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Disorderly and Wearing Man's Apparel

Monday, January 21, 2019 - 07:00

The Lesbian Historic Motif Project

What was the social purpose of the motif of women wearing men's clothing in early modern England? What did the cross-dressed woman mean to men and what did she mean for women? How was the reception different for cross-dressed women in literary or theatrical contexts as opposed to ordinary women in real life? Lucas's article looks at the association between female cross-dressing, disorderly conduct in general, sexual misconduct, and anxiety about the disruption of all social categories, not just gender categories. She also looks at how pop culture cross-dressing figures were co-opted in support of traditional norms of chastity and marriage.

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LHMP #231 Lucas 1988 ’Hic Mulier’: The Female Transvestite in Early Modern England





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Full citation: 

Lucas, R. Valerie. 1988. “’Hic Mulier’: The Female Transvestite in Early Modern England” in Journal of the History of Sexuality 12:1 pp.65-84

This article looks at the fascination with cross-dressing women in popular culture in 16-17th century England. “Cross-dressing” in this context doesn’t necessarily mean serious gender disguise, but includes ritualized cross-dressing in the contexts of celebrations, as well as partial cross-dressing where the use of specific male-coded garments was viewed as transgressive.

Among the literary figures cited are Mary Frith, Long Meg of Westminster, and Frederick of Jennen, whose celebrated (although mostly fictionalized) adventures are co-opted to defend women’s chastity and promote traditional concepts of marriage.

Festival cross-dressing is more familiar from traditions in which men take on female roles, as with Maid Marian in Robin Hood plays. But an example is cited of a Welsh tradition, given in an early 19th century book on folk customs around marriage and courtship, where a bride would be concealed in men’s clothing on the eve of the wedding and there would be a ritual “search” by the groom’s friends to discover her before they all settled down to party. Also mentioned are Christmas mumming and various gender role reversals that were part of carnival celebrations.

Outside of festival license, women’s cross-dressing was often treated as part of a pattern of “ungovernable” behavior, indicating insufficient control by husbands or fathers. Even when done in jest, this might be addressed in criminal court, as for Susan Bastwick who, in 1578, came to her father “in a merriment...on horseback in a cloak disguised and demanded of him if he had any good ale.” Or a female servant in 1585 who “did wear man’s apparel disorderly in her master’s house.”

Wearing male garments was associated with sexual misconduct, as when a woman was accused of unchastity with a man not her husband in 1592 and part of the testimony was that she wore “young men’s garters” and challenged an unspecified person to try to take them from her. Another married woman in 1585 “put on man’s apparel and went forth from one house to another...with other naughtiness of words.”

These are specific anecdotes that provide context for polemical tracts and satires that condemned female transvestites, asserting that by wearing male clothes, such women wanted to transform themselves into men. John Calvin took up the argument that God had ordained gender-specific clothing, and Philip Stubbes, in The Anatomie of Abuses (1583) argues that an essential function of clothing was as “a sign distinctive to discern betwixt” the two sexes. Preacher John Williams in 1619 sermonized against women who distracted men in church by wearing such masculine accessories as points (ties that attached one piece of clothing to another), feathered hats, daggers, and having short hair. Some unspecified set of such attributes, described only as “man’s apparel” was worn in church by Joan Towler in 1596, resulting in charges.

One underlying theme in the objections has to do with transgressing categories, “none being content with their own estates and conditions,” and was also leveled against men wearing “effeminate” garments. It was not the specific garments themselves, but they way they contradicted category membership. A feathered hat becomes “ruffianly” and “wanton” only if worn by a woman in Hic Mulier (1620). Nor was it necessarily the wearing of breeches (and exposing the shape of the legs) that was being criticized as such women might be described as wearing a male doublet or male accessories in combination with a skirt.

The association of cross-dressing with loose sexual morals was taken up as a signifier in the theater, where characters depicting prostitutes are often put in situations where male disguise is called for.

A regular theme is that women who wear male garments want to change themselves into men, though reading through the accusation, we see an anxiety by the (invariably male) writers that women bold enough to cross-dress will claim authority over their own lives (as with a character who cross-dresses in order to run away with her male lover) and further will tyrannize over men. Cross-dressing characters on the stage were depicted as man-beaters and brawlers.

To the modern eye, the distinction between approved feminine garments and prohibited masculine ones may be difficult to understand. As an example, many tracts specifically mention the doublet as an inherently male garment: “manlike doubltes”, “the loose, lascivious open embracement of a French doublet, being all unbuttoned to entice”. But the doublet is, to all intents and purposes, simply a sleeved jacket, buttoned up the front, and with a higher neckline than most feminine bodices boasted. The offence was not in the objective nature of the garment, but its assigned gender.

Gender disguise to defend chastity is a regular literary motif, appearing in several early medieval stories of transvestite saints. It still appears in the early modern period, as in the 1560 tale of Frederick of Jennen where a woman falsely accused of infidelity disguises herself as a man in order to investigate and prove her virtue. (This motif appears in a number of earlier stories as well--I think there's a version in the Decameron?) Heroines of this group are admirable as the purpose of the cross-dressing is to restore honor within marriage.

This type of cross-dressing figure may also be portrayed as admirable if she acts to protect other women’s honor and chastity, as in the case of the carnival figures of Long Meg of Westminster, or one of the theatrical incarnations of Moll Cutpurse. These women represent the feared anti-male tyrant but with her aggressiveness soften by the purpose she puts it to. Men are still beaten and humiliated, but only those who deserve it for doing wrong to women.

Even within these motifs, a strain of misogyny asserts itself. Acceptable femininity is defined in terms of a lack of masculine virtues, and the transvestite warrior women too often punish their male victims by forcing them to take on feminized roles or tasks.

The play Love’s Cure, or, The Martial Maid (by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, 1606) demonstrates this view with a pair of siblings each raised as the opposite gender. There is some exploration of whether gender performance is inherent or socially conditioned and initially the second position seems to be supported, until each falls in love with a member of the opposite sex and then instantly embraces traditional gender performance.

The article concludes that female transvestism in early modern England was socially significant because it challenged existing sexual hierarchies--an act that might be permitted in a carnival atmosphere to “blow off steam” but must be suppressed and renounced in everyday life in order to maintain the sexual status quo.

Time period: 16th c17th cPlace: EnglandMisc tags: court casecross-dressingcross-gender roles/behaviorgender disguise f>mtransvestite saintsEvent / person: Mary Frith aka Moll CutpurseSaint PelagiusHic MulierLong Meg of Westminster







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Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 30d - The New Atalantis - Secret Lesbian Clubs in 17th c Literature

Saturday, January 26, 2019 - 07:00

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast

Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 30d - The New Atalantis - Secret Lesbian Clubs in 17th c Literature - transcript

(Originally aired 2019/01/26 - listen here)

Delarivier Manley was an English writer, working around 1700, who wrote in a number of genres, but whose most famous work was the political satire, Secret Memoirs and Manners of Several Persons of Quality of Both Sexes, from the new Atlantis, an island in the Mediterranean, known more briefly as The New Atalantis. If you listened to the podcast on Queen Anne, I talked about how Manley was one of a number of satirists hired (or at least instigated) by Tory politicians to poke fun at their opponents. The New Atalantis only makes sense as a political satire if you can trace the connections between its salacious anecdotes and the real people meant to be understood as its targets. Overwhelmingly, the content involves sexual shenanigans, unhappy political marriages, unpleasant people being unpleasant to each other, and the narrators of the framing story--Astrea and the personifications of Virtue and Intelligence--tut-tutting to each other about how awful and nasty people have become, compared to some hypothetical ideal time and place which, of course, never existed.

The interest in this podcast is a handful of anecdotes involving a group of women referred to as The New Cabal who form something of a secret society of women whose romantic--and by strong implication, sexual--interests are for each other. Given how heterosexual relationships are portrayed in the work, one has a great deal of sympathy for them. But one isn’t meant, necessarily, to sympathize. The New Cabal is depicted as being just as self-centered, jealous, and venial as the rest of society, with an extra dollop of the assumption that same-sex relationships must always be somehow lacking and transient in comparison to the attractions of heterosexual ones.

But to be fair, the relationships among The New Cabal are neither more nor less satirized than every other relationship discussed in the work. Anxieties about female power within Queen Anne’s court and government--and quite likely, knowledge of actual same-sex relations among those women--may have provoked this part of Manley’s work, but there’s little sense that the idea of same-sex relationships is being singled out for special disapproval and vitriol. Not any more than the idea of adultery, or the idea of loveless marriages, or the idea of sexual predation on the less powerful.

Many of Manley’s fictionalized characters, both in The New Atalantis and in a later work Memoirs of Europe, can be clearly identified with specific historic individuals. And the real-life counterparts of some of the women who are depicted in the novel as having same-sex relationships are known to have had similar relationships in real life. In the transcript of this show on the website, I’ve included a list of some of those correspondences. So we aren’t necessarily dealing with a case where accusations of same-sex relations are being used to tarnish reputations, any more than the accusations of loveless marriages were. They were both things that people did.

With that understanding, we can read Manley’s anecdotes about The New Cabal as depicting possible social dynamics among homoerotically-inclined women of the court. The text may not reflect the details of such women’s lives, but they reflect how such lives were imagined in their own day.

The Framing Story

The primary narrator of the framing story is a minor divinity of the classical pantheon named Astrea, the goddess of innocence, and purity. Having taken a fancy to visiting the great courts of Europe, she overshoots her trajectory and comes instead to Atalantis. There she encounters the dejected figure of her mother, Virtue. Together they have a mutual “kids these days--what is the world coming to?” moment, then go on a tour to review in detail what they consider the sad failings of society. They are joined by a character representing Intelligence who is similarly dispirited by kids these days. The text is presented as a series of conversational monologues between these characters, occasionally including responses from other characters they encounter. Because the text is often complex and full of allusions, I’ve inserted my own explanations and commentary, which I will distinguish by tone of voice.

Our scene opens as the trio watches some vehicles pass by. The open enjoyment of the passengers makes them speculate on how these people--of all they have met--seem to have escaped the sorrows and vices of the age. But as they discuss the travelers further, their joyful astonishment starts shading over into sarcasm and innuendo.

***

ASTREA: Does your Ladyship's Intelligence extend to the Knowledge of those Ladies (we know them to be such by their Voices) who fill those three Coaches, which run along the Gravel-Road on the Right Hand of us? They laugh loud and incessantly. ‘Tis certain they have neither the Spleen nor Vapours, or for the present seem to have forgot those Distempers. Can any Persons be more at their Ease? Sure these seem to unknow that there is a certain Portion of Misery and Disappointments allotted to all Men, which one time or other will assuredly overtake them. The very Consideration of which, is sufficient, in, my Opinion, to put a damp upon the Serenest, much more a tumultuous Joy.

INTELLIGENCE: That would be afflicting themselves unprofitably. Nothing ought to hinder Mankind from enjoying the Present, nor no Reflection of the Future carry away his Relish of the Instant, provided it be innocently employed. To one of right Understanding, it will certainly happen thus; provided he be free from bodily Pain, which, notwithstanding the vain celebrated apathy of the Stoics, none was ever found to be insensible of; and whoever has pretended to the contrary, must be as ridiculous as affected.

But to satisfy your Excellency, these Ladies are of the new Cabal; a Sect (however, innocent in itself) that does not fail from meeting its Share of Censure from the World. Alas, what can they do?' How unfortunate are Women! If they seek their Diversion out of themselves, and include the other Sex, they must be criminal. If in themselves (as those of the new Cabal), still they are criminal? Though Censurers must carry their Imaginations a much greater Length than I am able to do mine, to explain this Hypothesis with Success. They pretend to find the Vices of old Rome revived in the Atalantic, and quote you certain detestable Authors, who (to amuse Posterity) have introduced lasting Monuments of Vice, which could only subsist in Imagination; and can in reality have no other Foundation, than what are to be found in the Dreams of Poets, and the Ill-nature of those Censurers, who will have no Diversions innocent, but what themselves advance!

[HRJ: Here, our narrators allude to the writings of classical authors such as Lucian and Martial about sex between women. By pretending to consider such activities to be impossible outside of the prurient imagination, Manley is able to invoke the specter of same-sex acts while maintaining the fiction that the New Cabal are all just good friends.]

Oh how laudable, how extraordinary, how wonderful is the uncommon Happiness of the Cabal! They have wisely excluded that rapacious Sex who, making a Prey of the Honour of Ladies, find their greatest Satisfaction (some few excepted) in boasting of their good Fortune. The very Chocolate-Houses being Witnesses of their Self-love, where promiscuously, among the known and unknown, they expose the Letters of the Fair, explain the Mysterious, and refine upon the happy Part; in their Redundancy of Vanity, consulting nothing but what may feed that insatiable Hydra!

[HRJ: Within this rather tangled prose is the suggestion that the society of men inevitably results in becoming the subject of gossip where men socialize, in this case at cafes specializing in serving chocolate, a fashionable new drink that rivaled coffee and tea for popularity. But women’s company, they assert, cannot possibly carry any hint of shame or guilt!]

The Cabal run no such Dangers, they all have Happiness in themselves! Two beautiful Ladies joined in an Excess of Amity (no Word is tender enough to express their new Delight) innocently embrace! For how can they be guilty? They Vow eternal Tenderness, they exclude the Men, and condition that they will always do so. What Irregularity can there be in this? Tis true, some Things may be strained a little too far, and that causes Reflections to be cast upon the rest.

[HRJ: And now we’re offered an anecdote meant to give the lie to the former claims of innocence. The ladies of the New Cabal were not able to live entirely separate from men. A lady named Armida had the misfortune to have her male lover and her female partner visit at the same time.]

One of the Fair could not defend herself from receiving an importunate Visit from a Person of the troublesome Sex. The Lady who was her Favourite, came unexpectedly at the same time upon another. Armida heard her Chair set down in the Hall, and presently knew her Voice, enquiring with Precipitation, who was above, having observed a common Coach at the Gate, without a Livery. The Lover became surprized to the last Degree, to see Armida’s surprize; she trembled, she turn'd pale, she conjured him to pass into her Closet, and consent to be concealed 'till the Lady was gone! His Curiosity made him as obliging as she could desire.

He was no sooner withdrawn, but his fair Rival entered the Chamber enraged, her Voice shrill, her Tongue inquisitive and menacing, the Extremes of Jealousy in her Eyes and Air. “Where is this Inconstant where is this ungrateful Girl—? What happy Wretch is it upon whom you bestow my Rights! To whom do you deliver the Possession of my Kisses and Embraces? Upon whom bestow that Heart so invaluable, and for which I have paid the Equivalent! Come let us see this Monster to whom my Happiness is sacrificed. Are you not sufficiently warned by the Ruin of so many? Are you also eager to be exposed, to be undone, to be Food for Vanity, to fill the detestable Creatures with vain Glory! What Recompense--Ah, what Satisfaction!--can there be in any Heart of theirs, more than in mine? — Have they more Tenderness--more Endearment? —Their Truth cannot come in comparison; besides, they find their Account in Treachery and Boasting, their Pride is gratified; whilst our Interest is in mutual Secrecy, in mutual Justice, and in mutual Constancy.”

[HRJ: Such an excess of jealousy, of course, creates its own suspicions. The narrators scramble to provide an apparent defense, deliberately undermining it by offering a parallel to one of the homoerotic relationships of Socrates.]

Such Excursions as these, have given Occasion to the Enemies of the Cabal to refine, as much as they please, upon the Mysteries of it; there are some who will not allow of Innocence in any Intimacies. Detestable Censurers, who, after the Manner of the Athenians will not believe so great a Man as Socrates (him, whom the Oracle delivered to be the wisest of all Men) could see every Hour the Beauty of an Alcibiades, without taxing his Sensibility. How did they recriminate for his Affection, for his Cares, his Tenderness to the lovely Youth? How have they delivered him down to Posterity as blamable for a too guilty Passion for his beautiful Pupil? Since then it is not in the Fate of even so wise a Man, to avoid the Censure of the Busy and the Bold, Care ought to be taken by others (less fortified against Occasions of Detraction, in declining such unaccountable Intimacies) to prevent the ill-natured World's refining upon their mysterious Innocence.

[HRJ: Having thus set the stage for how we are meant to understand the internal relationships of the Cabal, we’re offered a glimpse of how they spend their time together.]

The Persons who passed us in those three Coaches, were returning from one of their private--I was going to say silent--Meetings, but far be it from me to detract from any of the Attributes of the Sex. The Lady L-- and her Daughters make four of the Cabal. They have taken a little Lodging about twelve Furlongs from Angela, in a Place obscure and pleasant, with a Magazine of good Wine and necessary Conveniences, Chambers of Repose, a tolerable Garden, and the Country in Prospect.

They wear away the indulgent happy Hours according to their own Taste. Their Coaches and People (of whom they always take as few with them as possible) are left to wait at the convenient Distance of a Field in length, an easy Walk to their Bower of Bliss. The Day and Hour of their Rendezvous is appointed before-hand. They meet, they caress, they swear inviolable Secrecy and Amity.

The Glass corroborates their Endearments. They momently exclude the Men, fortify themselves in the Precepts of Virtue and Chastity against all their detestable undermining Arts, arraign without Pity or Compassion those who have been so unfortunate as to fall into their Snare [and] Propagate their Principles of exposing them without Mercy.

[HRJ: And now the members of the Cabal are presented as...one might almost say “biphobic” but keep in mind that this is within a context where heterosexual attraction is assumed to be an imperative. And where women did not always have the social and economic power to refuse marriage. So if marriage is inescapable, a women-only society must protect itself with rules.]

[They] give Rules to such of the Cabal who are not married, how to behave themselves to such whom they think fit they should marry; no such weighty Affair being to be accomplished without the mutual Consent of the Society. At the same time, lamenting the Custom of the World, that has made it convenient (nay, almost indispensable) for all Ladies once to marry. To those that have Husbands, they have other Instructions, in which this is sure to be one: to reserve their Heart, their tender Amity for their Fair Friend, an article in this well-bred, wilfully undistinguishing age which the husband seems to be rarely solicitous of.

