Gender, Sex, Race, Science, & the State
Summary
TLDRThis script delves into the historical transformation of same-sex sexuality and gender non-conformity from criminal acts to defined identities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It discusses the emergence of sexology, the conflation of gender and sexuality, and the impact on marginalized groups. The narrative also touches on the influence of these ideas on the women's suffrage movement, the medicalization of homosexuality, and the early advocacy for LGBTQ rights, highlighting the complex interplay between societal norms, science, and identity.
Takeaways
- 🏳️ The shift from the mid-19th century saw same-sex acts redefined from criminal acts to indicative of a person's identity, leading to the concept of 'sexual invert' or 'homosexual'.
- 🔬 Sexologists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries conflated gender and sexuality, categorizing a range of orientations and expressions under 'sexual invert'.
- 👤 Richard von Kraft-Ebbing defined sexual inversion as a congenital abnormality, viewing it negatively but later showing sympathy and advocating for decriminalization.
- 🌐 The medical community's approach to sexual abnormality varied by class and race, with more punitive measures for marginalized groups, reflecting societal biases.
- 🏥 Genital surgeries were experimented on without consent, often on enslaved and marginalized individuals, under the guise of medical treatment.
- 🏛 The government increased regulation, with laws targeting public disturbance and vice, impacting queer communities more directly.
- 📚 Havelock Ellis expanded on Kraft-Ebbing's ideas, viewing sexual inversion as a congenital issue but advocating some tolerance, influenced by his relationship with a sexual invert.
- 🚫 Ellis was more hostile toward lesbians, linking them to predatory behavior and feminism, reflecting the era's crisis about masculinity.
- 🌈 The rise of sexology allowed for the claiming of identities like lesbian or homosexual, fostering a sense of community among queer individuals.
- 👮♂️ Immigration policies used sexual norms to exclude individuals deemed 'likely to become a public charge', reflecting societal and racial hierarchies.
- 💼 The suffrage movement faced backlash, with suffragists depicted as abnormal to undermine their demands, revealing societal fears about gender roles.
Q & A
How did the perception of same-sex sexuality and gender non-conformity change in the mid-19th century?
-Prior to the mid-19th century, same-sex sexuality and gender non-conformity were viewed as criminal acts. However, in the 1870s, sexologists began to argue that these acts indicated a specific type of person, termed 'sexual invert' or later 'homosexual,' marking a shift from emphasizing acts to identities.
What is the significance of the term 'sexual invert' in the context of the late 19th century?
-The term 'sexual invert' was used by sexologists to define an individual who engaged in same-sex sexual acts and inverted gender norms. It conflated gender and sexuality, grouping a range of sexual orientations and gender expressions under one category.
How did Richard von Kraft-Ebbing's views on sexual inversion evolve over time?
-Initially, Richard von Kraft-Ebbing defined sexual inversion as a congenital abnormality and a product of degeneration. However, his views softened later in his life, seeing sexual inverts more as victims of nature and advocating for the decriminalization of homosexual behavior.
What was the role of genital surgeries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries?
-Genital surgeries were experimented with by scientists of the era, often non-consensually performed on enslaved women, homosexual, and intersex individuals. Sexologists believed these surgeries could 'treat' sexual abnormality, reflecting deeply ingrained prejudices and lack of consent.
How did the treatment of sexual inverts differ between marginalized groups and white middle or upper classes?
-Marginalized groups, such as people of color, the working class, and immigrants, were subjected to punitive campaigns and 'medical treatments' like genital surgeries. In contrast, native-born white individuals from middle or upper classes were treated with more sympathy and were seen as redeemable and treatable.
What was the impact of the women's suffrage movement on perceptions of gender and sexuality?
-The women's suffrage movement was perceived as a threat to male authority and traditional gender roles. Sexologists used the concept of gender inversion to pathologize feminists, depicting them as abnormal and linking them to sexual deviance.
How did the United States Bureau of Immigration use sexological studies to control immigration?
-The Bureau of Immigration used sexological studies to refuse entry to individuals deemed 'likely to become a public charge,' scrutinizing immigrants for signs of sexual or gender deviance. This effectively barred many with diverse gender and sexual identities from entering the country.
What was the significance of Magnus Hirschfeld's work in the context of LGBTQ rights?
