Heather Rose Jones's Blog, page 83
May 23, 2019
Book Review: Sword and Sonnet
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I really loved the concept of the Sword and Sonnet anthology (edited by Aidan Doyle, Rachael K. Jones, and E. Catherine Tobler--all of whose work I admire). Battle poets! An intriguing premise. I backed the kickstarter and regretted that I didn't have space in my schedule to try writing something to submit. So I'm honestly bewildered that the collection is falling flat for me. Maybe this just isn't the right time. I'm not in the right mood. I dunno. I read the first few stories and the skimmed through several more and they all felt...gray and flat and of a sameness. And dreary. I get that the collection is inevitably shaped by the political times in which we live. But I guess I was expecting battle poets to feel more like a trumpet call to arms, not like a dirge. Maybe there are stories later in the collection that would make me feel that way, but I'm not up for it at the moment.
(For a complete change of mood, I switched over to Stephanie Burgis's magical Regency YA, Kat, Incorrigible.)
Major category: ReviewsTags: Reviews: Books
May 21, 2019
Teaser Tuesday: Unexpected Detours
Floodtide

I was feeling smug this morning about getting on the road by my target time (before 6am). I'd have lots of time in the coffee shop in Berkeley to compose this blog and maybe get some other things done as well before going to the office. And then I saw the big flashing freeway sign "West Hwy 24 accident all lanes blocked." They don't go to that extreme for a minor fender bender, so I quickly reviewed potential alternate routes and took off into the hills, detouring through Moraga, up Canyon Road, and winding through the east bay redwoods.
It was a glorious drive. There was a double rainbow hanging over the hills and a slight drizzle--a "misty moisty morning," as the song says. Everything was green, the little streams were running, the winding road was overhung with ferns as it dodged among the redwoods. You forget that these experiences are there, just a few minutes off the track. I don't know whether I saved any time over sitting in the freeway parking lot while they cleared the wrecks (by the time I came out onto Hwy 24 again the other side of the tunnel, the traffic seemed to be unblocked) but I definitely saved some sanity.
You never know when an unexpected opportunity will present itself--sometimes in the form of a disaster. But you can set yourself in the way of it. In my case, by being familiar with the back roads through the east bay hills, in Roz's case, by deciding she needed to make a positive effort to interact with the other household staff at Tiporsel House and engage more in the economy of traded favors that made your place more secure.
* * *
The common room was one of the few rooms downstairs with lots of windows. It looked out over the upper edge of the garden and sunlight even made it into the kitchen where it opened off to one side. The year was turning toward spring and we were allowed to go into the garden as long as the family wasn’t using it. It was damp and gray now, but in summer I imagined taking my work out to the benches there. Not the bench by the dock right down at the edge of the river—everyone warned me that was the baroness’s and we weren’t to use it.
The garden sloped down from the back of the house to the river. You could enjoy watching the birds skim over the water and listening to the whistles and shouts of the rivermen. Sometimes one of the family would send word down to hail a riverman and then I could see them pass by in all their fine clothes to be handed into the boat and rowed off somewhere. Once Charsintek wanted me to bring a delivery back from the Nikuleplaiz and gave me a coin for a ride. But most times when a boat came to the dock, it was the kitchen delivery from the market out past the east gate. Every morning Cook or her assistant took a hired fiacre off to the market and sent the baskets back by the river. It was like a second set of roads. There’d be a sharp whistle up from the dock and Cook would send whoever was idling about down to fetch things up. Sometimes the riverman would help carry baskets too, just for the extra teneir, or to get the boat unloaded more quickly. That was how I met Liv.
It was a fine day and the door had been left open to the gardens, the easier to hear a halloo from the dock. I was keeping quiet because Cook was out of sorts and one of the kitchen maids was being scolded. Nothing to do with me, but best to lay low. We heard a sharp whistle from down by the water and then the yipping of a dog. Some of the rivermen kept a little dog trained to bark at doors if you didn’t hear the whistle. Lufise came out of the kitchen with a quick smile and wink to me as if to say, “There’s an excuse to get out of the kitchen for a few minutes.”
Just as she was coming back with the first basket—a wide awkward one that took both hands to carry—there was a crash and a shriek from the kitchen. It was easy enough to guess what had happened. The new girl that Cook had been scolding had dropped a bowl and spilled something all over the floor.. Lufise dropped the baskets in the doorway to go help clean up and threw me a pleading look. “Roz, could you go get the rest? I’ll make it up to you.”
It wasn’t my job, but it never hurt to be owed a favor so I folded my work away and walked down the path beside the garden wall, with the riverman’s little dog skipping around my feet. I must have stared a bit when I got to the water-steps. I’d never seen a girl in the boats before. She didn’t look much older than me. Her arms were all brown and thick with muscles—even more than I’d gotten wringing out laundry. I knew I’d been staring because she said, “Are you going to gape like a carp all day? I have other houses to do and I’m late already.”
* * *
Not the most auspicious meeting! And it's about to get worse. But when Roz determines to make friends with someone, she's quite clever in finding a way, even past her own mis-steps. All it takes is watching for the right opportunity and seizing it when it comes. Like I seized the opportunity to turn a traffic jam into a scenic drive. If you let go of your plans and preconceptions, you just might find adventure!
Major category: TeasersPublications: FloodtideTags: teasersFloodtide
May 20, 2019
Queer Jewish Texts Across the Ages
The Lesbian Historic Motif Project

I was excited to hear about this book because material on Jewish topics has been sadly lacking in my research materials. Alas, it's still sadly lacking. This collection is quite extensive in scope and nature but there is very little material of lesbian relevance, and what there is adds little new information. If you know someone who's interested in researching male homoerotic experiences in western Jewish history, I think it would be a valuable resource. I suspect that if a work of this type had focused specifically on queer female experiences, there might be more to dig up. I sometimes get the impression that imbalances of this sort in general works derives as much from the researchers taking an "equal effort" approach as opposed to an "equal coverage" approach. Finding historic information on women can take more work--especially for a researcher whose primary interests are male topics and doesn't have leads on female topics already at hand. The result can often reinforce the impression that the data isn't there to be found. I suspect that there is more material on queer Jewish women out there in the world, but it will probably only be found by those who are working on that specific topic.
