chapter 2. my question when i originally posted this still stands: genuinely, has anybody seen "hermaphrodite" used in this context? he provides no citations
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I can’t find a citation right now but around 16th c France there was a lot of discussion of women with “enlarged clitorises” being “hermaphroditic” due to “tribadism” with other women.
i love how he's like i'm gonna write a book about female masculinities and then is also like i'm not gonna write about anyone but cissexual lesbians. and this section only feels worse when you rmr that he keeps equating trans men with masculine cissexual women lol
he talked a bit about anne lister and then ended with this. i just don't think it's great to open your book by saying idk how to define masculinity! and then nod to the idea that masculinity can be defined via sexual roles and not grapple with what that means
It looks like he thinks only people who medically transition are trans. He doesn't seem to realize GAC as a whole is meant to address something that still exists in the absence of treatment, or that it scales to individual need (or availability), like any treatment for anything else.
two things. 1) this retelling of victor barker's life is really something, including just ignoring the part where he was a fascist. 2) why is halberstam so transphobic
the author's own phrasing "wanted to be men BEFORE the possibility of sex change existed" is, by definition, far closer at the very *least*, to "PRE-transsexual", than to his "maybe some were, some weren't, who knows" explanation he gives after the highlight. his ideas are internally inconsistent.
I can really only at best see it being used against intersex women or intersex people who happen to be in the women's bathroom. But at that point it's used because of intersexism and not.... Because of whatever the fuck this is??? Huh???
If it helps, yes - it's used regularly in sexological texts of the 19th century, into the 20th century, and pops up in earlier accounts so. 'Hermaphrodite' and many variations on the same ('mental hermaphrodite' is a popular one) is prime 19th century terminology for all kinds of inversion
Halberstram is wrong in thinking the use dies off - it keeps going, and is also used for people assigned male at birth - there's not a standardised usage, but a broad and changing/individual one. Would have to dig into my research notes for specific sources - if it helps, a lot of my doctoral work..
...was in gendered history, and my two current WIP work in detail form this area. I think there's a lot to critique in 'Female Masculinities', but I'd half agree with Halberstram's statement there.
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clearly all these historical figures failed to list their pronouns in their linkedin bio
What a confused person. Thanks for sharing this, even if it hurt to read.
It looks like he thinks only people who medically transition are trans. He doesn't seem to realize GAC as a whole is meant to address something that still exists in the absence of treatment, or that it scales to individual need (or availability), like any treatment for anything else.