-Magnus Hirschfeld was a pioneer in advocating for LGBTQ rights. He founded the first homosexual rights organization, fought to repeal anti-homosexual laws, and established an institute to study human sexuality. He also supported transgender individuals and helped facilitate early gender transformation surgeries.
How did the rise of psychoanalysis and Sigmund Freud's theories influence the understanding of sexual inversion?
-Psychoanalysis and Freud's theories shifted the understanding of sexual inversion from a congenital defect to a condition related to the mind and environmental influences. Freud saw homosexuality as a symptom of arrested development but not as a result of degeneracy.
What was the effect of the medicalization of homosexuality and gender variation on societal attitudes?
-The medicalization of homosexuality and gender variation led to an initial push for decriminalization and social acceptance. However, this was later overshadowed by pity, condescension, and aggressive medical interventions, reinforcing the perception of these identities as abnormal.
How did suffragists counter negative depictions and propagate their image during the women's suffrage movement?
-Suffragists countered negative depictions by launching publicity campaigns that emphasized their femininity, respectability, and commitment to family values. They showcased suffragist mothers, wives, and affluent women to reassure the public that granting women the vote would not disrupt existing gender and racial hierarchies.
Outlines
🏳️ The Invention of Sexual Identities
This paragraph discusses the historical shift in the perception of same-sex sexuality and gender non-conformity from isolated criminal acts to a defined identity. In the mid-19th century, sexologists began to categorize individuals engaging in same-sex acts as 'sexual inverts' or 'homosexuals'. This era marked the creation of modern queer history, with a transition from criminal acts to identities. Medical professionals started labeling individuals based on gender norms and sexual behaviors, conflating various sexual orientations and gender expressions into one category. The narrative also touches on the negative views of sexual inversion by figures like Richard von Kraft-Ebbing, who later in life became more sympathetic, advocating for decriminalization while still defining homosexuality in opposition to heterosexuality.
👮♂️ Discrimination and Differential Treatment in Queer History
The second paragraph delves into the discriminatory practices against queer individuals, particularly those from marginalized groups. It highlights the differential treatment based on class and race, where white middle or upper-class individuals were treated more sympathetically compared to others who faced punitive measures like imprisonment or commitment to asylums. The paragraph also introduces the concept of 'situational homosexuality' and increasing government regulation, with laws targeting queer people under public disturbance statutes. Havelock Ellis is mentioned for his work expanding on Kraft-Ebbing's ideas, recommending tolerance for sexual inversion, yet displaying hostility towards lesbians. The era's crisis of masculinity and the perceived threats to male authority, such as the women's suffrage movement and immigration, are also discussed.
🛂 Immigration Control and the Policing of Sexuality
This paragraph examines the role of the United States Bureau of Immigration in policing sexual and gender norms during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It describes how immigrants with diverse gender and sexual identities were prevented from entering the country under the guise of medical treatment. Immigrants were scrutinized for signs of degeneracy, with physical examinations searching for abnormalities. Women traveling alone were often suspected of prostitution. The narrative also touches on anti-Asian sentiment and the denial of citizenship to Chinese and Indian men engaging in interracial encounters, reinforcing the connection between sexual norms and racial hierarchies.
🏥 The Evolution of Sexology and the Fight for LGBTQ+ Rights
The fourth paragraph discusses the evolution of sexology, with a focus on Magnus Hirschfeld's contributions to the understanding and acceptance of homosexuality and transgender identities. Hirschfeld, who organized the first homosexual rights organization and fought against paragraph 175 in Germany, advocated for LGBTQ+ rights and against police harassment. The narrative also explores the influence of Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis on the perception of sexual inversion, moving away from the idea of congenital defects to environmental influences and upbringing. The paragraph concludes with the emergence of a binary understanding of homosexuality and heterosexuality, leading to the erasure of bisexuality from discussions.
🗳️ Women's Suffrage and the Intersection with Gender Norms
This paragraph explores the relationship between the women's suffrage movement and the perception of gender norms. It describes how suffragists were depicted as abnormal and how their concerns were dismissed by sexologists using ideas of gender inversion. The narrative discusses the anti-suffragist movement's fear that granting women the right to vote would disrupt gender roles and the family structure. The paragraph also examines the propaganda campaign launched by suffragists to counter negative depictions, emphasizing their femininity and respectability to reassure the public that women's suffrage would not threaten existing hierarchies.