Major category: LHMPTags: LHMP
LHMP #248 Sienna 2019 A Rainbow Thread
About LHMP
Full citation:
SIenna, Noam (ed). 2019. A Rainbow Thread: An Anthology of Queer Jewish Texts from the First Century to 1969. Print-O-Craft, Philadelphia. ISBN 978-0-9905155-6-2
As might be predicted from past experience with general survey works, the amount of material relating to female same-sex relations in this book is low. And like most surveys that cover all of history up to the present day (1969 counts as “the present day” for practical purposes), more than half the page count covers the 20th century. Out of 120 entries, I counted 14 that were in any way relevant to the LHMP (and that includes anything ambiguous between lesbians and trans men). Furthermore, except for the works of a couple of 19th century poets, those entries are written by men and view the topic with an unmistakably male gaze--including legal, religious, and medical texts that view female same-sex love as pathology.
Given that, even though this collection is obviously sympathetic to the queer experience, it’s hard for me to recommend it as a useful reference for someone working to write queer female characters into history. Here is a brief summary of what I consider to be the relevant contents.
1st to 15th century
Entry 1 - Sappho’s fragment 31 (“he is like a god to me”) was preserved in a Greco-Jewish treatise on literary esthetics. The author discuses the literary techniques that express the sublime.
Entries 2, 3, 5 - Various 1st-3rd century religious texts discussing general topics of transgression of gender and sexual roles.
Entry 9 - Midrash of the 3-5th centuries that expands on Leviticus 18:3 (“don’t do like the Egyptians and Canaanites do”) by discussing the specific cultural practices being forbidden, including same-sex marriage (by both men and women) and poly marriages of various types. [This has been interpreted by scholars such as Brooten as evidence that same-sex marriages existed in Egypt during that era. Otherwise why would Jews need to be warned away from them?]
Entry 11 - The only explicit mention of sex between women in the Talmud (Babylonia, 6-8th c) which occurs in the context of a scholarly dispute over whether women who have had sex with women are allowed to marry into the priestly caste. [The evident conclusion, as echoed in the next item, is that sex between women wasn't important enough to have consequences.]
Entry 27 - Law codes of Maimonides (Egypt, 12th c) call sex between women “a detestable act” but note that there is no legal or social penalty for it. Associates the practice with Egypt and refers to women “known for this” implying it may have been considered an something approximating orientation or preference.
Entry 33 - A male Jewish poet (Spain, 14th c) expresses desire for an Arab girl that he sees “in the company of other young women, all kissing one another.” He wishes he were a girl so she’d kiss him. [Although there are many entries about poetry expressing homoerotic desires between men, the lack of inclusion of female poets in this section--no doubt due to their works not being recorded and preserved--means there are no similar works expressing female desire]
16th to 19th century
Entry 40 - A 16th c Kabbalistic discussion of reincarnation of male souls into female bodies. The only consequences discussed are to fertility. Sexual desire and gender presentation are not mentioned in the excerpt.
Entry 43 - A Portuguese converso (convert to Christianity) doctor writes in 1603 of the “enlarged clitoris” theory of lesbian desire. [This is part of an extensive and pretty much interchangeable literature making this association. There doesn’t appear to be anything uniquely Jewish about his version.] He reports on women tried for lesbianism in Turkey and Portugal.
Entry 51 - A young Jewish woman in France, separated from her family, begins living as a man and as a Christian and eventually ends up emigrating to Quebec in 1738. A detailed account of their life history is given. In regards to concealing their Jewish origins they testify it was “to enjoy the same liberty as the Christians” but no reason is given for the decision to cross genders.
Entry 59 - A sexological “case study” (Germany 1875) of a Jewish maidservant who experienced depression and suicidal desires which were attributed to her unrequited desire for a woman.
Entry 61 - Two poems by Emma Lazarus (New York, 1876, 1880) with homoerotic themes.
Entry 63 - Several poems by Amy Levy (London 1889) that express same-sex desire, though in heavily coded terms. Levy had an unrequited passion for author Vernon Lee and dedicated several poems to her.
1900-1969
The second half of the book covers the 20th century. The rate of lesbian-relevant material is about the same, but a little more of it is from female authors.
Place: Jewish communitiesMisc tags: marriage between womengender disguise f>mlove poetrysex between womenEvent / person: Sappho
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May 19, 2019
Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 35c - Book Appreciation with Anna Clutterbuck-Cook (part 2)
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast

Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 35c - Book Appreciation with Anna Clutterbuck-Cook (part 2) - transcript pending
(Originally aired 2019/06/15 - listen here)
Show Notes
In the Book Appreciation segments, our featured authors (or your host) will talk about one or more favorite books with queer female characters in a historic setting. This time we had so much to talk about we split it into two episodes.
In this episode we talk about:
What is Anna looking for in f/f historical romances?
Rich backstories and complex social networks
The default assumption that women’s lives can only exist in relation to men, and how this affects even f/f fiction
What were the shapes of women’s lives in history and how could f/f stories fit into those spaces
The ways in which many popular m/f and m/m historical fiction tropes don’t fit f/f lives and relationships
Constructing a “ladder of intimacy” for female characters that feels true to women’s lives
How do historic definitions of “sex” affect how we imagine f/f sexuality in historical fiction?
Why is actual sex so often absent in f/f fan fiction?
Embedding sex scenes in the particularity of the characters’ lives and experience
The conflicting tensions in reader reactions around sex scenes--is it “romance novels without sex” or “non-romance novels with romantic elements”?