[HRJ: In this passage one is reminded of 17th century poet Katherine Phillips’ lament that for women, marriage represents the death of friendship. Within 17th century English society, the women with the most power to control their own lives were widows. In the following passage, the references to “nature” invoke the idea that heterosexuality is natural while any other type of desire is against nature.]

Those who are, in their Opinion, so happy as to be released from the imposing matrimonial Fetters, are thought the Ornament of the Cabal, and by all most happy. They claim an Ascendant, a Right of Governing, of Admitting or Excluding, in both of which they are extremely nice, with particular Regard to the Constitution of the Novice. They strictly examine her Genius: whether it have fitted her for the Mysteries of the Cabal, or if she may be rendered insensible on the side of Nature--Nature, who has the Trick of making them dote on the opposite improving Sex. For if her Foible be found directed to what Nature inspires, she is unanimously excluded, and particular Injunctions bestowed upon all the Members of this distinguishing Society from admitting her to their Bosom, or initiating her into the Mysteries of their Endearments.

[HRJ: That is, if a potential candidate for the Cabal seems positively inclined toward men, she is to be refused admittance. Having sex with men might be necessary, but actually loving them was right out. This wasn’t merely a philosophical requirement--any crack in the armor against male society could prove dangerous to all, as we shall see in the next passage.]

Secrecy also is a material Article. This they inviolably promise; nor is it the least part of the Instruction given to a new Bride, lest she let her Husband into a Mystery (however innocent) that may expose and ridicule the Community, as it happened in the Case of the beautiful Virgin Euphelia.

No sooner did she appear as an Attendant on the Queen, but the Eyes of all the Circle were directed to her. The Men adored. The Ladies would have discovered something to destroy that Adoration, if it had been possible, except the Marchioness de Lerma, who, Bold and Masculine, loudly taxed these invidious Spectators of ill Nature and Malice. She took the fair Maid into especial Consideration, sheltered her under her distinguishing Protections and, in short, introduced her into the Cabal of which, they say, the Marchioness was one of the first Founders in Atalantis, having something so robust in her Air and Mien, that the other Sex would have certainly claimed her for one of theirs, if she had not thought fit to declare herself by her Habit (alone) to be of the other, insomuch, that I have often heard it lamented by the Curious, who have taxed themselves of Negligence, and were intimate with her Lord, when living, that they did not desire him to explain upon that Query.

[HRJ: This description of the Marchioness requires a bit of unpacking. Historic attitudes regularly shifted regarding whether women’s same-sex desire required a butch-femme dynamic. The prevailing attitude in the 17th century leaned more toward the attitude that what women loved in other women was their shared femininity. But this is one of the references in The New Atalantis that suggests the alternate view: that it was an inherent masculinity that caused a woman to desire women. The description here of the Marchioness de Lerma suggests that she was so masculine in her affect that if not for the fact that she wore women’s clothing, one might have thought her to be a man. Or perhaps to be something indeterminate between male and female, as the image of the hermaphrodite was still invoked in the context of same-sex desire. The curious, it is suggested here, should have questioned her late husband about any anatomical abnormalities that might have explained the Marchioness’s behavior. But returning to our anecdote, the Marchioness’s love for Euphelia foundered on the offer of a desirable marriage, the price of which was that Euphelia explain just why the Marchioness was so dead-set against the match.]

Euphelia flourished under the Shine of so great a Favourite; the Marquis de los Minos fell in Love with her. There was nothing to obstruct his Happiness but the Marchioness de Lerma's Jealousy. Enraged to lose her beautiful Pupil, she traversed her Advancement all that lay in her Power. But the Honour of such a Marriage being conspicuous on the young Virgin's side, she was forced to give up the Secrets of the Cabal, and sacrifice the Marchioness's Honour, to preserve the Opinion of her own.

Some few such Discoveries, have happened to cast a Taint upon the Innocence of the Cabal. How malicious is the World! Who would not avoid Censure if it were possible?

[HRJ: There is the interesting suggestion here that “innocence” was entirely a matter of keeping one’s indiscretions secret, and had nothing to do with not committing them in the first place. We have another suggestion of a butch-femme dynamic in the following passage. Although, interestingly, both members of the romantic couple are said to cross-dress in order to go pick up women together. The word “habit” here simply means “clothing” as in the phrase “riding habit”, rather than referring to a personal custom. The pseudonym Ianthe is, of course, a reference to Ovid’s cross-gender character. We start to hear the snarky edge in the protestations of how these amorous adventures could not possibly be considered actual fornication.]

We must do Justice to the Endeavours of the witty Marchioness of Sandomire, when she used to mask her Diversions in the Habit of the other Sex, and with her Female Favourite, Ianthe, wander through the Gallant Quarter of Atalantis in search of Adventures. But what Adventures? Good Heaven! None that could in reality wound her Chastity! Her Virtue, sacred to her Lord, and the Marriage Bed, was preserved Inviolable!

For what could reflect back upon it with any Prejudice, in the little Liberties she took with her own Sex? Whom she used to cajole, with the affected seeming Gallantry of the other; engage and carry them to the public Gardens, and Houses of Entertainment, with Music and all Diversions? These Creatures of Hire, failed not to find their Account, in obliging the Marchioness's and Ianthe's peculiar Taste, by all the Liberties that belong to Women of their loose Character and Indigence.

Though I should look upon it as an Excess of Mortification, were I the Marchioness, to see the Corruption of the Sex, and to what extremes Vice may, Step by Step, lead those who were born, and probably educated in the Road of Innocence. It may be surely counted an inhumane Curiosity, and show a Height of Courage, more blamable than otherwise, not to be dejected at the Brutality, the Degeneracy of those of our own Species.

[HRJ: Evidently one member of the Cabal had special license to remain bisexual. She is considered so beautiful and charming that she cannot be expected to confine her affections and favors to only one sex. This lady and her musical female companion are among those who can be connected with specific historical persons known to have enjoyed a romance.]

The Vice Roy of Peru's Lady has a more extensive Taste, her Circle admitting the Eminent of both Sexes. None can doubt of her Condescension to the Men, and because she will leave nothing undiscovered or unattempted in the Map of Tenderness, she has encouraged the warbling Lindamira (low as is her Rank) to explain to her the Terra Incognita of the Cabal.

Not one of them but think themselves honoured by a Person of her Distinction and agreeable Merit. To complete their Happiness they seem to wish (but I doubt it is in vain) that it were possible to exclude the other Sex, and engross her wholly to their own. But alas! what Hopes? Her Heart, her Eyes, her Air, call for other Approbations, the Admiration of the Men!

In her alone that diffusive Vanity is pardonable, is taking. She undoubtedly knows herself born to a greater Capacity of giving Happiness, than ought to fall to the Share of one Mortal; and therefore in her just and equal Distribution of Beauty, she seems to leave none of her numerous Favourites solid Reason of Complaint, that they are not, in their turn, considered as they deserve.

[HRJ: There follows an anecdote that I will skim over with a summary that explains why this lady abandoned men to join the Cabal.]

One of the Ladies of the Cabal, that was in the Coach, is a Writer. The Chevalier Pierro, without having much Wit of his own, married her for hers. ... Though, with the Addition even of Gratitude, Zara could not find her Happiness in him... He soon grew weary of Zara's Affair, not finding it possible to come up to the Height of her Lovesick romantic Expectations. She, who had all the Muses in her Head, wanted to be caressed in a Poetical manner; her Lover, by her good-will, should not be less than Apollo in his Attributes of Flame and Fancy. Thus would she have been adored, but that was not to be expected from the Marquis, whose Heart was engaged. Nor could any but a Poet answer the Extravagancies of a Poetess's Expectations. ...

Thus disencouraged by the Men, she fell into the Taste of the Cabal. Daphne was her Favourite. Daphne, who when she first set out to travel the Road of Gallantry, had all the reason in the World to expect a lucky journey; for her first Guide, (if you will believe her self) was no less a Person than Count Fortunatus...

[HRJ: And we now get a long tedious summary of how Daphne was done wrong by Count Fortunatus, who blackmailed her into sleeping with him because she needed a favor for a relative. Having been discarded by him...]

... Then it was that she wrote for the Stage, sometimes with ill Fortune, sometimes with indifferent, and but once with Success...

I could enumerate, were it not too tedious, many of Daphne's Adventures; by which she was become the Diversion of as many of the Town as found her to their Taste, and would purchase: Yet she still assumed an Air of Virtue pretended, and was ever eloquent (according to her stiff manner) upon the Foible of others. She also fitted her self with an excellent Mask called Religion; having as often changed, and as often professed her self a Votary to that Shrine, where was to be found the most apparent Interest, or which of the Priests had the best Art of persuading. One of Ceres at length fell to her Share! young, scarce initiated in her Mysteries, and not at all in the Profits. But a Husband was Daphne's Business; the only means to prevent her from falling, (when her Youth and Charms were upon the Wing) into extreme Contempt.

[HRJ: And now we discuss inconvenient husbands. Zara the poet’s husband is conveniently set off to war. Daphne the playwright’s, alas, takes her away from her friends and she finds religion and respectability.]

Zara, who had introduced her to the Cabal, but with infinite Anxiety suffered, that any Lover should dare to engage where she had fixed her heart: But because narrow Circumstances do not always suffer People to do what they would, Daphne was still forced to have Lovers; though, if you'll believe her Professions to her fair Friend, they had no part in her Inclination. In short, they seemed to live for each other. Zara, whose Poetical Genius did not much lead her to better the Economy of her Family, soon found the Inconveniencies of it. The poor Chevalier, her Husband, stemmed the Tide as long as it was possible; at length obliged, by his indifferent Circumstances, to put himself into the Army and Campaigns abroad, he left his Lady at full Liberty to pursue, with an uninterrupted Goust, her Taste of Amity and the Cabal.

But Daphne's Marriage crossed her Delights: How does she exclaim against that Breach of Friendship in the Fair? how regret the Authority of a Husband, who has boldly dared to carry his Wife into the Country, where she now sets up for Regularity, and intends to be an Ornament to that Religion, which she had once before abandoned, and newly again professed? She will write no more for the Stage; 'tis profane, indiscreet, unpardonable: Controversy engrosses all her Hours; the Muses must now give place...

[HRJ: In this next section, although Manley is presumably poking fun at these women’s relationships, the actual details seem innocuous--or even praiseworthy. Lovers should lavish each other with gifts, share all things in common, and support each other.]

There are others of the Cabal that lavish vast Sums upon their Inamoretta's, with the Empresment, Diligence and Warmth of a beginning Lover. I could name a Widow or two, who have almost undone themselves by their Profuseness: So sacred and invincible is their Principle of Amity, that Misfortunes cannot shake. In this little Commonwealth is no Property; whatever a Lady possesses, is, sans Ceremonie, at the Service, and for the Use of her fair Friend, without the vain nice Scruple of being obliged. Tis her Right; the other disputes it not; no, not so much as in Thought; they have no reserve; mutual Love bestows all Things in common; 'twould be against the Dignity of the Passion, and unworthy [of] such exalted abstracted Notions as theirs. How far laudable your Divinities will conclude of these tender Amities (with all possible Submission) I refer to your better Judgments, and undisputed Prerogative of setting the Stamp of Approbation, or Dislike, upon all Things.

[HRJ: Keep in mind that this is a conversation among goddesses, hence the speaker addressing the others. All the preceding has been Lady Intelligence explaining the Cabal to Astrea and Virtue. Now Astrea comments, pretending to an ignorance of the exact nature of the “mysteries of the Cabal” that Intelligence has been referring to. If it is platonic friendship, then surely it’s praiseworthy. But if their relationships interfere with heterosexual marriage, then that goes too far.]

ASTREA: It is something so new and uncommon, so laudable and blameable, that we don't know how to determine; especially wanting Light even to guess at what you call the Mysteries of the Cabal.

If only tender Friendship, inviolable and sincere, be the regard, what can be more meritorious, or a truer Emblem of their Happiness above? Tis by Imitation, the nearest Approach they can make, a Feint, a distant Landshape of immortal Joys. But if they carry it a length beyond what Nature designed, and fortify themselves by these new-formed Amities against the Hymeneal Union, or give their Husband but a second Place in their Affection and Cares, 'tis wrong and to be blamed.

Thus far to the Merit of the Thing itself. But when we look with true regard to the World, if it permit a Shadow of Suspicion, a bare Imagination that the Mysteries they pretend have any Thing in them contrary to Kind, and that strict Modesty and Virtue do not adorn and support their Conversation, 'tis to be avoided and condemned, lest they give Occasion for obscene Laughter, new invented Satire, fanciful Jealousies, and impure Distrusts, in that nice unforgiving Sex: who arbitrarily thus decide, that Woman was only created (with all her Beauty, Softness, Passions, and complete Tenderness) to adorn the Husband's Reign, perfect his Happiness, and propagate the Kind.

[HRJ: The text then moves on to other topics that are less interesting to us. We come back to the matter of the Cabal much later in the text. Here our friend who goes by the pseudonym Ianthe becomes the topic again. You may remember that Ianthe and her special friend, the Marchioness of Sandomire, went about in male clothing, picking up women. And Lady Intelligence ponders the attractions of cross-dressing.]

INTELLIGENCE: She that was in the Coach with her, is one of the Widows of the New Cabal. What an Irregularity of Taste is theirs! They do not in reality love Men, but dote on the Representation of Men in Women. Hence it is that those Ladies are so fond of the Dress en cavaliere, though it is extremely against my liking, I would have the Sex distinguished as well by their Garb as by their Manner. That bewitching Modesty, which is so becoming to the opening Veil, is against kind, in the confirmed, bold, and agreeable Air of the Hat, Feather, and Peruke. If in this Man's Dress you pretend to retain the Shame-facedness of the other Sex, you lose the native Charm that recommends it. If you dismiss Modesty you dismiss the highest Beauty of the Female Sex: For without regard to that much-in-fashion Virtue Assurance, next to real innate Modesty in Ladies (which indeed never fails of giving the Appearance) I think the outward Blush, and seeming Habitude of it, one of the greatest Ornaments they can wear.

[HRJ: Ianthe evidently was not only fond of adopting masculine dress herself, but found it charming on other women. She falls for an actress who performs in breeches parts and pays her court. But the actress, though flattered, evidently didn’t like her in quite that way.]

But to return to my Widow of the Cabal, She fell in Love with one of the Comedians, when she was acting the Part of a young Lover and a Libertine. The Widow sent for the Girl, and made her very considerable Presents, ordered her Picture in that Dress to be taken at length, by one of the best Hands, and carried her to remain with her, during the Season, at her Villa.

The Comedian was dazzled at those Endearments and Advances from a Lady of Fortune, and did not know how to behave her self in a Manner regular enough, (for her Conversation had been pretty much at large); however she added her whole Endeavours, and by that means became tolerably uneasy to her self, as not being a Person abundantly used to Decorum and Constraint.

The Widow redoubled her Kindness and Caresses, assured her of her Tenderness and Amity; she even proceeded to gentle Squeezes and Embraces. Nothing could be more innocently endearing than her Transports!

The Comedian was at a loss not only to know how to merit so many Favours, but of the meaning of them: She was also weary of the Solitude and Splendour of the Widow's Family, and wanted to return to the amorous Hurry and Theatrical Littleness she had been used to, and therefore received those Honours with no New-Cabal Air. But as if rather disgusted at such amiable Proofs of Amity, told the Lady she did not like those Hugs and Indearments from her own Sex, they seemed unnatural. Did they come from a Man, she should be able to guess at his Design, but here she was at a loss.

The Widow found her Companion not of a Taste virtuous enough for the Mysteries of their Union: her Mind ran all upon what she had been too much used to: the other Sex. The Comedian had been vitiated by Amour! by abominable Intrigues with the filthy odious Men! and was not therefore worthy the Honour of being admitted into their Community.

She withdrew those Airs of Fondness from a tasteless undeserving Wretch, assumed more Coldness in her Behaviour to her whilst in the Country, and at her coming back, by little and little dropped her very Acquaintance. When she was returned to her House in Town, to show the Lurkings of her Malice, or gather her Detestation to Vice, though but in Effigy, she caused the Comedian's Picture to be let down, and with her own Hand cut out the Face; so stamped upon and abused, she sent it back to her whom it represented, at the same time causing her to be told, she had by her loose Libertine Life, made it a Scandal to her House to have such a Picture seen in it.

The poor Comedian fell a crying, and said, she might have let her alone, she did not, for her part, seek nor covet the Acquaintance; she was no worse now than when 'twas first drawn; neither could her life be a Secret to the virtuous Widow; she should have objected it to her then, before she gave her the trouble of sitting, and not to affront her Picture so: But she guessed the Reason of it, and would leave her Ladyship to be punished by the Reflection.

[HRJ: A sad episode on which to conclude our visits with the ladies of the New Cabal! But when we strip away the snark and sarcasm, the pointed political satire, and the unavoidable misogyny, even from a female author, it’s a remarkable picture of how a 17th century writer imagined the lives of women who loved women. As Catherine Craft-Fairchild notes in an article covered in the blog recently, there is no single, identifiable stereotype of lesbians in the 18th century. And we see that variety among the members of The New Cabal. Some women form long-term couples, others play the field. Some enjoy playing with masculine performance, others enjoy traditional femininity. Some aspire to chaste friendship, others seek out sexual relationships. Some are able to opt out of heterosexual marriage either by luck or widowhood, others accommodate their same-sex desires within an unavoidable marriage, others enjoy the love of both women and men. Within this they hold to ideals of mutual support and community. If they also felt the need to protect their relationships with a veil of secrecy, that isn’t so very different from what many modern lesbians have experienced in living memory. These women’s lives were not closely similar to ours. They had entirely different sets of assumptions, challenges, strategies, strengths, and vulnerabilities. But they were there, even hidden under the flimsy pseudonyms that didn’t protect Manley from charges of libel. And we can be grateful to her, even given her satirical purpose, for giving us a glimpse of their lives.]