🎭 Challenging Gender Norms: Queer Suffragists and Personal Freedom
The final paragraph highlights the stories of individuals who challenged gender norms and fought for personal freedom alongside women's suffrage. It mentions figures like Annie Tinker, who defied expectations of feminine appearance and behavior, and Alice Dunbar Nelson, who engaged in relationships with both men and women. The paragraph also discusses the irony of suffragist leaders living lives that differed from the image they promoted in their propaganda, emphasizing their fight for the right to dress, live, and love as they pleased.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Sexology
💡Sexual Inversion
💡Homosexuality
💡Heterosexuality
💡Gender Non-Conformity
💡Decriminalization
💡Medicalization
💡Immigration Bureau
💡Feminism
💡Suffrage Movement
💡Patriarchy
💡Transgender
Highlights
Prior to the mid-19th century, same-sex sexuality and gender non-conformity were viewed as criminal acts.
Sexologists in the 1870s began to categorize such acts as indicative of a specific type of person, termed 'sexual invert' or later 'homosexual'.
The shift from viewing homosexuality as acts to identities marked the 'invention' of homosexuality and heterosexuality as categories.
Late 19th and early 20th centuries saw the emergence of medical discourse around gender and sexuality.
Sexual inversion was defined by sexologists as not only engaging in same-sex acts but also inverting gender norms.
Sexologists conflated gender and sexuality, grouping diverse orientations and expressions under 'sexual inverts'.
Richard von Kraft-Ebbing viewed homosexuality as a congenital abnormality resulting from degeneration.
Kraft-Ebbing's negative view of sexual inverts later shifted to a more sympathetic stance, viewing them as victims of nature.
Sexologists advocated for medical treatment over criminal punishment for white middle-class individuals with sexual inversion.
Marginalized groups bore the brunt of punitive campaigns against gender and sexual transgressions, often subjected to non-consensual genital surgeries.
Havelock Ellis expanded on Kraft-Ebbing's ideas, recommending tolerance for sexual inverse and viewing it as a congenital abnormality.
Ellis believed that early intervention could prevent the emergence of homosexual behaviors.
Ellis was more hostile toward lesbians, describing them as predatory and pathological, linking them to feminism.
The rise of sexology coincided with a crisis about masculinity, particularly in the United States, affecting definitions of manhood.
Immigration officials used sexological studies to exclude immigrants with diverse gender and sexual identities.
Magnus Hirschfeld advocated for LGBT rights, founded the first homosexual rights organization, and studied human sexuality.
Psychologists in the 1920s began to view sexual inversion through the lens of psychoanalysis, focusing on environmental influences.
The binary between homosexuality and heterosexuality emerged, sidelining bisexuality and other identities.
Queer individuals began to claim identities and form communities despite being defined as abnormal by the state and psychology.
Sexologists used gender inversion theories to dismiss women's suffrage movement, depicting feminists as abnormal and threats to the family.
Anti-suffragists feared that women's right to vote would disrupt gender roles and devastate the family.
Suffragists countered negative depictions by promoting an image of ideal femininity and moral purity to reassure the public.
Queer suffragists fought not only for the right to vote but also for personal freedom in dress, living, and love.
