Her Husband was a Woman!: Women's Gender-Crossing in Modern British Popular Culture

by Oram; Alison

• ISBN13: 9780415400077
• ISBN10: 0415400074
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2008-01-23
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Tracking the changing representation of female gender-crossing in the press, this text breaks new ground to reveal findings where both desire between women and cross-gender identification are understood. Her Husband was a Woman exposes real-life case studies from the British tabloids of women who successfully passed as men in everyday life, perhaps marrying other women or fighting for their country. Oram revises assumptions about the history of modern gender and sexual identities, especially lesbianism and transsexuality. This book provides a fascinating resource for researchers and students, grounding the concepts of gender performativity, lesbian and queer identities in a broadly-based survey of the historical evidence.

Author Biography

Alison Oram is Professor in Social and Cultural History at Leeds Metropolitan University. She is one of the foremost British scholars in the history of gender and sexuality. Her publications include. The Lesbian History Sourcebook: Love and Sex between Women in Britain from 1780 to 1970 (Routledge, 2001), co-authored with Annmarie Turnbull.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	p. xi
Acknowledgements	p. xi
Introduction: sex, scandal and the popular press	p. 1
1900-late 1920s: the traditions of gender-crossing	p. 15
Work and war: masculinity, gender relations and the passing woman	p. 17
Sexuality, love and marriage: the gender-crossing woman as female husband	p. 40
The 1930s: entertaining modernity	p. 61
Gender-crossing and modern sexualities, 1928-39	p. 63
'The sheik was a she!': the gigolo and cosmopolitanism in the 1930s	p. 89
The 1930s 'sex change' story: medical technology and physical transformation	p. 109
Gender and sexual identities since the 1940s	p. 129
'Perverted passions': sexual knowledge and popular culture, 1940-60	p. 131
Notes	p. 158
Select bibliography	p. 184
Index	p. 188
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