Notes and Links

Delariver Manley (Wikipedia)
The New Atalantis tagged in the LHMP
Text courtesy of Google Books

A Key to the Characters

Lady L-- (the one with the four daughters) is Margaret Sutton, Lady Lexington (nee Hungerford), mother of Eleanora-Margaret and Bridget. (Her husband was Robert Sutton, 2nd Baron Lexington)
Euphelia is identified as Mrs. Proud, one of Queen Anne’s attendants.
The Marchioness de Lerma is Anne Charlotte, Lady Frescheville (nee Vic), second wife (Wikipedia says third) of John, Baron Frescheville, and lady of the bedchamber to Queen Anne from 1686. Lady Frescheville was the subject of an argument between Sarah Churchill and the queen in 1705.
The Marchioness de Sandomire is probably identified with Anne, Lady Popham (nee Montagu), or possibly with Lady Sandwich, wife of Edward Montagu third Earl of Sandwich.
Ianthe is identified as Anne Gerard, Countess Macclesfield. She apparently has the distinction of being the first woman divorced by Act of Parliament (by her husband Charles Gerard, Earl Macclesfield) without the prior action of an ecclesiastical court.
The Viceroy of Peru’s lady is identified as Lucy Wharton, who appears elsewhere in the work as a different character, the Marchioness du Coeur. She was the second wife of Thomas, first Marquess of Wharton.
The singer Lindamira is opera singer Katherine Tofts. Per Donoghue 1996, Wharton and Tofts were lovers in real life.
Zara, the witty writer, is identified as Catherine Colyear, Countess Portmore who was created Baroness of Darlington by King James II, whose mistress she was for a time.
Daphne was identified by some as a “Mrs. Griffith” but the story given for her fits better for Catherine Cockburn (nee Trotter) whose 1695 play Agnes de Castro was based on a novella by Aphra Behn of the same title. Per Donoghue 1996, Colyear and Cockburn were a romantic/sexual couple in real life.
The widow who falls in love with the cross-dressing comedian is identified as Susan Howard, Lady Effingham (wife of Francis Howard, 5th Baron Effingham).
The comedian is the actress and singer Letitia Cross.
Major category: LHMPTags: LHMPpodcast

Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 30c - The Favourite

Saturday, January 19, 2019 - 07:00

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast

Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 30c - The Favourite - transcript

(Originally aired 2019/01/19 - listen here)

[Note: I’ve embarked on a project of commissioning transcripts for the interview shows. When we get to this one, the discussion segments will be inserted into this scripted introduction, which I’m afraid is all you get for now.]

When I saw the trailers for The Favourite, I knew I wanted to talk about it on this podcast. But talking about movies all by yourself isn’t anywhere near as much fun as talking about them with a friend. I managed to rope two friends into discussing The Favourite with me, although not at the same time. First I’ll have Farah Mendlesohn, to chat about historical aspects of the story and how they were adapted for the movie. Then Trystan Bass and I will discuss the visual esthetics, among other things. And, of course, we’ll all talk about the treatment of sexuality in the film and our appreciation for it as queer women.

If you want a refresher on the historic context, pause this show for a bit and go back and listen to my podcast on Queen Anne that came out a month ago. Since we pretty much plunge into the details, I’ll give you a brief synopsis of the plot.

Queen Anne of England is in the later part of her reign. The country is still finding its balance after the upheavals of the mid 17th century, which included the English Civil War. There are those who question Anne’s support for war in France. One strong supporter of the war is Sarah, Duchess Marlborough, whose husband leads the English armies and who has been an intimate friend of Anne’s since they were both children. But Sarah has come to take Anne’s affection and loyalty for granted, and when Abigail, a cousin of Sarah’s, joins the queen’s household, the two find themselves in a struggle for the power and influence that comes with being the queen’s best friend...and lover.

So that’s the background.

The last time we talked to Farah Mendlesohn on this podcast, it was in connection with her wonderful Regency-era lesbian romance, Spring Flowering. This time, she comes to us as a historian. Dr. Mendlesohn is in the middle of writing a book about fiction set during the English Civil War and is a visiting fellow at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England. But she has also recently become managing editor of Manifold Press, which is seeking submissions in the field of queer historical fiction. Check out the show notes for links to her various projects.

[This discussion has not yet been transcribed.]

[Sponsor break]

For the second half of our discussion, I’m joined by Trystan Bass, one of the founders, and the editor in chief of Frock Flicks, a blog and podcast dedicated to the love--and loving critique--of historical movies and tv shows. The Frock Flicks site is a hoot, and the women who run it are extremely knowledgeable about historic clothing and style, and the popular culture of historic costume and its reproduction.

Check out the show notes for links to the Frock Flicks blog and podcast.

[This discussion has not yet been transcribed.]

Links

LHMP Episode 29d - Queen Anne
Farah Mendlesohn
Twitter: @effjayem
https://farahmendlesohn.com

Manifold Press
Twitter: @ManifoldPressUK
https://manifoldpress.co.uk

Trystan Bass & Frock Flicks
Twitter: @FrockFlicks
http://www.frockflicks.com

Major category: LHMPTags: LHMPpodcastreviews: movies

Floodtide has a Scheduled Publication Date!

Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - 06:52

Alpennia Logo

I finally have the projected publication date for Floodtide (by virtue of simply asking about it). It's on the Bella Books schedule for October 2019. My mind immediately goes to thinking about where that falls with respect to conventions and whatnot. It won't be out for Worldcon (which in some ways is easier, because I can talk it up without the anxiety of having actual books in hand), but it should be out in time for Sirens (which I hope it's a good fit for in terms of readers, though not an event where I'd feel comfortable holding a launch party). Ok, planning brain, time to rein you in a bit. I have a pub date! Now you can officially put Floodtide on your list of "anticipated books for 2019."

Major category: PromotionPublications: FloodtideTags: AlpenniaFloodtide

Male, Female, or Non-Binary in the Jamestown Colony?

Monday, January 14, 2019 - 07:00

The Lesbian Historic Motif Project

One of the topics looming over this blog (though likely to be addressed in the podcast) is the historic ambiguity between the expression of gender identity and the use of gender presentation to accommodate heteronormative expectations in the context of same-sex desire. Or, to put it in less academic terms: the conflict between interpreting a historic individual as a trans man or a cross-dressing lesbian. One of the approaches to mapping out this territory is to gather individual life histories that provide examples of how people on the gender/sexuality spectrum behaved and discussed their lives, as well as exploring the social structures  and attitudes that they were inhabiting and engaging with.

Thomas(ine) Hall provides one of those stories, all the more interesting for occurring in the early colonial history of North America. Hall’s case also provides a context for examining the phenomenon of modern individuals desiring to “claim” historic persons for a specific gender or sexuality category. Depending on which parts of the story and testimony one finds most compelling, Hall could be seen as a trans man who had been assigned female at birth, as a cis woman who sometimes passed as a man for economic and sexual purposes, as a trans woman (who somehow escaped being assigned male at birth), as a cis man who had been raised in a female role and was comfortable returning to that role at times, as an intersex person who was trying on various gender presentations to see what fit, or as someone (regardless of anatomy) who had a non-binary gender identity and was struggling to express that in a society that required a fixed binary identity. Although some of these possibilities don’t fit as well with the evidence as others, trying to come up with a single, definitive classification inevitably requires erasing key aspects of Hall’s life history and self-expression--much in the way that Hall's contemporaries erased key aspects in order to assign a gender category. Lives like Hall’s may be a better context that simple sexual orientation for considering the changeability of gender/sexuality categories over time.

Major category: LHMPTags: LHMP







LHMP #230 Brown 1995 Changed...into the Fashion of a Man





About LHMP

Full citation: 

Brown, Kathleen. 1995. “’Changed...into the Fashion of a Man’: The Politics of Sexual Difference in a Seventeenth-Century Anglo-American Settlement” in Journal of the History of Sexuality 6:2 pp.171-193.

[Note: Content advisory for coerced physical examination to determine sexual category.]

In 1629, in a small settlement just across the river from Jamestown, Virginia, 22 years after the first settlement at that location, Thomas Hall was accused of fornication with a servant girl. This fairly ordinary offense became more complicated and interesting after the community took it on themselves to investigate exactly what had happened.

Hall was a recent arrival (though there’s some confusion due to another individual of the same name being recorded earlier) and Warrosquyoacke was a small community, so it’s understandable that the residents were dismayed to find that they didn’t know their neighbors’ business as well as they thought they did. As well as the local investigation, the case was eventually taken to the Virginia Colony’s general court at Jamestown and the following story emerged.

In England, Hall had worn women’s clothing and practiced the traditionally female trades of needlework and lace making. After emigrating to Virginia, Hall sometimes wore male clothing and performed traditionally male occupations, but also sometimes wore female clothing. (Virginia still had a fairly low female population at this time.) During the investigation of the fornication charge, Hall was asked “whether he were man or woman” and replied “both.” When asked further what the reason was for the women’s clothing, Hall answered somewhat obliquely, “I go in women’s apparel to get a bit for my cat.” [Note: Google does not turn up any other context for the phrase “get a bit for my cat” but that doesn’t mean it may not have been an obscure bit of slang that had a clear meaning to hearers, even if we are befuddled.]

As was typical in the early modern period, the primary social crisis that Hall sparked was the need to determine exactly what gender category to place them in. Ambiguity was not acceptable and alternation was right out. In any event, whatever Hall’s true gender, it was clear that some sort of punishable offence had been committed. It just needed to be determined which one.

Eventually the local officials in Warrosquyoacke threw up their hands and sent the case to Jamestown, where the details of the existing investigation were recorded for posterity, including efforts by community members to obtain physical evidence on the question. Hall provided a detailed and candid personal history and these records are essentially all we know of the case. But the records include details of the responses of Hall’s community that shed light on popular beliefs among ordinary people about sexual difference, in contrast to the opinions of professionals, which are the more common source of information for this period. In the absence of relevant medical and/or legal professionals in the colony, community members did their best to gather physical and behavioral observations and interpret them in light of their understanding of what constituted male and female identity.

The scientific/medical understanding of sex difference in this era still followed the Galenic “single-sex” model that emphasized physiological parallels between men and women and the belief that women were “imperfect men” but had the potential to undergo spontaneous sex change. This theory held that strenuous activity or masculine performance could cause a woman’s organs to “emerge” from the body as a penis and testicles, constituting a genuine change in physiological sex. At the same time, the clear legal distinction of personal status based on sex made it necessary to establish a person’s “true sex.” But the means of establishing this was left to community custom and individual performance.

Performative gender was established through customary distinctions in clothing, names, occupations, and the participation in heteronormative relationships. [Note: This last is one of the things that complicates applying concepts like “homosexual” or “transgender”. If heterosexuality is considered a fixed universal, then participation in apparently same-sex relationships can only be considered as evidence for gender identity, not for sexual orientation.]  Medical literature recognized a physiological continuum of sexual morphology (treated under the concept of the “hermaphrodite”) but the law did not allow for such ambiguity. As Brown notes, “the courts, which were mainly concerned to preserve clear gender boundaries, rather than explore anomalies, had the power to coerce individuals to alter their gender performances.” The legal pressure was to pick one clear gender identity and stick to it, rather than to identify a “true” anatomical sex.

In the 16-17th centuries, transvestism was recognized as different from the anatomical ambiguity of “hermaphroditism” and treated, perhaps, as even more threatening to society, as it undermined the ability for clothing to define and stabilize gender identities. [Note: Brown simultaneously claims that transvestism was primarily a matter of women dressing as men, but then notes the English tradition of transvestite theater, which would have been primarily men dressing as women. So I’m a little confused in this section.]

Returning to the legal records of Hall’s case, one confounding aspect in interpreting the records is that the language followed the needs of the legal setting, which dictated certain elements of the descriptions. The court pursued Hall’s personal history and past performance to answer the question of their gender identity, while the community investigation had inquired far more directly into what was in Hall’s breeches. Curiously, their investigation was inconclusive as there was disagreement as to the meaning of their findings.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of Hall’s testimony is that Hall treats gender identity as malleable and opportunistic. Gender identity could be claimed by the simple expedient of a change of clothing, and justified by the opportunity for gender-segregated employment. Hall’s narrative does not align with a sense of stable, internal gender identity from which public gender performance was a passive consequence. Rather, Hall seems to treat gender as an actively chosen self-presentation that is distinct from any issue of personal identity. And given the overtness of Hall’s gender transgression, the legal penalty that eventually was applied was comparatively mild.

Brown discusses at length the social and political context of the community that underlay certain of the gender dynamics of Hall’s situation and resulted in the responsibility for investigation falling in the hands of ordinary community members, including the gender politics of women claiming responsibility for the task.

The Warrosquyoacke settlement had existed for less than 7 years when Hall arrived and--like most of the English colony in Virginia at the time--was focused primarily on the economic project of producing tobacco for export. Most of the population were recent arrivals, including a number of enslaved African people diverted from a different destination. A few had been in Virginia  for a longer period, which helped to establish personal authority among the residents. Among the named individuals in the court record was Alice Long, a married woman who had been in Virginia since 1620, and Dorothy Rodes, another married woman who assisted her with the physical investigation, who may have been there for several years. Another key figure was John Tyos who was a former employer of Hall’s at a time when Hall was presenting as a woman. (To complicate the historic trail, several years earlier, Tyos had shared living space with a different Thomas Hall, a man, at a time when the relevant Thomas Hall was hypothetically present in the colony. This is presumed to be a coincidence of names on the assumption that Tyos would have recognized his former servant even if presenting as a different gender.)

Female authority in the investigation was claimed by Long and Rodes in their roles as midwives and matrons, with the responsibility to perform physical examinations of women for legal purposes. (Legal purposes such as determination of pregnancy or childbirth, or to identify evidence of sexual activity if, for example, a husband were accused of impotence.) Their roles depended on the acceptance of sexual categories and gender boundaries and assumed that women who interacted with female bodies in intimate ways (e.g., childbirth) would have special authority in interpreting those bodies. But this authority only applied to the extent that Hall’s body was accused of being female.

At the time Hall was accused of fornication with the maidservant of Richard Bennet, John Tyos claimed that his servant Thomas Hall was female (evidently despite wearing male clothing and performing male work). This provoked the community matrons to take the authority into their own hands (without the request of a court) to examine Hall with regard to this question. The matrons asserted, based on this examination, that Hall was a man. Tyos continued to maintain that Hall was female and the question was escalated to the local landowning authority, Captain Bass.

Bass took the perhaps radical approach of simply asking Hall “whether he were man or woman” to which Hall, as noted above, replied “both” and explained further that this answer was based on having what was described as a very small penis but that “he had not the use of the man’s part.” Bass chose to define maleness in terms of the ability to successfully perform penetrative sex with a penis and assigned Hall a female gender on this basis, ordering Hall to put on women’s clothes. This aligned, to some extent, with the Galenic view of gender: Hall might be a little bit masculine but insufficiently male to be granted categorical male status.

This decision was challenged by the matrons who had performed the examination and were still convinced of Hall’s male nature. To them, a male Hall now going about in women’s clothing (per Captain Bass’s legal requirement) was an insupportable breech of gender categories. They demanded a second inspection from Hall’s new employer (who was convinced enough of Hall’s female presentation that he referred to Hall with female pronouns in the record, where everyone else used male pronouns). On further interrogation of Hall, this time with regard to the presence of female anatomy, rather than the inadequacy of the male anatomy, Hall claimed to have “a piece of a hole” but the investigating women failed to confirmed this on examination.

This shifted the official position. Hall’s new employer then ordered that Hall “be put into” male clothing and be punished for impersonating a woman. When Hall had been classified as female (or even potentially female), social rules had restricted the physical investigation to women, but now having been officially categorized as male, Hall was subject to some spontaneous (and forcible) confirmatory investigations by men. These did not contradict the male classification.

Setting aside the appalling nature of the investigation methods, we see a whole sequence of attempts to define the nature of maleness and femaleness. Was maleness something that had to be achieved above a certain threshold? Or was there a clear and uncrossable physiological dividing line between male and female? The result had major consequences for Hall’s day to day life, determining what occupations were allowed, what responsibilities were imposed, and what socializing was permitted. (Brown also hints that being classified as male protected Hall from sexual advances from his new employer and others, that might have been a hazard when classified as female.)

Brown provides a discussion of the socio-political stake the various parties had in both the process of the investigation and its conclusions. She notes that one key party--the maidservant that Hall had been accused of fornication with--was not called as witness, with several speculations on why this might have been the case. In any event, the question of gender transgression was more important to them than that of irregular sexual activity.

Having come to a decision on Hall’s gender categorization, the authorities in Warrosquyoacke were stuck on an appropriate punishment and passed the case along to Jamestown. The governor reviewed the testimony and then elicited Hall’s own biographical narrative.

[Note: at this point, I’m going to follow Brown’s lead and shift pronoun gender in alignment with Hall’s shifting presentation, except when quoting from Hall’s testimony. I hope this finds a balance between clarity, sensitivity, and narrative function.]

Hall was christened Thomasine (an unambiguously female name) when born in England and grew up living a female life and wearing female clothing. At age of 12, she was sent to London to live with an aunt (it was typical at that time for adolescent girls to be “placed out” to learn the skills of a housewife) for the next ten years. When Hall was 24, her brother was pressed into military service and she “cut off her hair and changed his apparel into the fashion of a man” to join the English forces supporting the Huguenots in France. On returning to England, Hall “changed himself into women’s apparel” and took up the (feminine) profession of needlework. She lived in the port of Plymouth, which may have inspired the next step in 1627 when she “changed again ...into the habit of a man” and sailed to Virginia.

After considering all the evidence and testimony, the court imposed the following sentence: Hall was required to take a male identity and wear male clothing, with the exception of being required to wear a (feminine) coif and apron. That is, the court enforced Hall’s gender ambiguity, not in the serial form that Hall had performed, but as a permanent hybrid presentation. The judgment that Hall was “a man and a woman” was to be published to the inhabitants of Warrosquyoacke so that they “may take notice thereof.” This suggests that rather than following the long legal tradition of requiring a fixed and unambiguous identity following the gender binary, the court had to some extent recognized Hall’s elusive non-binary nature and, instead, chose to enforce that non-binary identity.

