods show that skeletal sex is an estimate, not a certainty, revealing the limits of binary claims about human identity.
www.prosocial.world

I completely agree. But sending that pre-Oct paperwork only a few days before the meeting sounds to me like a deliberate move.

www.churchofengland.org/media/press-... no decision today; delayed til the January meeting. Overall, I think that is reasonable as the bishops were given very little time in Oct to read the masses of paperwork and no doubt there was even more this time
House of Bishops continues work finalising Living in Love and Faith decisions | The Church of England
At a meeting at Lambeth Palace, the bishops have agreed to spend more time finalising proposals on the LLF process.
www.churchofengland.org

Agree! But some commitment to doing the due process thing is what’s lacking so far

At the moment it looks like they are keeping their backsides out of everything and leaving it to clergy to take the flak

Another dean speaks out: meanwhile the Alliance states that it may revive its plans for a formal Day of Action if its demands are not met. Pray for our bishops, meeting tomorrow www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/202...
Temperature rises ahead of Bishops’ formal vote to put the brakes on same-sex marriage
‘I believe God has called me to faithful, permanent, stability of life with another woman’ says Dean of Bristol
www.churchtimes.co.uk

Mandy Ford, Dean of Bristol Cathedral, speaks out! “Where, among our bishops, are those with the courage to act from love, who are willing to risk the breaking in of the Kingdom?“ togethercofe.org.uk/dean-of-bris...
Dean of Bristol sends message to the Bishops – Together for the Church of England
togethercofe.org.uk

Reposted by Helen King

Just one final thing - someone filmed some of my departure speech after Monkey Cage last night (I should make it clear no one knew I was going to do it) and it has been put up here - i cannot deny i was very emotional #science #comedy

www.chortle.co.uk/news/2025/12...
Robin Ince forced to quit Radio 4 over pro-trans views : News 2025 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide
Robin Ince forced to quit Radio 4 over pro-trans views - Comic leaves Infinite Monkey Cage after pressure from bosses
www.chortle.co.uk