What do you think?
Rate this book
Herculine Barbin: Being the Recently Discovered Memoirs of a Nineteenth-century French Hermaphrodite
With an eye for the sensual bloom of young schoolgirls & the torrid style of the romantic novels of her day, Herculine Barbin tells the story of her life as a hermaphrodite. Herculine was designated female at birth. A pious girl in a Catholic orphanage, a bewildered adolescent enchanted by the ripening bodies of classmates, a passionate lover of a schoolmistress, she's suddenly reclassified as male. Alone & desolate, he commits suicide, aged 30, in a miserable Paris attic. Here's a lost voice of the sexual past in an erotic diary. Provocative, articulate, eerily prescient as she imagines her corpse under the probing instruments of scientists, Herculine brings a disturbing perspective to our notions of sexuality. Foucault, who discovered these memoirs in the archives of the French Department of Public Hygiene, presents them with the graphic medical descriptions of Herculine's body before & after death. In a striking contrast, a painfully confused young person & the doctors who examine her try to sort out the nature of masculine & feminine at the dawn of the age of modern sexuality.
"Herculine Barbin can be savored like a libertine novel. The ingenousness of Herculine, the passionate yet equivocal tenderness which thrusts her into the arms, even into the beds, of her companions, gives these pages a charm strangely erotic...Michel Foucault has a genius for bringing to light texts & reviving destinies outside the ordinary."--Le Monde, 7/1978
"Herculine Barbin can be savored like a libertine novel. The ingenousness of Herculine, the passionate yet equivocal tenderness which thrusts her into the arms, even into the beds, of her companions, gives these pages a charm strangely erotic...Michel Foucault has a genius for bringing to light texts & reviving destinies outside the ordinary."--Le Monde, 7/1978
219 pages, Paperback
First published May 26, 1978
74 people are currently reading
1927 people want to read
About the author
Herculine Barbin
1 book10 followersHerculine Barbin (November 8, 1838 – February 13, 1868) was a French intersex person who was assigned female at birth and raised in a convent, but was later reclassified as male by a court of law, after an affair and physical examination. In 20th-century medical terms, she had male pseudohermaphroditism. She is known for her memoir, Herculine Barbin, which was published and studied by Michel Foucault.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 125 reviews
Read
February 18, 2022read for university — decided to not rate this book
this is a collection of diary entries written by Herculine Barbin, who was an intersex individual in the 19th century. It's a raw, dark and disturbing insight into her life, following from when she was a young school girl, to her sudden reclassifiication as a man, and her eventual suicide at the age of 30.
We watch her slow descent into depression, her struggles with identity and sexuality, the abuse and isolation she faced due to archaic views on her body. It was actually very difficult to read at times, due to how exposed these diary entries are, and how we're witnessing the darkest and most brutal parts of this person's life. It felt extremely intrusive to read this? Especially considering that these were her diary entries, and not an autobiography.
It asks interesting questions on what it means to be masculine or feminine, as well as nicely covers how gender is a social construct and that it's harmful to regulate the way that people live their lives, based on outdated and restrictive societal ideals.
It was insightful and eye-opening, but also difficult af to read because of the sensitive content.
this is a collection of diary entries written by Herculine Barbin, who was an intersex individual in the 19th century. It's a raw, dark and disturbing insight into her life, following from when she was a young school girl, to her sudden reclassifiication as a man, and her eventual suicide at the age of 30.
We watch her slow descent into depression, her struggles with identity and sexuality, the abuse and isolation she faced due to archaic views on her body. It was actually very difficult to read at times, due to how exposed these diary entries are, and how we're witnessing the darkest and most brutal parts of this person's life. It felt extremely intrusive to read this? Especially considering that these were her diary entries, and not an autobiography.
It asks interesting questions on what it means to be masculine or feminine, as well as nicely covers how gender is a social construct and that it's harmful to regulate the way that people live their lives, based on outdated and restrictive societal ideals.
It was insightful and eye-opening, but also difficult af to read because of the sensitive content.
September 24, 2019
Rating this is bittersweet, because out of respect for Barbin I want to rate this highly, however I hold serious resentment towards Foucault and Panizza for their additions to Barbin's memoirs. Foucault, by including Barbin's medical dossier and including the graphic details of the medical examinations they underwent feels gratuitous; seeming to imply that understanding Barbin's anatomy is crucial to our ability to sympathize with them and reducing Barbin to a medical case study. and Panizza's dramatization of Barbin's life story just feels sensationalist and wrong. Barbin deserves better than this treatment. Rest in power.
Read
August 28, 2018My review is online now at Bogi Reads the World! Read about the first ever intersex #ownvoices book! (And why it has non-ownvoices bits too, and which parts of the book to avoid.)
