The Preus Museum in Horten in Norway found some really wonderful photos from the studio of Marie Høeg and Bolette Berg. The pictures were taken between 1895 and 1903. Many of them picture Marie Høeg dressed up as a man.
I have found no information about her sexual orientation or gender identity, but as the photos shows, she was an active crossdresser. The fact that she also has images of herself with an MTF crossdresser proves that this was at least an exploration of gender expressions.
Marie Høeg is known as one of Norway’s feminist pioneers.
The Crossdream Life discussion forum for transgender and genderqueer people, crossdressers and crossdreamers, has moved to a new location: crossdreamlife.lefora.com.
Talk about your life and your interests and how to cope with being trans or gender nonconforming.
Read about gender variance
Discuss crossdressing, crossdreaming, trans and gender variance
51-year-old Alex Drummond said she “was aware that I was unlikely ever to
pass as natal female, so what I wanted to do is to see if it was
possible to create another space”.
Speaking to BuzzFeed News, she said: “I did it in a very radical way; I was testing new ground.
“I knew that simply shaving my beard and putting breasts on wasn’t
going to make me pass, and I used to work for an architect and he used
to say ‘When you’re designing something you either make it very
deliberately level or very deliberately off’.
“So that was the philosophy.”
Continuing, she said: “What I want to do is to widen the bandwidth of
gender, to make it more possible for more people to come out as a
transgender, to live authentic lives.
“If all you ever see is trans women who completely pass and are
completely convincing as natal females, then those of us who just don’t
have that kind of luck won’t have the confidence to come out.
“For the people who don’t pass I can say ‘don’t be afraid’ because
what I’ve discovered is you don’t need to pass, what you need is to act
authentically.
“And if a child sees me and thinks, ‘Bloody hell, so it’s not as
simple as pink or blue or football or ballet – there must be 101
possibilities in between’, then maybe I can serve the greater good.”
I this post I argue that as soon as you find yourself on the other side of the tipping point – e.g. as soon as a majority of people accept the true gender of trans people – then the theories that have been used to stigmatize and discipline gender variant people will lose their power.
For instance: Trans women have been described as sexually perverted men, using pseudo-scientific theories like “transvestic fetishism” and “autogynephilia” to force them back into the closet. The fact that some male to female trans people may get aroused by imagining themselves as a sexually attractive person of their target sex, has been taken as proof of them being mentally ill.
This is why the Caitlyn Jenner story becomes so important. We may like or dislike the fact that she presents her female identity in such a traditional – and even sexualized – way. But as soon as your respect her gender identity, you also have to respect her right to decide for herself. And now that more an more people do see her as a woman, the way they interpret her way of expressing herself shifts accordingly: If her step daughter Kim Kardashian can proudly express her sexual attractiveness on the public stage, so can Caitlyn Jenner.
I believe that this shift in perspective eventually will push the stigmatizing theories into the history books, where they belong. The autogynephilia theory has become the Conferderate Flag of modern psychiatry, and we have reached the point where the Powers to Be will have to take it down, not because the discussions have ended, but because the theory is finally seen for what it has been all along: a weapon used to discipline and punish gender transgressions.
Malaysian authorities need to immediately abolish laws against
cross-dressing, said Human Rights Watch after a Kelantan shariah court
sentenced nine transgender women to fines and jailing last month. […]
“Malaysian authorities need to stop hauling transgender people into
court simply because of who they are and what they wear,” said Neela
Ghoshal, a senior LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“The government needs to recognise that the freedom to express your gender is as fundamental as any other freedom.”
Nine of the transgender women were sentenced to fines by the Kelantan shariah court while two were given one month in jail. […]
The nine were attending a private birthday party at a hotel on June 16
when officials from the Kelantan Islamic Department (JHEAIK) raided the
party and arrested them.
Joanna Santos has written an important blog post about the way theories that reduce transgender and genderqueer lives to an effect of sexual desire and arousal stop many trans and queer people from finding out who they really are.
It is time for us to liberate ourselves from theories that say – for instance – that all crossdressers are fetishists, or researchers that argue that all trans women who love men are effeminate gay men preying on straight men.
Joanna has managed to untangle herself from this toxic way of thinking and has found peace with herself:
…I have come full circle and after a long period of reflection and angst…, I have come to return to the state where I began my life. I have returned to being as true as I can to a nature that was always there but within the confines of the reality that I now live as an ageing adult.
She strongly believes there is hope for the future, as she sees some significant changes in the way we look at trans people.
When I was growing up the people we then termed as transvestites were considered sick and perverted people which is why I held a highly negative image of cross gender expression. Young people now identify as gender queer, androgynous, non-binary, etc in an attempt to describe the feeling that they do not fit perfectly into a rigid stereotype and many dress the way they feel. Their daily life is far from perfect but it’s better than when I was growing up and hopefully it’s a reflection of our growth as a society.
Chevalier d'Eon (Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d'Éon de Beaumont) was a French soldier, diplomat and spy who publicly lived as a woman in 18th-century London.
D’Eon lived from 1728 to 1810 who appeared publicly as a man for 49 years, although during that time d'Éon successfully infiltrated the court of Empress Elizabeth of Russia by presenting as a woman. For the last 33 years, d'Éon lived as a woman.
The Chevalier d'Éon claimed to be assigned female at birth, and demanded recognition by the government as such. King Louis XVI complied, but required in turn that d'Éon dress appropriately in women’s clothing.
When the king’s offer included funds for a new wardrobe of women’s
clothes, d'Eon agreed.
The pension that Louis XV had granted was ended by the French Revolution, and d'Éon had to sell personal possessions. D'Éon last years were spent in England with a widow, Mrs. Cole.
Praised by feminists such as Mary Wollstonecraft, the Chevalier (or Chevalière, referring to a female knight) remained well known long after death: British sexologist Havelock Ellis coined “Eonism” to refer to transgender behaviour (Ellis lost the lexicographical battle to Magnus Hirschfeld’s “transvestism”) and the Beaumont Society for help and support for the transgender community took its name from d’Eon.
Illustrations: Top: Portrait by Thomas Stewart. Below: Fencing Match between Monsieur de Saint-George et Mademoiselle La chevalière d'Éon de Beaumont at Carlton House on 9 April 1787. Engraving by Victor Marie Picot. Bottom: The Chevalière d'Éon by Engraving by J.B. Bradel.
No, I do not know the gender identity of these people. Then, as today, people would crossdress for various reasons, but researcher at the time (like Magnus Hirschfeld) tell us that many of them identified with their target sex.
