# The Intersexes: A History of Similisexualism as a Problem in Social Life/Chapter VI

CHAPTER VI.
The Uraniad, or Feminine Complement of the Uranian: Her General Physical and Psychological Diagnosis: Types and Biographies.
The Uranian Defined.
Such is the outline of this mysterious and third Intersex; one presenting, in its turn, strange problems; being feminine, yet not adequately woman, according to the great determinative of sex, the instincts of sexual love. The more we study this curious product of human nature, we realize more amazedly into what a further demesne of intersexual singularities we have entered.
The present book is not intended as so full a study of Uraniadism as of Uranian humanity. Outside of this chapter, what will be said of the Uraniad, must be restricted, under various classified headings, to supplements to the chapters that deal with male similisexualism. By ​other works in psychiatry of Uraniadism the reader easily can gain a completer intimacy with the problems and types involved in feminine similisexualism.
The Uraniad Physically, etc.
Classes of Uraniads. Geo- graphical Distri- bution.
Classic, Biblical and Historic Uraniadism.
Under successive chapters of this study, we shall present the Uraniad's temperamental, social and professional relations to life and history. The following are general observation.
General Psycho- logy of the Uraniad.
General Aspects of the Uraniad's Sexualism.
The Uraniad Mask: Neither so Elaborate nor Ne- cessary as the Uranian One.
The Uraniad In- tersex inferior to the Uranian One as a Secondary Sex, when Both are Contrasted.
The following are some general examples of this curious between-sex. They are from the memoranda of various pathologists. The first one is given by an American physician, from his personal acquaintance.
Instance of In- born Uraniadism Fine Moral, Intel- lectual and Æsthe- tic Type, but no Outward Evi- dences.
"She has no knowledge of abnormality of temperament ​in her family except that one uncle was mixed-up, directly or indirectly, in a blackmailing affair in Paris, many years ago, which matter Miss A— now indicates as of a pederastic sort. Miss A— was however often told by her mother that before she was born the mother "had prayed and hoped from morning till night that she would have a boy"; as two girls had already been born. Both these sisters died in infancy. The parents still live. Miss A— was a quick-minded child. She has had excellent educational advantages, of which she has made the most. Was a good scholar, except as to mathematics and chemistry, developed early fine musical gifts, took special courses and prizes. As a little girl, was highly sensitive to female beauty, and cared little or nothing about a boy's looks, or a man's. Remembers strong sexual feelings as to theatrical posters giving portraits of a beautiful actress. When about nine, she stole the picture of a lady, personally unknown to her, from a photographer's shop, and slept with it "on her bosom often", with indistinct sexual feelings for it. At dances, and so on among young people, she felt either indifference or repugnance to dancing with a youth, to being kissed by him, etc; while to dance with a girl, and to be embraced by one whom she admired gave her pleasure, "making her quiver all over with delight". Her dreams of embracing other girls were frequent. She had many strong sentimental attachments, and was often morbidly jealous, as to her own sex. Between 12 and 13 her sexual maturity was emphatic. She used to masturbate with either an "ideal" female image in mind, or looking at the portrait of one special friend, her senior. Her emotions now centered on women older than herself, At seventeen, she began a regular sexual relation with a schoolmate, who was like herself. (Masturb. mut.) Another affair came about this date, as the preceding one cooled, and the former friend, then about eighteen, fell in love with the son of a neighbour. The second relation lasted about a year and a half, when the young woman ​confessed to Miss A— that she had a similar sentiment for a female cousin, and so wished to maintain much less intimate relations with Miss. A— This declaration cost Miss A— grief, jealous despair, morbid sense of injury and loss, and affected her nervous organization seriously. At this same time, she became the object of a strong sentiment on the part of a young man, who was much admired by all her girl-friends. She discouraged him entirely. Miss A— never was coquettish nor vain; in the case of several discarded lovers she has continued to retain their friendship and even intimacy".