I really liked this short memoir and I recommend it, but some of the bonus material attached to it was just weird, and not in a good sense:
http://www.bogireadstheworld.com/memo...
Source of the book: Present from Amazon wishlist (thank you!)
I really liked this short memoir and I recommend it, but some of the bonus material attached to it was just weird, and not in a good sense:
http://www.bogireadstheworld.com/memo...
Source of the book: Present from Amazon wishlist (thank you!)
August 5, 2011
Fascinating and sad--- the story of an intersex tragedy of the mid-1800s. Herculine is raised female, and, after confessing her love of women, is examined, found intersexed, and "re-assigned" by doctors as male. She has no idea how to be male, how to play the male role in ways society understands, and the career possibilities for someone whose sex has been altered aren't good. It ends badly, yes, in misery and suicide. Foucault touches on so many of the points made famous in his other works: the nature of sexuality, the power of the medical profession to define and control, the way identity is shaped and monitored. It's a tragic little tale, made worse by the good intentions (however pompous and condescending) of Herculine's surgeons. A small book that makes one realise how humane and often subtle a thinker Foucault was.
June 12, 2025
2.5/5
I'm sitting here, 53 minutes into a who knows how long wait to see the surgeon in charge of chopping my tits off, cogitating on medical fascism and the hegemony of the perisex. You see, this single work is actually a bundle of three (how fittingly Catholic of it), as much a victim of Euro academia as of Euro marketing in terms of what it took to be published and what it took to be acquired by one of my local libraries. Not to mention what it took to be read by someone such as myself at this particular time, as while I, a trans person, may have slotted it into my Pride Month stack, I recognize the right of intersex people to both identify as cis and to not involve themselves in the wider queer/LGBTQ+ continuum. This flies in the face of both present day 'gotcha' arguments involving gender variability and past lines of thought as espoused in this edition by Michel Foucault, who certainly throws his weight around when it comes to a middling introduction and an insulting back appendage. The latter consists of a rapacious imagining of the historical subject's last days of peace whose motioning towards sympathy does little to outweigh the reams of salacious gawking, just as the material's probable positive influence on the marketing of the work as a whole hardly justifies the damage it does when coupled to a forthright testimony that is as invaluable for its rare perspective as its elegant analysis of both self and surroundings. So when it comes down to it, 4-4.5 stars for the actual memoir, 2.0-2.5 for the Foucault introduction and choice to include various historical (and oftentimes dehumanizing) notations outside of Barbin's testimony, and zero for the insipid fiction dingleberrying its way through this work. A new properly contextualized edition, perhaps even a critically holistic biography, is dearly needed.
I'm sitting here, 53 minutes into a who knows how long wait to see the surgeon in charge of chopping my tits off, cogitating on medical fascism and the hegemony of the perisex. You see, this single work is actually a bundle of three (how fittingly Catholic of it), as much a victim of Euro academia as of Euro marketing in terms of what it took to be published and what it took to be acquired by one of my local libraries. Not to mention what it took to be read by someone such as myself at this particular time, as while I, a trans person, may have slotted it into my Pride Month stack, I recognize the right of intersex people to both identify as cis and to not involve themselves in the wider queer/LGBTQ+ continuum. This flies in the face of both present day 'gotcha' arguments involving gender variability and past lines of thought as espoused in this edition by Michel Foucault, who certainly throws his weight around when it comes to a middling introduction and an insulting back appendage. The latter consists of a rapacious imagining of the historical subject's last days of peace whose motioning towards sympathy does little to outweigh the reams of salacious gawking, just as the material's probable positive influence on the marketing of the work as a whole hardly justifies the damage it does when coupled to a forthright testimony that is as invaluable for its rare perspective as its elegant analysis of both self and surroundings. So when it comes down to it, 4-4.5 stars for the actual memoir, 2.0-2.5 for the Foucault introduction and choice to include various historical (and oftentimes dehumanizing) notations outside of Barbin's testimony, and zero for the insipid fiction dingleberrying its way through this work. A new properly contextualized edition, perhaps even a critically holistic biography, is dearly needed.
September 1, 2018
heartbreaking. rip herculine
July 5, 2023
*Content Warning: sexual abuse, suicide*
Alexina Barbin, as she referred to herself, was an intersex woman who lived in the mid-1800’s (before the term ‘intersex’ emerged). She studied in a convent in Southwestern France from a young age, and eventually became a teacher there. She was assigned female at birth, but in her early twenties, she was legally reassigned male and forced to live in society as such. Upon her death in 1868, she left behind memoirs, which Michel Foucault discovered in the 1970’s and republished with an introduction. Alongside these memoirs, this volume includes a dossier of medical reports from the physicians who subjected her to invasive medical examinations both before and after her death. Throughout her life she went by many names and labels, understandably, though most of them were imposed by those around her.