The question of the original charge of fornication was not addressed, but neither was the question of the consequences for Hall’s future sexual activity. The ruling also problematized how Hall was to be treated within the gendered work and social environment of the community.

The article concludes by situating Hall in the context of other gender transgression narratives of the 16-17th century, including Elen@ de Cespedes, Catalina de Erauso, and Mary Frith. Unlike most such narratives, rather than the eventual conclusion being that the subject was a “hermaphrodite” or female transvestite, Hall was concluded to be male.

I want to focus on part of Brown’s analysis that I think needs to be interrogated. She says, “Hall’s atypicality...alerts us to another possible explanation for his otherwise difficult-to-fathom behavior. In a world in which dressing as a man brought women expanded economic and political opportunities, Hall found it difficult to suppress his female identity. ... Despite the attendant risks and disadvantages of being female in the seventeenth century, Hall found it personally useful, necessary, or comfortable to dress occasionally as a woman.” And then, after further discussion, “Perhaps ‘his’ female identity was so deeply embedded as a consequence of a childhood and adolescence of female training and identification that he could not shed it.”

I think this analysis overlooks two key aspects. One of them is what Brown notes: Hall was raised from birth to adulthood in a female role, treated as a woman and interacting with the world as a woman. To require some extraordinary explanation for Hall being comfortable returning to that performance smacks a bit too much of gender essentialism for comfort. To the extent that gender is performance--and Hall’s life story suggests a personal sympathy for that position--is it the historian’s place to impose a judgment that performing the gender one was raised as is “difficult to fathom”? The second aspect that is absent from this article is a consideration of Hall as potentially intersex. Brown invokes the early modern concept of the “hermaphrodite” as it was used in the discourse around gender categories and gender performance, but doesn’t seem to recognize the most plausible context in which an infant would be classified as female but then would present with under-developed male genitalia as an adult. Setting aside the question of whether physiology does (or should) attract one to a particular expression of gender performance, being intersex might well have motivated Hall to “try on” different genders and feel equally comfortable (or equally uncomfortable?) in each.

Time period: 17th cPlace: USAEnglandMisc tags: court casecross-dressingcross-gender roles/behaviorhermaphroditismtransgender identityEvent / person: Thomasine Hall







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Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 30b - The State of Lesbian Historicals in 2018

Saturday, January 12, 2019 - 07:00

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast

Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 30b - The State of Lesbian Historicals in 2018 - transcript

(Originally aired 2019/01/12 - listen here)

One of the things I’d like to do this year with the podcast is to start looking more broadly at the field of publishing lesbian-relevant historical fiction. I’ve also started using the phrase “lesbian-relevant” to describe my topic because it seems to better sum up my organizing principle of using the lesbian gaze. Both in the blog and the podcast, my content isn’t defined in terms of historic facts or personal identities, but rather in terms of topics, individuals, and texts that are likely to have resonance for lesbian readers. Not that I have any problem with having non-lesbian readers and listeners too!

One of my back-burner projects has been to try to compile a comprehensive list of current lesbian-relevant historical fiction. Quite a daunting task! I started off with the contents of my own library, a list from another long-time collector of lesbian historical fiction, and several Goodreads lists on relevant topics, as well as mining the back catalogs of lesbian presses. But at this point I can’t claim my database is anything close to comprehensive except for the last year, when I stared hunting down new releases systematically.

With those caveats in mind, here’s an overview of what’s getting published in lesbian-relevant historical fiction and who’s publishing it. Keep in mind that I include historicals that have fantasy elements as long as they’re set in an identifiable time and place.

For books released in 2018, I’ve identified a total of 83 titles. Slightly more than a fifth of them don’t have a named publisher (other than Amazon Digital, which is not so much a publisher as a distribution service). Many of the named publishers are one-author shops, but I’m not in the business of evaluating the line between micro-presses and self-publishing.

The remaining 65 titles were put out by 46 different named publishers, with 3/4 of them putting out only a single relevant title. Some of those are major publishers, but I’m only interested in the historical titles with lesbian relevance. Only 3 publishers put out 3 or more relevant titles in 2018, and it won’t surprise anyone familiar with the field to know that those were Bold Strokes Books, Bella Books, and Regal Crest Enterprises. But together, those three presses only put out 14 historicals in the year. Just a smidge more than one a month.

How does that compare to the last couple decades of publishing? Publishing via Amazon Digital may have increased substantially, but self-published books are the ones I’m most likely to have missed prior to this past year. The overall rate of singe-title publishers seems fairly constant. And when looking at the top producers for my entire data set, the top three come in the same order, with Bold Strokes Books at double the number of its nearest competitor, Bella Books, and Regal Crest coming in about half of Bella. The next competitor is Naiad Press, which is a pretty strong showing given that Naiad closed in the mid ‘90s!

[Sponsor break]

So when and where are the stories being set? Several popular topics emerge: stories set in a mythic early Greece, pirate adventures in the 17th and 18th centuries, Westerns generally involving a woman passing as a man or simply dressed like one, Victorian-era steampunk adventures, women who find a chance at love during the two world wars.

About 80% of the stories published in 2018 are set in the 19th and 20th centuries, with the vast majority being generally from the “wild west” era through World War II. I use those landmarks advisedly because the settings cluster strongly around key events and genres. And where are they set? Other than a cluster of stories set in the Greco-Roman mythic past, settings are dominated by the British Isles up through the early 19th century, after which American settings take over. Settings outside the British Isles and US are mostly related to World War II and its aftermath.

In my complete data set covering the last couple decades, the distribution is about the same, except that we’re currently getting a bit more coverage before the 19th century. There’s a lot of literary territory there for the claiming if you want to write something other than British Regencies, American Civil War and Wild West stories, and books set during the two world wars.

I have a more detailed breakdown by geography and timeframe, but currently a lot of this data is my best guess from the book blurbs, so I’ll spare you. Eventually, I hope to keep track of themes and tropes, which should make for some interesting analysis of how people imagine the lives of lesbians in the past. I plan to continue adding to my master database and will try to find a way to make it a searchable resource once the meta-data is a bit more complete.

What does all this mean for readers--and for authors, for that matter? With 83 titles, there’s certainly plenty to read. I’ve only read a tenth of the 2018 books, though several others are queued up on my iPad. But with the titles distributed across so many publishers -- most of them either self-published or micro-presses -- it can be a full-time job to try to track them down. Hint: that’s why it’s a great idea to follow this podcast!

For authors, I think one of the take-home messages is that if you want to stand out from the crowd, pick a setting before the 19th century or somewhere other than America or the British Isles. Of course, there are reasons why those settings are popular. They’re familiar, or they match popular genres in mainstream romance, or they match our own family backgrounds. But there’s so much more to explore!

For publishers, I think one message is that authors of lesbian historicals aren’t finding a place with you. I have no idea whether historical authors prefer to go independent, or whether publishers generally aren’t picking up historical titles. For that matter, I don’t really have the comparative data for other genres to know how the numbers compare. But I do know that readers who are hungry for historicals find slim pickings from the more recognizable presses and that creates a downward cycle. In mainstream romance, historicals are a booming business. I’d like to think that there’s a similar potential for people looking for romantic lesbian stories set in the past. And someone who focused on that might find a wide-open market niche.

Major category: LHMPTags: LHMPpodcast

What Hath She Wrote in 2018?

Tuesday, January 1, 2019 - 09:50

bookreview.jpg

I’ve gotten in the habit of doing a year-end summary of my creative output, if only to convince myself that I really have accomplished something after all. It’s funny: people have a tendency to react as if I’m boasting, or making the lists to try to make other people feel bad. But for me it’s an emotional survival tool. What have I done? What do I have to show for all the time, energy (and money) I’ve poured into the projects of my heart? Am I putting those resources into things that bring return? The intangible returns are the connections and friendships I make. The unknowable returns are the difference I may have made in other people’s lives. But the only thing I can actually lay out in a blog are the words.

As in previous years, this doesn’t cover the specific calendar year of 2018, but rather picks up after the close of last year’s post which was written on December 12. This year, I’m close enough to the end of the year that I’ll just write it up with the remainder of the year's posts and set it to go live on January 1.

Fiction

In 2018 I had one work of fiction published, and wrote 7 installments on what was intended to be a 25-part serial to promote Jae’s Lesbian Book Bingo challenge. I dropped the serial because of insufficient reader interest. (While I do many projects just for my own enjoyment, when push comes to shove and I have to choose priorities, I’m always more likely to prioritize projects where I have tangible evidence of reader interest. Keep that in mind.) I also finished and polished my novella “The Language of Roses” and sent it off on submission.  I sincerely hope that in the 2019 round-up, I’ll have something further to say about it.

Essays

This year there was a drastic drop in how much I blogged outside of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project. Part of that was the increased work being put into the LHMP, part of it was the sense of talking into the void. I honestly don’t know what to do about that. A major part of my social interactions occur online, and blogging has always been part of that. But I'm not into sitting in the corner mubling to myself. In any event, I wrote 5 posts about my own writing projects, participated in 7 guest appearances either as a host or guest, wrote 5 miscellaneous essays, and posted several blogs about the LHMP fiction series. I like doing the random blogs, especially on philosophical topics, but it really does feel like mumbling to myself these days.

Lesbian Historic Motif Project

The vast majority of my non-fiction writing energy was poured into the Lesbian Historic Motif Project. I posted summaries of 62 publications of which 15 were books and the rest individual articles, bringing me up to a grand total of 228 publications for the project. Three of this year's posts involved translation (for which I had support from my very talented friends). Back in the 1990s when I first had thoughts about something like the Project, you never would have convinced me that I could find 228 publications relevant to lesbian history, much less the 600 or so in my master database. I long ago gave up the idea of turning it into some sort of overall synthesis, but in this past year, my mind has been turning back to that idea. I'm starting to think that I might have enough of a grasp on the Big Picture of how lesbian-relevant themes have been understood over time (at least in western Europe) to create something of a road map from all these individual snapshots.

The Podcast maintained its weekly schedule (the links below include 55 shows since the beginning of this summary period was in early December). I interviewed 15 authors or readers, presented 4 original short stories, recorded 13 long-form essays, as well as 9 mini-essays as part of my monthly round-ups, announced 61 new fiction publications of lesbian historical interest, and gave shout-outs to several conferences and podcasts that my listeners might be interested in.

Reviews

On my blog, I reviewed 10 works of fiction with significant lesbian themes, 4 additional works in the SF/F category, 3 books that fall in neither of those (and that weren’t part of the LHMP reading), 2 movie reviews, 1 theater review, and a couple of round-up posts with shorter reviews of tv, movies, and books purchased but not yet read. I posted 36 reviews of short audio fiction at SFF Reviews and then fell off the wagon in...oh dear...April. (Once I get out of the rhythm on a project like that, I get anxiety attacks about getting caught up and the longer I wait, of course the more there is to catch up. I may need to just clear the mental cache and start from an arbitrary new point.) I started reprising some of my book reviews at The Lesbian Review (so, things I also blogged, but in a different format) and posted 11 reviews there.

Events

I once again did my “live-blogging Kalamazoo” posts, summarizing the papers presented in 9 sessions. (I’m not certain I’ll be able to continue this as the Medieval Congress is implementing a new policy about blogging/tweeting sessions and it might involve getting active consent from the speakers -- which is not a bad thing, all in all, but might complicate the logistics too much.) Although I attended my usual number of conventions, I only really blogged reports from 2 of them. (I’m finding that travel wears me out more than it used to, so the post-con travel time when I might otherwise post a summary  it a bit more useless these days.)

Summary

So how does all that compare to last year? (Keeping in mind that I shuffle the categories around every year based on what I’m doing.)

Fiction: same number of professional publications, but this year I also did the mini-serial. I like the idea of putting out shorter fiction for free, but I need a better system of knowing whether it's worth the effort.
Essays: Blogs about writing were way down (5, as compared to last year’s 24) with non-writing blogs holding steady. Guest/Host appearances were up (7 compared to 4 in 2017, though several of this year’s were in support of a single book bundle).
LHMP: Publications covered were significantly up this year: 62, compared to last year’s 27 spread across 39 posts. But in 2017 I took a hiatus from posting early in the year when the website content was being migrated to the new format. And the podcast numbers have grown every year by virtue of the simple fact that I started the show in 2016, expanded to weekly in the middle of 2017, and 2018 is the first year with an entirely weekly format. It's a massive amount of writing. I thought about trying to do a rough word-count estimate, but I'm not sure I want to know.
Events: About the same number of events blogged about, but there were more individual posts last year because I was blogging my entire 3-week trip around Worldcon.
Reviews: Book reviews (all formats) are about the same as last year only if you count my TLR reviews separately. (Which they are, in terms of work, though not in terms of number of books reviewed.) Reviews of audio fiction are way up, despite dropping the ball midway through the year. I guess the miscellaneous reviews are about the same, if you fudge how you count the short round-ups.

All in all, as I noted above, my output has shifted significantly from general blogging (and especially blogging about my writing) to work put into the Lesbian Historic Motif Project, especially the podcast. Is this sustainable? Who can tell? I’ve committed to continuing the podcast in its current format for another year and that will take me through and past my 100th episode, but I can envision deciding to cut back at some point.

Detailed List with Links

Fiction

“Gifts Tell Truth” in Lace and Blade 4 ed. by Deborah J. Ross
Lesbian Book Bingo 2018
Follow the Drum
All the Stage is a World
Besieged
Three White Doves
A Girl Can Dream
Family is Something You Do
Follow the Drum: Reprise
Why I stopped writing the Lesbian Book Bingo story series

About My Writing

The Rose has Bloomed (i.e, “The Language of Roses” goes out to the beta readers)
Only a Month to Lace and Blade 4
Circling back to the rising river
Reader Questions: Can Fluctus be Detected with NIR?
Gaylactic Spectrum Awards - Mother of Souls is Best Novel

Guest Blogs (both as host and guest)

Guest blog for Deborah J. Ross about “Gifts Tell Truth”
Podcast appearance: Les Do Books - Regency Romances
Hosting participants in the LGBT+ SF STorybundle
Melissa Scott’s Introduction
Melissa Scott
Geonn Cannon
Tenea D. Johnson

I am interviewed on the BiSciFi podcast

Miscellaneous Content

Looking back at my blogging resolutions in 2017
Start as You Mean to Go On (a positivity post)
Several posts about the submissions window for the LHMP fiction series (not specifically linked)
Announcing the 2018 podcast fiction line-up
What the Heck is Heather Doing These Days?
The Unintentional Gatekeeping of the Single Access Point (inspired by becoming a reviewer at The Lesbian Review)
Nuances of Genre Labels
Announcing the 2019 Podcast Fiction Series Call for Submissions

Lesbian Historic Motif Project (Blog)

The Lesbian Premodern edited by Noreen Giffney, Michelle M. Sauer & Diane Watt

#167 Freccero, Carla. 2011. “The Queer Time of the Lesbian Premodern”
#168 Jankowski 2011 ’Virgins’ and ‘Not-women’: Dissident Gender Positions
#169 Weston 2011 Virgin Desires: Reading a Homoerotics of Female Monastic Community
#170 Klosowska 2011 Medieval Barbie Dolls: Femme Figures in Ascetic Collections
#171 Vanita 2011 Naming Love: The God Kama, the Goddess Ganga, and the Child of Two Women
#172 Bennett 2011 Remembering Elizabeth Etchingham and Agnes Oxenbridge
#173 Puff 2011 Toward a Philology of the Premodern Lesbian
#174 Bauer 2011 Lesbian Time
#175 Faderman 2011 A Useable Past?
#176 Freeman 2011 Sacramentality and the Lesbian Premodern
#177 Garber 2011 Necessity is the Invention of Lesbians
#178 Vicinus 2011 Lesbian Ghosts
#179 Wiegman 2011 Afterword: The Lesbian Premodern Meets the Lesbian Postmodern

#180 Conner 1997 Les Molles et les chausses
#182 Watt 1997 Read My Lips: Clipping and Kyssyng in the Early Sixteenth Century
#183 Merrill 2000 When Romeo was a Woman
#184 Leach 1970 Bright Particular Star
#185 Summerscale 1997 The Queen of Whale Cay
#186 Gonda 2006 Lesbian Narrative in the Travels and Adventures of Mademoiselle de Richelieu
Body guards : the cultural politics of gender ambiguity edited by Julia Epstein & Kristina Straub
#187 Rowson 1991 The Categorization of Gender and Sexual Irregularity in Medieval Arabic Vice Lists
#188 Jones & Stallybrass 1991 Fetishizing Gender: Constructing the Hermaphrodite in Renaissance Europe
#189 Trumbach 1991 London’s Sapphists: From Three Sexes to Four Genders in the Making of Modern Culture
#190 Straub 1991 The Guilty Pleasures of Female Theatrical Cross-Dressing and the Autobiography of Charlotte Charke

Queer Renaissance Historiography, ed. by Vin Nardizzi, Stephen Guy-Bray & Will Stockton
#191 Crawford 2009 Women’s Secretaries
#192 Drouin 2009 Diana’s Band: Safe Spaces, Publics, and Early Modern Lesbianism