Embedding queer historic characters in a community of marginalized identities
K.J. Charles and Cat Sebastian as authors creating series of connected novels that build queer community over time
The misperception that queer “happily ever after” is unhistorical
Writing characters as part of an existing queer historical continuum--the example of Charlotte Cushman
Looking for stories with feminism and intersectional identities: non-white characters, disabled characters, non-privileged characters *
Promoting diversity as readers and identifying our own biases
Are women inherently uninteresting? The problem of “himpathy”.
Books mentioned
All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation by Rebecca Traister
”A Sweet Yuletide” by E.E. Ottoman
Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
Beauty and the Clockwork Beast by Nancy Campbell Allen (m/f)
Kiss of the Spindle by Nancy Campbell Allen (m/f)
The Soldier’s Scoundrel by Cat Sebastian (m/m but has secondary f/f couple)
RWA racism and homophobia letters controversy (blog by Ivy Quinn)
LHMPodcast on Charlotte Cushman
Sins of the Cities series by K.J. Charles (m/m)
Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan
Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny by Kate Manne
A transcript of this podcast is pending.
Links to Anna Clutterbuck-Cook Online
Website: The Feminist Librarian
Twitter: @feministlib
Archive of Our Own: elizajane
If you enjoy this podcast and others at The Lesbian Talk Show, please consider supporting the show through Patreon:
The Lesbian Talk Show Patreon
The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Major category: LHMPTags: LHMPpodcast
Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 35b - Book Appreciation with Anna Clutterbuck-Cook (part 1)
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast

Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 35b - Book Appreciation with Anna Clutterbuck-Cook (part 1) - transcript pending
(Originally aired 2019/06/09 - listen here)
Show Notes
In the Book Appreciation segments, our featured authors (or your host) will talk about one or more favorite books with queer female characters in a historic setting. This time we had so much to talk about we split it into two episodes.
In this episode we talk about:
How the pricing structure of lesbian romance can form a barrier to general readers entering the market
Decoding how to find books that hit your sweet spot when entering a new reading community
How the history of lesbian small presses shapes price and content expectations
Some comparisons between f/f and m/m book communities
How latent sexism in the romance market affects the acceptance of f/f stories
Popular m/m and m/f romance authors putting a toe in the waters of f/f romance--what does it mean for f/f-only authors?
How do we overcome barriers to cross-promotion between siloed reading communities, when recommendation networks don’t overlap
Lesbian publishing as a “walled garden”--the ups and downs of curated spaces
Dealing with cross-gender motifs in historical fiction
Complications of gender and sexuality in historic societies
How to identify with characters without owning them--resource scarcity and contested spaces
Three models for communicating queer content in books: the donut shop, the whisper network, and the detailed menu
Fan fiction and learning acceptance of multiple readings of a text
Gender dynamics in fan fiction and the distribution of f/f stories
Envisioning independent women in history--how the sexism of popular media lies to us about the lives of historic women
Fan fiction generations pre- and post-Xena
Books and Resources Mentioned
”That Could Be Enough” by Alyssa Cole
f/f fiction by K.J. Charles
f/f fiction by Jordan Hawke
The Ripped Bodice (bookstore)
Smart Bitches Trashy Books (website and podcast)
”Black Widow, Scarce Resources And High-Stakes Stories” by Linda Holmes (NPR essay)
”The Mazarinette and the Musketeer by Heather Rose Jones
Anna’s f/f fan fiction for Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs
Archive of Our Own
A transcript of this podcast is pending.
Links to Anna Clutterbuck-Cook Online
Website: The Feminist Librarian
Twitter: @feministlib
Archive of Our Own: elizajane
If you enjoy this podcast and others at The Lesbian Talk Show, please consider supporting the show through Patreon:
The Lesbian Talk Show Patreon
The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Major category: LHMPTags: LHMPpodcast
May 16, 2019
Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 34d - The True History of Catharina Vizzani (Reprise)
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast

Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 34d - The True History of Catharina Vizzani (Reprise)
(Originally aired 2019/05/25 - listen here)
Sometimes, the hours in the week just aren’t there to get a brand new podcast out and you pull out a show from a couple years ago to find new listeners. This reprise is in honor of the paper I gave a couple weeks ago on cross-dressing women--though I cut off my examples in the early 17th century, so Catharine Vizzani wasn’t part of the data. This show originally aired in January 2017.
* * *
When you think about lesbians in 18th century Rome, probably the last thing you expect is parental acceptance. And yet that’s one of the many interesting aspects of the life of Catharine Vizzani. Another interesting aspect is that we have a detailed record of her adventures, her loves, and her death at a tragically young age. Unlike many such stories, the tragedy wasn’t a direct consequence of her sexuality, but rather of her disregard for convention in pursuing it.
For the details of Catharine’s life, I’m going to be reading extensively from an English translation of her biography, complete with the translator’s editorial commentary. In fact, let’s introduce you to the overview of her life in his words.
[Note: All quotations from the original text are presented verbatim, with the original spelling and capitalization preserved.]
“ALL our Passions are known to break out into very extravagant Sallies, but Love seems of all to be the most exorbitant; so that no one read in the History of human Nature will wonder, that a bare Report should ever have kindled such an ardent Affection in some, as to send the Persons thus infatuated a wandering, from one Country to another, in Quest of the desired Object; or that others have preferred the Gratification of their Love to Duty and Decency, to Tranquillity and Reputation.”
(Just so you know, this is the usual literary style of the time, so settle back and enjoy the polysyllabic loquacity. We continue.)
“The Subject before me is an Instance, that the Wantonness of Fancy, and the Depravity of Nature, are at as great a Height as ever; and that our Times afford a Girl, who, so far from being inferior to Sappho, or any of the Lesbian Nymphs, in an Attachment for those of her own Sex, has greatly surpassed them in Fatigues, Dangers, and Distress, which terminated in a violent Death. This the following Narrative will manifest, which is a pregnant Example of the shocking Ebulition of human Passions, yet, at the same Time, of a most firm Constancy and Daringness in a young Creature, tho’ with a sad Alloy of Guilt and Precipitancy.