This is a difficult book to review. I’m going to do so briefly in three parts: Alexina’s memoirs, the medical reports, and finally Foucault’s commentary.
The memoirs themselves are eloquently written, and Alexina just excelled at expressing emotions through her writing. Few memoirs move me the way this did. As she is forced to live in poverty in Paris, she articulates fears of being brought to the attention of the police, the abandonment by those she knew who might have otherwise assisted in her livelihood, and her isolation as she became separated from the social class of other women. Due to the pain, despair, and desperation she endured having to leave everything she knew behind her and live as male, Alexina died by suicide at 29 years old.
Then there are the doctors… honestly, this part fills me with anger, and it brought me close to tears. The physicians who came in contact with Alexina throughout her life were despicable people, and the abuse she suffered at the hands of the medical and religious establishments in France was unforgivable. They dehumanized and objectified her with invasive examinations, against her consent, and the reports in this volume are simply pages of grotesque descriptions of her body that none of us have a right to read. Consequently, I couldn’t read them. As other readers have noted, reading these portions of text feels intrusive and their very publication is an act of violence.
While Foucault provides great context in his introduction, he inconsistently genders Alexina, while simultaneously dramatizing her life as “an unfortunate hero of the quest for identity” (pp. xii). One of the most upsetting things about the conversations about Alexina has been the degree of carelessness, apathy, almost playful attitude with which people refer to her. Foucault’s commentary in particular has certainly been criticized from several angles; honestly, I don’t think it would honour Alexina’s life to provide my own opinion on this. I think even the way Foucault presents his insights, regardless of their validity, is in itself insensitive.
I’m not intersex. I’m a transgender woman, and the identities and worlds Alexina and I have inhabited are starkly different. Yet, so much of her story resonates with me on a deeply personal level, so much so that I’m not going to expand here. I have nothing but contempt for society’s abuse of non-conforming bodies, and the archaic practice of sex assignment. I think listening to intersex voices today—those who have the choice to be publicized—is a more productive form of allyship, and one that we need to engage with more.
Alexina Barbin, as she referred to herself, was an intersex woman who lived in the mid-1800’s (before the term ‘intersex’ emerged). She studied in a convent in Southwestern France from a young age, and eventually became a teacher there. She was assigned female at birth, but in her early twenties, she was legally reassigned male and forced to live in society as such. Upon her death in 1868, she left behind memoirs, which Michel Foucault discovered in the 1970’s and republished with an introduction. Alongside these memoirs, this volume includes a dossier of medical reports from the physicians who subjected her to invasive medical examinations both before and after her death. Throughout her life she went by many names and labels, understandably, though most of them were imposed by those around her.
This is a difficult book to review. I’m going to do so briefly in three parts: Alexina’s memoirs, the medical reports, and finally Foucault’s commentary.
The memoirs themselves are eloquently written, and Alexina just excelled at expressing emotions through her writing. Few memoirs move me the way this did. As she is forced to live in poverty in Paris, she articulates fears of being brought to the attention of the police, the abandonment by those she knew who might have otherwise assisted in her livelihood, and her isolation as she became separated from the social class of other women. Due to the pain, despair, and desperation she endured having to leave everything she knew behind her and live as male, Alexina died by suicide at 29 years old.
Then there are the doctors… honestly, this part fills me with anger, and it brought me close to tears. The physicians who came in contact with Alexina throughout her life were despicable people, and the abuse she suffered at the hands of the medical and religious establishments in France was unforgivable. They dehumanized and objectified her with invasive examinations, against her consent, and the reports in this volume are simply pages of grotesque descriptions of her body that none of us have a right to read. Consequently, I couldn’t read them. As other readers have noted, reading these portions of text feels intrusive and their very publication is an act of violence.
While Foucault provides great context in his introduction, he inconsistently genders Alexina, while simultaneously dramatizing her life as “an unfortunate hero of the quest for identity” (pp. xii). One of the most upsetting things about the conversations about Alexina has been the degree of carelessness, apathy, almost playful attitude with which people refer to her. Foucault’s commentary in particular has certainly been criticized from several angles; honestly, I don’t think it would honour Alexina’s life to provide my own opinion on this. I think even the way Foucault presents his insights, regardless of their validity, is in itself insensitive.
