Female Husbands: A Trans History by Jen Manion
- Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2020
- Genre: History, LGBTQ+
- Format: Paperback (eARC)
- Page Count: 350 pages
- My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)
This book is engrossing. It is a fascinating academic work on queer pioneers in the UK and US from the 18th to early 20th century. For a brief moment upon finishing, I had to remind myself I am in the 21st century.
Female Husbands reconstructed the life stories of female husbands, their wives, and others who were assigned female at birth and donned male attire without imposing modern terminologies or assumptions. The particular use of ‘them/them’ pronouns for these remarkable pioneers has made space for ambiguity since no modern person could ever be sure of their gender identity.
In addition to the life stories of Charles Hamilton, James Howe, James Allen, Albert Guelph, Joseph Lobdell, etc., the book supplied backgrounds of laws, social systems, and political aspects during the time. These details certainly helped paint a more complete picture of what it was like back then.
Though the structure could be more streamlined at times for a smoother read and clearer theme connections between consecutive chapters, Manion has done a wonderful job of piecing together the history. It is a book I did not know I needed.
The transgression of a gender norm always opened the door to the threat of a sexual transgression.
Since all the iconic people mentioned have been outed at some point of their lives so as to fall under public scrutiny, I would like to think that there were a fair amount of female husbands and their wives who lived in relative peace and happiness until their deaths. I really hope there were. If not, at least we have fictional stories of Backwards to Oregon and Hidden Truths from Jae.
I received an e-ARC from Cambridge University Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
