History of nonbinary gender: Difference between revisions
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Here are some tips for writing respectfully about historical gender variant people whose actual preferred names, pronouns, and gender identities might not be known. | Here are some tips for writing respectfully about historical gender variant people whose actual preferred names, pronouns, and gender identities might not be known. | ||
* '''Dead names.''' It is disrespectful to call a transgender person by their former name ("dead name") rather than the name that they chose for themself. Some consider their dead name a secret that shouldn't be put in public at all. For living transgender people in particular, this history should show only their chosen names, not their dead names. In this history, some deceased historical transgender persons may have their birth names shown in addition to their chosen names, in cases where it is not known which name they preferred, or where it is otherwise impossible to find information about that person | * '''Dead names.''' It is disrespectful to call a transgender person by their former name ("dead name") rather than the name that they chose for themself. Some consider their dead name a secret that shouldn't be put in public at all. For living transgender people, in particular, this history should show only their chosen names, not their dead names. In this history, some deceased historical transgender persons may have their birth names shown in addition to their chosen names, in cases where it is not known which name they preferred, or where it is otherwise impossible to find information about that person if one wants to research their history. This should be written in the form of "Chosen Name (née Birth Name)." If history isn't sure which name that person earnestly preferred, write it in the form of "Name, or Other Name." | ||
* '''Pronouns.''' It is disrespectful to call a person by pronouns other than those that they ask for. Some historical persons whose preferred pronouns aren't known should be called here by [[Pronouns#No pronouns|no pronouns]]. If this isn't possible, [[Pronouns#They|they]] pronouns. | * '''Pronouns.''' It is disrespectful to call a person by pronouns other than those that they ask for. Some historical persons whose preferred pronouns aren't known should be called here by [[Pronouns#No pronouns|no pronouns]]. If this isn't possible, [[Pronouns#They|they]] pronouns. | ||
* '''Words for a person's gender, assigned and otherwise.''' It is disrespectful to label a person's gender otherwise than they ask for, but it's not always possible to do so. In the case of some historical people, history has recorded how they lived, and what [[gender assigned at birth|gender they were assigned at birth]], but not how they preferred to label their gender identity. For example, it's not known whether certain historical people who were assigned female at birth ([[AFAB]]) lived as men because they identified as men (were [[transgender men]]), or because it was the only way to have a career in that time and place (and were gender non-conforming [[cisgender women]]). This should be mentioned in the more respectful form of, for example, "assigned male at birth ([[AMAB]]), lived as a woman," rather than "really a man, passed as a woman." For another example, writing "a military doctor discovered Smith was AFAB" is more respectful than saying "a military doctor discovered Smith was really a woman." For people who lived before the word "transgender" was created, it may be more suitable to call them "gender variant" rather than "transgender." On the other hand, if we have enough information about such a person, we may do best by such people by describing them with the terminology that they most likely would have used for their gender identity if they lived in the present day, with our language. | * '''Words for a person's gender, assigned and otherwise.''' It is disrespectful to label a person's gender otherwise than they ask for, but it's not always possible to do so. In the case of some historical people, history has recorded how they lived, and what [[gender assigned at birth|gender they were assigned at birth]], but not how they preferred to label their gender identity. For example, it's not known whether certain historical people who were assigned female at birth ([[AFAB]]) lived as men because they identified as men (were [[transgender men]]), or because it was the only way to have a career in that time and place (and were gender non-conforming [[cisgender women]]). This should be mentioned in the more respectful form of, for example, "assigned male at birth ([[AMAB]]), lived as a woman," rather than "really a man, passed as a woman." For another example, writing "a military doctor discovered Smith was AFAB" is more respectful than saying "a military doctor discovered Smith was really a woman." For people who lived before the word "transgender" was created, it may be more suitable to call them "gender variant" rather than "transgender." On the other hand, if we have enough information about such a person, we may do best by such people by describing them with the terminology that they most likely would have used for their gender identity if they lived in the present day, with our language. | ||