"When about twenty years old, Miss A— fell deeply in love with a well-known young actress, who had a similar passion for her. So began an affair of more intense similisexualism than anything preceding (Masturb. mut., sapphism, mut.) This lasted several months, till the actress went on a professional tour. But the two friends have never lost sight of each other, and occasionally meet in one or another European city, and on the former terms. Miss A— has several times been the object of similisexual "addresses" from other women, sometimes favourably received sometimes not. Her professional work has been successful, not merely as to teaching, but in connection with private musicales, and as accompanist in public concerts. But she has suffered much when in active career as a teacher from her tendency to sexual interest in attractive female pupils. This she has always earnestly "fought-off", for she feels, most conscientiously, her personal responsability to her pupils and also has a strong regard for the innocence of youth. She slowly became aware of her abnormality but has never had clear idea of the matter, and has thought only of hiding it from those not likely to understand it. She went out into social life much in past years, but chiefly to see other women. Miss A— has never had any desire to wear male attire, her own beauty is a pleasure to her, ​in so far as it attracts to her women whom she admires. She dresses handsomely and takes pleasure in her toilettes, though she does not study them as do many of her friends. She is a fine dancer, and a brilliant conversationalist. She has always attracted men, and has declined three offers of marriage. Her continuing in single life has perplexed her relatives and made "family trouble". When she was twenty-five, one offer of marriage, specially persistent, was from a young physician, of attractive personality, successful, etc. Miss A— admired him, and valued him as a friend. She was held back from accepting him simply by horror of sexual intercourse with a man. "If he had been a woman, I would have been the happiest being in the world". After much reflection, she decided to confess her secret to him. Naturally, he begged her to try their marriage as a remedy, and promised all degrees of sexual reserve with her, "till she should become more normal in sentiments". But he knew something of homosexualism, and he "could not promise" Miss. A— that her instincts would disapear. She therefore broke off the intimacy. The episode enlightened her somewhat as to her psychologic status. She was frightened and bewildered and again thought of suicide. At this time, a death in the family made Miss A— independent of her profession. She laid it aside, and. though ardently fond of it, she now rather avoids music as a recreation. In course of last year, Miss A— has been in homosexual relations with a lady of high social standing, some years her senior, married but living in platonic relations only, with her husband, who is believed to be homosexual. Miss A— lately has become despairing of a normal vita sexualis. She dreads especially the increase, or non-decrease, of her feelings as she grows older, and (as she frankly remarked) becomes less attractive. Insomnia, hysterical tendencies and so on, are becoming more pronounced. She has again turned to the idea of marriage, the more as an excellent offer has been repeated. But even in thinking seriously of this her ​horror corporis as to a man is extreme".
"Miss A— takes interest in belles-lettres, is a great novel-reader, but of good fiction only. She likes the theater and says that she is fond of fancying herself as the heroine, oftener however as the hero, of a drama. She is frequently excited sexually by descriptions of female loveliness, by depictions of how a man feels in sexual excitement, and the like, as it offers "just what she feels" when with a woman that she sexually loves. Miss A— impresses me as having a fine moral nature, as a person who instinctively loves truth, unselfishness, modesty, refinement, dignity of character in general. She does not know exactly how far she is wanting in domestic tastes, for though she has orderly habits, is practical in various affairs and sometimes assists her relatives or friends in domestic duties, still she has lived chiefly in boardinghouses and hotels, and has not much experience of routine feminine work. But she dislikes all sewing and fancywork, knows little of cookery, and does not like to make use of what little she knows".
"Miss A— thinks that during sexual intercourse with women she feels herself wholly "active", and "quite as if she were the man", and she "usually gives that impression" to a partner".
Another instance of adult uraniadism that is appropriate is the following, which I cite from Dr. Krafft-Ebing, with some condensation. The subject is not of the "amazonian" type at all, and is of an intellectual and social class that may be called superiour.
Instance.
Instance: Physi que Not Quite Normal: Ethical- Mental Grade Not High.