“Our unfortunate Adventurer’s Name was Catherine Vizzani. She was born at Rome, and of ordinary Parentage, her Father being a Carpenter. When she came to her fourteenth Year, the Age of Love in our forward Climate, she was reserved and shy towards young Men, but would be continually romping with her own Sex, and some she caressed with all the Eagerness and Transport of a Male Lover. But, above all, she was passionately enamoured with one Margaret, whose Company she used to court, under Pretence of learning Embroidery. And, not satisfied with these Interviews by Day, scarce a Night passed, but she appeared in Man’s Clothes, under her Charmer’s Window; though, in all Appearance, her Pleasure must be limited to viewing Margaret’s captivating Charms, and saying soft Things to her.
“This whimsical Amour went on very quietly for above two Years, but at last Catherine being surprized by Margaret’s Father, just when her Heart was overflowing with fervid Expressions of Love to his Daughter, he rattled her severely, and threatened that the Governor of the City should hear of her Pranks. Catherine was so frightened with Menaces of such a Nature, that she absconded, and went to Viterbo, in a Man’s Disguise, where she took upon herself the Name of Giovanni Bordoni.”
Let’s leave off our author’s long-winded explanations. Catharine, in the guise of Giovanni, finding herself at the end of her finances, took shelter in a church and gained the assistance of one of the church canons in finding employment as a manservant. Having become dissatisfied with her first position, wanted a letter of recommendation from her original benefactor. So she wrote to her mother back in Rome and asked to beg for the letter in the name of Giovanni. Which her mother did, without saying anything about the gender disguise.
This recommendation eventually bore fruit, gaining her a position as footman with the Vicar of Angiari. We’ll return to our 18th century author to tell something of her experiences in that position.
“Never was Gentleman better fitted with a Servant than the Vicar with Giovanni; for, besides Reading, making of Chocolate, and Cookery, she was very dextrous at Pen, Comb, and Razor; in a Word, she was a thorough Proficient in all the Branches of her Employment. The Governor, however, being an austere Man, who made no Allowance for the Impulses of Nature, or the Fervor of Youth, was used not to spare her for incessantly following the Wenches, and being so barefaced and insatiable in her Amours. She had Recourse to several delusive Impudicities, not only to establish the Certainty, but raise the Reputation of her Manhood.”
Now at this point we find a difference of approach between the original Italian author of the biography and the English translator, who is somewhat more prudish. because the translator notes that the original text, “enters into a nauseous Detail of her Impostures, which is the more inexcusable, they not being essential to the main Scope of the Narrative. These, if agreeable to the Italian Taste, would shock the Delicacy of our Nation.”
We can guess at what those “nauseous details” might cover in the later discussion of the instrument by which Catharine gave pleasure to her girlfriends. Let us merely say that Catharine gained quite a reputation with the ladies and provoked the jealousy of a rival who attacked her and wounded her in the neck. The Vicar, her employer, was not very happy with his employee’s behavior but, seeing that the wound was serious, sent off to fetch Giovanni’s (that is, Catharine’s) father. And here’s one place where the story gets even more fascinating. When Signor Vizzani arrived, the Vicar began:
“with the most serious Concern, to lay open to him the Particulars of his Son’s scandalous Dissoluteness, charging it upon the Want of timely Instruction and Chastisement, if not the Influence of a vicious Example. The Carpenter, who could hardly keep his Countenance during a Remonstrance delivered with a dictatorial Solemnity, calmly answered, that, to his and his dear Wife’s inexpressible Grief, their Son was a Prodigy of Nature, and that, in his very Childhood, they had observed some astonishing Motions of Lust, which had unhappily gathered Vehemence with the Growth of his Body; that, however, since such was the Case, and the Vigour of his Constitution was not to be repressed by Words or Blows, Nature must even take its Course; and, as for the vicious Example you are pleased to insinuate, I hope I am no worse than my Neighbours.”
The vicar felt this response showed a want of proper concern and began scolding the carpenter even more vigorously. And you have to think that Signor Vizzani is just about the explode with laughter at the Vicar’s mistake, because the story continues thus:
“The Father, perceiving the Canon to grow warm upon the Matter, put a Stop to his Expostulation, saying, with a Smile, “Reverence Sir, certainly you have few Equals in Christian Zeal, but I must undeceive you, and ask Pardon for not doing it before: This same Child of mine, whose Irregularities have made such a Noise, is no Male, but as truly, in all Respects, a Female, as the Woman who bore her.” He then proceeded to relate the Occasion of her leaving her Home, and rambling in a Man’s Habit. The good Canon was amazed at such frantic Doings, and courteously dismissed the Carpenter.”
One might think that this would be the end of Catharine’s employment with the Vicar, but once her wound was healed he found that rather than lose such a useful servant, he was willing to put up with her continuing lascivious behavior (and continued disguise) and kept her on for another three or four years.
I’ll skip over several other adventures and move on to when Catharine (still as Giovanni) took on a new position and was given responsibility for her employer’s house in a town called Librafratta. It was in that place that she went just a little too far. I’ll let our 18th century translator take up the tale again.
“Among other Charmers, he [that is, Catharine] had the Presumption to offer his Addresses to a very lovely young Gentlewoman, Niece to the Minister of the Village; and prosecuted them with such Ardour and Success, that they both grew passionately in Love with each other.