#193 Putter 1997 Transvestite Knights in Medieval Life and History
#196 Kruk 1998 The Bold and the Beautiful: Women and ‘fitna’ in the Sīrat Dhāt al-Himma
#194 Rowson 2003 Gender Irregularity as Entertainment: Institutionalized Transvestism at the Caliphal Court in Medieval Baghdad
#195 Wiethaus 2003 Female Homoerotic Discourse and Religion in Medieval Germanic Culture
#197 Bennett & McSheffrey 2014 Early, Exotic and Alien: Women Dressed as Men in Late Medieval London
#198 Decker-Hauff 1967 Die Cronik der Grafen von Zimmern
#199 Brantôme 1740 Vies des Dames Galantes
#200 Morgan 2016 From Huw Arwystli to Siôn Eirian
#201 Crawford & Gowing 2000 Women’s Worlds in Seventeenth-Century England
#202 Donoghue 1993 Imagined More than Women: Lesbians as Hermaphrodites
#203 Donato 2006 Public and Private Negotiations of Gender in Eighteenth-Century England and Italy
#204 Holler 1999 More Sins than the Queen of England
#205 Lanser 2007 The Political Economy of Same-Sex Desire
#206 Hitchcock 1997 English Sexualities, 1700-1800
#207 Wiethaus 1993 In Search of Medieval Women’s Friendships
#208 Berry 2005 Lawful Kisses? Sexual Ambiguity and Platonic Friendship in England, c. 1660-1720
#209 Green 1990 Female Sexuality in the Medieval West
#210 Bullough 1982a Transvestism in the Middle Ages
#211 Lemay 1996 Human Sexuality in Twelfth- through Fifteenth-Century Scientific Writings
#212 Todd & Spearing 1994 Counterfeit Ladies
#213 Ungerer 2000 Mary Frith, Alias Moll Cutpurse, in Life and Literature
#214 Kranz 1995 The Sexual Identities of Moll Cutpurse in Dekker and Middleton’s The Roaring Girl and in London
#215 Bennett 1991 Mary Diana Dods: A Gentleman and a Scholar
Mary Diana Dods - A Reference Timeline

#216 Adams 1982 The Latin Sexual Vocabulary
#217 Hubbard 2003 Homosexuality in Greece and Rome
#218 Williams 2010 Roman Homosexuality
#219 Hallett & Skinner 1997 Roman Sexualities
#220 Iamblichos Babyloniaka
#221 Gorman 2001 Thinking with and about ‘Same-Sex Desire’
#222 Binhammer 1996 The Sex Panic of the 1790s
#223 Merrick 1990 Sexual Politics and Public Order in Late Eighteenth-Century France
#224 Craft-Fairchild 2006 Sexual and Textual Indeterminacy
#225 Van der Meer 1991 Tribades on Trial: Female Same-Sex Offenders in Late Eighteenth-Century Amsterdam
#226 Garber 2005 Where in the World are the Lesbians?
#227 Vanita & Kidwai 2000 Same-Sex Love in India
#228 Thadani 1996 Sakhiyani

Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast

Episode 17c - Book Appreciation with T.T. Thomas
Episode 17d - Death did not them Depart
Episode 17e - 2017 Roundup
Episode 18a - On the Shelf for January 2018  - Some 19th century novels with lesbian themes
Episode 18b - Interview with Kathleen Knowles
Episode 18c - Book Appreciation with Kathleen Knowles
Episode 18d - (Un)Conventional Women
Episode 19a - On the Shelf for February 2018 - A discussion of sources on non-European lesbian history
Episode 19b - Interview with Ellen Klages
Episode 19c - Book Appreciation with Ellen Klages
Episode 19d - Charlotte Cushman
Episode 20a - On the Shelf for March 2018 - interview with Phoebe Legere
Episode 20b - Interview with Elizabeth Bear
Episode 20c - Book Appreciation with Elizabeth Bear
Episode 20d - Falling in Love with Cross-Dressing Girls
Episode 20e - One Night in Saint-Martin by Catherine Lundoff
Episode 21a - On the Shelf for April 2018 - sources on 1920s Chicago
Episode 21b - Interview with Alyssa Cole
Episode 21c: Book Appreciation with Liz Bourke
Episode 21d - Diana and Callisto: The Sometimes Problematic Search for Representation
Episode 22a - On the Shelf for May 2018  - (no Ask Sappho segment due to lack of interest)
Episode 22b - Interview with Jeannelle M. Ferreira
Episode 22c - Book Appreciation with Jeannelle M. Ferreira
Episode 22d - Queer Women’s Communities and Meeting Places
Episode 23a - On the Shelf for June 2018 - The history of “coming out”
Episode 23b - Interview with Lise MacTague
Episode 23c - Book Appreciation with Lise MacTague
Episode 23d - The Ladies of Llangollen
Episode 23e - Inscribed by V. M. Agab
Episode 24a - On the Shelf for July 2018 - The history of drag king-like performers
Episode 24b: Interview with Justine Saracen
Episode 24c - Book Appreciation with Justine Saracen
Episode 24d - Women and Same-Sex Marriage in Western History
Episode 25a - On the Shelf for August 2018 - Why I use the word “lesbian” for the blog and podcast
Episode 25b - Interview with Vanda
Episode 25c - Book Appreciation with Darlene Vendegna
Episode 25d - Poetry about Love Between Women from the 16th and 17th Centuries
Episode 26a - On the Shelf for September 2018 - Who was Bilitis?
Episode 26b: Interview with K. Aten
Episode 26c: Book Appreciation with K Aten
Episode 26d - Moll Cutpurse
Episode 26e - Peaceweaver by Jennifer Nestojko
Episode 27a - On the Shelf for October 2018 - Mary Diana Dods
Episode 27b - Sappho of Lesbos: The Woman and the Legend (reprised)
Episode 27c - Sappho: The Translations (reprised)
Episode 27d - Woman Plus Woman in Classical Rome
Episode 28a - On the Shelf for November 2018 - (No Ask Sappho segment due to lack of questions)
Episode 28b - Interview with Elizabeth Tammi
Episode 28c - Book Appreciation: Reading Outside Your Comfort Zone
Episode 28d - Anne Damer
Episode 29a - On the Shelf for December 2018 - An interesting 18th century archaeological find
Episode 29b - Interview with Carrie Pack
Episode 29c - Book Appreciation with Carrie Pack
Episode 29d - Queen Anne
Episode 29e - At the Mouth by Gurmika Mann

Reviews: Books/Fiction - SFF

The House of Binding Thorns by Aliette de Bodard
Murder on the Titania by Alex Acks
The Periling Hand by Justin Howe
Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher

Reviews: Books/Fiction - Lesbian

The Tiger's Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera
That Could Be Enough by Alyssa Cole
The Price of Meat by K.J. Charles
Making Arrangements by Rose Fox
The Covert Captain by Jeannelle M. Ferreira
Thora: A Spartan Hoplite’s Slave by Red Hope
Awake Unto Me by Kathleen Knowles
A Study in Honor by Claire O'Dell
Creatures of Will and Temper by Molly Tanzer
In the Vanishers' Palace by Aliette de Bodard

Reviews: Other

Movie: The Last Jedi
Book Intake: Lots of Misc Stuff August 2017 to Date
Move: The Shape of Water
Assorted short reviews (Battle of the Sexes, Coco, Black Panther, A Wrinkle in Time, Wynona Earp, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell)
Book: The Lives of Girls and Women from the Islamic World in Early Modern British Literature and Culture by Bernadette Andrea
Book: Hamilton's Battalion by Lerner, Milan, Cole
Book: Agnes Moor's Wild Knight by Alyssa Cole
Theater: The Lifespan of a Fact

Convention/Conference Reports

FOGCon

FOGCon 2018 Recap

Live-Blogging Kalamazoo
Thursday 10:00 Networks of Knowledge in Late Medieval Iberia
Thursday 3:30 Living and Dying in Viking-Age Ireland

Friday 10:00 Dress and Textiles I: Representing Textiles and Dress
Friday 1:30 Dress and Textiles II: Metaphor and Materiality
Friday 3:30 Dress and Textiles III: New Analyses of Old Evidence
Saturday 10:00 Towards a Medieval Transgender Studies
Saturday 3:30 Occult Blockbusters of the Islamicate World II: Arabic and Persian
The 2018 Book Intake Post
Sunday 10:30 The Matter of Alchemy: Deciphering Medieval Practices

BayCon
BayCon Panel Notes: Costuming Through the Ages

Worldcon (San Jose)
My schedule (I never did a con report)

Sirens
Con report

Major category: PromotionPublications: FloodtideGifts Tell TruthTags: Year-End SummarywritingLesbian Book BingoreviewsGifts Tell TruthLHMPpodcastthe language of rosesFloodtide

The Deep Mythic Roots of Same-Sex Love in India

Monday, December 31, 2018 - 12:00

The Lesbian Historic Motif Project

This is a dense and wide-ranging study of lesbian-relevant themes in Indian history, literature, religion, and politics, covering the entire range of history from the earliest written records up through the present day. I'll confess that I'm not familiar enough with the literary and religious traditions to be able to take in a lot of the nuances, but Thadani does a great job of providing both an overview and deep dives within an amazingly compact volume. This is the sort of book that can really only be written from within a culture, as she tackles the ways in which modern Indian nationalism adapted and built on the colonial legacy of misogyny and homophobia for its own purposes. Although the chapters on the experiences of lesbians in modern India come across as fairly depressing, keep in mind that this book was written over 20 years ago. It is foundational, but far from the last or most recent word on the topic.

This post brings 2018 to a close, and it makes a good time to reflect on the state of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project. I'll be including this year's content in my "What Hath She Wrote in 2018" blog that goes up tomorrow, but this is more of a "where have I been and where am I going?" thing.

I started the LHMP in the middle of 2014, and a simple count of the publications covered dodges the fact that sometimes a book has been covered in multiple posts (I think Faderman's Surpassing the Love of Men took the longest with over two dozen separate posts) while other times I've covered a book of similar length in a single blog. But here are the raw statistics:

2014 (for the half-year) - 75 publications
2015 - 36 publications
2016 - 26 publications & 5 podcasts (toward the end of the year and the beginning of 2017, I wasn't adding new publications due to work on the website)
2017 - 34 publications & 29 podcasts
2018 - 57 publications & 52 podcasts

I've been trying to reconstruct how my "to do" list of publications has grown over that time, but I'm not sure the information can be retrieved. I think that back in 2014 when I first populated my database from the books already in my library it had about 50 books in it. In early 2016, I drew up a "to do" list from the database of material I knew about but hadn't yet covered, which had 177 items listed (some of which were collections that were covered as multiple publications). So if you combine that with the 111 items I'd covered in the blog by then, we get a total of 288. Or, roughly, I'd added 2 titles for every one I blogged. The database currently has a total of 605 titles, so in the last two years I've added a little over 300 and covered 91, for an addition rate of 3 titles for every one I blog. I think you can see where this is going.

Did I know what the potential scope of this project would be when I started? Back in the 1990s when it was only a twinkle in my eye, not only did I not envision how many publications would be available, but most of them literally didn't exist back then. I've recently added a field for "year published" to the database so I could look at the distribution -- although keep in mind that my database contents are far from random or even necessarily representative, given that I tend to add new titles mostly from the bibliographies of existing ones. It isn't necessarily that fewer relevant thing were published in the last decade, but that I may not know about them because they were published after the material I've been blogging recently. It does seem to be true, however that the '90s were a glorious time for works on the history of gender and sexuality!

Published prior to 1980: 40
Published 1980-1989: 88
Published 1990-1999: 252
Published 2000-2009: 144
Published 2010-present: 81

One of the things I hope to add to the Project in the near future is the beginnings of a synthesis of what I've learned about trends, motifs, and patterns in the expression of lesbian-relevant history. (I've started using "lesbian-relevant" rather than "lesbian-like" in talking about the project because in many ways it better fits the subjective focus on "useable" history for the purposes of creating historical fiction.) One of the more daunting projects is to tackle the complex intertwining of gender and sexuality around the motif of transmasculine expression, especially with an eye to helping authors create historic lesbian characters that employ gender disguise or butch/femme dynamics in ways that don't erase or disparage transgender framings of the same themes. Another daunting project is to create something of a timeline (at least for a European context) of expressions and receptions of female same-sex relations that gives an idea of what types of stories fit well into different historic contexts.

I'm also interested in hearing from readers about what would make the Project more useful to you. Both the tag system and the search function are intended to make it easier to find relevant content, but I'll confess that I'd love to be able to include a multi-factor search (e.g., "16th century AND Germany") which isn't currently possible.

On a separate path, I'm getting closer to massaging my database of lesbian-relevant historical fiction into usability, and by the end of 2019 I hope to be able to present it for others to use in identifying works falling in a particular historic context or with particular themes. (I currently have 430 titles in it and I'm sure that there are large gaps due to the random nature of my current sourcing system, i.e., mostly Goodreads lists and combing through the catalogs of the major lesfic publishers.)

As I'll be explaining in next week's podcast, I'm loosening up the structure of the podcast slightly to include more variety in the mid-month shows, so ideas for podcast content are also welcome and appreciated (including people interested in appearing on the podcast to talk about books or themes).

And that's what I'm thinking about on this New Year's Eve.

Major category: LHMPTags: LHMP







LHMP #228 Thadani 1996 Sakhiyani





About LHMP

Full citation: 

Thadani, Giti. 1996. Sakhiyani: Lesbian Desire in Ancient and Modern India. Cassell, London. ISBN 0-304-33452-9

Preface

This book is, in many ways, a political analysis as much as a historic and literary one, tracing the ways in which the “invisibility” of lesbianism in modern India derives not only from defining “lesbian” narrowly as a specific Western phenomenon, but from the influence of male European and Orientalist elements in the study of Indian history to erase woman-centered traditions, in collaboration with Indian nationalist elements that continue the control of the historic narrative by elite men. More recent feminist approaches have challenged this dominance with regard to gender but done little to challenge the heteronormative default.

This book tries to work around those political forces by focusing on desire between women rather than on personal identity. The introductory material includes a glossary of relevant vocabulary from the older texts in order to avoid the necessary blurring of meaning involved in translation or substitution.

Chapter 1: Lesbian Invisibility

The book starts with a concrete example from contemporary times of how female-centered traditions are literally replaced by or converted into male-centered spaces, practices, and deities: the actual re-carving of the statue of a female deity to remove its breasts and other female signifiers, after which it was re-labeled with the name of a male deity.

Thadani identifies multiple examples of overlaying male identity on traditionally female deities and the denial of female divine presence and agency, especially by converting pairs of female divinities to male-female pairs (a god and “his consort”). In other examples, a temple structure where a group of figures or structures representing female divinities had previously surrounded a deliberately open space is re-focused on male presence by placing the statue of a male divinity in the center of the focal space. Thadani documents this as an ongoing modern process even affecting sites that are theoretically protected as of historic significance. Another approach is for images with obviously feminine characteristics to be described in official literature as masculine. There is a long tradition of independent female deities being appropriated as male or converted into the “consort” of a male deity.

Hindu nationalism has invested in the artificial construction of a homogenized and monolithic Hinduism (historically, in reaction to and as a bulwark against invasions by Islamic and European cultures). This monolithic structure necessarily erases the traditions of independent female deities. And the selective editing of older religious traditions has systematically reconstructed “Indian tradition” as monolithically heterosexual. Thadani presents a structural discussion of how patriarchal assumptions impose patriarchal conclusions on otherwise neutral data.

Indian nationalism promoted the view that homosexuality was an invasive tradition by external “others”: Greek, Islamic, European. This attitude also erased traditional concepts of a plural-gendered self which allowed for myriad gender interactions.

Historical and philosophical arguments are structured to frame desire as always for the “other”--a position that presumes that women can only worship a male god and that goddess traditions can only be viewed via the mediation of a male worshipper or male deity. Even Tantric traditions that emphasize a merging of male and female within the self present the process from a male point of view.

Thadani discusses whether the word “lesbian” is appropriate to use in exploring earlier Indian history, but settles on claiming the term “lesbian” as a political choice--not as an identity, but as an experience of desire. She uses the image of Kali standing on the corpse of Shiv as a symbol of women rejecting submissive subordination. But this image also represents the difficulty of trying to create a unified Hindu tradition without conflict over, and erasure of, the essentially contradictory traditions that appear in the source material.

This book works chronologically through various historic traditions, showing how they interacted and evolved. There is a discussion of key points of linguistics that manifest in how deities are identified. One key process is creating masculine forms of feminine terms that appropriate the underlying concept as masculine. The generic feminine is expressed in grammatically plural or dual forms, indicating different aspects of the goddess. But dual forms (especially in translation) get reinterpreted as masculine singular terms. Another process is for word roots that are not inherently gendered, but can be expressed in either masculine or feminine forms, to be converted into an inherently masculine word root that then is feminized via suffixes. This results in a linguistic “male default with subordinate feminine forms” rather than equivalent male and female derivatives. [Note: To envision what Thadani is talking about here, think about all the agentive nouns in English where the root form defaults to male and the female form is created by adding “-ess”, although there has been an effective movement to address this issue--poet/poetess, actor/actress, steward/stewardess.]

Chapter 2: The Dual Feminine

[Note: The earliest written literature from India are the Vedic hymns--religious texts in an early form of Sanskrit.]

The earliest written records are not “original” in any meaningful sense but reflect complex, contradictory layers of tradition. Earlier cosmologies can only be approximated by identifying patterns and discontinuities in the material. Thadani references Marija Gimbutas’s theory of a shift from gynefocal to patriarchal societies around 4000 BCE. [Note: Gimbutas was an archaeologist and anthropologist focusing on Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures in Europe. The theory referenced here is not universally accepted.] “Excavating” earlier traditions fromt he Rig Veda (as the collection of Vedic hymns are collectively known) requires recognizing that it doesn’t represent a coherent system.

Later interpretations projected a pattern of subservient female consorts to male deities, but that pattern fractures when the material is analyzed in detail. Traces of earlier, independent feminine symbologies are still present, in particular in the form of female divine pairs in contrast to male-female pairs. These dual feminine figures are not “lesbian” as a whole, but can include lesbian-relevant figures.

The dual feminine is the basis for feminine genealogies in the Vedic traditions--part of a continuum of female-female bonds and relationships that can’t be reduced to sexual encounters.