Transcripts
prior to the mid 19th century
same-sex sexuality and gender
non-conformity
was seen as discrete criminally
punishable
acts but beginning in the 1870s
sexologists began to argue that such
acts placed the individual in a specific
category that actually indicated a type
of person
what they called at the time a sexual
invert or later on they would refer to
as a homosexual what had been
up to this point just an isolated sexual
act
now became the basis for a whole
identity
so what we see then is a shift from an
emphasis on acts
to identities thus scholars say
that homosexuality and heterosexuality
were essentially invented during this
time period
through the defining of what was normal
and what was abnormal
in gender and sexuality so this whole
like medical
discourse then begins to emerge around
this
these topics about the late 19th and
early 20th centuries
and this era is often seen by historians
as the beginning of what we consider our
modern era of queer history
so with this shift in the late 19th and
early 20th century
a man for example might be arrested for
sodomy
but was more likely to be labeled as a
sexual
invert by medical professionals than
simply a criminal
um as before so sexologists
these are where individuals who studied
sex defined a sexual invert as
an individual who not only engaged in
same-sex sexual acts
but who inverted gender norms so
effeminacy in men
and manishness in women were all seen as
evidence of sexual inversion
so essentially what they did is they
conflated gender and sexuality
therefore many sexologists collapse into
one category
a range of sexual orientations and
gender expressions
that we would now distinguish as lgbtq
right we might
define it as bisexuality transgender
gender non-conforming behaviors
or homosexuality but all of these
individuals were defined as sexual
inverts in the
late 19th century so take for example
viennese psychiatrist richard von kraft
ebbing
who was writing in the 1880s and he
defined sexual inversion
as including a variety of sexual and
non-sexual behaviors
that reflected a complete inversion of
gender norms
so kraft ebbing believed that
homosexuality was a congenital
abnormality
what he called a product of degeneration
so essentially it was a physical moral a
mental deterioration
an evolutionary decline resulting from
what he perceived as widespread sexual
immorality
these characteristics therefore were
more typically associated with primitive
people
but his negative view as you this as you
can tell this is a very negative view
of the sexual invert
that his negative view did shift over
time he became more sympathetic
later on in his life he saw them more as
victims of nature
but still he he advocated uh
for the decriminalization of homosexual
behavior
um but he defined homosexuality in
opposition to heterosexuality
so essentially creating normal versus
abnormal
he espoused the victorian idea that
normal women
generally had less sexual desire than
men and therefore only
inverted or sexually deviant women
demonstrated sexual desire
so in popular thought the female
homosexual
that kraft ebbing defined began to pose
a sort of new type of sexualized danger
scientists of this era also began to
experiment with a variety of genital
surgeries
and they would typically practice these
on the bodies of enslaved women
these procedures were often completed
non-consensually
and they were also conducted on the
bodies of
homosexual and intersex individuals
sexologists believed that cases of
sexual abnormality among white
middle-class individuals should be dealt
with as a private individual problem
better treated medically than criminally
and they did this in part because they
believed that sexual inversion
especially among people of color working
class or immigrants
was more common because they believed
that
those groups were lazy they were immoral
less driven and criminal
and they argued that those individuals
lacked the willpower to control their
actions
so queer people from marginalized groups
bore the brunt of punitive campaigns
against gender and sexual transgressions
in other words they were often sent to
prison or committed to state asylums
under the guise of quote medical
treatment
those labeled as sexual inverts
individuals
who were native born from white middle
or upper classes
tend to be treated with much more
sympathy than they were viewed as
redeemable as treatable
they were seen as an aberration of the
norm
in other words they didn't represent
their class or their
their race but this is an irony because
homosexuality or gender transgressions
and other
racial groups or classes was seen as a
symbol of the sexual degeneration of the
whole
group sexologists at this time also
invented this concept of
tendencies phases what they called
situational homosexuality
to explain a way why otherwise normal
people engaged in same-sex or gender
transgressive behaviors
and this allowed them to really maintain
a strict line
between heterosexual and homosexual
you also see increasing regulation at
this time by the government
we'll talk more about that in a second
but for example you have
sodomy laws still on the books
but queer people are more often arrested
under public disturbance statues
vice crackdown campaigns gay men
and transgender individuals were
targeted more directly by these laws
cisgender women were targeted as well
but they tended
to focus on heterosexual women and to
try to punish
what they call deviant heterosexuality
right so
like for example um heterosexual women
who engaged in premarital or
extramarital sex were heavily punished
because these were seen as a threat to
the heterosexual family
since homosexuality among queer women
was often less visible
it was more difficult for the state to
regulate and control
there was another sexologist named
havelock ellis and he expanded on the
ideas of kraft ebbing
he defined sexual inversion as a