I’m not intersex. I’m a transgender woman, and the identities and worlds Alexina and I have inhabited are starkly different. Yet, so much of her story resonates with me on a deeply personal level, so much so that I’m not going to expand here. I have nothing but contempt for society’s abuse of non-conforming bodies, and the archaic practice of sex assignment. I think listening to intersex voices today—those who have the choice to be publicized—is a more productive form of allyship, and one that we need to engage with more.
Read
May 30, 2025A sad memoir of an intersex person who committed suicide in the 19th century, contextualized with disturbing medical assessments.
Read
January 5, 2024La dépression
April 14, 2025
Got too much to say, so I’ll just quickly juxtapose everything. Rating is for their souvenirs and the afterword. Foucault’s part (gathering) is contentious; will definitely read more of his work, but essentially personal works and not this weird collaboration.
The novella by Panizza felt a bit out of place for me as well, as the memoir could’ve easily been self-sufficient. Always nice to read a verse of Genesis separating man and woman so violently in such a scenario ; an odd and provocative choice of introduction. Pure fantasy story added next to gut-wrenching memoirs. Kind of very infuriating sensationalism.
Again, I’m being very picky considering when it was made, but Foucault published this in 1978, so it definitely could’ve been slightly better. I would say it’s fine in general cases, but as an already misunderstood and almost inevitably erased situation, misinformation is destructive. (Wrote this before reading the afterword, Fassin made up for it.) To not only focus on the negative, I’d say the novella at least has beautifully written love letters. It is, however, unclear whether they were originally written by Alexina or if it’s Panizza’s touch. Reminiscent of The Children’s Hour (1961, written in 1934 ; so really no link, but similarities nonetheless), same as Children in Uniform (1930- book, or film Girls in Uniform one year later). Apparently, the 1930s were big for all-girls convent-teaching lesbians. I think I lack understanding of the stance the author has: I sense some morality, and Alexina’s speaking moments were rather dignified, but it’s oddly constructed and contrasted.
The doctor’s report feels extremely reductive and is certainly well-inked in its time (A. Tardieu, 1818-1879), but it’s just deeply saddening how such a story can be forced into a few questionable medical terms with an overlook of anything that could slightly be beyond understanding for the common reader. The same goes for Chesnet’s part ; certainly interesting, but very weird to read after her souvenirs. It feels like an alienation of what we just read, a slow downfall into making them a subject or object. I may be wrong, but from what I read, "he" wasn’t miserable because they were raised as a woman; they were miserable because society wasn’t accepting of their relationship with "another" woman. Their main concern at the time wasn’t their lack of female attributes but the fact that they couldn’t stay with their lover. And then, when they decided to do the legal sex change, it was in a way to stay with Sara. By self-contradictory means, it also led to their separation, as the very nature of their love was torn apart. In other words, being a lesbian woman, "he" is now condemned to be an asexual man (cf. Fassin). That is if we take it solely on an identity level and not a societal/political level, which is also what broke them apart ; Sara’s family being estranged by this sudden sex change, which would’ve proven their daughter’s sexuality. Adding to this I do believe there was a stong inner identity crisis but it wasn't as discussed in their souvenirs as the relationships they were sustaining with other people around them, that seemed to be the main concern of their existence. Perhaps their life would’ve been more beautiful if the medical sex was right at birth, but even then, that’s pure speculation. It’s just about the fatality of choices they didn’t get to make.
So, yeah, overall my concerns are about the relevance of it all together. The ending by Eric Fassin (now one of our contemporaries) is very interesting regarding Baudry, Butler, Guillot, and the questioning of Foucault’s intentions. Loved this part ; very intelligible and carefully written.
In a few words: Wonderful historical piece that has to be taken as such.
And a quote: "O princes of science, enlightened chemists, whose names resound throughout the world, analyze then, if that is possible, all the sorrows that have burned, devoured this heart down to its last fibers; all the scalding tears that have drowned it, squeezed it dry in their savage grasp!"
Postface : « […] des vies qui n’ont eu d’autre écho que celui de leur condamnation. »
The novella by Panizza felt a bit out of place for me as well, as the memoir could’ve easily been self-sufficient. Always nice to read a verse of Genesis separating man and woman so violently in such a scenario ; an odd and provocative choice of introduction. Pure fantasy story added next to gut-wrenching memoirs. Kind of very infuriating sensationalism.