Thadani explores one motif-group associated with the figure of Usha: a female symbol of light, imagined as a complex woven structure. Contrasts of dark-light and stillness-movement are transformed continuously one to the other, not set up in binary opposition. They are represented by dual sisters sharing the same space. Key terminology of this representation includes jami (twins, though not necessarily implying biological relationship), dyava (dual female deities), and language implying union, togetherness, kissing, as well as the image of dual mothers. Dyava comes from the dual feminine linguistic form of dya (light). The full dual is dyavau and the root dyava implies a single unit with dual identity. This divine female pair can be seen as lovers, mothers, or sisters. In this era, divine pairs are not identified as male-female pairs but as same-sex jami (twins), either male or female.

The dual female deity comes together with the earth as a feminine generative unit, creating various patterns of female genealogy. The Rig Veda includes many dual feminine divinities, especially Usha and Nakta, representing the revolving/shifting change of existence, not as a binary opposition but as a continuous alternation. Within this cosmology, humanity (both female and male) is generated from a female pair who give birth without being impregnated and are both mothers. Social structures based on this cosmology involve kinship based on collective motherhood. Specific instances of female-female relationships in the Vedas include paired mothers, mother-daughter pairs, or paired yuvati (lovers). The pervasive term jami (twin) doesn’t necessarily indicate biological twins but the idea of a linked, equal couple.

Poetic imagery often involves sacred animals, such as pairs of cows sharing the nurturing of a calf, or paired mares.

[Note: Thadani goes into a fair amount of technical detail on linguistic derivations of terms, such as specific words for “sister”. While I haven’t had time to follow up on this in detail, I’m reserving judgment on the linguistic validity of the derivations, as opposed to these being traditional etymologies in the extensive Sanskrit linguistic literature.]

Jami sexuality is seen as a flowing together, a fusing of diverse streams, a transformation as a result of joining. Mother-daughter symbolism is more extensive than simple biological kinship. There is extensive symbolism using the erotics of breast-centered fecundity, milk as life/nourishment. Womb symbolism includes caves, tides, and regeneration.

Female dualities interact with Earth to generate a third space: a material fertility embodied as the revolving alternation of the dyad and the material force that drives them.

[Note: OK, that’s a lot of general imagery, summarized by me very superficially. This is a complex and detailed text and the best I can do is give you an impressionistic idea of it.

Chapter 3: The Myths of Usha and Urvashi

This chapter uses the female pair Usha and Urvashi to illustrate the shift to a male-centered cosmology. It opens with a hymn depicting the male god Indr overthrowing, defeating, and raping the light-goddess Usha. This can be seen as embodying the disruption of an earlier worldview of movement-fluidity, and imposing the image of a directional defeat of one force over its polar opposite, rather than a continuous alternation. Similarly disruptive imagery is seen in myths of the killing of the goddess Danu and her son, which is presented as “heroic deeds.”

Concrete imagery in these hymns includes splitting mountains, possessing bodies of water, killing feminine deities and sybols, penetration and violent victory. Light is depicted as a conqueror of darkeness rather than an alternation. Diversity becomes opposition. The focus shifts to semen as a generative force and a system of binary opposition, culture versus nature, sacrifice as the basis of creativity.

Rather than Usha being the dual-feminine “daughter of light” she is changed into primarily being a mother of sons. Divine female figures who cannot be attached to male deities as adjuncts are literally “demonized.”

The tension between matrifocal and patriarchal society continues to play out in the mythic material, as illustrated by the myth of Urvashi and Pururvas. Urvashi “the expansive one” is a water goddess. Pururvas is the mortal son of the goddess Ida (born without reference to a father figure). This tradition includes the earliest known reference to the root shiva (a feminine form, and appearing prior to masculine use).

Pururvas is depicted as raping and impregnating Urvashi, who berates him for acting against the feminine cosmology. Urvashi maintains her unobtainable essence--the immortality Pururvas desires to obtain from her--and he is condemned to mortality. Pururvas demands that the Ushas (the dual-feminine deity) offer their benefits to the patriarchal family, while Urvashi rejects the supposedly claiming act of rape/penetration. Urvashi’s natural state of immortal existence is in contrast to Pururvas’s “other/beyond” state, representing death. In contrast, the patriarchal world that Pururvas attempts to claim her for is “exile” to Urvashi. (That is, this is the symbolic language used in their dialogues.)

In later versions of the story, rather than this conflict being presented as a dialogue between Urvashi and Pururvas, a male narrator is inserted into the story who takes over presenting Urvashi’s voice. In that version, Urvashi’s departure from the patriarchal arrangement, which results in the ego-death of Pururvas (death and immortality) is re-interpreted as a “rescue” by other forces rather than a self-rejection.

The story involves a complicated symbolism of death/separation (Nirriti) imagined as a passage between lives or worlds, the “beyond”. This image became linked to female desire and sexual fluidity as contrasted to “virility/manhood.” “Virile” sexuality was focused only on reproduction, not as an experience of desire. Nirriti is framed as an anti-virile, feminizing force. This view of sexuality automatically excludes ecstatic experiences and same-sex sexuality in the jami mode, which latter comes to stand for any non-procreative sexuality.

Chapter 4: The Control of Lesbian Sexuality

(In the middle of this chapter, we have a selection of photos of art--sculpture and painting of a variety of eras--depicting sexual activity between women or illustrating some of the mythic material discussed in the text.)

In mythological stories, ascetic mysticism represented a tension between male chastity and female sexuality, with the latter represented by an unconsorted female deity living among a community of women. This uncontrolled, free female sexual energy was contrasted with the “dharmic” ascetic man. His abstinence was fear of the feminine erotic. His only approved purpose for sexuality was the production of male offspring. Outside of that purpose, sexual desire was impurity and a weakening force.

Theology structured the world as a male (by definition) lord and his domain, which was represented in female terms. Within this system, there is no place for female self-determination and will. The female aspect represented material nature, the lower, earthly aspect of the world. This contrasts with the earlier gynefocal cosmology. This shift is also established via legal, medical, and mythic texts.

Dharma -- “right conduct” -- was defined in specifically patriarchal terms. The parameters were established in philosophical literature around the 5th century BCE through the 2nd or 3rd century CE.

Legal texts established the heterosexual family as the only recognized mode of kinship. Caste boundaries were enforced. During this era, laws against lesbian sexuality were established, focusing on the potential for sex between women to destroy virginity or for the potential of sexual initiation of a younger woman by an older one. For example, one text gives two relevant laws: if a virgin (kanya) has sex with another virgin, she pays twice the bride price to the other’s father and is beaten. If a woman (stri) deflowers a virgin, her head is shaved or two fingers cut off and she is publicly shamed.

The emphasis here is on “virginity” as a commodity under the patriarchal marriage economy, for which a father must be compenated. The question arises, in the first case of two virgins, who is the “active” partner who is viewed as the perpetrator? The language itself does not require an asymmetric act and could cover non-penetrative activities as well as penetrative ones. The emphasis is on the concept of “deflowering” but can include self-penetration or non-vaginal sex. Legal commentaries suggest interpretations such a assigning the perpetrator role to the woman of higher caste. There is an emphasis on women’s inability to legally consent to sex or to control her own sexuality. Women are not supposed to be sexually initiated by another woman, only by a husband within marriage.

Inter-caste and adulterous relationships are also prohibited, illustrating the overall system’s focus on restricting sexuality to approved marriage pairings. Non-procreative sex of any type is disparaged.

Within marriage, medical literature provides detailed rules and instructions for how to perform approved types of procreative sex for the desired effect (a healthy male child). This same literature provides catalogs of types of sexual “defects” that either prevent achieving this desired effect or are the result of improper sexual behavior. This includes various categories of male homosexuality, as well as the claim that sex between two women will produce a boneless fetus. (These descriptions, however, provide specific descriptions of sexual acts between women, such as “when one woman...mounts another woman like a man and rubs herself against the other woman.” A tendency toward lesbian sex is identified as an “illness” of the vagina due to improper sex at conception or to embryonic damage due to defective gametes. Lesbians are conflated with the inability to beget children in the epithets applied to them: man-hater, breastless, incapable of menstruation, possessing no ovum. But at the same time, medical literature of this era considers it possible for a woman to impregnate another woman via the clitoris which is recognized as a penis-analog. (The most famous example of this scenario is in the birth of Bhagirath from the sexual union of two women.)

Medical terminology distinguished the procreative yoni from the external genitalia (bhag) relevant to sexual pleasure. Thus a verb indicating sex between women sambhog, which is found in one version of the Ramayan in which the god Ganesh is born from the union of the queens Chandra and Mala. Variants of this motif occur in other stories, often involving the co-wives of a dead king producing an heir for him after his death. Mythic versions often include motifs of water deities where the merging of bodies of water symbolizes sex.

(This chapter includes extensive details of sexual theology that are difficult to summarize, as well as an extensive list of divine names and attributes that incorporate the element bhag.)

The cosmology involving rigid structures around caste, gender, and sexuality were revised with the (re)introduction of a divine feminine principle, shakti. This provided an opportunity for older female divinities that had been converted into consorts of male deities to return to an autonomous state in which the concept of procreative sex was inverted or subverted. (Various mythic/heroic stories involving autonomous female figures who disrupt patriarchal expectations are discussed.) These stories also include sex-change motifs, as when two kings pledge that their not-yet-born offspring will marry, only to have both children be girls, with the conflict resolved at some point via magical sex-change. Some stories, however, resist a heteronormative resolution, as in the tale of Brahmani and Ratnavati which concludes with the two women spending their lives together as a couple.

Chapter 5 - Legacies of Colonialism

This chapter covers the effects, not only on gender and sexuality cultures in India, but on knowledge about historic cultures, from the colonial legacy that erased “disapproved” cultures or imposed new interpretations on them that adhered to western views of gender and sexuality. Gender politics played a role in how colonizing powers legitimated their own actions (e.g., “rescuing” downtrodden Indian women). Even modern social historians trying to reconstruct older structures too often valorize variant and androgynous traditions of masculinity while ignoring or demonizing variant or androgynous women. In the case of India, the latter often invokes the “Kali spectrum” of non-consorted goddesses.

Both colonial appropriation and Indian nationalist movements had a stake in focusing on the “Aryan heritage” that privileged the patriarchal Vedic, brahmanic and kshatriya traditions. And both movements collaborated on relegating women to be the keepers of tradition and those responsible for managing sexuality. The woman-focused shakti traditions were ignored or appropriated as consorts of male figures. Female independence, education, and self-realization were framed as being due to western materialism, in contrast to the self-sacrifice, chastity, and maternal devotion expected of women by nationalist movements. The existing mythic and religious traditions are sifted through for female imagery that supports and emphasizes these themes, discarding traditions that contradict it. This theme is expanded on at some length with examples.

Thadani then turns to the fate of marginalized woman-focused traditions in this era. For example, the cult of Sakhibhavas, those who worshipped Radha (often presented as the female lover of Krishna) as devoted female friends (sakhis) of Radha. Sakhi was one of the forms of bonding between women that included an erotic aspect. The Sakhibhava cult included male participants who expressed their devotion to Radha through a feminine identity. The core principle of Sakhbhava was a woman-woman fusion that can be categorized as lesbian. This movement diverged from the tradition of the Krishna-Radha romance approved in the dominant canon, though the Purana literature includes references to Kali kissing Radha that can be seen as part of the alternate tradition. From this point of view, the Krishna-Radha story can be seen as a man (Krishna) intruding into a female-inhabited space and forcibly making himself its center.

There is a discussion of how the canonical Krishna-Radha story imposed gendered interpretations on traditional religious dance and even created a template for pop culture depictions of courtship and romance that centered on the agressive pursuit by an entitled male figure of an "innocent" independent and disinterested woman whose sexuality is awaked by his successful pursuit.

The division of female expressions of gender and sexuality in terms of motherhood into the “good mother” and the “bad/destroying/consuming mother” required absorbing even the pre-Vedic non-consorted non-material apsara deities into this binary division, requiring all such figures to be “bad mothers.” There’s a discussion of how this imagery was used in some takes on Indian psycho-sexual analysis. Examples are given at some length and how it affects the cultural expectations for both boys and girls as they mature.

Despite the cultural expectation in modern India of homosocial spaces, there is a lack of language to describe and emphasize woman-woman sexual and kinship structures. There are no contexts for independent female goddesses or cosmolgonies. Outside of the patriarchal, monotheistic traditions of Christianity and Islam, the Hindu tradition is built entirely on a deliberately male-centered reconstruction of older traditions into a monolithic patriarchal religion. Words that in earlier ages carried sexual meaning or invoked a female-oriented worldview, such as bhagini, sakhi, jami have been stripped of those senses to mean simply “sister”, “female friend” and the like. The words shanda/shandali are translated in male-centered terms as indicating a masculinized woman or an unfeminine woman, not as a woman-desiring woman. Neutral words for “lesbian” are generally new coinages that literally translate words such as “homosexual.” Only in rare cases does an academic historical dictionary allow for the contextual meaning of these words in shaktic traditions.

The British colonial imposition of anti-sodomy laws in India did not explicitly include lesbian sex (as it was not explicitly included in the original British laws) but were worded in such a way that it could be (and was) applied to lesbianism. (“Carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any ... woman...”) Colonial sex-related laws were not discarded by post-colonial India but rather adapted to the purposes and goals of nationalist gender ideology. In the case of lesbians, reaction against the concept of women having a sexual life independent of male control, combined with a definition of masculinity focused on procreation, creates a hostile climate that assails both lesbian relationships and relationships including a transmasculine partner.

A number of anecdotes and new articles are presented giving the context for modern attitudes towards same-sex sexuality in the later 20th century, but on an official level and within the family.

Chapter 6 - Westernization

Further examples and discussion of lesbian images and experiences in contemporary India.

Chapter 7 - Love and Death

This chapter discusses various motifs of female lovers in traditional and modern literature, and how those affect individual expectations and behavior, including a significant rate of suicide among lesbian couples who see no other option.

Folk tales (and the older mythic tales they evolved from) include stories of marriage between women, typically due to the vow by two fathers that their not-yet-born children will wed. When both are born girls, perhaps one is raised semi-secretly as a boy in order to fulfill the vow. After the marriage, the women discover the truth of their gender, as well as recognizing their love for each other. In the older tales, this would typically be resolved with a magical sex change, but in a more modern folk tale (Teeja and Beeja), they instead leave home together to seek their fortune in the world. After adventures and an attempt to return home (and including a magical sex-change, after all, that doesn’t work as intended as is reversed), they live happily together as women.

This resolution was possible in the older religious traditions that included mystical unions that did not require particular gender roles. But when those traditions have been invoked in modern India (examples are given) the concept is rejected. Indeed, arguments for woman-woman spiritual unions have sometimes resulted in backlash against emotional bonds between women in general. An example is given of a rural tradition of a formal “friendship pact” (maitri karar) that had a long traditional history being used to formalize women’s unions, but that such traditions were beginning to be regarded negatively.

Even more than the often arbitrary application of laws, the greatest barrier to women’s romantic relationships is familial rejection (or, more often, coercion into heterosexual marriage, including by violence, or even murder of one or both partners).

Chapter 8 - Lesbian Identities

This chapter discusses the difficulties for women in modern India to construct lesbian identities.

Time period: Bronze AgeClassical EraPost-Roman/Early MedievalMedieval (general)Renaissance (general)Early Modern (general)Place: IndiaMisc tags: transgender identityfemale co-habitationhomosocial environments/communitiesemotional /romantic bonds between womenmarriage between womenmarriage resistancefemale impregnationsex between womenartistic representationmedical treatisesvocabulary (miscellaneous)







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Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 29e - At the Mouth by Gurmika Mann

Saturday, December 29, 2018 - 07:00

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast

Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 29e - At the Mouth by Gurmika Mann - transcript

(Originally aired 2018/12/29 - listen here)

Welcome to the fourth story in the Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast original fiction series! I’ve been so happy with the response to the fiction series and I’ve been delighted to be able to do my part to put more lesbian historical fiction out into the world. As you already know if you’re a regular listener, I’ll be running a second fiction series in 2019. Submissions will be open for the month of January. Check out the link in the show notes if you think you have something we might be interested in.

Our author, Gurmika Mann, is a queer Punjabi-Canadian woman living in Alberta. She studied English Literature and Psychology at McGill University. When she isn't writing, she loves picking apart narratives in pop culture - especially in TV, movies and video games. Her interest in historical culture, religion and mythology is reflected in her first published piece, "At the Mouth". You can follow her on twitter: @gikhee.

Our narrator, Maya Chhabra, is a poet and fiction writer whose work has appeared in Abyss & Apex, Mythic Delirium, and The Cascadia Subduction Zone, among other venues. Her novella Toxic Bloom is forthcoming from Falstaff Press, and her novelette Walking on Knives is available from Less Than Three Press. Her translation from the Russian of Marina Tsvetaeva's Fortune was published in Cardinal Points, Volume 8. She can be found on twitter @mayachhabra.

I’ll have links for both our author and narrator in the show notes.

This recording is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License. You may share it in the full original form but you may not sell it, you may not transcribe it, and you may not adapt it.

* * *

At the Mouth

by

Gurmika Mann

 

Ramya was the one who told her after morning prayers. “The old ladies were saying Jaya is getting married to Raju.” They were sweeping the temple courtyard together before old man Balaji told them to come inside and begin their practice.

Aayushi squinted. “Raju’s father owns their house.”

“Of course he does. He owns half this temple too.” Ramya clicked her tongue. “You’re so slow.”

“Jaya wouldn’t want to marry him,” said Aayushi, hiking up her sari to lean over, sweeping along the far wall of the courtyard. They were getting closer to the gate, both of them managing to push along an ever-growing pile of dust, grains, rice, and flower petals that had scattered from the morning prayers. “Tell Balaji I’m going out. I ripped a seam in my blouse.”

“You’re full of shit,” said Ramya, but she was grinning. “Get one of those sweets next to Jaya’s house.”

“You’re always eating!” Aayushi scolded, pushing open the gates of the temple and hurriedly sweeping the threshold clean. She dropped her broom at Ramya’s feet, smoothed out her sari, and dashed away from the temple, following the downhill path into the village.