“The Uncle, knowing the Temptation of Beauty, and the Lubricity of Youth, kept a strict Guard over his Niece, till an advantageous Match, which was in Agitation, should be concluded; but Giovanni’s Person and Blandishments preponderated against all other Consideration; and, after eluding the Uncle’s Attention, in several Midnight Interviews, Giovanni, proposed to the young Lady to carry her off at an appointed Time, and that afterwards they should make for Rome; where, by Means of an honest Priest of his Acquaintance, their Passion should be confirmed and sanctified by the Offices of the Church:
“This Overture was not only agreed to, but applauded as the greatest Mark both of his Love and Virtue. To carry this Scheme into Execution, Giovanni had provided two Horses, on which they were to set out very early one Morning about the Middle of June, in the Year One Thousand, Seven Hundred, and Forty Three. The Evening before this important Expedition, Giovanni’s Mistress, her Discretion not being equal to her Beauty, took her younger Sister apart, and told her, that her Uncle’s rigid Humours had now worn out her Patience; that she had determined not to be mewed up at that Rate any longer; and that Giovanni, who would do any Thing for her, was to be her Deliverer, having provided two Horses against the Day of Day, on which they were to post away to Lucca, and from thence to Rome, where they were to be married.”
Letting the secret out to her sister was a big mistake, because the sister blackmailed the eloping couple into taking her along. Catharine agreed to go along with the scheme, but the problem was that they only had two horses, so the sisters rode while Catharine walked which slowed them down a bit. Still, they made it to Lucca and hired a carriage, but were further delayed by a minor carriage breakdown. Well, in the mean time the girls’ uncle had discovered their absence, figured out what had happened, and dispatched his chaplain and a couple of servants to chase after them with a promise of significant reward for bringing Giovanni (that is, Catharine) back for punishment.
The pursuers caught up with them a little ways past Lucca. And now we’ll return to our original text:
“The Chaplain, to make short Work of it, called out to the Servants to fire upon Giovanni, who, having perceived them at some Distance, had leaped down from behind the carriage. The Servants, pursuant to their Leader’s Command, presented their Pieces at Giovanni, who having a masculine Spirit, as well as masculine Desires, not at all daunted at such a threatening Sight, drew a Pistol which hung at her Belt, and presented it towards the Chaplain. This unexpected Resolution put them to a Stand, and both Sides continued watching each other’s Motions, whilst the poor Girls were shrieking, and wringing their Hands; ’till Giovanni, considering that her Sex would secure her from any very bad Consequence of this Affair, and that one Girl’s running away with two others might, in a Court of Justice, if it should go that Length, be slightly passed over as a Frolick, rather than severely animadverted upon as a Crime, thought it adviseable to surrender; and, turning contemptuously from the commanding Officer to the Servants, who were known to her, she delivered up her Pistol, telling them they were welcome to do their Office.
“The Chaplain, however, irritated at her Petulance, if Jealousy or Avarice were not rather the Motives to such an Inhumanity, after her Submission, stormed at one of the Servants, whose Name was Miniato, for not firing, and threatened him with an Oar in the Galleys, if he delayed a Moment; whereupon he let fly, aiming at Giovanni’s Thighs, upon a Supposition that a Wound in those Parts would be the least hurtful, and hit the poor Creature in the left Thigh, four Inches above the Knee; the same Shot killing a fine hound, and fracturing a Leg of a Boy of about twelve Years of Age, who happening to come by, had stopt, as it was very natural, to see what was the Matter.”
The two shooting victims were taken off to a nearby hospital. Catharine, fearing for her life, confessed her true identity to one of the nuns who attended her and requested that the matter be kept secret unless she died of the wound, in which case she wanted to be buried in women’s clothes. This request, alas, needed to be carried out a short time later. After her death, they found hidden under the pillow of her hospital bed a stuffed leather device that she had worn as part of her imposture and that had contributed to some degree to her success with the ladies.
The rest of the biography is not particularly edifying. On discovering her true sex, a post-mortem examination was made to determine whether any physiological abnormality had caused her desire for women. The author seems rather shocked and startled to find her body to be ordinarily and unremarkably female. During this era it was fairly common to blame lesbian desires on certain anatomical abnormalities. The observation of counter-examples such as Catharine Vizzani failed to undermine this theory.
So what are we to make of Catharine’s life? In the mid-18th century in Rome, a carpenter and his wife recognized that their daughter’s sexual orientation was toward women and they not only shrugged and accepted it, but continued to support her when she was in need. And though Catharine had most of her romantic adventures while posing as a man, at the very least her first girlfriend--and possibly others--knew that she was a woman and enjoyed the courtship. And the sex. It’s quite clear from the observations of others that Catharine was rather good in bed. And if she’d only had a bit more caution about eloping with the nieces of important people, who knows what sort of happily ever after she might have achieved?
Links
The full text of the 1755 English translations of Catherine Vizzani’s biography can be found here: http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/vizzani.htm
This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here: http://alpennia.com/lhmp/lhmp-event-person/true-history-and-adventures-catharine-vizzani-breve-storia-della-vita-di
Major category: LHMPTags: LHMP
May 15, 2019
Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 34c - Historic Lesbians on the Screen: What We Love
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast

Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 34c - Historic Lesbians on the Screen: What We Love - Transcript
(Originally aired 2019/05/18 - listen here)
Between last year’s movie The Favourite, the current HBO mini-series Gentleman Jack, and the recent sapphic take on Emily Dickinson, Wild Nights with Emily, we seem to be living in a golden age of historical lesbians on the screen. I plan to add more coverage of these movies and tv shows in this podcast--though I confess I won’t go so far as to subscribe to HBO solely for the sake of seeing Gentleman Jack at release.
To kick off this plan, I asked some of the folks on the Lesbian Talk Show facebook group to share their favorite shows. The responses covered quite a swathe of release dates and settings.
It’s not at all surprising that Sarah Waters came in for a lot of love. Brenda Murphy says, “Tipping the Velvet. And of course Fingersmith. Also, there is an adaptation of Fingersmith set in Korea during the Japanese occupation called The Handmaiden that I love.”