"R. E—, thirty-two years old, French parents and ancestry on all sides, profession (nominal) has been advised by another patient to consult me. She resides in Paris. Miss E. suffers from general nervousness and from what seems to be the milder epilepsy, attacking her but very occasionally. Parents (living) have some marked nervous ​disorders; one brother insane at S—, is semi-violent at times. Miss E—, from extreme youth, has always felt herself sexually interested in beautiful women, and has wished to embrace them, concumbere eis, etcetera; but on the contrary has never had any desire for masculine caresses, or the least interest in masculine beauty, male personal charms, etc., except of a calm, platonic sort. Her antipathy to corporeal intimacy with a man amounts to horror corpor. hominis, in fact. The patient says she feels it the more intelligently, compared with her pleasure in embracing, kissing, masturb. mut. and occasional sapphism with women, because she was the victim of a kind of rape some years ago. She insists that she then experienced ample proofs of her being congenitally unsympathetic to male relationships. During a walk with a young man whom she admired as a friend, and who was of distinguished personal beauty, he ravished her, or rather he succeeded partly by force and partly by what she vaguely calls "very vehement persuasions", in having sexual intercourse with her. She was not in any way conscious of the least sexual sympathy, but is sure that fear or moral aversion had nothing to do with her antipathy. E— now has two sexual intimacies with women; a middle-aged married woman being the more intimate friend, the other one, a young lady employed in a banking-establishment. (Sapph. mut. et masturb.) R. E— shows emphatically signs of secondary mental and, to some extent, moral individuality. She "has no religious convictions" and calls herself an agnostic. She had good educational advantages in youth, but disliked study and was never proficient in even ordinary matters, such as reading, simple mathematics, geography and history. She writes a clear but unformed hand, and spells uncertainly. She has never cared to read anything except the newspapers, and novels by Xavier de Montépin, Gyp, Eugène Sue and Paul de Kock. She likes the kind of theatrical pieces that are given at such theaters as the Palais-Royal, and, so far as I infer, ​the broader the humour the more acceptable. She often goes to the Folies-Bergères, with a male friend, and even to the Moulin-Rouge now and then. In the latter place, she sat down one evening, near to a young, pretty prostitute of similisexual tastes. In the absence of the gentleman who accompanied her, she made enough of an acquaintance with this person to give her male escort the slip, and went for the night to the apartment of the woman; but only, as she insists, in a mad sort of freak, "just as a man would do". Of such women as a class, she has what is apparently a proper aversion. She is exceedingly fond of dress and jewellery, and I learn that she has a poor sense of the moral obligation of a debt. At least, she has not hesitated to open accounts with tradesmen, to order costly articles of dress, etc., that she could not pay for, and did not expect to pay for; in one or two cases suits having been brought. She confesses to being almost devoid of jealousy, in her relations with women; "if she is not loved in return or if her friends are untrue", she seeks others, and is "as well satisfied with one pleasant person as with another". She appears to lack any constancy in her emotional life, and professes that she has no sympathetic feeling toward her relatives, "though they are a very good sort of people". From certain incidents, not directly of her vita sexualis, I am inclined to think that R. E— has small respect for truth, when subterfuges, not to say falsehoods, are convenient. She told me, on her second consultation with me, an incident involving her deliberate theft of a private journal of a friend, to learn how the pecuniary affairs of the lady stood, and also to try to discover a detail in regard to a Bourse speculation. R. E— says that she is passionately fond of all games of chance, and has visited Ostend and the Riviera for the purpose of gambling there".
"R. E— is a fine-looking blonde, in type. She has no signs of masculine physique externally that the ordinary ​observer would note, except that of a slight growth of hair on the lips and chin, for which she has taken an electrical treatment with partial success. Manner and voice wholly feminine. Hips normal size. The genitalia, however, are abnormal; the patient having a pseudo-penis which is almost of the dimensions of the organ of a boy of ten years, with a nearly complete glans; vagina is imperfectly developed, etc. The breast-development of the patient is not normal. She has always had very irregular periods, and lately they have ceased entirely".
Instance: comple- te Uranianism but with unusual Feminine Temp- erament, Tastes, etc.
