Can Two and a Half Centuries of Female Husbands Inform (Trans)Gender History?

Abstract

This article discusses female husbands as they have been depicted in written narratives from Henry Fielding's use in 1746 up until present day debates. Questions of the cultural issues of gender, transgenderism, and the social construction of lesbianism are considered in the context of female masculinity, of which female husbands are one example.

KEYWORDS:

• female husbands
• gender otherness
• heteronormative constructions of lesbianism
• interpreting an oxymoron
• portrayals of crowd dynamics
• queering (social) gazes

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Permission to include the Cruickshank cartoon has been given by Bristol Reference Library, Bristol, England and the still from the film Flying with One Wing has been given by Heliotrope Films, Paris, France.

Notes

1. Sheridan Baker in his article of 1959 confirmed authorship.

2. Sometimes travellers are said to be of no fixed abode. Perhaps female husbands could be said to be of no fixed gender.

3. Although 1807 is given as the date of publication on the new edition, Baker (1959) claims it was published in 1813. The date of Cruickshank's cartoon would seem to confirm this as he lived from 1792–1878 and began drawing about 1813.