Tipping the Velvet is, of course, the picaresque tale of an oyster-seller’s daughter who falls for a cross-dressing stage performer in Victorian England. The 2002 British miniseries was followed three years later by another, darker Sarah Waters miniseries, Fingersmith. Also set in Victorian England, it follows two young women through layers of deception and fraud that turn your understanding of the plot inside out. The Japanese version, The Handmaiden, keeps the central plot but translates it to a different setting.
Our fearless leader Sheena comments, “The mini series adaptation of Fingersmith was simply gorgeous.” And goes on to say, “I loved the film version of The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister.”
This would be the 2010 movie about early 19th century lesbian Anne Lister which mostly focuses on an earlier part of her life than the new miniseries.
Alexis Jackson reccomends If These Walls Could Talk 2. Calling it, “My favorite lesbian movie ever!”
If These Walls Could Talk was something of a high-concept series, telling multiple independent short stories set in the same house. The second movie in the series focused on three lesbian stories, representing three generations of women, from the 1960s though 2000.
Elizabeth Andersen is overflowing with recommendations. “One our LGBT film festival will be showing next month is Vita and Virginia about Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf. I'm excited to see it. Orlando because Tilda Swinton was marvelous.”
These two go together well, of course, because the movie Orlando is based on Virginia Woolf’s novel, about an immortal, gender-shifting character born in the 16th century and watching the world go by for three centuries. Woolf’s brilliant and experimental writing was ahead of its time in the early 20th century. Her complex personal life included romantic relationships with several women, but the relationship with fellow author Vita Sackville-West was particularly inspiring for both women.
Sarah Hunczak recommends The Hours, which has another Virginia Woolf connection, being a study of how Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway affects three generations of women who connect with its themes. (And, I mean, Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Julianne Moore -- what other reason do you need to watch it?)
Margaret Snow recommends Miss Marks and Miss Woolley, but I can’t find a movie by that name and I think she must mean the book of that title. She notes it’s “A biography of former Smith College President and her partner. One wrote travelogues. They had a beautiful home on Lake Champlain that I got to tour once. Owned by a cousin's Aunt. Inspirational to see women living and succeeding on their own in the 1940's.”
The two met at Wellesley College in the 1890s when Woolley was a professor there. You’ve probably heard the term “Boston marriage” for women in life-long romantic partnerships in the later 19th and early 20th century, but the label “Wellesley marriage” was also popular, in reference to the number of female couples among the faculty of that woman’s college. Marks became a professor at Mount Holyoke College and Woolley became president of Mount Holyoke the same year. They were a couple for 55 years. Their story would definitely make a great movie, but I can’t find any mention of it having been done yet.
Massachusetts around the turn of the 20th century is also the setting of another movie recommended by Elizabeth Andersen. She notes, “Packed in a Trunk is a documentary, but so good. Edith Lake Wilkinson, born in 1868, was an artist who lived and painted in Provincetown, Massachusetts during the early decades of the 20th century until she was committed to an asylum for the mentally ill in 1924. Wilkinson's great-niece wrote and directed.”
Elizabeth finishes out her recommendations with, “Carol, Reaching for the Moon, and Albert Nobbs.”
Carol is the 2015 adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price of Salt, perhaps the first lesbian novel of the pulp era to dare to claim a happy ending. Reaching for the Moon appears to be more in the tragic vein, a Brazilian bio-pic about American poet Elizabeth Bishop and Brazilian architect Lota de Macedo Soares. Albert Nobbs was also limited to the art-house circuit back in 2012. Starring Glenn Close, it’s the story of a woman in late 19th century Ireland passing as a man to work as a butler in a hotel. Her imagination is opened to new possibilities when she encounters another passing woman and her wife.
Meredith Santiago recommends Aimee & Jaguar and notes, “I haven’t seen it yet, but Wild Nights With Emily looks interesting. I’d be curious to hear your take on that movie and on Emily Dickinson.”
That definitely sounds like a request to do another pair of shows like I did for Queen Anne and The Favourite! I can’t find clear information on how to find Wild Nights with Emily. Wikipedia claims it premiered in March 2018 but then says it was released just last month in April 2019. Movies.com knows nothing...but wait. The website for the movie says it’s playing right now at several art-house theaters in my area. Anyone in the San Francisco Bay Area want to get together for a movie? I mean, I’ll probably have gone ahead and seen it by the time this podcast airs, but I could see it again. Seriously -- find me on social media and let’s set something up.
Elizabeth Anderson comments, “Yes! I don't know why I spaced on that one. I've seen it twice, and it's one I recommend without reservation.” And she provides a link for an interview she did with the director last June for her show The Tenth Voice. I’ll put the link in the show notes. And speaking of show notes, I’ll include links to the IMDB entries for all these movies in the notes. So look forward to more movie content in the podcast -- probably coordinated with essays about the historic context. And if you’d like to be a guest and talk in depth about lesbian historic movies, drop me a note and let me know.
Movies
The Favourite (2018)
Gentleman Jack (2019)
Wild Nights with Emily (2018)
Tipping the Velvet (2002)
Fingersmith (2005)
The Handmaiden (2016)
The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister (2010)
If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000)
Vita and Virginia (2018)
Orlando (1992)
The Hours (2002)
Packed in a Trunk (2015)
Carol (2015)
Reaching for the Moon (2013)
Albert Nobbs (2012)
Aimee & Jaguar (1999)
Interview by Elizabeth Andersen with Madeleine Olnek about Wild Nights with Emily on The Tenth Voice
Major category: LHMPTags: LHMPpodcastreviews: movies
May 14, 2019
Kalamazoo Book Intake Part 2
Kalamazoo

I hadn't quite expected the to-be-shipped books to start arriving this quickly! There was a Fed Ex note on my door when I got home from the airport Monday evening and--having authorized doorstep delivery--the book was there after work Tuesday.