###

Kargal wasn’t a big village but it boasted a temple devoted to Indra with six devadasis paying homage to the deity along with a dozen brahmin that oversaw the complex. The temple was situated at the open mouth of a river, and the  jungle spread around it, lush and thick. As Aayushi picked her way down the path from the temple gate to the main road of the village, the thunderous roar of the river began to fade out behind her, replaced now by the clamour of voices as the village got on with yet another day of business.

Aayushi passed the sweets shop first where Nandini wrapped up two maladus and then snuck an extra for her as she pointed to the open window of Jaya’s shop. “Did you hear she’s getting married?”

“No, she’s not,” said Aayushi before bidding her goodbye and crossing the road, into the open door of the clothes shop. There was already incense burning near the open windowsill of the shop, and Aayushi thought of kicking it over.

“Aayushi,” said Jaya from behind her.

Aayushi startled. “You scared me!”

Jaya laughed, her smile wide and her eyes crinkling. “If I can scare you, then you must be feeling off.”

“I’m fine,” she said. Jaya was wearing a green sari today, folded impeccably over her waist, the long piece coming over her shoulder elegantly, naturally. Her hair was in a long, black braid as usual, but there were flowers - small and white - tucked just behind her ear. When Jaya limped past her, Aayushi could smell the incense lingering on her skin. It was awful.

“So you are getting married.”

Jaya’s home was covered in fabrics - wool, cotton, silk - all dyed in bright colours, but still uncut and unembroidered. From the entrance all the way to the back, Aayushi could see the piles of neatly folded clothes, all carefully arranged by shades. She had been here when customers came in, watched how the new brides immediately crouched near the reds next to the windowsill, and the mourners who arrived would go to the pile of untouched whites near the back door. Aayushi always loved green, and Jaya kept it against the wall next to the red, said that’s where the devadasis liked to linger and gossip as they watched the new brides fret over which shade would suit them best.

“To Raju,” said Jaya as she limped out through the door into the back courtyard where Aayushi knew was her small stove. “He’s the only who didn’t ask for a dowry.”

“Your house is his dowry.”

With Jaya no longer in her sight, Aayushi pressed a fist against her stomach, willing the pressure to ease, but all she felt was a hopeless terror. Slowly, she made her way past the clothes into courtyard, where there was a cot under the shade, next to a stovetop and dishes.

Jaya was already seated on the cot, her bad leg propped along the length of the cot, as she busied herself portioning out water in two cups to make tea. The briquettes in her stove burnt hot, and Aayushi could smell the incense here too. It made her grimace as she crouched down next to Jaya. “Jaya…”

“I finished your sari for the next full moon,” said Jaya, not looking up while she poured the water from the cups into a pot. “It’s blue and gold. I sewed bells on the edges of the sleeves for when you dance.” She placed the pot on the flat clay of the stove and began to stoke the briquettes with a long stick.

“Don’t marry Raju,” said Aayushi softly. Her hands were fisted in the skirt of her orange sari, the colour reminding her too much of the fresh marigold garlands Jaya would have to wear at her wedding.

“I put flowers all along the hem of the skirt. The white ones you like that grow near the river.”

“Jaya,” said Aayushi, a little more loudly, desperately.

The water was slowly beginning to bubble. “Your blouse is silk, even though you asked for cotton, but it will match. I put in hooks at the sides in case you get fat with maladus before you put it on.”

The joke had Aayushi laughing, surprising herself, before looking up at Jaya. Jaya was moving to put in the tea leaves into her boiling water, a pinch of fennel and two pieces of crushed clove. Aayushi usually left by now to get goat’s milk from Nandini to use for the tea, but instead she felt stuck here, watching Jaya’s face, how Jaya refused to look at her even as she spoke.

“And there’s fish. On the shoulders.” Jaya sighed as she watched the water darken from the tea leaves and spices, letting out a smell that was much more comforting to Aayushi than the incense. “They’re climbing up against the waterfall, trying… trying to touch you.”

It was the way Jaya’s jaw was clenched so tight... Aayushi couldn’t help herself; she reached out, cupped Jaya’s cheek in her palm, and it was so easy and so familiar. Jaya leaned into the touch for just a moment before pulling away to lift the pot off the stove. There was no milk.

“I can get some from Nandini.”

Jaya shook her head. “I can drink it like this. Do you still…?”

“Yes, I’ll have some too.”

Carefully, Jaya poured the tea out into two cups, and poured some fresh water inside of the pan so the tea leaves would float instead of getting stuck along the inside. “I have no choice.”

Aayushi winced. Holding the cup meant she couldn’t hold Jaya, and the distance seemed immeasurable at that moment - with her on one side of Jaya’s cot and Jaya on the other, Jaya’s bad leg between them, tucked under the long green sari.

“I knew,” started Jaya, still not looking at her, “I knew you wouldn’t understand.”

“You don’t have to,” she said, staring at the unfinished chai in her hands.

“Raju didn’t ask for a dowry and he doesn’t mind my leg.”

“I don’t mind your leg either!” Aayushi stared up at her, hopeless. “Just because his father gave you a storefront after your parents died doesn’t mean you need to marry his son!”

Jaya reeled back, and her heavy brows drew together in anger. “I made you that sari for you to seduce some rich brahmin, Aaya. You will marry too. This - whatever this is - isn’t forever.”

“But you don’t want it!”

“It’s not about what I want!” Jaya’s shoulders were drawn tight and Aayushi couldn’t help remembering when she would massage them, knowing exactly how warm Jaya’s skin was under her touch, how she always grew so tense as she worked deep into the night to get her embroidery perfect on her saris. “It’s… It’s what’s required.”

Her small mouth was turned down at the corners. Aayushi wanted to kiss her. “Let’s run away to Bengalore, where the rajput lives.” Jaya stared at her, but Aayushi continued, unhindered. “We’ll join his harem, and be like Ravana’s wives, who kissed each other when he couldn’t kiss them.”

Jaya’s expression was soft with affection, but still she seemed so far away. “Silly Aaya.” She gestured to the house. “This isn’t a story. I am going to make more saris for you - when you’re married and when you’re pregnant and when you dance for Indra with the other devadasis. And you’re going to bless my marriage as the nitya sumangali and you’ll dance for Indra to not pass on this leg to my children.”

Before she could stop herself, Aayushi began to cry. “Just tell me what you want first.”

“I…” Looking at her hands, Jaya shook her head. “I want to prove I’m the best - at clothes, at embroidery, at sewing. I want to show everyone I can get by with this leg.”

“How?”

“By getting married for money,” said Jaya, rolling her eyes. “Really, Aaya.”

“Okay.” Aayushi wiped at her face, cleaning her tears, before putting the chai down and standing up. “I’ll give you money.”

“Aayushi!” Jaya snapped. “I don’t need your charity!”

“But I’m a devadasi - I have money. I can give you money.”

“The rest of us aren’t like you!” She shouted, startling Aayushi for a moment. Sucking in a deep breath, Jaya seemed to regain her composure, but her entire frame shimmered with anger. “The rest of us can’t live like a carefree child like you. The rest of us have responsibilities.”

“I’m not a child,” said Aayushi, stung. She was twenty, a fully-fledged devadasi, who knew the sacred dances and could sing Lord Indra’s praises. “But I’m not so scared to hide behind a some man instead of seeing I could be something more.”

“I knew you wouldn’t understand,” said Jaya, her voice flat, her gaze turning cold. “How could a child understand anything of an adult woman’s reality.”

The words felt like a physical blow. Aayushi stepped back, incomprehending for a moment. Still, Jaya sat there, her back straight, her dark eyes under her heavy brows meeting Aayushi’s as if to challenge her. She didn’t want Aayushi there. Aayushi didn’t want to be there anymore either.

She left, leaving her unfinished chai behind, and returned to the temple.

###

Before the full moon, the women in Kargal had fasted all day and arrived just after sundown at the temple for blessings of longevity and happy marriage and healthy children. Aayushi and Ramya had been busy all day with preparations - cooking and decoration and cleaning the temple along with the other devadasis - before Balaji and the other brahmins had summoned them to dance in the courtyard. As the crowd of women gathered to pay respects to Indra and the moon, Aayushi danced the familiar steps, listening to the cheers and claps from the audience, and was grateful it was over soon. She needed to find Nandini’s mother.

Though the majority of the village crowd were women, Aayushi saw some of the landowning men talking to the brahmins. Balaji was with Raju’s father, but Aayushi couldn’t spot Raju himself. She knew Jaya didn’t like making the walk to the temple in the evening where it was hard to see where to step with her bad leg. Instead, she usually sent her offerings with Nandini, who Aayushi finally spotted standing next to the statue of Indra, where the smoke from the burning incense wafted around her moon-round face. Her mother was next to her, and Aayushi ducked around the other devadasis to talk to them.

“Aaya!” Nandini’s mother was just as large and soft as the maladus her family sold. Aayushi bowed to touch her feet, bracing herself for the conversation to follow. “Jaya sent me up with her sari for you. The rajput’s sons are coming to Kargal for the winter solstice?”

“I wanted to look my best for them,” said Aayushi. “Did Raju come?”

“He’s somewhere around here.”

“He’s marrying Jaya.”

Nandini’s mother beamed. “She’s twenty-two, it’s overdue. And Raju is a good boy. His family is going to pay, so Jaya doesn’t have to worry about a thing. Now we just have to find a boy for you next.”

“And offend my true husband Indra-dev?” Aayushi relaxed as Nandini and her mother both laughed. Nandini crouched down next to the basket they had brought and got out of the silk sari for Aayushi.

“For you.”

Aayushi thanked her as she held the silk, feeling it slip between her fingers. “Jaya is only getting married for money.”

Immediately, Nandini’s mother clicked her tongue. “That’s not how women speak, Aayushi.”

“But it’s true,” insisted Aayushi, having braced herself all day for this conversation. “She wants to continue being a seamstress, but she thinks getting married is the only way she can keep doing that.”

“Aaya,” said Nandini quietly. “It took a long time for my ama to secure this match.”

Aayushi gripped onto the sari to keep it from sliding out from her arms. “We can - I can - help her. She doesn’t have to do this. She’s skilled enough to make double what she does now, but she lives in Kargal, not Siddapur or Sagar.”

Nandini’s mother shook her head, one soft hand cupping Aayushi’s cheek. “But that is not how women live, Aaya. Jaya said the same thing but she understands now what must be done.”

The topic was clearly too uncomfortable for Nandini’s mother as she soon moved away to go talk to the other older women. Nandini stood next to her basket of offerings, reaching out to snag one of Aayushi’s bangles on a finger and tugging her closer.

“Ama had to argue with Jaya day and night too.” Nandini’s face was cast half in shadow, and her chin tilted downwards, saddened. “But we don’t have any money for Jaya to borrow and Raju was there.”

“What if I gave her money?” Aayushi asked suddenly, turning towards her, the sari clutched tightly to her chest. “Then what?”

“Then nothing,” said Nandini, shrugging. “Jaya would still get married. It’s not about money anymore, Aaya. It’s just… what’s done.”

“But she doesn’t want it!”

“We have no choice!” Nandini didn’t raise her voice but she stared wide-eyed and imploring at Aayushi before looking away, embarrassed. “I mean, me and Jaya. You’re a devadasi. You are already married to a dev.”

Aayushi looked at Nandini’s finger still caught around her bangle on her wrist and felt so, so tired. “I’m a woman too.”

“Yes,” said Nandini, letting go of the bangle now. “But you’re not like us.”

###

The winter solstice would be coming in less than one full moon’s turn. Jaya would get married then, just before the rajput’s arrival here with his sons on his tour to see the temples. In the meantime, Aayushi tried on the new sari in her room with Ramya within the temple. Ramya clicked her tongue when she saw the embroidery was missing on one corner of the hem.

“You pay this girl for incomplete work?”

Aayushi smacked her arm but frowned. “She’s never done this before.” Changing back into her other sari, she carefully folded the blue silk back up. “I should get it fixed.”

“Don’t come back crying like last time,” said Ramya, waving goodbye.

Aayushi mustered a smile as if to reassure but felt it fade away as she left the temple to make her way into the village proper. The days beforehand, she had Ramya sell off a few of her jewellery in exchange for coin when the brahmins had sent them down for grocery shopping. Now, Aayushi had a small heavy purse full of coin that she tucked between the folds of the blue sari, and she could only hope Jaya would even see her much less accept her… her charity.

Still, Aayushi had to try.

The sweets storefront was being managed by Nandini’s little brother this time. He waved to Aayushi as she crossed the road to Jaya’s home. Swallowing down her anxiety, Aayushi stepped past the threshold, to be surrounded and swallowed by the piles of fabrics around her. Jaya was sitting near the open window, sewing the edges of a blouse together. Her bad leg was stretched out in front of her with a blanket thrown overtop, and her sari this time was coloured a pale yellow like the small flowers that dotted the path between the village and temple. Her rough, worked hands held the needle delicately as she sewed, her head bent downwards in concentration, her thick dark hair braided in a neat plait as usual. Standing there watching, Aayushi could recall how it felt when her fingers had carded through Jaya’s hair, how it felt like the earth after it had rained - so soft, so heavy. She could even remember the touch of Jaya’s calloused fingers, even as Aayushi massaged oil and butter into the skin to soften it, scolding her for working too hard.

“Jaya,” she called out. Immediately, Jaya jerked in surprise, head snapping up in attention. She had been so focused that she hadn’t even heard Aayushi come in.

“Aaya,” Jaya said, still clearly surprised.

“The sari,” started Aayushi before the words died away in her mouth.

Jaya looked down finally to see Aayushi holding the blue silk before gesturing for her to put it down next to Jaya. “Is there a mistake? Let me look.”

Aayushi handed the silk over, and Jaya’s precise fingers unfolded the length of it with an ease and familiarity that Aayushi wondered anyone else could imitate. It only took a few moments for the coin purse to fall out into Jaya’s lap as she spread the silk and Jaya paused, looking down. Immediately, Aayushi could feel all her awkward laughter and excuses pile behind her teeth, trying to come out, to pretend this never happened. This was a youth’s indulgence; Jaya would get married and Aayushi would continue to get her clothes done by her, and Aayushi’s frantic attempts to seemingly save Jaya would just be a pebble in the stream of their lives together.

Except Jaya didn’t look twice at the coin purse. She found the corner with the missing embroidery instead. “I haven’t done this before.”

“You haven’t,” agreed Aayushi eventually. “That’s why I had to come see you.”

Jaya looked up, a faint smile on her mouth. “That’s the only reason? Come, sit.”

Helpless, Aayushi sat down next to Jaya’s bad leg, sliding the palms of her hands over the ocean of silk spread between them. “I liked the fish on the blouse.”

“I’m glad.” Jaya put down her needle and thread for the other blouse and focused on the sari. “I can’t wait to see you dance in this.”

“You only ever come to the temple when I’m wearing something of yours.”

Jaya grinned, shameless. Aayushi couldn’t stop herself from staring at how beautiful Jaya was in this moment, looking perfectly at ease and content with her life, bantering with Aayushi as if this was any other day. As if there wasn’t a fat coin purse sitting right in her lap.

“Jaya…”

“If I take this purse,” interrupted Jaya, looking up at her from beneath her heavy brows. “If I take it, then I can never come back.”

“I…” A part of Aayushi wanted to be confident, wanted to say, “yes, of course, I knew that,” but no part of her was ready. She thought back to Nandini and her round face, her large imploring eyes. Isn’t this what she meant? That girls like Nandini and Jaya would always have to cave to the wants of the village - married off with their own aspirations relegated to the dusty corners of the courtyard. “I don’t want you to leave.”

“If I stay, I get married.”

“I don’t want you to get married either.”

Jaya sighed. “Then what do you want, Aaya? Silly girl.”

Fiddling with the silk, Aayushi looked out the window of the storefront. “I want you to be happy.”

“I’m happy with you.”

“No, you’re not.” Aayushi turned back towards Jaya. “You’re happiest… when you work. And I make you the happiest when I can show your work off.”

She doesn’t expect Jaya to reach out, her familiar rough hands cupping Aayushi’s palms. “You…” Her face was tipped down now, and Aayushi could see her long lashes cast shadows down her cheeks. “You’re like the sun. You’re so bright and warm and good. You think you can make everyone happier. You make me happy.”

“Please,” Aayushi choked out.

Jaya’s small mouth twisted in a frown. She shook her head but didn’t let go of Aayushi’s hand. “After you left last time, I was so upset. I didn’t know what to do. I only knew what I didn’t want. I didn’t want you to be angry at me anymore. I didn’t want you to be… disappointed in me.”

“I would never,” she said quickly, tangling their fingers together and squeezing.

She received a wry smile in return; Jaya was looking up at her, her dark eyes bright. “I’m sorry. I might have purposely sent an unfinished hem so you would see me.”

A laugh came to her unbidden, had her watching Jaya helplessly, holding onto her hand. “I would have come back eventually.” That was the truth of it: if Jaya thought Aayushi was the sun, then Aayushi couldn’t help but think she was the ground beneath her feet, the steadiness in knowing every day the sun would set and the moon would rise and Jaya’s eyes would glitter like the stars in the sky.

“I love you,” said Jaya softly.

That should have been the end of it. The coin purse should have been ignored. They could stay together - here. Aayushi would wear her blue silk sari and seduce one of the rajput’s sons into marrying her and she could live out her life as a devadasi surrounded by wealth as she practiced her craft. And Jaya? She would stay here, married to Raju, the rich son of the village, who would let Jaya continue to be a seamstress that would impress Aayushi’s future husband. They would be bosom-buddies, gossiping and giggling behind veils, waiting until one of their husbands was out of sight before Aayushi could press her mouth to Jaya and revel in how Jaya gasped and pressed back.

But it wasn’t enough. It never would be. Jaya would languish under the toil of housework and never have her skill recognized apart from being Raju’s limping wife with the clever hands. Aayushi had her duties to her lord-husband Indra-dev as a devadasi; she could not play second-wife to Jaya no matter how much she loved her. This wasn’t the end Aayushi wanted for them, and it was terrifying.