Again, I’m being very picky considering when it was made, but Foucault published this in 1978, so it definitely could’ve been slightly better. I would say it’s fine in general cases, but as an already misunderstood and almost inevitably erased situation, misinformation is destructive. (Wrote this before reading the afterword, Fassin made up for it.) To not only focus on the negative, I’d say the novella at least has beautifully written love letters. It is, however, unclear whether they were originally written by Alexina or if it’s Panizza’s touch. Reminiscent of The Children’s Hour (1961, written in 1934 ; so really no link, but similarities nonetheless), same as Children in Uniform (1930- book, or film Girls in Uniform one year later). Apparently, the 1930s were big for all-girls convent-teaching lesbians. I think I lack understanding of the stance the author has: I sense some morality, and Alexina’s speaking moments were rather dignified, but it’s oddly constructed and contrasted.
The doctor’s report feels extremely reductive and is certainly well-inked in its time (A. Tardieu, 1818-1879), but it’s just deeply saddening how such a story can be forced into a few questionable medical terms with an overlook of anything that could slightly be beyond understanding for the common reader. The same goes for Chesnet’s part ; certainly interesting, but very weird to read after her souvenirs. It feels like an alienation of what we just read, a slow downfall into making them a subject or object. I may be wrong, but from what I read, "he" wasn’t miserable because they were raised as a woman; they were miserable because society wasn’t accepting of their relationship with "another" woman. Their main concern at the time wasn’t their lack of female attributes but the fact that they couldn’t stay with their lover. And then, when they decided to do the legal sex change, it was in a way to stay with Sara. By self-contradictory means, it also led to their separation, as the very nature of their love was torn apart. In other words, being a lesbian woman, "he" is now condemned to be an asexual man (cf. Fassin). That is if we take it solely on an identity level and not a societal/political level, which is also what broke them apart ; Sara’s family being estranged by this sudden sex change, which would’ve proven their daughter’s sexuality. Adding to this I do believe there was a stong inner identity crisis but it wasn't as discussed in their souvenirs as the relationships they were sustaining with other people around them, that seemed to be the main concern of their existence. Perhaps their life would’ve been more beautiful if the medical sex was right at birth, but even then, that’s pure speculation. It’s just about the fatality of choices they didn’t get to make.
So, yeah, overall my concerns are about the relevance of it all together. The ending by Eric Fassin (now one of our contemporaries) is very interesting regarding Baudry, Butler, Guillot, and the questioning of Foucault’s intentions. Loved this part ; very intelligible and carefully written.
In a few words: Wonderful historical piece that has to be taken as such.
And a quote: "O princes of science, enlightened chemists, whose names resound throughout the world, analyze then, if that is possible, all the sorrows that have burned, devoured this heart down to its last fibers; all the scalding tears that have drowned it, squeezed it dry in their savage grasp!"
Postface : « […] des vies qui n’ont eu d’autre écho que celui de leur condamnation. »
May 30, 2012
~ I first became interested in Herculine Barbin as I was reading another book: The Book of Shadows", by James Reese. He uses her as the main character but in his novel she is also a fledgling witch (excellent book, by the way). Her memoirs, which are written in an almost prosaic way, are very sad. She was a woman and then had to revert back to legal status as a man at age 22. She tragically commits suicide at age 30. From what I read, she was a good person with a loving heart. She deserved better. Michael Foucalt explains the laws regarding hermaphroditism expertly in the introduction and poses the very interesting question of our true sex. Does everyone need to have one true sex? I don't think so. And her character should not have been defined by forcing a male gender and legal status that way. Another part that was rather macabre but interesting were the medical examinations of her body done pre and post mortem.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
March 16, 2021It's not often you get to hear the voices of marginalized people from history. If another edition of this book is released though, I hope Barbin's own voice be left to speak for herself, without the latter sections of the book (the medical reports and sensationalized story by Panizza), which I found to be dehumanizing and violent.
February 19, 2021
Read for University.
It feels weird rating this book because it is like rating someone retelling their pain and struggles through life.
Nevertheless, amongst all the heartbreaking moments, it was a very revealing read.
It feels weird rating this book because it is like rating someone retelling their pain and struggles through life.
Nevertheless, amongst all the heartbreaking moments, it was a very revealing read.
July 31, 2018
Doctors are a nasty bunch
August 9, 2023
this book cracked me open. i need to get something from it tattooed on my body
April 15, 2024
Am început cartea cu mult entuziasm, mai ales după ce am citit prefața de Michel Foucault despre 'adevăratul sex' și isteria vremii de a-l impune. Poveastea Herculinei a fost într-adevăr surprinzătoare și tristă, dar când am ajuns la partea de documente și rapoarte medicale mi s-au părut intruziv de detaliate și am luat o pauză de la citit. Am revenit într-un final ca s-o termin, a mers mai repejor partea a doua a cărții fiind mai puțin detaliată. Aș fi vrut ca postfața să fie mai accesibilă, folosește o argumentație foarte academică și greu de descifrat pe alocuri, dar utilă acolo unde subliniază nuanțele aminitirilor Herculinei Barbin. Într-adevăr enlightening să citesc mărturiile unei persoane intersex care datează de mai bine de 100 de ani în urmă – and we're still not accepting as we should as socities.
