Who Were History’s “Female Husbands”? with Professor Jen Manion

Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness

Sony Music

Science, Self-improvement, Comedy, Education, Society & Culture

4.9 • 21.5K Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2022

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What was it like to trans gender if you were living in 18th or 19th century England or America? This week, Professor Jen Manion joins Jonathan to explore the world of “female husbands,” people who were raised as girls but lived as men. Listen in to learn about these resilient individuals’ lives; how they were treated by their partners and the press; and how they paved the way for queer and trans communities today. Jen Manion is a writer, historian, and advocate whose work examines the role of gender and sexuality in American life. Jen was the first in their family to graduate from college and is now a Professor at Amherst College. You can follow Professor Manion on Twitter @activisthistory, on Instagram @manionjen, and at www.jenmanion.com. And make sure to grab a copy of Female Husbands, published by Cambridge University Press. Want to learn more? Here are some resources referenced in the episode: Digital Transgender Archive Library of Congress Digital Archives Some additions to your watch (and reading!) lists: Gentleman Jack Albert Nobbs And more resources Professor Manion recommends: Transgender Children in Antebellum America (OutHistory.org) Histories of Sexuality and the Carceral State (NOTCHES) The Performance of Transgender Inclusion (Public Seminar) Don't Pop the Champagne Yet on “They” (Public Seminar) Why Do You Call Us Ladies? (Public Seminar) Join the conversation, and find out what former guests are up to, by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN. Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook. Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Love listening to Getting Curious? Now, you can also watch Getting Curious—on Netflix! Head to netflix.com/gettingcurious to dive in. Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our associate producer is Zahra Crim. Our editor is Andrew Carson. Our socials are run and curated by Middle Seat Digital. Our theme music is “Freak” by QUIÑ; for more, head to TheQuinCat.com. Getting Curious merch is available on PodSwag.com.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Getting Curious. I'm Jonathan Vaness and every week I sit down for a gorgeous
0:04.4	conversation with a brilliant expert to learn all about something that makes me curious.
0:09.2	On today's episode, I'm joined by Professor Jen Manian, where I'm asking,
0:13.7	how resilient were history's female husbands?
0:18.4	Welcome to Getting Curious. This is Jonathan Vaness. We've got a
0:21.4	scintillating episode of Getting Curious for you. Let's introduce our guests.
0:24.6	Welcome, Jen Manian, who is a professor of history and sexuality.
0:28.7	Women's and gender studies at Amherst College.
0:31.4	And then getting curious audience, I did give Jen fair warning on this right before we started
0:36.0	recording. And I said, I'm just going to like willingly break my new like journalistic rule,
0:40.2	where I like try not to like compliment people's looks, but you are giving me like volume.
0:45.7	You're giving me body on this hair. The way that your hair is just like the texture and how it is
0:51.2	like sitting atop your head. It's almost giving me like 10 france at the beginning of queer eye.
0:56.2	Like because he was like a little bit more salt and pepper than.
0:59.2	And now like 10s more like a little more silvery. So you're giving me 10 a lot 2017.
1:07.0	And I'm living for it. I'm actually living.
1:09.6	So let's let's get in here. First of all, how are you?
1:12.7	I'm great. It's great to be with you.
1:16.5	We are so excited that you're here. So basically, here's the thing.
1:20.8	And my research for getting curious the TV show some of our producers and I,
1:26.4	we stumbled upon the term in history female husbands.
1:32.3	And we were like, female husbands is giving community in the day honey.
	...

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