Call us now:
If you’ve spent much time on Trans YouTube, there are a few names you’ll almost certainly recognize.
One of them is Jamie Raines, or Jammidodger.
He’s a UK trans man who comments on the trans experience, as well as doing lifestyle videos and other things along those lines. He’s a likeable guy who seems like his heart’s in the right place. I have nothing but good things to say about him, on a personal level.
He’s making content for trans people that feels hopeful, he’s raised money for Galop, a charity that helps LGBTQ2IA+ survivors of abuse, and hey, he’s a trans person who’s found a way to make it in this garbage world, especially in the UK. That makes him okay in my book.
I’ve been following him for a while now, and imagine my surprise when I saw he did a video on transgender history.
Then imagine how much more surprised I was to learn how terrible it is.
Jamie, if you’re watching, this isn’t personal, okay? This isn’t a YouTube drama channel, and it never will be. I’m not interested in starting pointless beef with people.
No, my problem is much deeper – it’s academic.
In case this is your first time joining us, whether you’re Jamie Raines or not, welcome. I’m Sophie Edwards, and this is We Have Always Existed. It’s a series that explores the wealth of transgender history in the ancient Mediterranean.
In particular, I’ve done videos on several of the topics Raines covers in his “Ancient Trans History” video. And after walking away from Raines’ video, I found myself pretty disappointed.
If you’re watching this, Jamie, I made this because transgender history means a lot to me, and it’s important for creators in the space to be accurate. If you’re going to create content in this space, I want you to do better.
And if you’re someone other than Jamie who’s watching this, I hope I can clear up some of the errors and flat-out misinformation.
Okay, so there are two primary gripes I have with this video.
It’s superficial, and it’s wrong.
What do I mean? Let’s take a look.
Superficiality
First off, Raines’ video was just shy of 24 minutes long. I’ve never made a proper essay-style video that reviewed a single topic on trans history that was that short. And yeah I know I tend to be pretty wordy, but it’s important to provide context in stuff like this. Because most people don’t study ancient history, so you’ll lose out on the wonder of these stories without that context.
Can you really understand the Gallae if you don’t understand the circumstances under which they came to Rome? Can you really understand the Enarees without knowing who the Scythians were?
And is it really helpful to list off a bunch of things like they’re items a catalog, without providing any further information?
Look, there’s simply no way to cover “ancient trans history” in a 24 minute video, especially if the first 7 or so minutes are devoted to ad reads and silly preamble, and the final 8 minutes are devoted to trans history that’s outside of the ancient era – more on that later.
Now, ad reads and silly preambles are fine. I have tons of silly preambles in my videos, and we live under capitalism so we all have to find ways to survive.
By the way, buy my books, hire me as your voice coach, like, comment, subscribe, Patreon, etc. link in the description.
But my channel’s focus is on transgender history in the ancient Mediterranean, whereas Jamie’s video covers world history. There’s nothing wrong with doing the latter, but at that point we REALLY need to make room for nuance.
Because, as I’ve said time and again, people of the global majority have, I’m sure, had enough of people who look like me, and you, Jamie, telling their histories for them.
Without the historical and cultural context of peoples around the world, how can you possibly tell an in-depth history of who they were? It just can’t work. You can’t do justice to a culture that isn’t your own without extensive research and context. I can provide that for the ancient Mediterranean, which is why my focus remains there. But Raines cannot, for the ancient Mediterranean or for anywhere else.
That’s clear in how many mistakes he makes along the way.
What do I mean? Let’s see.
Jammidodger Doesn’t Understand the Stone Age & Bronze Age
For example, Jamie says the Neolithic and Bronze Ages spanned from 17,000 to 7,000 BCE. I have no idea where he got 17,000 BCE from, but I can’t find that number anywhere. The consensus among surface-level sources seems to be that it began between 12,000 and 10,000 BCE at the earliest.
There’s evidence of small-scale agriculture before then, including a site along the Sea of Galilee in modern-day occupied Palestine, from around 21,000 BCE (Snir Et Al.), which is pretty cool, but that doesn’t count as the Neolithic Age because society hadn’t yet relied on agriculture primarily for their food.
So where did he get this number from?
The closest thing I can find, again from a surface-level exploration, is the Neolithic Age in China, which the National Museum of Asian Art says is from 7,000-1700 BCE.