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==Wanted events in this time-line== | ==Wanted events in this time-line== | ||
Please help fill out this | Please help fill out this timeline if you can add information of these kinds: | ||
* Events in the movement for keeping the genders of babies undisclosed. | * Events in the movement for keeping the genders of babies undisclosed. | ||
* Events concerning [[nonbinary celebrities]], and historical persons who clearly stated they were neither female nor male, or both, or androgynes, etc. | * Events concerning [[nonbinary celebrities]], and historical persons who clearly stated they were neither female nor male, or both, or androgynes, etc. | ||
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==Eleventh century== | ==Eleventh century== | ||
* ''Wæpen-wifestre'', or ''wæpned-wifestre'' (Anglo-Saxon, ''wæpen'' "sword," "penis," "male" (or ''wæpned'' "weaponed," "with a penis," "male") + ''wif'' woman, + ''estre'' feminine suffix, thus "woman with a weapon," "woman with a penis," or "man woman") was defined in an eleventh-century glossary (Antwerp Plantin-Moretus 32) as meaning "hermaphrodite." The counterpart of this word, ''wæpned-mann,'' simply meant "a person armed with a sword" or "male person."<ref>Dana Oswald, ''Monsters, Gender and Sexuality in Medieval English Literature.'' Rochester, NY: D.S. Brewer, 2010. p. 93.</ref><ref name="ClarkMedieval">David Clark. ''Between medieval men: Male friendship and desire in early medieval English literature.'' Oxford University Press, 2009. P. 63-65.</ref> ''Wæpen-wifestre'' is known to be a synonym for "scrat" (intersex).<ref>''Catholicon Anglicum: An English-Latin Word-book, dated 1483, volume 30.'' Accessed via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=I7wKAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22W%C3%A6pen-wifestre%22&pg=PA325#v=onepage&q=%22W%C3%A6pen-wifestre%22&f=false</ref> Another synonym given for ''wæpen-wifestre'' is ''bæddel,'' an which also means intersex, but also feminine men, from which the word "bad" is thought to be derived, due to its use as a slur.<ref>"bad (adj.)" ''Online Etymology Dictionary.'' https://www.etymonline.com/word/bad</ref> The related word ''bæddling'' was used in eleventh-century laws for men who had sex with men in a receptive role.<ref name="ClarkMedieval" /> Additional meanings of ''wæpen-wifestre'' are possible. When ''wæpen-wifestre'' is read as "woman with a penis," it could describe a feminine man, a man who has sex with men, or a transgender woman. When read as "woman with a sword," it could refer to a warrior woman. When read as "man woman," it could mean not only an intersex person | * ''Wæpen-wifestre'', or ''wæpned-wifestre'' (Anglo-Saxon, ''wæpen'' "sword," "penis," "male" (or ''wæpned'' "weaponed," "with a penis," "male") + ''wif'' woman, + ''estre'' feminine suffix, thus "woman with a weapon," "woman with a penis," or "man woman") was defined in an eleventh-century glossary (Antwerp Plantin-Moretus 32) as meaning "hermaphrodite." The counterpart of this word, ''wæpned-mann,'' simply meant "a person armed with a sword" or "male person."<ref>Dana Oswald, ''Monsters, Gender and Sexuality in Medieval English Literature.'' Rochester, NY: D.S. Brewer, 2010. p. 93.</ref><ref name="ClarkMedieval">David Clark. ''Between medieval men: Male friendship and desire in early medieval English literature.'' Oxford University Press, 2009. P. 63-65.</ref> ''Wæpen-wifestre'' is known to be a synonym for "scrat" (intersex).<ref>''Catholicon Anglicum: An English-Latin Word-book, dated 1483, volume 30.'' Accessed via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=I7wKAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22W%C3%A6pen-wifestre%22&pg=PA325#v=onepage&q=%22W%C3%A6pen-wifestre%22&f=false</ref> Another synonym given for ''wæpen-wifestre'' is ''bæddel,'' an which also means intersex, but also feminine men, from which the word "bad" is thought to be derived, due to its use as a slur.<ref>"bad (adj.)" ''Online Etymology Dictionary.'' https://www.etymonline.com/word/bad</ref> The related word ''bæddling'' was used in eleventh-century laws for men who had sex with men in a receptive role.<ref name="ClarkMedieval" /> Additional meanings of ''wæpen-wifestre'' are possible. When ''wæpen-wifestre'' is read as "woman with a penis," it could describe a feminine man, a man who has sex with men, or a transgender woman. When read as "woman with a sword," it could refer to a warrior woman. When read as "man woman," it could mean not only an intersex person but also people who transgressed the gender binary that seems to have been the rule in Anglo-Saxon England, as far as is known from limited literature from that era. From this range of meanings that the word potentially covers, it's possible that ''wæpen-wifestre'' may have been a general category for intersex, queer, and gender-variant people in Britain contemporary to Beowulf. | ||