March 7, 2022
How to rate this book? Idk. It is def worth it for Herculine's memoirs. But the rest?
I read this book twice and it has made me physically ill, because the brutal violence of it comes not only from Herculine's tragic story, but also from the way this book has been edited and curated, half of it being "explanations" or "contextualizations" of Herculine's writings by the same doctors/medical perspective that lead them to commit suicide and by Foucault, who instead of publishing the text on Herculine's name decided to make his own publication with the unfortunate choice of a juxtaposition with Panizza's short story and the intrusive file report of Herculine's case - a masturbatory act of making the real life of a person into an element of his theory. Especially reading Herculin's diary and understandiong how writing and text was so important for them, it really saddens me to think about Foucault's conscious choice of edition.
I read this book twice and it has made me physically ill, because the brutal violence of it comes not only from Herculine's tragic story, but also from the way this book has been edited and curated, half of it being "explanations" or "contextualizations" of Herculine's writings by the same doctors/medical perspective that lead them to commit suicide and by Foucault, who instead of publishing the text on Herculine's name decided to make his own publication with the unfortunate choice of a juxtaposition with Panizza's short story and the intrusive file report of Herculine's case - a masturbatory act of making the real life of a person into an element of his theory. Especially reading Herculin's diary and understandiong how writing and text was so important for them, it really saddens me to think about Foucault's conscious choice of edition.
Read
October 7, 2025I read this for my classics class on sex gender and history of medicine
August 26, 2024
poor girl :((
February 27, 2020
i thought i reviewed this. i cried
Read
August 28, 2025Foucault once again covering miles in the transsexual present from the 80s. And yet, the narratives themselves read much more as interrogations of lesbianism and the boundaries of womanhood than of sex. There are so many beautiful ways to be the wrong kind of woman and this book is a stark look at how it is to be a couple. They really hate us, and they have for a really long time:(
December 9, 2018
A very interesting read for the most part, although I wasn't at all enamored with novella which was included with the book. Still, I can recommend this story to anyone who doubts the reality of the human condition called hermaphrodism. It's fortunate that today we have mostly a more understanding climate surrounding the issue of gender identity, not to mention sexual preference. However, I believe depression can still result in such individuals today because of lack self-knowledge and self-tolerance, especially if such a diagnosis is not discovered nor sought due to fear of ridicule and/or condemnation by ignorant people (especially those in the thrall of conservative, religious convictions) who see difference as something to hide and be ashamed of, or - even today - something abhorrent and 'of the devil' (a view which is, IMO, the most dangerous and erroneous piece of made-up religious dross to emerge from the patriarchal religions mascarading as spiritual truth.) That's a whole other issue which wasn't apparent at all in the story Herculine told, so the tale came across as one of bemused purity of thought and deed prior to diagnosis, and of angst surrounding her/his condition afterwards - which led to suicide at age 30.
January 9, 2021
Come molte testimonianze dirette, anche questa presenta una grande defezione: è un crogiolo non scremato di emozioni alla rinfusa, salti di palo in franca, riferimenti oscuri al lettore e opinioni personali non supportate da fatti - perché chi scrive dà per scontato che tutto sia chiaro a chi legge.
Mi aspettavo onestamente qualcosa di più da questa biografia: maggiore chiarezza di cronaca, maggiore maturità emozionale, maggiore volontà di lasciare vere e proprie memorie, e non una serie di spezzoni di diario segreto che, in fin dei conti, racconta davvero poco se non dei patemi amorosi dell'autore.
Illuminanti sono le trascrizioni mediche in appendice perché senza quelle, francamente, la storia di Camille apparrebbe ancora meno interessante.
Si tratta di un'importante testimonianza storica, ma come opera narrativa è assolutamente mediocre.
Sull'ermafroditismo, piuttosto consiglio di leggere "Middlesex" di Eugenides, che perlomeno ha il pregio di saper incastonare le emozioni in una storia coerente.
Mi aspettavo onestamente qualcosa di più da questa biografia: maggiore chiarezza di cronaca, maggiore maturità emozionale, maggiore volontà di lasciare vere e proprie memorie, e non una serie di spezzoni di diario segreto che, in fin dei conti, racconta davvero poco se non dei patemi amorosi dell'autore.
Illuminanti sono le trascrizioni mediche in appendice perché senza quelle, francamente, la storia di Camille apparrebbe ancora meno interessante.
