Her Husband was a Woman!: Women's Gender-Crossing in Modern British Popular Culture

by Alison Oram

Tracking the changing representation of female gender-crossing in the press, this text breaks new ground to reveal findings where both desire between women and cross-gender identification are understood.

Her Husband was a Woman! exposes real-life case studies from the British tabloids of women who successfully passed as men in everyday life, perhaps marrying other women or fighting for their country. Oram revises assumptions about the history of modern gender and sexual identities, especially lesbianism and transsexuality.

This book provides a fascinating resource for researchers and students, grounding the concepts of gender performativity, lesbian and queer identities in a broadly-based survey of the historical evidence.

196 pages, Paperback

First published January 24, 2007

About the author

Alison Oram is Professor of Social and Cultural History at Leeds Beckett University and a leading scholar of gender and sexuality, popular culture, public history and intersections of these with LGBTQ heritage.