Not 17,000. A zero makes a big difference, as it turns out. So maybe he misread it?
But also, the Bronze Age did NOT happen in 7,000 BCE. That’s also just wrong. A civilization enters the Bronze Age when they discover metallurgy and learn that copper is much stronger if you mix it with tin.
This happened at different times, depending on the area.
In Cyprus, for example, it began around 3300 BCE (Muhly and Kassianidou 119).
The earliest evidence of Bronze Age material in Egypt dates to around 3700 BCE, though it didn’t fully develop until later (Bader).
But the earliest evidence of Bronze Age activity worldwide that I’ve been able to find comes from a site in modern-day Iran, called Tepe Yahya, dating to 3800 BCE at the earliest (Lamberg-Karlovsky and Kohl 15). That’s pretty cool, but it’s also a FAR cry from 17,000-7,000 BCE.
Where did Jamie get this idea?
I don’t know.
He didn’t cite any of his sources, which is a really important thing in history.
Without sources, you’re just saying stuff.
Okay, so right after this, he claims there were figurines depicting a “third sex” in this era (8:44), and shows a graph.
It’s a graph of figures from the neolithic, not the bronze age.
The stone age and the bronze age aren’t the same. Haven’t you ever played Civilization, Jamie? Or Age of Empires?
*Sigh*, kids these days… No respect for the classics.
Had he done any actual research here, Raines would have discovered we actually have a wealth of bronze age figures that show gender ambiguity, from both the neolithic and the Bronze Age. I showed a bunch of them in my video on Venus Barbata, the Bearded Venus of Cyprus, but that’s of course just Cyprus. There are so many more.
But he didn’t show any images of these artifacts. Just said they existed, then moved on. Why? Why wouldn’t you show them?
Maybe because he just heard about them and didn’t actually see any evidence? I don’t know. He doesn’t provide any sources.
He does, however, show an image of a grave found near modern day Prague, which he says dates to 3000-2500 BCE, the actual bronze age. But then the screenshot he shows says it dates to 2800-2500 BCE. Which is it? And whose work is he showing on screen? Why won’t he cite his sources?
Now, this is not history. It’s archaeology. But I guess that’s more of a quibble than anything. I don’t want to be petty here.
Anyway, this grave is a pretty interesting topic, which I’m going to have to cover one of these days. It comes from the Corded Ware Culture, so called because they had a lot of corded wares. That is, there are decorations on a lot of their pots and other wares that look “corded” (Sklenar 120). See what I mean? I don’t think I would have called that “corded” but whatever, it doesn’t matter.
Anyway, he provides very little in regards to context for the Corded Ware Culture’s grave. He doesn’t even say the name Corded Ware Culture. So unless you’re like me, carefully combing through this video to see the brief screenshot that mentions the name, you won’t know where to go next. What would you do?
This is what I mean when I say Raines’ video is superficial.
There’s nothing wrong with a video that provides an introduction to transgender history.
I think that’s really cool. But a jumping off point has to give you somewhere to land.
Otherwise, what are we doing here?
There’s a lot to explore when it comes to the Corded Ware Culture and the Prague grave in particular.
Like, I’m resisting the urge to go deeper into the Corded Ware Culture in this video, because if I do I know I’ll have to go in depth into every other topic he covers as well and this video will end up being several hours long.
In fact, I wrote several paragraphs on the Corded Ware Culture already that I’m cutting from this video, and will put in a future video I do on this topic. History, archaeology, and mythology are all just so wonderful that it’s hard to resist. But when you provide little more than the length of a few skeet’s worth of information, you’re not going to catch much of that wonder.
But let’s say you’re really inspired by the Prague grave, so you start reading more about it. If you do, you’ll find there’s some scholarly controversy around whether or not it’s reasonable to read it as transgender.
Did you know that?
I didn’t, until I started doing cursory research on it myself.
Is that controversy because it’s legitimately questionable whether or not the resident of that grave is transgender, like Elagabalus? Or is it the typical hand-wringing around trans identities in the past we often see from cis archaeologists?
I don’t know, I haven’t done the research yet. I’ll find out eventually, when I do dig into this topic further.
When I do, I’ll let you know.