Mechain, Gwerful (edited and translated by Katie Gramich). 2018. The Works of Gwerful Mechain. Broadview Press, Peterborough. ISBN 978-1-55481-414-5
Gwerful Mechain is one of the few female Welsh poets of the medieval period to have left a substantial body of attributed work. The survival of her work is even more interesting as many of her poems voice earthy, erotic, unsentimentally feminist opinions that counter the prevalent misogyny in her contemporaries' poems. At the same time, she was clearly participating as an equal in a lively literary community, where poets addressed works to each other and teased each other in verse. This collection includes all the poems solidly attributed to her, several of uncertain authorship that are believed to be her work, and a selection of poems that provide context, being works that she was responding to or commenting on (or that were responding to her).
Major category: ConventionsTags: Kalamazoobook intake
Teaser Tuesday: It’s not a proper job unless you say charms
Floodtide

No teaser last week because it was a topsy turvy day: no morning coffee shop session because I took the train in to work so I could go straight to the airport (motel) from work to catch an early morning flight to Kalamazoo. Also because all my spare writing time was being spent polishing a 40-minute first draft of my paper down to a 20-minute presentation. As my regular readers may be aware, writing short is not one of my strong points! But now we're back to the weekly teasers!
In the Alpennia series so far, most of the focus has been on "high magic" -- on the formal mysteries, or on learned magics such as alchemy. I've made passing references to "market charms" and other everyday practices that have an ambiguous status: Not "approved" religious mysteries, but mostly sufficiently embedded in orthodox religious practice to be considered innocuous. (I rather liked how two of the papers in this Kalamazoo session addressed this aspect of how to "domesticate" suspect folk-magic practices.) In Daughter of Mystery, when Margerit is dealing with Barbara's head wound, she laments, “for the first time wished she knew all the little charms and rhymes that every dairymaid and scullery girl seemed to learn. Against burns, against the scab, against bleeding, against the wet cough, against the cramp. She’d always considered them little better than fortunetelling, but what good were grand cathedral mysteries when what you needed was to close the cut of a knife?”
Floodtide is all about those "little charms and rhymes," but that doesn't mean that the characters have a unified understanding of them. Roz has learned little bits of ritual that accompany her everyday work. Something along the line of "trade secrets" imparted by her Aunt Gaita along with the more practical skills of a laundress. Celeste aspires to be a charm-wife, someone with enough store of those little charms and rhymes to be considered a "go to" expert when you needed magical help. Even so, they have very different approaches to what magic means and how it works, as shown in this interaction early in Roz's apprenticeship. (It's also the interaction that sparks the beginning of their friendship, because nothing thaw's Celeste's standoffishness faster than a puzzle to poke at.)
* * *
When I started rubbing up the linen with salt and vinegar before setting it to soak, like I’d learned from Aunt Gaita, [Celeste] watched me close like she did sometimes when we were sewing together.
“What’s that for?” Celeste asked later when I’d soaped it up and hung it by the fire.
“You have to set the soap in with heat so it’ll rinse clean,” I said.
“No. What you’re singing.”
I stared at her for a moment. “Just washing charms.” It wasn’t singing really, but Aunt Gaita always put a bit of lilt in them that felt like music and made them easier to remember.
“No.” Celeste spoke carefully like I’d said something foolish. When she did that, it always felt like she was measuring you with the tape and didn’t like the result. “I mean, what’s it for. What does it do?”
Now she was the one being foolish. “It makes the washing take. You think my aunt would send me out to work without knowing all her secrets?” Everyone had little bits like that. Not real charms like the charmwives sell, but tricks of the trade. All the girls in service were greedy to learn each other’s house-charms. No one at Tiporsel House was friendly enough to share with me yet, so I’d kept Aunt Gaita’s to myself so far.
Celeste came closer and poked at the cloth. “Do they work?”
I shrugged. “It’s not a proper job unless you say charms.” I tried to think if I’d ever heard Mefro Dominique use house-charms. Maybe Celeste never had anyone to share them with her.
“Have you tried washing one thing using the charm and another without it?”
I laughed. “Why would I do that? That would be as silly as washing without soap!”
“So you don’t know.” She sounded disappointed.
It was like she didn’t believe in charms, but I knew that wasn’t so because she’d charmed my hurt leg that first day. “How did you know how to make my bruise go away?” I rubbed my hand over where it had been. I’d almost forgotten it.
Celeste bit her lip and stared at me measuring-like again.
Major category: PromotionPublications: Daughter of MysteryFloodtideTags: Floodtideteasers
May 12, 2019
Blogging Kalamazoo Session 540: Experiencing Textiles in Medieval Culture and German Literature
Kalamazoo

Blogging Kalamazoo Session 540: Experiencing Textiles in Medieval Culture and German Literature
Sunday 10:30
Sponsor: Society for Medieval Germanic Studies (SMGS)
Mit kunkeln und mit schaeren : Tools for Reading Textiles in Medieval German Texts
Hannah Hunter-Parker, Princeton Univ.