==Seventeenth century== | ==Seventeenth century== | ||
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[[File:Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (from Kennedy).jpg|thumb|150px|Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895), who described "a neutral sex" that was not physically intersex.]] | [[File:Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (from Kennedy).jpg|thumb|150px|Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895), who described "a neutral sex" that was not physically intersex.]] | ||
* Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895) developed a theory in which men who are attracted to men and women who are attracted to women are thus because they are members of a third sex, a mixture of both male and female, and with the psyche or essence of the "opposite" sex, even though their bodies look like normal male and female bodies. The terms "homosexual," "bisexual," and "heterosexual" didn't exist yet, so he coined terms for them all. The overall phenomenon he called [[Uranismus]] (in the original German, ''Urningtum''), gay men were uranians (German ''urnings''), lesbians were uraniads (German ''urningin'', as ''-in'' is the feminine suffix), whereas heterosexuals were ''Dionings'', so bisexual men were ''uranodionings,'' and so on, all of which were distinct from ''zwitter'' (intersex). Ulrichs based this naming system on "Plato's ''Symposium'', where two different kinds of love [...are] ruled by two different goddesses of love-- Aphrodite, daughter of Uranus, and Aphrodite, daughter of Zeus and Dione. The second Aphrodite rules those who love the opposite sex." <ref>''We are everywhere: A historical sourcebook of gay and lesbian politics.'' P. 61. https://books.google.com/books?id=rDG3xdtDutkC&lpg=PA64&dq=urning&pg=PA65#v=onepage&q=urning&f=false</ref> Ulrichs argued that their condition was as natural and healthy as that of what we now call heterosexual people, and he started the movement fighting for their equal legal rights to express their love "between consenting adults, with the free consent of both parties," in his words from 1870, and that they should not be pathologized nor criminalized for doing so.<ref name="UlrichsAraxes">Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, "Araxes: Appeal for the liberation of the urning's nature from penal law." 1870. Excerpt reprinted in: ''We are everywhere: A historical sourcebook of gay and lesbian politics.'' P. 63-65. https://books.google.com/books?id=rDG3xdtDutkC&lpg=PA64&dq=urning&pg=PA65#v=onepage&q=urning&f=false</ref>. Although Uranismus was generally addressed in terms of orientation, Ulrichs specifically described various categories of uranians in terms of their gender nonconformity and gender variance. For example, in regard to feminine gay men or queens (who he called ''Weiblings''), Ulrichs wrote in 1879, <blockquote>"The Weibling is a total mixture of male and female, in which the female element is even predominant, a thoroughly hermaphroditically organized being. Despite his male sexual organs, he is more woman than man. He is a woman with male sexual organs. He is a neutral sex. He is a neuter. He is the hermaphrodite of the ancients."<ref name="UlrichsArrow">Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, "Critical arrow." 1879. Excerpt reprinted in: ''We are everywhere: A historical sourcebook of gay and lesbian politics.'' P. 64-65. https://books.google.com/books?id=rDG3xdtDutkC&lpg=PA64&dq=urning&pg=PA65#v=onepage&q=urning&f=false</ref></blockquote> | * Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895) developed a theory in which men who are attracted to men and women who are attracted to women are thus because they are members of a third sex, a mixture of both male and female, and with the psyche or essence of the "opposite" sex, even though their bodies look like normal male and female bodies. The terms "homosexual," "bisexual," and "heterosexual" didn't exist yet, so he coined terms for them all. The overall phenomenon he called [[Uranismus]] (in the original German, ''Urningtum''), gay men were uranians (German ''urnings''), lesbians were uraniads (German ''urningin'', as ''-in'' is the feminine suffix), whereas heterosexuals were ''Dionings'', so bisexual men were ''uranodionings,'' and so on, all of which were distinct from ''zwitter'' (intersex). Ulrichs based this naming system on "Plato's ''Symposium'', where two different kinds of love [...are] ruled by two different goddesses of love-- Aphrodite, daughter of Uranus, and Aphrodite, daughter of Zeus and Dione. The second Aphrodite rules those who love the opposite sex." <ref>''We are everywhere: A historical sourcebook of gay and lesbian politics.'' P. 61. https://books.google.com/books?id=rDG3xdtDutkC&lpg=PA64&dq=urning&pg=PA65#v=onepage&q=urning&f=false</ref> Ulrichs argued that their condition was as natural and healthy as that of what we now call heterosexual people, and he started the movement fighting for their equal legal rights to express their love "between consenting adults, with the free consent of both parties," in his words from 1870, and that they should not be pathologized nor criminalized for doing so.