congenital abnormality
and recommended it some degree of
tolerance for sexual inverse
his marriage to edith please
was interesting as well she identified
as a sexual invert
herself and so this
may have motivated his desire to study
human sexuality
it may have motivated his desire to
remove the stigma
around homosexuality he began collecting
case studies
of sexual inverts and his findings were
published
in the united states in 1895 and then
later in 1897 a full book
of his findings came out and ellis
argued that sexual inversion was an
abnormality that it did occur
at some point during the development of
the embryo he believed that
it was a congenital abnormality um that
could emerge later in life in the form
of gender inversion
or homosexual behaviors but he also
believed that it could be avoided if
caught early enough that children who
were predisposed
toward these activities or behaviors
could be protected
by preventing them from falling into the
wrong crowd or being exposed to
unhealthy environments
he was pretty forgiving of gay men in
his writing
but he was much more hostile toward
lesbians
he described lesbians as predatory
as a byproduct of feminism and as
therefore pathological
so this discussion about sexology
was also coinciding with a growing
crisis
about masculinity especially in the
united states
so the women's suffrage movement the
fight for a woman's right to vote
was seen as a threat to male authority
the women were demanding their equality
immigrants were arriving in large
numbers in the nation at the time
demanding jobs and white native-born
american men saw them as a threat to
their sense of economic and political
power
birth rates began declining as people
married a little bit later in life
and pursued education and as immigration
increased
some white people felt that there was
the potential for the race to die
out and this would lead to a decline in
the numbers of
anglo children so this caused some
anxiety
the closing of the frontier the rise of
countries like japan seemed to threaten
white men
sense of supremacy the definition of
proper manhood began to focus
on a very narrow definition of a
heterosexual
manly man what was defined as
masculine then became much more
pronounced
they used science to try to create and
justify their hierarchies of gender
class and race
to essentially preserve their position
of power
and they used these sexological studies
to uphold
a white middle-class system of gender
and
race in the united states it allowed
them to sort people into normal and
abnormal
based off of sexual identity gender
and it upheld patriarchy it upheld white
supremacy
the united states bureau of immigration
during this period
began to refuse entry to people who they
said were
quote likely to become a public charge
and they used this to prevent people a
diverse gender and sexual identities
from entering the country
so immigrants were asked about their
home lives and their personal
relationships
they were asked if they were married if
they wanted to marry if they had
feelings for individuals of the opposite
sex
immigration officials examined the
behaviors and the physical bodies of
immigrants looking for any sign of
disease or abnormality
they looked at the facial expression the
gate the physique
the genitals to just look for any kind
of hint of degeneracy
there are records of male immigrants who
were diagnosed by the immigration
doctors
with a quote lack of sexual development
or quote arrested sexual development
so for example an individual with a
small or defective penis
for example might indicate to
immigration authorities that the
individual was quote predisposed
toward abnormal sexual conduct
immigrants diagnosed with arrested
sexual development
could be excluded as public charges
now women were more frequently excluded
on the grounds being suspected of
prostitution
so if a woman was traveling alone or
traveling with a other woman
it was assumed that she would become a
public charge and she was automatically
dismissed
so this is how many homosexual women
were dismissed as well
because individuals of color individuals
from
lower classes and immigrants were
believed to be inclined toward
sexual perversion they were especially
subject to intense scrutiny
anti-asian sentiment for example was at
its peak
in the late 19th in the early 20th
centuries
chinese and indian men who engaged in
interracial sexual encounters were
arrested
they were charged with sodomy they were
marked as deviants
as a result they were denied access to
citizenship
their white partners on the other hand
were often described as their quote
victims
the state thus policed sexual and gender
norms
through the immigration bureau and
effectively denied
became a huge advocate for lgbt people
he believed that homosexuality was a
rare but natural variant of human
sexuality
he did not believe it was a symptom of
degeneracy
he also believed that lgbt people should
have rights they shouldn't be ridiculed
they shouldn't be condemned
so at about around 1896
he organized a scientific humanitarian
committee and they became the first
homosexual
rights organization in the world they
fought to repeal paragraph 175
in germany which made gay sex between
men illegal
he also founded an institute in berlin
to study human sexuality
in 1910 he wrote the transvestites the
first
book length discussion of transgender
people and he tried to end the
harassment of transgender and homosexual
people by the police
he employed transgender workers at his
institute for sexual science
and individuals underwent their first
documented
genital transformation surgery with the
help of hirschfeld
he also played a role in helping to
arrange medical care
for lily elbe who was the subject of the
novel in the film
the danish girl but the rise of the
nazis
and hitler ended his research as the
nazis destroyed his institute
he actually had to leave the country to
