Gender-Nonconformity in Late Nineteenth-Century America

By Jonathan Yannes

Pull-quotes:

“Although the concept of women attempting to reach economic advancement through disguise or other means is well documented, it does not fully encapsulate Cashiers own decisions to live perceived as male for over 50 years, and does not address the emotional ties they had in their community as a distinctly male veteran and community leader.”

“While the concept of the ‘third sex’ (also commonly referred to as an ‘invert’ at the time) has been previously mentioned, this time period was also the first to begin using certain terms and concepts relating to gender and sexuality that are still relevant today, such as the coining of the term ‘homosexual’ in 1868”

“When a second tombstone was erected in the 1970s directly behind Albert Cashiers original to include the name Jennie Hodgers, was it an achievement for historians and the public, finally recovering and praising a war hero in their entirety? Or was it disgracing a figure who had been laid to rest half a century prior under the only name they had wanted to be remembered by?”

Author Intro: In modern times, transgender and gender nonconforming identities are under attack. Many detractors have tried to argue that trans and nonbinary identities have not existed until the past decade, and disproving that had been a major part of my goal in creating this paper at first. However, when actually researching gender in the realm of history, I discovered that there’s so much more nuance to be had when finding figures from the past that did not align as traditionally male or female. These people did exist, and lived full and interesting lives. But trying to find details about these marginalized peoples’ conception of themselves during a time when their existence was taboo has proven incredibly difficult. This paper analyzes a series of specific case studies of Americans in the late 1800s, and takes a poststructuralist approach at examining how they would have perceived themselves and their identity within the world that condemned them.

Faculty nominator intro: n/a (student-submitted)

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