Si tratta di un'importante testimonianza storica, ma come opera narrativa è assolutamente mediocre.
Sull'ermafroditismo, piuttosto consiglio di leggere "Middlesex" di Eugenides, che perlomeno ha il pregio di saper incastonare le emozioni in una storia coerente.
March 17, 2013
God I wish I could grab Alexina's hands and tell her everything is alright!! It's so sad to think she missed out on our times by a mere 150 years and thus has to live such a wretched and vexed life. On the other hand, I wonder if a story like this is possible now, still, maybe somewhere rural. As luck would have it, Herculine aka Alexina was a really brilliant writer and storyteller, so this is an engaging read. Such a sad story. I wish she could have stayed with her friend. The medical notes from Foucault were interesting but after reading the human account they werent the meat of the book. I wasn't going to read the final section A Scandal At The Convent, but it was short and interesting so I'm glad I did.
November 29, 2018
I wrote about this book for a paper on the role of the Catholic Church in defining gender roles and identity in 19th Century France. As an intersex individual, Herculine grows up with a feminine religiosity- focused on submission, obedience, and devotion. Once reassigned as a man, the inability to cross the strict gender divide ultimately leaves Herculine without a community, religion, or identity.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 4, 2021
It sucks when stability doesn’t understand you and medicalizes what it doesn’t want to understand and then when you finally get free from that, you’re unemployable because you either can’t explain your past or don’t have the words to explain your past. At least now, it’s a little more safe to be honest about how you experience yourself.
June 11, 2021
Wow. That was a humbling and sobering read. It's a shame that the issues of people on the margins (such as intersex, or as they used to be called, hermaphrodites) have been so heavily politicized (and in such a bulky, partisan way). Though increasing the visibility of these people's issues is positive, the bulk solutions and forced equivocations are not.
This book is the perfect book to explain this issue to Christian (quasi)conservatives me, and Barbin was the perfect person to do it. To me the most heartbreaking part of the journals (besides their ending) was the point at which they questioned whether anyone cared, and they wondered why God allowed this to happen to them. It was because the author's simple yet cutting prose was exactly what it needed to be. I believe that giving a copy of this book to any Christian would do wonders for gender relations in today's political climate. Unlike Ta-Nehisi Coates disastrous instigations in "Between the World and Me", this little journal made a powerfully empathetic plea with Christians to love their neighbors, especially those who are struggling sexually and with identity issues.
If I am going to be brutally honest, Intersex is easily the group in the LGBTQIA+ alphabet soup which I am most empathetic towards. Unlike the sexual orientations (which, since they are actions, are all choices, including heterosexuality) and unlike trans issues (in which one has a normally functioning male or female body and one does extensive surgeries and alterations to artificially swap sexes), this is something that people, without any room for debate, are born with. Often, with today's medical capabilities, parents will simply choose which sex the child is most like, and have the doctors operate on the baby so that they end up that way and then the parents raise the child as that gender. This brings up a parallel issue of children being circumcised as babies without being able to choose. Additionally, this brings up the most legitimate version of the questions that gender activists often ask, such as "who are you to decide this person's sex?" We already use the third person plural they/them for third person singulars who we do not know the gender of, so I have no problem with the rare exceptions to the he/she dichotomy to be able to have their own category. Intersex people are an exceedingly small percentage of the population, but we would do well to remember they exist. The shame is that I never hear about them, all I hear about is drag queen book hours and trans athletes. Those are issues which we must address, but if the left actually gave a shit about convincing people or helping people they would start with the intersex community and flower out from there, instead of starting with gays and lesbians (the LG in LGBTQIA.... there's even chronological snobbery here too haha).
In this little book we are met with a person who is labelled and raised as a girl for their whole life until about 19, when they have some pains and a Dr. takes a look at them, only to see that they're a bit more complicated than they thought. Barbin hops through some legal hoops and is legally branded a man. This comes with excessive public judgement, but at the same time it is balanced out somewhat by rather understanding family and exceedingly christlike catholic clergy, lawyers, and supervisors.
It is clear that Barbin's separation from their first female lover was a big part of their downward spiral, but there's a certain point at which their Catholicism becomes replaced with an obsession with cemeteries and death. How exactly this transformation took place is only briefly treated, even though it's probably the most important point, since that's what led to their eventual demise. Once their love was torn away, their place in society was utterly jumbled, and their religion faded, this opened the door wide for nihilism and suicidal thoughts. With Barbin's skillset and schooling suddenly unusable, their attempts to secure a new job were extremely frustrating. The ending of the journal reminded me of Hunger by Knut Hamsun, which upon reflection is probably one of the most extreme cases of social dejection and hunger I've ever read about, roughly as bad as jews in the holocaust. Barbin, due to other things such as health issues, didn't last as long as Hamsun.