"Mrs. K—, twenty-seven years of age, Hungarian by birth and of both Hungarian and Russian descent, has been under my care at the Baths of X— this summer, for the sake of a recently developed tendency to insomnia. Otherwise the patient is in excellent health, accompanying her husband to the Baths, he being rheumatic. The confidence of the patient was sufficient to disclose gradually to me the following facts. Mrs. K— was from childhood perfectly indifferent to the other sex, but strongly susceptible to female beauty. It has always acted upon her sexually. She has never had anything except "complete indifference" or aversion to male beauty of person, to physical contact with men; and kissing, embracing, etc., by youths and men have been repugnant to her in the extreme. On the other hand, passionate pleasure in contact with female beauty; warm friendships, always tending to be "like love affairs", and in some cases such, (masturb. mut. et cunniling.) She was "in sickening terror" at the ​idea of marriage to her husband, which event family-circumstances made necessary. Her husband, however, soon made her understand that he was not disposed to insist on conjugal rights; having no mind to give up a mistress in the same city. Mrs. K— was glad to be so released; has never made any dissent from the other ménage that her husband continues. She had no pleasure in the rare coitus, that her husband soon gave up entirely; though she managed to subdue her horror hominis enough to deceive him as to her real instincts. These he has never known. She has lived in a constant homosexual relationship with one or another friend, during many years; and takes intense pleasure in the sexual acts. (Mast, mut., cunniling. and so on.) The most intimate of these intimacies, that with a cousin, has been broken, within some months, by death. The shock and the physical deprivation together have worked severely on the patient's nervous system. Hence the insomnia. Her husband has not suspected the sexual abnormalism of his wife; at least he has never intimated such a suspicion, the less because he is an army-officer, obliged to be a great deal of the year absent from the city; and when there he passes his nights with his mistress. Hence he is always glad if his wife has one or another relative or friend with her. He has never shown jealousy, having perfect confidence in Mrs. K—s integrity and "coldness". Mrs. K— goes much into society".
"Respecting her outward and other physique, Mrs. K— has nothing unfeminine. She is a woman of elegant female figure; full bosom, and hips; posteriors female in size and contours. She has a charming face (very expressive) and the grace of a woman of the world. She dresses handsomely, and tells me that she "takes great interest in the matter". She is also interested in housekeeping; fond of the finer sorts of cookery. She has much pleasure in sewing and embroiders beautifully; has lately presented ​a handsome piece of such work to a church. She is fond of light reading and of the theater; a brilliant pianist, and sings very well, with rather a high soprano voice. She seems to he of sincere and superiour character. She once worried much, and suffered greatly on account of her sexual abnormality, as to which a friend early informed her. Little by little, she has given up thinking it morally or physically wrong, being so innate and complete. The patient has no abnormality of the genitalia that I could discover; certain details of minor importance are plainly the result of her homosexual intercourse. She has never been a mother, probably could not be; though my examination as to this was not conclusive … She speaks of herself as having great libido when with a woman that she loves. She also thinks that her "rôle" is by natural instinct decidedly the "active" one in such intercourse, and says that she "knows she feels exactly as a man does". Menstruation irregular, and very scanty at times".
The "Amazon- ian" Uraniad.
Instance of Vira- ginous Uraniad.
Instance: Semi- Viraginous Ura- niad, Good Social Grade; Complete Concealment.
​"Some two months ago, I was called to a hotel of this city to treat (for peritonitis) a guest registered in the house, and known as Mr. L. Z—, of Boston. I found the patient in bed. The patient was of rather undersize, somewhat more delicate of extremities and generally frailer in osseous structure (as far a passing glance would indicate this) than is the average man, but not really markedly so; a smooth face, plain features not distinctively feminine; short greyish hair abundant. Various articles of exclusively masculine clothing were lying about the room. There were cigarettes and liqueurs on a table. The patient was seriously ill, and spoke asthmatically in a low, masculine voice. As I began to make some examinations, I was requested, perfectly calmly, "Not to be surprised at anything". I was however a good deal disconcerted to become convinced in a few minutes that my patient was not a man, but a woman. This concealment of sex the supposed "Mr. Z—" promptly admitted, at the same time requesting me to observe the closest secrecy as to the matter. The patient's attack of peritonitis was warded off, so that "Mr. Z—" soon was able to proceed on her journey to New Orleans; but not till she had reposed enough confidence in me to gratify my curiosity as to such a masquerade and to allow me some professional examination of as singular a type, which advanced far toward full masculinity".