“But,” said Aayushi. “But I can’t keep you.”

The hurt was clear on Jaya’s face: her brows drew together and her jaw clenched. She tried to withdraw her hand but Aayushi held on.

“You deserve more.” She believed it with her entire being, as sure as she was of her dance, her song, when she prostated herself for Indra-dev in the temple courtyard. “So you need to go.”

“You’ll let me go?” Jaya asked.

“Yes,” said Aayushi, nodding to the coin purse still in Jaya’s lap.

It took a moment for her to recognize that Jaya was tearing up, her expression twisted up as she cried. Panic flared in Aayushi’s chest as she launched herself across Jaya’s lap to hug her, press her face into the crook of her neck. Jaya held onto the skirt of Aayushi’s sari, heaving shuddering breaths against Aayushi’s collarbone.

“Nandini,” she started, “Nandini has a cousin in Kodkani, and she wants… She came back from the temple that night and she said she would help me leave, if I wanted.” It took a moment for Jaya to pull back, look up at Aayushi. “If I take your money, I can take my best saris and get to Kodkani, then make my way into Siddapur.”

Aayushi nodded. “I’ll help you. We all will.”

Jaya gave a watery smile. “Thank you.”

It was a sweeter phrase than her confession.

###

The rajput’s sons were delayed by three turns of the moon due to the monsoon season. The brahmins were slick in a sheen of anxiety as they made sure to clean the temple as best they could before the arrival. The rajput’s sons came with an entourage - their soldiers, bodyguards, servants, slaves, and select women from the harem. Ramya was gossiping with the other devadasis when Aayushi finally got on her blue sari, and they crowded together in fascination as the temple gates opened to welcome the royalty.

Aayushi danced - in honour of Indra, in honour of the rajput, in honour of the village of Kargal - along with the other devadasis, keeping beat with Ramya’s high, clear voice as she sang. The sun was low in the sky by the time the welcoming festivities came to a close to the bloody sacrifice of a goat and the serving of food. The devadasis sat aside from the rajput’s sons and brahmins, but the harem women came over to chat.

It was only when one of them got close enough that Aayushi spotted a familiar embroidery of flowers along the hem of one of the women’s sari. Already, her heart was in her throat, her hand reaching out to brush against the silk as the harem women sat around them.

“Who did this?” Aayushi asked without preamble.

Ramya smacked her arm. “She meant your sari is very pretty.”

The other women laughed. The one wearing the sari sat next to Aayushi and looked at the hem. “It’s strange, isn’t it? She put fish instead of flowers, but it’s beautiful.”

“Who?” Aayushi pressed.

The woman tipped her head in recollection. “I got this one while we were in Sagar. There’s a seamstress apprentice there who makes strange designs but they’re popular. I had to get one for myself.”

Ramya leaned forward. “Sagar is south of Siddapur.”

Aayushi scoffed. “I know.” But Ramya was holding her hand now, squeezing her fingers, and Aayushi squeezed back. “That apprentice is going to be famous one day.”

The woman traced her fingers along the embroidered fish before catching the same design over Aayushi’s blouse. Her smile seemed knowing then. “She told me it was made with love.”

Aayushi ducked her head, shy.

Suddenly, the devadasis erupted in whispers as Aayushi looked up to see one of the rajput’s sons walking towards where they were sitting. His eyes were on her. Aayushi let go of Ramya’s hand and straightened her posture. Jaya was working hard to do what she loved; Aayushi wouldn’t fall behind.

# The End #

Major category: LHMPTags: LHMPpodcast2018 Fiction Series

Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 30a - On the Shelf for January 2019

Saturday, January 5, 2019 - 07:00

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast

Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 30a - On the Shelf for January 2019 - Transcript

(Originally aired 2018/01/05 - listen here)

Welcome to On the Shelf for January 2019.

This podcast has now been running for 29 months and 86 episodes! I’m planning to do something special in April--I think it’s April if my math is correct--for the 100th episode. I don’t know exactly what yet, but maybe you listeners have some suggestions to consider? It would be lovely to be able to include listener feedback about what your favorite episodes have been or how the podcast and blog have changed how you think about love between women in history.

The beginning of the year is a good time to think about format changes. Last year I introduced the quarterly fiction episodes, where we present original audio short stories. I’m continuing that series for a second year and submissions are currently open. I’ll be accepting stories for consideration through the entire month of January. So if this is the first you’re heard of the series, you still have time to give it a try. We pay professional rates of six cents a word for stories up to 5000 words. See the link in the show notes for the detailed call for submissions, which has the full description of what we’re looking for in the way of lesbian historical fiction.

I’m making another minor change in format this year. When I expanded to a weekly show back in 2017, I set up a rotating schedule with this On the Shelf roundup, an author interview, a book appreciation show, and then a historic essay. I’m keeping the On the Shelf and essay shows as they are, but I’m going to loosen up a bit for the other two shows. In addition to author interviews, I’ll include interviews with publishers, book reviewers, historians, and other interesting people who are relevant to the field.

And while the book appreciation show will continue to include book-love from our interview subjects, I’m planning to open it up to more people who are simply enthusiastic readers of lesbian-relevant historical fiction. If you think this describes you and you’d like to come on to the show to talk about some of your favorite reads, please drop me a note. It doesn’t have to be your all-time favorites--it could be your favorites in a particular setting or with a particular theme. I expect to be doing more shows of my own topical favorites as well.

Publications on the Blog

So what’s new on the blog? In the latter part of December and into January, I’ve been reviewing a series of publications about same-sex history in India or generally in Asia to go along with Gurmika Mann’s poignant story “At the Mouth” that ran last week. Before that, at the beginning of December, I finished up with a mini-series of articles on 18th century topics from the Journal of the History of Sexuality. To finish up January, I’ll be continuing with articles from that source with a couple of items on 17th century topics.

Book Shopping!

Only one new book purchase this month, though as I’m recording this, I have a week of vacation in which I might do some on-line shopping! The new book is an edition of Delariver Manley’s The New Atalantis, about which, more when I discuss this month’s essy. I’m also being very tempted by a new book by Thomas A. Abercrombie titled Passing to América: Antonio (Née María) Yta’s Transgressive, Transatlantic Life in the Twilight of the Spanish Empire from Penn State University Press. Set around 1800 in South America, this is a biography of a person whose life intersects transmasculine and gender passing themes. It’s a bit pricey, so I’m still thinking.

Interview Guest

At the time I’m writing this, I don’t have an interview guest pinned down yet. I confess that this is one of the reasons I’m loosening up the format plans for the podcast. While I have a lovely shopping list of people I’d like to interview, and tentative plans with a number of them, actually getting the interviews recorded can be a logistical tangle, especially around the holidays. And especially when much of my creative focus is currently on revisions on my novel Floodtide. So rather than hold to the strict plan regarding interviews, I’m officially allowing myself more freedom to fill the episodes with what I have to hand. I do plan to include a joint movie review of The Favourite with another historic movie fan at some point. Beyond that, we’ll see what I come up with.

Essay

The January essay is a reading and discussion of some extended extracts from Delariviere Manley’s The New Atalantis, which I mentioned in last month’s essay on Queen Anne. This is a fascinating political and social satire that includes the envisioning of an all-female cabal in an invented society on the island of Atlantis which is something of a roman-a-clef for upper class circles of late 17th century England. While the original purpose of the work was satirical, and the portraits are not always flattering, it depicts how a woman of that time might envision the lives of women with same-sex interests.

Recent and Forthcoming Lesbian Historical Fiction

What books are coming out this month or have come out recently and haven’t been previously mentioned?

This month’s roundup is nearly all self-published works, many of them fairly short. There’s nothing that jumps out at me to recommend strongly, but maybe some of these will hit your sweet spot.

In November, we have Violets from K.C. Ebanks, published through Amazon digital.

Set in 1950s Nashville, when Rose Brown moves to Nashville with her family after an "incident" in her hometown, she resolves to never end up in the same position again. But with the beautiful Peggy in her school and mysterious violets appearing in her locker, she may just end up right back where she started.

The online blurb for Hattie's Homestead: The Other Legend by Marion Grace from Leafgate Publishing is really long and gives away a lot of the plot, so rather than my usual practice of quoting the original, I’ve condensed it down a bit. The book is published in two parts and the links in the show notes are only to the first volume.

In 1904 Hattie is in her last year of finishing school and hates it – she’d rather be a pioneer. A marriage proposal takes her to homestead in New Mexico Territory, but when she falls ill, Rosalinda enters her life as her caretaker. They find an attraction to each other that neither fully understands or dares to express. How do Hattie and Rosalinda survive in a town where they once were loved and accepted but are now endangered by their feelings for each other? In part 2, Hattie and Rosalinda continue the struggle to find a way to share their love and their lives. Unforeseen catastrophes are on the horizon and they’ll need help, but who can they turn to?

This next short story appears to have a historical setting, though the blurb and excerpt don’t give any specifics of the time and place. The title is The Duelist and Her Lover - A Historical Lesbian Adventure Romance by Esther J Autumn from Amazon digital.

Always steady and reliable, Agnes was prepared for anything that threatened her idyllic if somewhat boring life. She couldn't have possibly prepared for Kay. Rushing in to break up a sword duel turned to slaughter, Agnes ends up rescuing a young woman - Kay. As she helps hide Kay and patch up her wounds, they form an unexpected bond. Only, will Kay's mysterious past get in the way of their tentative relationship...? Capable of wiggling her way out of any situation, the daredevil Kay has weathered most of life's storms on her own. While her new stiff companion Agnes offers endless possibilities for teasing, she impresses Kay more with every step. As they rush from the pan and into the fire, will Kay's heart be able to resist and fly away, as she always has...?

The next book is listed as a December publication, but I’m not certain it’s actually new. The author has several new historical releases listed on Amazon that seem to have been released previously in a different edition. This is An Irish Heart by C.M. Blackwood from Amazon digital.

This is the story of Katharine O’Brien, who comes of age in English-occupied World War I Ireland. It’s 1914, and Kate is a young woman with a violent father and an uncertain future.  Things start to fall into place, though, when she meets Theodora Alaster: a woman with whom she finds love and, for the first time, a real home. But when Thea is taken by the English during a trip to Dublin, Kate is left alone to navigate through additional loss and betrayal. She comes nearer than she ever wanted to her country’s hot politics, and suffers the consequences. And yet, through all of these hardships, the hope of one day finding Thea never leaves her heart.

The other two releases or re-releases from the same author are Madam Tellier's Lover, set in turn of the century New Orleans, and The Grey Rider, which claims to be set during the Norman conquest of England but looks like it might be better considered as a secondary world fantasy. I’ll put links to them in the show notes, too.

Post-war France comes in for romance in Madeleine by Emma Nichols from Amazon digital.

Madeleine isn’t like other grieving war widows. Claudette isn’t like other young French women. As their lives collide, Madeleine and Claude will discover a depth of connection and desire they never knew could exist. Can their love flourish in post-WW2 France or will their past derail their future? If you like your novels with strong leading ladies, smouldering chemistry and an epic love story that twists and turns, then you’ll love Emma Nichol’s latest lesbian romance.

One of the perennial problems with tracking down book release information for works that fall outside the romance or lesfic publishing communities is how coy the cover copy can be about exactly what goes on in the book. This month’s example is Love’s Refrain: A Victorian Ghost Story self-published by Steven Glick.

A ghost from the past. A chance meeting in the present. A terrifying séance. Charlotte Stanton’s perfect married life is turned upside down when a secret love she buried long ago hauntingly returns. Still the question remains: are the supernatural events intruding upon Charlotte’s life happening only in her mind? Is she heading down a slow, curving path toward madness? Set in Boston’s Gilded Age and accompanied by period drawings and silhouettes, Love’s Refrain explores one woman’s search for love, and the power of the past to emancipate the present.

If you’re looking for a tropey Western short story, it looks like Book’s Pass by Lara Zielinsky, published by LZ Media might fit your interests.

Drifter Emmeline Soule stumbles into a conflict between the brothel owner, Reina Suarez, and the townspeople of Book's Pass. A lesbian romance set in the post-Civil War American West.

And the only actual January publication currently on my spreadsheet is Temper CA by Paul Skenazy published by Miami University Press, which looks to be something of a family saga story with a bit of a cross-time feel.

Joy Temper grew up wandering the woods of Temper, CA, a Gold Rush town her family helped establish in the 1840s. When she returns to Temper for her grandfather's funeral, she discovers that the stories she's long traded on about her hippie upbringing have little to do with reality. Her struggles to face who she once was, and what she now desires, force her to confront family secrets and long-suppressed memories in a novella both familial and romantic, contemporary and historical.

If you know of any historical fiction with lesbian relevance that’s coming out in February, or anything already out that I’ve managed to miss, please do drop the podcast an email or comment on the blog and tell me about it. At this point, I haven’t found any February publications and I’d hate to leave this segment of the show empty.

[Sponsor Break]

Ask Sappho

The bin of listener questions for the Ask Sappho segment is still sadly empty, so once again you have to put up with me rambling about some topic I find interesting.

I’ve been putting together a database of lesbian-interest historical fiction that some day I hope to make available in a user-searchable form. One part of the project is identifying themes and tropes that people might want to search for. And one fascinating pattern I’ve found that I’d like to talk about is the number of stories that involve some sort of cross-time connection. I’ve been trying to develop a terminology for these--ideally one that corresponds to terms that other people use.

All of these approaches have the effect of telling a story that follows events in more than one point in time and that makes connections between the different time periods, either directly in the story, of in the reader’s understanding. Sometimes the framework is an entirely historical story, sometimes it involves non-physical connections between people in different times, such as past life memories, dream states, or a sort of astral projection. And sometimes it involves physical time-travel of the protagonist (or some other major character).

Wikipedia has a great survey of time-travel motifs in fiction but it doesn’t include my first category, which I’ve taken to calling the “cross-time story”, although other people use that term in a number of different ways in describing plots. When I describe a book as a cross-time story, I mean that it involves two different sets of events at different times where a meaningful connection is made that supports the theme of the story. Often this involves a modern protagonist researching past events that then change her understanding of her own life, or even simply her understanding of the past. Some examples of this motif are Sandra Moran’s Letters Never Sent where a woman discovers a packet of never-mailed letters written by her mother which changes her understanding of her mother’s life. Another good example is Robin Talley’s Pulp which just came out a couple months ago, where a high-school student is researching an author of lesbian pulp novels, and we get both lives depicted. Several of Caren J. Werlinger’s books have cross-time motifs, though often with supernatural elements as well.

The traditional definition of a time-slip story is any story involving time travel where the focus isn’t on the mechanism of the travel and the character has no control over the process. This is more or less how I used it, though I expand it a little to include psychic connections across time. For me, a time-slip story involves two time-lines just as in the cross-time category, but where the protagonist is somehow present in consciousness in both times. This might involve remembering a past life. It could involve connection with a ghost or other lingering psychic remnant of the past. Or it could involve the character being projected into the past to experience events in real-time. When Justine Saracen isn’t writing World War II novels, she’s usually writing stories with this type of time-slip element, such as in Sarah Son of God.  Catherine Friend’s Spark is another example, where a modern woman’s consciousness is exchanged with that of a woman in Tudor England, although this might also fall in the time-travel group, as the mechanism of the exchange is a significant plot element. When the connection is purely psychological and, indeed, can be read as being a purely internal experience of the character, this category can sit at the edge of being a realistic story (if we consider the character to be imagining things) and being a fantasy story.

Out-and-out time travel stories are necessarily either fantasy or science fiction depending on how they treat the mechanism of travel. Catherine Friend also has a good example of the plain old time-travel motif in the series starting with The Spanish Pearl, where a modern woman bodily travels into the past, has adventures there, and then moves back and forth between times as part of the ongoing plot. A recent book that uses time-travel themes is Jane Fletcher’s Isle of Broken Years, although I hope saying so isn’t a spoiler! And there’s a novella series in the process of coming out from Tor.com that clearly falls in the time-travel category: Alice Payne Arrives by Kate Heartfield, soon to be followed by the second in the series Alice Payne Rides.

What is the appeal of cross-time and time-slip stories when writing lesbian characters in historical fiction? I can only speculate, but one thing these themes provide for the reader is a way to bridge the gap between our contemporary understanding of sexuality and gender, and the sometimes very different understandings of those concepts in the past. We are shown how the protagonist grapples with integrating those different concepts. Or sometimes it’s as simple as dodging the question of how a woman in history would understand same-sex desire by putting a modern character into the role--someone who share the same understanding as the reader. For the cross-time stories involving a character researching the past, it can sometimes recapitulate the author’s process of discovering and exploring same-sex themes in history. A way of sharing the delight in making those connections on a personal level. Whatever the reasons, cross-time, time-slip, and time travel stories make up a significant proportion of the lesbian historicals I’ve been cataloging. Let me know if you enjoy lesbian stories that play with time and what some of your favorites are.

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Recent and Forthcoming Books

Ebanks, K.C. Violets (Amazon digital)
Hattie's Homestead: The Other Legend (in two parts) by Marion Grace from Leafgate Publishing
The Duelist and Her Lover - A Historical Lesbian Adventure Romance by Esther J Autumn from Amazon digital
An Irish Heart by C.M. Blackwood through Amazon digital
Blackwood, C.M. Madam Tellier’s Lover (Amazon digital)
Blackwood, C.M. The Grey Rider (Amazon digital)
Madeleine by Emma Nichols via Amazon digital
Love’s Refrain: A Victorian Ghost Story self-published by Steven Glick
Book’s Pass by Lara Zielinsky, published by LZ Media
Temper CA by Paul Skenazy published by Miami University Press

Books Mentioned in the Ask Sappho Segment

Letters Never Sent by Sandra Moran
Pulp by Robin Talley
Miserere by Caren J. Werlinger
Sarah Son of God by Justine Saracen
Spark by Catherine Friend
The Spanish Pearl by Catherine Friend
Isle of Broken Years by Jane Fletcher
Alice Payne Arrives by Kate Heartfield

 

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