But if someone who’s less knowledgeable about transgender history and archaeology comes across Raines’ video, they might walk away disappointed by the pushback from the scholarly community.
This is irresponsible.
He also mentions that there are several other prehistoric graves which are also gender nonconforming based on their societies’ expectations (9:47).
Cool! Awesome! What graves are we talking about? Where are they located? How old are they? Of what societies were they a part? How have we come to the conclusion these graves are gender nonconforming?
He answers exactly none of these questions.
Okay, well… where’s his proof for these claims?
He doesn’t provide any of that either.
This just isn’t useful. In a political climate where we’re constantly under fire from hate mongering maniacs, it’s important that we provide nuance for our claims, which Raines does not.
I’ve shown one grave so far, the Enaree grave we explored at the beginning of last year, and we’ll be looking at more in the future, including, but not limited to, the Prague grave. Did he find the same graves I’ve found, or different ones? Again, I don’t know. He doesn’t tell us.
Alright, let’s move on.
Jammidodger Doesn’t Understand the Enarees
What’s his first example of transgender history (not archaeology)?
Scythian priests… in ancient Greece (10:40).
If you’ve watched previous videos on this channel before, you know he’s referring to the Scythian priestesses called the Enarees. They were a pretty cool and pretty clear example of historical trans feminine figures.
You also know the Scythians were NOT Greeks.
Damn it Jamie, you barely spent 30 seconds on the Enarees, one of the most exciting and fascinating topics I’ve ever come across, and you STILL managed to get it wrong here.
The Scythians were NOT Greeks. Our sources for them are Greek, but they’re NOT the same culture. There is no evidence of Enarees living in Classical Greece, at least as far as I’m aware. And Raines certainly doesn’t provide any evidence in his video.
Like, come on. I’ve done several videos on them so far, and I’ll be doing more in the future, because they’re SO WONDERFUL.
And I know he knows better than this. Raines holds a PhD in psychology, so I know he understands how research works. I know he could do better than this, but he doesn’t.
But he’s not a historian, even though he says his video is a history lesson, and calls himself Jamie, the history professor (0:40).
But he’s not teaching history here.
What he’s doing is presenting a bunch of surface level “research” that’s shallower than Wikipedia, getting a bunch of facts wrong, and not bothering to double check his work.
How would you feel, Jamie, if I presented myself as a psychology professor, only to present research that was full of mistakes, assumptions, and sometimes outright fabrications, without providing any evidence for the claims I made?
Alright, what’s next?
Jammidodger Doesn’t Understand Mythology
Well, mythology, which again is not history, but that’s fine. I talk about transgender mythology on my channel too. I’ve done videos on both of the mythological examples he provided – Teiresias and Hermaphroditus.
Great topics.
But while he talks about them, he doesn’t ever say “mythology”. He’s essentially, by omission, presenting Tieresias and Hermaphroditus as historical characters (11:12).
And they’re NOT.
So, how much fun would it be, Jamie, if I presented myself as a psychology professor, and then started talking about astrology as though it was a part of psychology? How would you feel about that?
He’s also wrong in saying that these characters are from “the Common Era timeline” (11:12).
Teiresias is written about in the Common Era, but they’re a far older character than that. Like, they appear in The Odyssey (Book XI), one of the oldest books in the world.
And yeah, the most thorough telling of the Hermaphroditus myth we have today comes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which was published in 8 CE. But we have Theophrastus who talked about Hermaphroditus in his Characters in the 4th century BCE.
So again, this is wrong.
He’s ALSO wrong in characterizing Teiresias and Hermaphroditus as only Greek characters. That’s their origin, for sure. But once the Romans conquered Greece, the two mythologies essentially merged. It’s more complicated than that obviously. But we have Roman sources, including Ovid, who wrote about both of them.
Anyway, let’s move on.
Jammidodger Doesn’t Understand the Gallae
Oh, the Gallae.
He calls them Galli (11:51). This is the masculine form of the word.
If Raines had done any real research on the topic, he’d have known there’s precedent in ancient literature for Gallus/Galli – the masculine form, and Galla/Gallae – the feminine form.
I’ve used the feminine form exclusively in my videos on this topic, because it’s pretty clear they were trans feminine.