survive
by the 1920s some psychologists began
looking at the work of sigmund freud
and the theories of psychoanalysis to
begin re-examining
sexual inversion and they defined it now
not so much as a congenital defect
as related to the mind and to the
environmental influences
on a child so for example freud examined
an individual's upbringing the influence
of their parents and their friends
on the development of sexuality freud
saw homosexuality as a symptom of
arrested development
or thwarted maturity but he did not
believe that they were evolutionary
throwbacks
that it was not a result of degeneracy
instead he argued if anything it was a
result of the stressors of modern
civilized people
by the 1920s psychologists began
defining inversion
more in terms of same-sex desire or
sexual object choice
and the idea of homosexuality was
adopted
as this new binary emerges between
homosexuality and heterosexuality
bisexuality was effectively removed from
the discussion
and that's an erasure we still see often
today
so once the problem of homosexuality and
gender variation
moved from being considered primarily a
punishable
moral offense to becoming a medical
matter
these initial appeals for
decriminalization
and social acceptance were increasingly
overshadowed by a sense of
pity condescension and really aggressive
medical interventions
all this talk about gender and sexual
variation though
did allow individuals the ability to
name and therefore to claim
an identity so for example in 1899
american playwright and poet natalie
barney wrote
i consider myself without shame albinos
aren't
reproached for having pink eyes and
whitish hair why should they hold it
against me for being a lesbian
it's a question of nature my queerness
isn't a vice
it isn't deliberate and it harms no one
so queer people increasingly began to
see themselves
as a distinct group and to identify
as as lesbian or homosexual
or gay at the time and this therefore
allows
some sense of community to develop among
individuals
even as the state and
psychology began to define them more and
more as abnormal and in need of
treatment
so let's talk about the women's suffrage
movement for just a minute
um as women began demanding the right to
vote
sexologists used these ideas about
gender inversion
to analyze these women and to dismiss
their concerns
they depicted feminists as abnormal
women
as sexual inverts and people like ellis
argued that
normal women were women who did not
demand these rights who
willingly acquiesce to male authority
so lesbian bisexual asexual
gender non-conforming women were seen as
threats to the white family
that they would corrupt normal white
women and ellis
argued that there was a clear link
between feminism
and lesbianism and whether lesbianism
caused feminism or feminism caused
lesbianism
remained a controversy but sexologists
especially male sexologists perceived
these as
abnormal lesbians and feminists people
who opposed giving women the right to
vote were called anti-suffragists
and they argued that women would
upend existing gender roles they would
destroy the family
if they could vote now they also
anti-suffragist also argued that men's
place was in the public sphere that they
were the provider and the protector of
the family
and women's place was in the home caring
for the house and the children
so they feared that if women won the
right to vote
that women would want more they would
want an education
they would want a career they might want
more rights
and these anti-suffragists worried that
this would end in a devastation to the
family
they wondered what would happen to men
what would happen to children
and we can see these fears reflected in
postcards
and they actually created these
postcards to convince people not to vote
for women's right to vote and they show
what could happen
if the vote was granted to women
and that gender roles would be disrupted
or worse they would be completely
reversed
so if you take a look at this first
postcard you can take a few minutes
and you can analyze it yourself
if you'd like work through it and pause
the video here and
and note your analysis what you probably
noticed
is that there's this sign in the upper
left hand corner and it says that
everybody works but mother
because she's a suffragette and so the
message here is that a woman neglects
her wifely and motherly chores when she
chooses to become a suffragist or
suffragette
now uh you'll notice that the father
here he's actually doing the laundry
and laundry was considered women's work
and he's also watching the baby at the
same time which is also considered
the job of a woman and notice at the
bottom
it says i want to vote but my wife won't
let me
here you can see that gender norms are
completely reversed because now a wife
tells her husband what to do and in this
case he
is disenfranchised by his wife's
newfound political freedom
and he wears the apron a clothing item
typically associated with women
men are therefore essentially
emasculated by women's quest for the
vote
and the inversion of the spheres
so this postcard really represents all
those ideas about gender norms being
reversed
now anti-suffragists depicted
suffragists as manish
women and men who supported their right
to vote as feminine
women and so the leaders of major
suffrage organizations
really worried about this image and so
they launched publicity campaigns and
they defensively sought to combat these
negative depictions
and this is kind of ironic because these
are the same suffrages right that are
daily transgressing
normative bounds of expected female
behavior they're participating in
speeches they're marching down the
street
they're taking part in these pickets but
they insisted that the suffragists in
their ranks present an
outward appearance of femininity because
they were worried about these negative
images they instituted guidelines about
