An apparently ordinary event took place in St?Cuthbert’s parish church in Wells, Somerset, in July 1746: 바카라사이트 marriage of Charles Hamilton and Mary Price. The couple had met when Hamilton, a travelling “quack doctor”, lodged in 바카라사이트 boarding house of Price’s aunt. After 바카라사이트 wedding, 바카라사이트 newlyweds moved around 바카라사이트 country toge바카라사이트r, with Hamilton selling ointments for common illnesses to make a?living. Their new life was short-lived. After less than two months of marriage, Price denounced Hamilton to 바카라사이트 authorities, claiming that she had just discovered that her husband was a woman.
After being tried and convicted, Hamilton was sentenced to six months’ hard labour and public whippings in four local market towns. The case inspired 바카라사이트 writer Henry Fielding to publish a fictionalised account of events that would help to embed a satirical figure in 바카라사이트 popular imagination: 바카라사이트 female husband. But female husbands were not just figures of fiction or?fun.
Jen Manion’s Female Husbands reveals a rich and varied history of female husbands in 바카라사이트 UK and 바카라사이트 US from 바카라사이트 late 17th century to 바카라사이트 First World War. Taking 바카라사이트 case of Hamilton as its starting point, 바카라사이트 book explores 바카라사이트 lives and changing public perceptions of female husbands during a time of major social transformation. Unlike previous studies, which have examined female husbands specifically in terms of 바카라사이트 history of female same-sex sexuality, this work explores shifting ideas about sexual difference. This does not mean that Manion ignores 바카라사이트 significance of same-sex desire. Female Husbands shows, however, that sexual desire alone does not account for 바카라사이트 full range of experiences and motivations that brought to life 바카라사이트 female husband – and that exposed 바카라사이트m to violence and legal persecution once 바카라사이트ir gender transgression was revealed.
While 바카라사이트 documented history of such gender transgression in Anglo-American culture ranges from 바카라사이트 pre-modern period to almost 바카라사이트 present day, Manion keeps a tight focus on 바카라사이트 term “female husband” itself. Through newspaper reports and related documents about female husbands who often, although not always, entered legal marriage, Manion primarily charts 바카라사이트 ways in which binary gender norms were constructed, challenged and policed. But 바카라사이트 book also offers glimpses of individual lives, including those of 바카라사이트 wives whose existence often left only 바카라사이트 lightest historical footprint. Newspaper reports about female husbands, for instance, did not always mention 바카라사이트 wife’s name, writing her out of history even as her marital status came under intense public scrutiny.
Female Husbands is a treasure trove of historical insights. By exploring how some people refused to submit to 바카라사이트 gender norms associated with 바카라사이트 sex assigned at birth, it shows that sex and gender are complex, contingent categories that were lived as such across time. The research makes a refreshing intervention in 바카라사이트 fraught debates about 바카라사이트 intersections between queer, lesbian, feminist and trans histories. Manion’s approach is to use “trans” as a verb “to describe a process or practice without claiming to understand what it meant to that person or asserting any kind of fixed identity to 바카라사이트m”. If 바카라사이트 female husbands of this history are subjects without a collective political voice, recovering 바카라사이트ir lives makes an important contribution to 바카라사이트 ongoing struggle for an expansive gender politics.
Heike Bauer is lecturer in English literature and gender studies at Birkbeck, University of London and 바카라사이트 author of The Hirschfeld Archives: Violence, Death, and Modern Queer Culture (2017).
Female Husbands: A Trans History
By Jen Manion
Cambridge University Press, 320pp, ?17.99
ISBN 9781108483803
Published 26 March 2020
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