From: sr09@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (SIMON NICHOLAS RUSSELL)
Newsgroups: soc.bi
Subject: Re: Disturbed
Date: 12 Sep 92 18:48:39 GMT
Organization: Lehigh University


>>For the benefit of those without a fascination for Renaissance History,
>>Henri III was the King of France (after being the King of Poland for a
>>while, I'd love to see an account of THAT) in the late 1500's.  He was
>>bisexual and transvestite and had a great sense of humour.
>
>Sometimes I wonder if I was born a few hundred (or thousand) years too
>late by accident. There are various times in history when the situation
>for transvestites looks to have been a lot better than it is now. Of
>course this may be superficial, plus you probably needed to be noble or
>rich or both then.
>
>Owen.
>
Well, I'm not sure that's entirely true.  Of course, being rich and/or noble
did enable you to get away with a lot more than the "common man;"  James I,
for example, was well-known to be a homosexual--and the dynamics of the Court
at this time were, to some extent, governed by control of homosexual
favourites (like the Earl of Somerset and George Villiers who ended up as the
Duke of Buckingham because he was cute), despite the fact that sodomy was
punishable by death at this time (a law, incidently, passed under Henry VIII
as part of the Church of England's reformation).  I'm sure the fact that James
was the King had a lot to do with people turning a blind eye.
Up until the first few decades of the eighteenth century, though, effeminacy
in men--whether in appearance, clothing, or mannerism--was not linked with sexual
preference as it is today.  Effeminacy in men was still stigmatised, but
because it made them "like women" in their overconcern with looks, weaknesses,
unreliabilities etc.  The Fops--my favourites!: had I been born 300 years
earlier, with enough cash, I'm sure I would have been one!--came very, very
close to wearing female fashions in their pursuit of outrageous fashion
statements, and came under considerable abuse for being vain, idiotic,
flighty clowns.  The nature of the criticism of crossdressing may have changed
as centuries (and cultural situations) have changed, but it was still there
"back then."
There's an apparently very good book on the history of transvestism by
Marjorie Garber called "Vested Interests" (don't have the citation to hand--I
could dig it out if anyone has trouble), and a great chapter in Alan Bray's
"Homosexuality in Renaissance England" (Gay Men's Press, 1982) on London's
Molly Houses--what amounted to the prototype "gay bars" and which were
continually sought out and raided by the authorities.  Because I'm avoiding
doing any work right now, I'll quote you a chunk of a contemporary account of
a molly house:
    "...they had no sooner entered but the Marshal was complemented by the
    company with the titles of Madam and Ladyship.  The man asking the
    occasion of these uncommon devoirs, the Marshal said it was a familiar
    language peculiar to the house.  The man was not long there before he was
    more surprised than at first.  The men calling one another 'my dear' and
    hugging, kissing, and tickling each other as if they were a mixture of
    wanton males and females, and assuming effeminate voices and airs; some
    telling others that they ought to be whipped for not coming to school more
    frequently...Some were completely rigged in gowns, petticoats, headcloths,
    fine laced shoes, furbelowed scarves, and masks; some had riding hoods;
    some were dressed like milkmaids, others like shepherdesses with green
    hats, waistcoats, and petticoats; and others had their faces patched and
    painted and wore extensive hoop petticoats, which had been very lately
    introduced."
Sounds postively fabulous.  In the molly houses people of the "lower classes"
could participate in these activites in (relative) security.  In this account
(from around 1700), crossdressing is clearly associated with effeminacy, and
effeminacy=homosexuality--in some ways the attitude which prevails in our
culture.  But up to this point the attitudes to transvestism, effeminacy and
homosexuality were separate, though overlapping/intersecting/inter-related in
complicated, and often interesting, ways.  Sigh.  Just wait till I get to be a
proper professor and get to teach courses in this stuff.

Uncommon devoirs,

Simon.



-- 

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* Simon Morgan-Russell    "I love to lie o' both sides o' th' bed myself" *
* SR09@LEHIGH.EDU          Middleton & Dekker's "The Roaring Girl" (1608) *
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