<ref name="UlrichsAraxes">Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, "Araxes: Appeal for the liberation of the urning's nature from penal law." 1870. Excerpt reprinted in: ''We are everywhere: A historical sourcebook of gay and lesbian politics.'' P. 63-65. https://books.google.com/books?id=rDG3xdtDutkC&lpg=PA64&dq=urning&pg=PA65#v=onepage&q=urning&f=false</ref>. Although Uranismus was generally addressed in terms of orientation, Ulrichs specifically described various categories of uranians in terms of their gender nonconformity and gender variance. For example, in regard to feminine gay men or queens (who he called ''Weiblings''), Ulrichs wrote in 1879, <blockquote>"The Weibling is a total mixture of male and female, in which the female element is even predominant, a thoroughly hermaphroditically organized being. Despite his male sexual organs, he is more woman than man. He is a woman with male sexual organs. He is a neutral sex. He is a neuter. He is the hermaphrodite of the ancients."<ref name="UlrichsArrow">Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, "Critical arrow." 1879. Excerpt reprinted in: ''We are everywhere: A historical sourcebook of gay and lesbian politics.'' P. 64-65. https://books.google.com/books?id=rDG3xdtDutkC&lpg=PA64&dq=urning&pg=PA65#v=onepage&q=urning&f=false</ref></blockquote> | ||
: Ulrichs goes on to say the direct counterpart of the Weibling among those | : Ulrichs goes on to say the direct counterpart of the Weibling among those were assigned female at birth is "the masculine-inspired, woman-loving Mannlingin," who is equally gender-variant.<ref name="UlrichsArrow" /> Ulrichs emphasizes that Uranismus includes gender-variant people, distinct from those who conform from their gender, and also distinct from people born with physical intersex characteristics. As such, Uranismus included people who might today identify as nonbinary. | ||
* Based on Ulrich's work, which were the foundation of Western notions of LGBT people for the next several decades, clinical beliefs around the time of the 1890s "conflat[ed] sex, sexual orientation, and gender expression," thinking of (to use modern words for them) gay, lesbian, transgender, and gender non-conforming people as all having some kind of intersex condition. Such people were said to have "sexual inversion," and were called "inverts."<ref>"What's the history behind the intersex rights movement?" ''Intersex Society of North America.'' http://www.isna.org/faq/history </ref>. Another name used for the same category through the 1890s and 1910s was "the intermediate sex," or the "intermediates," which was not physically intersex, and was understood to be often (though not always) gender nonconforming.<ref>Edward Carpenter. "The intermediate sex." ''Love's Coming-of-Age.'' 1906. Accessed via the archive in ''Sacred Texts'' at http://www.sacred-texts.com/lgbt/lca/lca09.htm</ref> | * Based on Ulrich's work, which were the foundation of Western notions of LGBT people for the next several decades, clinical beliefs around the time of the 1890s "conflat[ed] sex, sexual orientation, and gender expression," thinking of (to use modern words for them) gay, lesbian, transgender, and gender non-conforming people as all having some kind of intersex condition. Such people were said to have "sexual inversion," and were called "inverts."<ref>"What's the history behind the intersex rights movement?" ''Intersex Society of North America.'' http://www.isna.org/faq/history </ref>. Another name used for the same category through the 1890s and 1910s was "the intermediate sex," or the "intermediates," which was not physically intersex, and was understood to be often (though not always) gender nonconforming.<ref>Edward Carpenter. "The intermediate sex." ''Love's Coming-of-Age.'' 1906. Accessed via the archive in ''Sacred Texts'' at http://www.sacred-texts.com/lgbt/lca/lca09.htm</ref> | ||
* "In 1895, a group of self-described '[[androgyne|androgynes]]' in New York organized a 'little club called the Cercle Hermaphroditos, based on their self-perceived need 'to unite for | * "In 1895, a group of self-described '[[androgyne|androgynes]]' in New York organized a 'little club called the Cercle Hermaphroditos, based on their self-perceived need 'to unite for defence against the world's bitter persecution.'" This group included people who, in today's words, may have called themselves cross-dressers and transgender people.<ref>Susan Stryker, "Why the T in LGBT is here to stay." ''Salon.'' October 11, 2007. [http://www.salon.com/2007/10/11/transgender_2/ http://www.salon.com/2007/10/11/transgender_2/] </ref> | ||
==Twentieth century== | ==Twentieth century== | ||