"The facts in the case are as follows. "Mr. Z—" who is really Mrs. X—, a widow (after a married life of only five months) is of American-Scandinavian birth. The family has several times included members of weak, or worse, nervous constitution. One grandfather died insane, and an aunt was of such masculine traits, and so eccentric that she was "the talk" of the community. Afterwards this aunt died in an asylum. The parents died in the patient's infancy, and "Mr. Z—" was brought up by other relatives and educated in a convent in a Southern city. She ​has always disliked female work, female society, female clothing; preferring the life and society, of boys and men in every way. She has always wished that she were "really a man", the more as her physique has become increasingly masculine with her maturing. In the convent she was much the object of remarks on account of her mannish features and figure, and because of strongly expressed desires to be as unfeminine as possible. She made up her mind that as soon at she could do so, she would "try to be a man". She took great pains to observe carefully the ways of masculinity in general and even has taken lessons in manly deportment from an actor, under a pretext of turning to the stage. She grew up, aside from school and the convent, much alone; has few relatives, and so has always been rather on a free footing toward society. She came into a considerable fortune from her parents, on her majority; and during visits to friends, at hotels, in the summers, and so on, she became set on the idea of completely transforming her outward life to that of a man. A friend of hers had done this same thing with perfect success, and now lives in an English city as a man, not suspected to be anything else. But just when "Mr. Z—" was preparing to make such a change, including a residence abroad, she met a gentleman whom she very greatly admired intellectually; and as to his moral character, and who was also of considerable wealth. He fell in love with her, and she decided to marry. But she frankly told me that she not had the least physical attraction to her betrothed though she could not say that she had had distinct horror corporis. She was in fact rather curious of what, would be her physical emotionality toward married life. Of her vita sexualis I will make some further note, presently as it is of importance in so strange a case. She accordingly married Mr. K—, and though herself indifferent (she found herself quite unmoved by sexual intercourse, such as it was, between them) their relations in this respect were "happy ​and satisfactory" to her husband. He was always travelling commercially; they had no settled home; she was wholly free from domestic life. For some time—during her first weeks of marriage—she lost much of her masculinity of tastes, and, forgot that she would rather be of the other sex. But this retrogression in feeling was wholly apart from the sexual effect on her of her new relationship; so she insists. Also the feelings of repugnance were returning, just when her husband suddenly died while they were in a Mexican city. This left her again to herself. She decided that she "would be a man now, for all and for good". Her relatives were so situated that she need not fear any obstacle or even interest from them. She assumed male attire. From the first, she has wholly deceived everybody, has travelled and lived in the United States, England and the Continent with perfect freedom, and never with detection; the more readily as she passes for a man of invalid constitution and suffers from asthma. She smokes, drinks light liquors temperately, plays billiards, rides horseback, fences, and goes into considerable general society all as a man, and undetected. She has a confidential lawyer who manages her property, which is considerable, and who does not disclose what he knows of her transformation. She went to Boston, and (rather nominally) resides there, because she had no acquaintances there to betray her sex, and there could start out in a new life as a man". She passes much time in England, with the man-woman friend indicated. I have not mentioned that the patient is forty-seven years old, though looking younger; an only child".
The vita sexualis of "Mr. Z—," is completely homosexual, the marriage-episode having made no change in it. As a young child, she was passionately interested in exclusively female beauty, dreamed of sleeping with women, sexually, at an early age, and had no sense of the opposite sex. When in school, she had intense friendships, and was ​always "falling in love" with other girls. One such friendship in the convent-school became sexual; but (despite the confessional) it was a secret never betrayed by her or by the other party to it, a young nun, who calmed any scruples of conscience. She has often had, later, sexual relations with young women, and once or twice she has kept a regular mistress! She has now a young friend in such a relation. They often travel together, at "Mr. Z—'s" expense, as man and wife. The English friend, by the by, is also from birth wholly homosexual, and has an intense horror hominis as to sexual matters. After some hesitation, one day, Mr. Z— permitted me to make a close anatomical examination, with the following results"…
The memorandum (which I here condense) established a quite abnormal development of the patient's clitoris and the presence of a more than rudimentary scrotum, with one testicle plainly to be felt, though there was.no seminal secretion, nor related system; along with a normal vagina, etc. In short, a near approach to actual hermaphroditism of the genitalia. There was hardly any feminine development of the bosom, the hips were narrow, the thighs concave, the general muscular development was masculine in externals. Other particularities of the sexual system are given. It is of interest to notice that the patient had no clear ideas that she. was organically abnormal until her husband explained the fact. There was no complaint on the part of the husband as to any obstacles to coitus, nor as to indifference etc. on the part of patient: but there seems ground for supposing certain organic defects on the husband's part.