But Raines doesn’t know anything about the Gallae, which is why he’s essentially misgendering them here.
And lest you think I’m exaggerating, right after, he refers to them as “males whose appearance and behaviours were more feminine” (11:55).
Bruh.
Raines is trans himself. He should know that no trans person wants to be referred to by their gender assigned at birth.
He then repeats the cis archaeology point that “some” Gallae were drawn to the cult of Kybele – not “sibill”, Kybele – because they wanted to escape the gender binary. But only “some” of them, right? Yeah, there must have been cisgender heterosexual men who were just SOOOOO devoted to the goddess that they cut off their junk and lived as women.
Like, if you interrogate this idea even slightly, you’ll realize just how ridiculous it is.
I talked about this in my first video on the Gallae like three years ago.
But Raines doesn’t know anything about the Gallae, which is why he simply accepts this absurd explanation at face value.
He also mischaracterizes Roman attitudes toward the Gallae (12:40). Rome was a deeply conservative society, and to say that the Gallae were “able to openly present, and even live, as women, regardless of their assigned sex” is not really accurate either.
He’s absolutely wrong here. I’d love for it to have been the case that Gallae could have lived openly as women, but Roman legal precedent tells us otherwise.
The Roman writer Valerius Maximus lived during the 1st century CE. He wrote a work called Memorable Doings and Sayings, which is sort of exactly what it sounds like. If you watched the video on Hypsikrates and Mithradates, this is the same source we drew on there. Go check that video out if you’d like to know more about Valerius Maximus – I gave him about as full a biography in that video as we’re currently able.
Anyway, in Book VII of this text, he talks about a Roman legal precedent that declared Gallae to be neither men nor women. That might sound kind of trans-affirming, especially if you’re nonbinary, but it’s not.
Because even though it legally recognizes a third gender, it does so for the purposes of cutting off a Galla, Genucius, from being eligible under Roman inheritance law, which was different depending on whether you were a man or a woman (VII.VII.VI-VII).
You could argue that the evidence we have of Gallae across the Roman world means legal precedent doesn’t mean much.
After all, there are all sorts of anti-trans laws popping up around the world these days, and we’re all still here, living and existing.
But that’s not an argument Raines makes.
He simply says they were, quote, “able to openly present, and even live, as women, regardless of their assigned sex.”
And that’s, at best, an oversimplification.
We’ll get more into that in a future video, the script for which I’m almost done writing as I write this.
Jammidodger (Probably) Doesn’t Understand the Hijra and Two-Spirit People
From here, Raines’ focus leaves the ancient Mediterranean. He talks about the Hijra of India, and on Two-Spirit North American Indigenous identities.
I won’t comment on the specifics of his characterizations, because it’s outside my area of expertise.
But based on what I’ve seen of his “research” on the ancient Mediterranean, I have serious doubts about the validity of the claims he makes there.
I’m also particularly wary about the idea of a British man writing deeply problematic and inaccurate histories of the cultural practices of Indigenous North Americans and Indians.
Like, if you know your history, which Raines doesn’t seem to, you know how fraught a territory that is.
Many of you have asked me to do videos on both the Hijra and Two-Spirit identities before, and I mean, they’re obviously deeply fascinating topics that I’d love to learn more about myself.
But I’m not the girl to tell those stories.
I’d love to tell them in concert with another historian who’s closer to the source material, but they need to be told with great care and respect.
Jammidodger Doesn’t Understand the Ancient Era
The last great historical sin I’ll talk about that Raines commits is when he begins talking about Eleanor Rykener.
in his “Ancient Trans History” video.
Words have meanings.
You can’t just say whatever you want.
“Ancient history” in the Mediterranean refers to a specific era. It’s from roughly 3000 BCE, when ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt began to coalesce, to 476 CE, the symbolic “fall of the Roman Empire” – A LOT more on that in a future video as well.
I have like 5 scripts that are either done or almost done right now.
After that comes the medieval era, or the post-classical era, because the ancient era is also called the Classical era. And while classicists and medievalists have a lot in common, we’re not the same. It’s DIFFERENT. Eleanor Rykener lived nearly a millennium after the end of the ancient era. That’s not just a nitpick; it’s a big difference.