suffragist appearances dress and
behavior
they promoted stories about beautiful
young affluent suffragists
and they positioned the prominent wives
and mothers in their movement
especially the wealthy upper class white
women
in the front of the campaign and they
did this trying to reassure an
apprehensive public
that granting women the right to vote
would not drastically change
things so if you take a look at the
second
image here you can see this
and again take a few minutes maybe pause
the video here
and note your observations about this
image and how this reflects this
publicity campaign of the suffragists to
counter the negative
depictions of suffrages
okay now let's look at it together you
probably noticed first off the flags
that they're all carrying flags
waving the american flag indicates their
pride as american citizens
and their right to the advantages of
citizenship including the random vote
suffragist mothers you notice they have
their babies there their children
um the point was to demonstrate that
suffragist mothers do not neglect their
babies and children
their children are happy and they're
healthy they're future citizens
notice also that the women are all
wearing white white represented moral
purity as mothers they insisted that the
vote would allow them to protect and
nurture
their children just as they could
protect and nurture all of society's
children and of course notice that
they're all
kind of models of ideal femininity they
exhibit
charm grace their middle class
respectability right through their dress
and through their behavior
so you can see through this postcard the
counter a propaganda campaign that
suffer just
launched to try to respond to the image
of the manish man-hating
anti-family suffragist and you've seen
other examples of this you've probably
seen the photo of vanessa holland
um they called her the most beautiful
suffragist she was an attorney
she led the washington dc suffrage
parade in 1913.
they dressed her in an all-white costume
on horseback she was kind of a symbolic
joan of arc leading women into the
future
and they they positioned her and white
suffragists in the front of the parade
to create this image
of beautiful young single white women
leading the parade also noticed that
they were these marriageable suffragists
right they were eligible young women
and this decision combined with the
decision that suffragists should march
in separate sections in the parade was
intended to highlight
the whiteness the heteronormativity of
suffragists
they wanted the public to know that
granting women the right to vote pose no
real threat to existing gender and
racial hierarchies
the vote would not turn women away from
men or marriage and the vote would not
take away power from
white men now there were of course
suffragists who pushed back against this
narrative there were black suffragists
who refused to be silent like the black
college women from howard university
who pushed back against discrimination
to demand their right to march in the
parade
there was ida b wells who refused to be
segregated by defiantly
marching alongside her peers in the
illinois delegation of the parade
and there was suffered just like annie
tinker who refused to conform to the
image of respectable middle class
womanhood
if tinker were alive today she might
have described herself as non-binary
gender fluid or butch but
in 1913 there were no words like that to
describe her
they described her as manish right she
wore this masculine style hat
uh an outfit um she proudly led a
cavalry of suffragists on horseback
in the new york suffrage parade and her
appearance elicited much comment from
parade
goers in the press the new york times
described her
garb as distinctive as manish but she
was defining the gender norms
of her day margaret chung was a
chinese-american physician who lived in
california in the early 20th century and
chung was an advocate for the voting
rights
of women not only here in the united
states but also in china
chung really kind of stood outside the
norm for her time through her gender
non-conforming clothing and her
behaviors she defied what was expected
of
respectable feminine women for that era
chung would often be seen wearing men's
clothes she would wear a hat
a men's jacket she would carry a cane
and she was known for behaviors like
smoking drinking and gambling that were
considered way outside the bounds of
respectable femininity
alice dunbar nelson was a black writer
and activist who worked
as an organizer for the congressional
union in pennsylvania and delaware
she was truly committed to this idea of
righting the wrongs
because she wanted to win the vote not
only to secure gender equality
but to ensure racial equality by ending
violence and discrimination against the
black community
alistain bar nelson's private life
really falls outside the dominant
heterosexual narrative for the time
because she engaged in multiple
relationships with men and women
if she were alive today she might
identify as bisexual or pansexual or we
don't really know
because those terms weren't available to
her at the time but
her queer domestic arrangements her
queer love affairs really did defy the
norm for someone in her time period
and most of the leaders of the suffrage
movement did not conform to the image
that the suffragists ironically worked
to create
many like lucy anthony and anna howard
shaw
carrie chapman cat mary hey for example
they never married they lived in
committed relationships with other women
and suffragists thus were you know they
were they were
living a life that was different from
the one that they were promoting in the
propaganda
and these suffragists these queer
suffragists they were not only fighting
for the right to vote
but in many ways they were fighting for
their own personal freedom to dress
live and even love as they pleased
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