This concludes my coverage of Skidmore's book, and of my recent mini-sequence of books on transmasculine history. I have to say that my own understanding of trans possibilities in the early 20th century was greatly broadened by Skidmore's detailed and extensive research. I knew about a few well-known biographies, like Billy Tipton, but not the utter normalness that could be the experience of many (though not all) trans men. And the surprising glimpses of acceptance, both by communities and families, in some cases.
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Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 212 - On the Shelf for October 2021 - Transcript
(Originally aired 2021/10/02 - listen here)
Welcome to On the Shelf for October 2021.
News of the Field
You know how in the last blog I was confused by the chapter's alleged theme of how whiteness insulated trans men (to some extent) from being considered deviant, but then the chapter focused entirely on white people? Well, it’s because this chapter is the one that looks at the different treatment received by trans men who were excluded from whiteness (by the contemporary culture – whiteness is always contingent and mutable). We have one more chapter in this book, then we change topics entirely!
Skidmore seems to be doing the same thing that confused me a little in Manion's book: assigning themes to chapters, and then working hard to shoehorn a set of biographies into the theme. I can see the structural reason for doing so if the book isn't simply to be a biographical dictionary. But it strikes me as odd to have a chapter focusing on the role of whiteness in the acceptability of specific trans-masculine lives without discussing specific non-white trans men in that chapter.
Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 211 - Bonus Fiction: “Margaret” by Eleanor Musgrove - transcript
(Originally aired 2021/09/25 - listen here)
Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 210 – Sapphists in Austenland - transcript
(Originally aired 2021/09/18 - listen here)
No time to compose an introduction this time; I want to get this up on the blog before going to the office. (I.e., before walking down the hall to the guest bedroom where my home office is set up.) More thoughts next time, I hope.
I continue to see parallels between Jen Manion's book and Emily Skidmore's, especially in how they both use a small set of individual biographies to focus attention on the larger topic. The slight temporal overlap between the two studies means it's unsurprising that Skidmore starts off with a look at two cases that Manion also covered in detail -- just in case you're having a sense of deja vu. (Manion's book came out three years after Skidmore's, but given publishing timelines it's unlikely she had access to the latter while writing, unless they ran in the same academic circles.)
Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 209 - On the Shelf for September 2021 – Transcript
(Originally aired 2021/09/04 - listen here)
Welcome to On the Shelf for September 2021.
I'm glad I decided to cover Manion and Skidmore back to back (well, with the exception of that little blip I posted last week) because they cover similar material, use similar research sources, and overlap slightly but not significantly in time scope. Reading them together not only provides a broader picture for the topic, but points out significant shifts in experience and reception that occurred around the late 19th century.
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