I sincerely hope God spared Barbin from their sin and had mercy on them. This little journal was moving, and, as I said earlier, would be the best tactical move to make LGBTQIA inroads among christians. Time will tell how this all pans out, because I fear the partisan bloc of "LGBTQIA" means that they are a package deal and you can't have one without all the others. This is what I meant about their politicization. It is a good thing that these heavily marginalized people (such as intersex folks) have a political voice, but it's a shame that it has so much baggage, both politically and philosophically. That baggage is largely what Christians balk at (which thus causes them to mistrust and mistreat such groups when they wouldn't have previously). The openness which leftists ask of conservatives would go far if applied to the leftist in the mirror.
This book is the perfect book to explain this issue to Christian (quasi)conservatives me, and Barbin was the perfect person to do it. To me the most heartbreaking part of the journals (besides their ending) was the point at which they questioned whether anyone cared, and they wondered why God allowed this to happen to them. It was because the author's simple yet cutting prose was exactly what it needed to be. I believe that giving a copy of this book to any Christian would do wonders for gender relations in today's political climate. Unlike Ta-Nehisi Coates disastrous instigations in "Between the World and Me", this little journal made a powerfully empathetic plea with Christians to love their neighbors, especially those who are struggling sexually and with identity issues.
If I am going to be brutally honest, Intersex is easily the group in the LGBTQIA+ alphabet soup which I am most empathetic towards. Unlike the sexual orientations (which, since they are actions, are all choices, including heterosexuality) and unlike trans issues (in which one has a normally functioning male or female body and one does extensive surgeries and alterations to artificially swap sexes), this is something that people, without any room for debate, are born with. Often, with today's medical capabilities, parents will simply choose which sex the child is most like, and have the doctors operate on the baby so that they end up that way and then the parents raise the child as that gender. This brings up a parallel issue of children being circumcised as babies without being able to choose. Additionally, this brings up the most legitimate version of the questions that gender activists often ask, such as "who are you to decide this person's sex?" We already use the third person plural they/them for third person singulars who we do not know the gender of, so I have no problem with the rare exceptions to the he/she dichotomy to be able to have their own category. Intersex people are an exceedingly small percentage of the population, but we would do well to remember they exist. The shame is that I never hear about them, all I hear about is drag queen book hours and trans athletes. Those are issues which we must address, but if the left actually gave a shit about convincing people or helping people they would start with the intersex community and flower out from there, instead of starting with gays and lesbians (the LG in LGBTQIA.... there's even chronological snobbery here too haha).
In this little book we are met with a person who is labelled and raised as a girl for their whole life until about 19, when they have some pains and a Dr. takes a look at them, only to see that they're a bit more complicated than they thought. Barbin hops through some legal hoops and is legally branded a man. This comes with excessive public judgement, but at the same time it is balanced out somewhat by rather understanding family and exceedingly christlike catholic clergy, lawyers, and supervisors.
It is clear that Barbin's separation from their first female lover was a big part of their downward spiral, but there's a certain point at which their Catholicism becomes replaced with an obsession with cemeteries and death. How exactly this transformation took place is only briefly treated, even though it's probably the most important point, since that's what led to their eventual demise. Once their love was torn away, their place in society was utterly jumbled, and their religion faded, this opened the door wide for nihilism and suicidal thoughts. With Barbin's skillset and schooling suddenly unusable, their attempts to secure a new job were extremely frustrating. The ending of the journal reminded me of Hunger by Knut Hamsun, which upon reflection is probably one of the most extreme cases of social dejection and hunger I've ever read about, roughly as bad as jews in the holocaust. Barbin, due to other things such as health issues, didn't last as long as Hamsun.
I sincerely hope God spared Barbin from their sin and had mercy on them. This little journal was moving, and, as I said earlier, would be the best tactical move to make LGBTQIA inroads among christians. Time will tell how this all pans out, because I fear the partisan bloc of "LGBTQIA" means that they are a package deal and you can't have one without all the others. This is what I meant about their politicization. It is a good thing that these heavily marginalized people (such as intersex folks) have a political voice, but it's a shame that it has so much baggage, both politically and philosophically. That baggage is largely what Christians balk at (which thus causes them to mistrust and mistreat such groups when they wouldn't have previously). The openness which leftists ask of conservatives would go far if applied to the leftist in the mirror.
December 24, 2008
good book. why do we need a gender...
December 16, 2017
Like a mix between Lolita and The Bell Jar, not in content, just in how it made me feel.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 125 reviews