So overall, Raines’ “Ancient Trans History” video spends only a couple of minutes talking about actual ancient history. Even if I’m being charitable and include the archaeology bits, he spends a lot of time talking about mythology, and about history outside the ancient era. And when he does talk about history, his research techniques are sloppy, superficial, and frequently wrong.
Overall, this video sucks.
Jammidodger, Please Do Better
Jamie, if you’re watching this, I know I’ve been pretty harsh here. And I know it’s not fun to receive criticism like this. But it’s important you understand what you’re doing here.
You and I do agree on one important thing. Transgender history deserves to be told. Our community deserves to know, and own, our own history. So in that sense, I appreciate what you’re doing here.
I also know you care about the trans community. That’s clear with the content you create. You’re honest, upbeat, and mostly positive and well-spoken. The trans community needs people like you, and I’m glad you’re out there.
But the next time you plan to make a video like this, do me a favour? Give me a shout first. Transgender history deserves to be explored with great care and respect, not with flippancy. The stories I’ve told on my channel fill me with awe and gratitude, and I know if you knew what I know you’d be just as touched.
I’m happy to work with you as a script consultant, researcher, editor, or even a direct collaborator.
But the way you did it here? This isn’t it dude.
Again, this isn’t personal. But I care a lot about transgender history, and I need to comment on misinformation.
Because I’m sorry, Jamie, but that’s what you’re doing. You’re spreading misinformation about transgender history.
And that I can’t abide.
But there’s no need for misinformation, because the topics we’ve talked about today are amazing in their own right.
The Gallae, the Enarees, Hermaphroditus, Teiresias, and so many more. I’ve done videos on each of these. Each tells us a story about actual people, or mythological characters, who stepped outside the gendered expectations of their societies.
They can remind us that regardless of how much nonsense the forces of hatred throw at us, they’ll never be able to erase us.
No matter how they’ve tried over the years, you and I, Jamie, are a testament to that. Regardless of the horrors our siblings have faced, and continue to face, throughout history, you and I are here today, and so are the people who follow your channel and mine.
People like us are nothing new, and we’re not going anywhere. Let’s tell these stories, but let’s do it with care.
We have always existed.
And so long as humanity continues to endure, so too shall we.
Ancient Sources
►Homer. “The Odyssey”. Translated by Richmond Lattimore. New York, HarperCollins, 1967.
►Theophrastus. “The Characters”. Translated by Charles E. Bennett and William A. Hammond. New York, Longmans, Green, and Co, 1902.
►Valerius Maximus. “Memorable Doings and Sayings, Volume II: Books 6-9”. Edited and translated by D. R. Shackleton Bailey. Loeb Classical Library 493. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000. Accessed 6 January 2026.
Modern Sources
►Bader, Bettina. “Egypt and the Mediterranean in the Bronze Age: The Archaeological Evidence”. The Oxford Handbook of Topics in Archaeology (online edn), Oxford Academic, 2 October 2014)., accessed 5 January 2026.
►Barker, Graeme. “The Agricultural Revolution in Prehistory: Why did Foragers become Farmers?” Toronto, Oxford University Press, 2006.
►Lamberg-Karlovsky, C. C, and Philip L. Kohl. “The Early Bronze Age of Iran as Seen from Tepe Yahya”. Expedition Magazine 13:3-4 (1971): 14-21. Accessed 4 January, 2026.
►Muhly, James D. and Vasiliki Kassianidou. “Parallels and diversities in the production, trade and use of copper and iron in Crete and Cyprus from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age”. Parallel Lives: Ancient Island Societies in Crete and Cyprus (2012): 119-140. London, British School of Athens Studies.
►Raines, Jamie. “Being Transgender: Effects of Behaviour, Arousal and Wellbeing”. PhD thesis, University of Essex, 2021.
►Sklenár̆, Karel. “Archaeology in Central Europe: The First 500 Years”. New York, Leicester University Press, 1983.
►Snir, Ainit, Et Al. “The origin of cultivation and proto-weeds, long before Neolithic farming”. PLoS One 10.7 (2015): e0131422. Accessed 4 January, 2026.
►Wang, Et Al. “Ancient human genome-wide data from a 3000-year interval in the Caucasus corresponds with eco-geographic regions”. Nature Communications. 10. 590 (2019). Accessed 4 January 2026.
