Check nearby libraries
Buy this book

"Long before people identified as transgender or lesbian, there were female husbands and the women who loved them. Female husbands- people assigned female who transed gender, lived as men, and married women- were true queer pioneers. Moving deftly from the colonial era to just before World War I, Jen Manion uncovers the riveting and very personal stories of ordinary people who lived as men despite tremendous risk, danger, and threat of violence. Female Husbands weaves the story of their lives in relation to broader social, economic, and political developments in the United States and the United Kingdom while also exploring how attitudes toward female husbands shifted in relation to transformations in gender politics and women's rights, ultimately leading to the demise of the category of "female husband" in the early twentieth century. Female Husbands offers a dynamic, varied, and complex history of the LGBTQ past."--book jacket
"In 1746, Charles Hamilton of Glastonbury, England found what they were looking for - Mary, a curious young woman who was taken by their charms. With the approval of the girl's aunt, the pair were joined in marriage and set off on a honeymoon. Hamilton had little money and no family. But they were resourceful, determined, and charismatic. They offered Mary companionship and adventure. As someone who was assigned female at birth, Hamilton became known as a female husband. Nearly one hundred years later and across the Atlantic, the Journal of Commerce ran a story called, "Extraordinary Case of a Female Husband." Scottish immigrant George Wilson was found passed out on the streets of New York's Lower East Side. A policeman took them into the station. Wilson was just another poor laborer who drank too much after a long day of work. But as someone who was raised as a girl and now lived as a man, they were incredibly vulnerable to harassment, violence, and punishment at the hands of the authorities"--
Check nearby libraries
Buy this book

Edition | Availability |
---|---|
1
Female Husbands: A Trans History
2020, Cambridge University Press
in English
1108596045 9781108596046
|
zzzz
|
2
Female Husbands: A Trans History
2020, University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations
in English
1108483801 9781108483803
|
aaaa
|
3
Female Husbands: A Trans History
2020, Cambridge University Press
in English
1108718272 9781108718271
|
zzzz
|
4
Female Husbands: A Trans History
2020, Cambridge University Press
in English
1108652832 9781108652834
|
zzzz
|
Book Details
Classifications
Edition Identifiers
Work Identifiers
Source records
Better World Books recordmarc_columbia MARC record
marc_columbia MARC record
Harvard University record
Work Description
Jen Manion offers an insightful exploration into the forgotten history of British and American people assigned female at birth who lived and loved as men. The book explores how their identities were often only publicly known through divorce proceedings, and how the press came to know them as “female husbands”. An insightful journey into the intersections of trans identity, women’s rights, and sapphic history.
Excerpts
It is a good example of the way Manion presents these transgressions of historical and even present expectations of gender as mundane, in defiance of the era of politicising of trans identity that Manion writes under. The paragraph does not end here, and continues on with other aspects of Hamilton’s life. This is just one part of their whole story that makes up who they were.
Community Reviews (0)
History
- Created May 17, 2020
- 5 revisions
Wikipedia citation
×CloseCopy and paste this code into your Wikipedia page. Need help?
June 18, 2025 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
August 28, 2023 | Edited by BreezeWilds | Added subtitle, added book description, added locations mentioned, added excerpt |
December 16, 2022 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
December 12, 2022 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
May 17, 2020 | Created by Mek | Imported from Better World Books record |