Medieval German romances include many details of textile objects, but the usual interpretation is of the objects as metaphors, rather than focusing on them as actual objects. The central content will be a German version of the Trojan chronicle. Although descriptions of textile objects may be extensive and detailed, the focus, both in the text and in literary scholarship rarely considers their materiality and construction. Textiles are treated as unimportant except for their symbolic meaning in the text. This overlap between “text” as textile in literary analysis is of long standing, but elides the textile as object. We now move on to a consideration of the Trojan Chronicle (early 14th c.). A verse translation of a French original, but expanded from the original. This paper looks at two specific additions in the German version. We get the episode of Achilles being hidden among the women, wearing women’s clothing, and performing women’s textile crafts. The man sent to find him lays out two sets of merchant wares: textile supplies (thread, scissors, etc.) and arms and armor. The second added passage is earlier, in the prologue, when the author compares the art of the poet to other crafts (including several textile crafts) as better because the poet uses only the tools of his mind. There is an implication that the physical crafts poetry is compared to are feminized in some way. We get a context of disputes in the German textile trades at the same era where specific elements of the craft were gendered and women were being elbowed out of some aspects of cloth production. Examples of legal conflicts between male merchants and the female piece-workers supplying them with specialized labor, but also of special privileges given to the textile industry, such as exception from military service. This feeds back to the tension between the tools of textile work and the tools of war, in the prologue, where the poet is jealous of the high monetary value assigned to textile work and objects. This tension may not be descriptive, but rather aspirational on the part of the poet. He wishes for his work to be seen as more valuable. And yet, the poetic descriptions of cloth and clothing, even in a symbolic context, had a life beyond the chronicle itself, being adapted into other mediums such as minnelieder, while the more polemical prologue was, in some versions, cut.
Weaving Words, Spinning Yarns, and Embroidering the Truth in Medieval German Literature
Kathryn Starkey, Stanford Univ.
German literature full of descriptions of fine textiles, both as setting and as objects of exchange between the characters. The physical and economic attributes of these textiles are elaborate and prominent. While often treated as symbolic background objects, understanding their place within the story requires an understanding of the historic material context. Cloth is uniquely able to create a setting of luxury and exclusivity. But they are also invoked for literary purposes. Various approaches to studying textiles in literature: in relation to clothing and the visual arts, as information for understanding surviving material objects, and as symbolism within the story itself. This paper looks specifically at the meaning of lengths of uncut cloth. Luxury fabrics may be kept as part of a royal treasury, a story of supplies for the production of clothing, but a means of story and exchanging wealth on its own. These opulent descriptions of the silks and furs in royal treasuries do not reflect the reality of German courts at the time of composition, but rather represent an ideal. The possession of lengths of costly uncut silk fabric is a mark of the resources of the possessor. These may be given as-is, as lengths of uncut fabric, as a gift as part of politically critical power exchanges. The bestowal of such a gift creates an obligation in the recipient, as well as establishing social hierarchies. (Gifts always go from higher to lower.) But in contrast to gifts of clothing and other functional objects, uncut cloth behaves more as a commodity and can be given in any direction in the hierarchy. Uncut cloth can be exchanged as a type of tribute, not as an establishment of a hierarchical relationship. In the story of Kudrun, a give of uncut silk is performed at a critical point in the narrative when the giver’s status has been challenged by a disaster and he must securing support and alliance. The refusal of such gifts creates conflict and anxiety, especially when misunderstood by the recipient who offers a return that’s inappropriate to the relationship between the two. (Entwined in this is the wooing/abduction of a woman as a potential part of the exchange.) For context: the Sachsenspiegel distinguishes textile objects and uncut cloth as possessions, especially as inheritance. A widow is entitled to manufactured textile objects, but uncut cloth goes to the male heir. Conclusion: review of the purposes of textiles and textile imagery in medieval German literature.
Who and What Do You Pin It On? Badges and Belonging in Late Medieval Europe
Ann Marie Rasmussen, Univ. of Waterloo
Paper looks at three portraits (comprising two sitters) and the place of badges within the images. These badges (signs, signa, etc.) were prevalent in medieval culture, worn by many parts of society, and intended to be seen and understood as claiming various types of social relationships. They participated in making identity visible, similarly to other genres of objects such as clothing and heraldry. Portrait: Henry IV, Duke of Mecklenburg, ca. 1507. Probably made to commemorate his marriage (with the bridge’s portrait now lost). The badge is a miniature halberd, suspended from a collar, visible at this neck above the shirt. The badge is only one of a number of signifiers within the portrait. The pendant badge bears heraldic meaning but is less fixed than a coat of arms. Generally these types of badges were voluntarily chosen to show alliance (though there also could be social politics around wearing them). While badges were often of cheap manufacture (e.g., pewter or lead), in this case it is of precious metal set with a jewel. Another sign is an embroidered “H + V” on the upper edge of his shirt. (This would be the initials of Henry and Ursula.) Initials are another popular type of metallic badge. His gown has appliqué of the same pole axe, as well as a “ragged staff” cut tree trunk motif. These are very large in scale. He is also wearing an elaborate hat, ornamented with metal beats and gold cord woven through slits in the hat, with the cord threaded through 9 rings of individual design, similar to the ring he wears on his hand. So what does all this symbolize as a whole, other than simple wealth? As abstract signs, some knowledge is necessary to decode them (knowledge that would be available to his contemporaries). Some are obvious (like the initials) but others are obscure (like the rings on the hat). Second portrait: Oswald von Wolkenstein (poet, 1432). Brocaded gown, ornamented collar-necklace with motifs of the jar and lilies, white sash ornamented with a set of badges: cross, dragon, jar with lilies, gryphon. These represent his membership in various chivalric orders: Order of the stole and jar, Order of the dragon. Goes back to the paper title: badges aren’t necessarily “pinned” on. They might be necklaces, embroidered, or part of other jewelry. Metallic badges might be pinned or sewn. Those from Britain and France usually had pins, while those from Germany and Scandinavia typically had eyelets for sewing to a base. (Examples of pilgrims badges shown sewn onto hats, for example.) Who wears these signifying devices? Not only the elites, but also ordinary pilgrims, etc. Always designed to be attached in a visible way. Textile signifiers were discussed by nobles in correspondence to coordinate signs of support for particular persons and groups. Third portrait: genealogical manuscript of Henry and his second wife, that includes armorial shields, banners, etc. Heraldic symbolism requires familiarity with the symbolic system. Discussion of the production context of the three portraits.
Respondent: Monica L. Wright, Univ. of Louisiana–Lafayette
An overall discussion of how these papers bring together the meaning and materiality of textiles within their texts.
Major category: ConventionsTags: Kalamazoo