Instance: Virile Disguise, Male Externals, Stren- gth, etc. in Ura- niad of Humble Class.
Unfortunately the medical analysis of this case has not reached the writer, nor does he know how far there was organic abnormalism. But the wife in Huddersfield ​"had never suspected" that her partner was not sexually masculine.
Instance: Johan- ma Buchbinder: Strong Viragi- nity. Entire Concealment.
Instance: Countess V—.
Unwholesomeness of College Theatricals & Athletics for Young Women.
Three Instances of Viraginous and Concealed Uraniadism.
Another case of simulation of a man, recorded in Vienna, is that of a certain Anna Drexelberger, middle-aged, and dressed as a man during about thirty years, ever since girlhood; detected as being feminine through a charge in a police-court of falsifying facts. Her case excited sympathy, as it was made clear that she had played the part of a man so long because of the difficulty of finding feminine employment. She had even been a house-porter and general man-of-work. She was exonerated of the charge of perverting her identification, etc., and was presently offered a position of companion, by an elderly lady; which post she accepted. There was every reason to suppose that Anna Drexelberger was sexually more or less abnormal, from various facts in her career. She went to England, and died soon after in London, leaving a estate of considerable value in cash to a young woman in Vienna with whom she had lived sexually and most happily, and who "had never known" that Anna was not a man. The will, by the by, was contested, but was fully sustained.
A pertinent case occurred lately in the city of St. Louis, in the United States of North America. Through the statement of a local physician, a type-setter in the town was taken into custody, when employed in the office of a local journal, on a charge of abduction and as being a woman, though known as "Johann Bürger". The facts soon were clear. Anna Mattersteig was her real name. She was thirty years old. She was living matrimonially with another young woman, Martha Gammater, the daughter of a Leipzig jeweller, and had so lived before they came from Germany. Then, but apparently not earlier, Martha Gammater had discovered that she was the partner of a woman, not of a veritable man. The shock ​had made the wife insane. At the time of the arrest, she was in an asylum. Anna Matterstieg appeared in court in full male attire, and looked like a fine-appearing man. She disclaimed any intention of contravening the law, in respect of her impersonation and of the abdication (for such it had been) of her companion. She declared that she had assumed the role simply because she "felt herself wholly like a man" and was sure that only by a mistake of Nature had she come into the world at all otherwise. She "would suffer any penalty" rather than wear women's apparel.
To an astonishing case of successful imposture of masculinity by an uraniad, that of Margaret Erb, known as "Prince Egon", which came before the courts of Vienna in March 1908, reference will be made in the tenth chapter of this study, where the morally degenerate type is particularized.
Another Instance: Viraginous and Concealed Ura- niadism; Coarse Type: Associates.
The proportion of German Uraniads of virile physique is considerable. In some German cities, Berlin especially, where the "Emancipation" of feminine interests has obtained certain balls and assemblies have illustrated the undercurrents and the uppercurrents of similisexual instincts in women. An entertaining account of an artist-ball, so called, in which only women-workers in the fine arts, literature, and so on were permitted attendance on the dancing-floor, to the exclusion of male guests, is given in the "Jahrbuch für Sexuelle Zwischenstufen", for 1901; copied from a Berlin newspaper, with the descriptive title, "Ein Fest Ohne Männer". The best element of female esthetic life in the German capital, and male costumes were much affected, especially by the large ​contingent of similisexual women present. This ball is an annual affair at present. With "The Uraniad in Æsthetic Professions" we shall refer to such matters more appropriately than in the present chapter of general study of types.