The Tradition of Female Transvestism in Early Modern Europe

by Rudolf Dekker, Lotte van de Pol

English (translation)
Original Dutch

Genres: Nonfiction, Research, LGBT, History, Queer, Gender

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Rudolf Michel Dekker (Amsterdam, 1951) is a Dutch historian.

Reviews

[Loranne Davelaar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Minder gedateerd dan ik had verwacht, op de veel te pathologiserende passages over transgender/transseksualiteit na. Indrukwekkend hoeveel ‘vrouwen in mannenkleren’ de onderzoekers boven tafel hebben gekregen, en hoe helder ze de verschillende motieven voor dat gedrag geïnventariseerd hebben. Ergens is het een triest boek: alleen degenen die zijn ontdekt en berecht, lieten sporen na en konden dus worden teruggevonden. De succesvolle gevallen blijven onzichtbaar in de geschiedenis.

[Maria Monserrat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es una pena que los autores manejen términos tan anticuados incluso para hace 20 años.

A nivel documento histórico hace una recopilación preciosa y muy diversa sobre historias de mujeres que se travistieron y hombres transexuales (los mismos autores defienden que la transexualidad existe mucho antes de que el término moderno se acuñe, aunque lo hacen con la boca pequeña y apenas en medio renglón) muchas veces sin poder distinguir unos casos de otros, intentando explorar sus casuísticas y condiciones.

Me hace reflexionar un poco sobre el miedo y rechazo histórico y ACTUAL hacia todo aquello que no se engloba en lo binario.

Edit: La versión original es de 1989 👀, no de hace 20 años pero bue…

[Risanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book that exposes that women were a lot more in the history of Europe during the period of 1500-1800 than simple housewives or nuns. They crossdressed to sail seas, fight wars and marry the women they loved. A real eye-opener about the fact that history is written by winners and that the truth is not always what we think it is.

[Shaun "AceFireFox" · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now this is quite the interesting read. However the title is very misleading and it is very narrow in scope.

The title should have been more along the lines off 'The Tradition of Female Transvestism in 17th and 18th Century Netherlands' because that's how narrow the scope is. Mentions of other countries, such as France, Spain and England, are very brief at best. Anne Bonny is on the cover and isn't mentioned once, Mary Read is mentioned in passing at best and Anne Lister isn't spoken about at all. It is very Dutch focused and the cases discussed are limited, but that is more understandable.

The language is dated at times, such as the more older term of Transexuality being used instead of Transgender and Transvestism used more liberally instead of cross-dressing. Yugoslavia is also mentioned as if it still exists as well. Again, it was written in 1989 so I'm not too bothered about that either.

Regardless, it is quite the interesting read. It talks about women who dress and live their lives as men, sometimes even getting married or joining the army or navy. It looks into the reasons, culture and psychology behind it with quite a few case studies and names mentioned.

I remember buying this for university but not actually getting any real use out of it for the unit I had gotten it for, despite finding it quite interesting. It's a fairly quick read.

[Alex Combs]

This book has some fantastic information about individual people who ‘cross-dressed’ as boys in early modern Europe. The authors looked at over 100 individuals in records they collected from several different sources across Western Europe. Unfortunately it’s framed in some pretty transphobic ways.
The author’s interpretations leave little room for the possibility that their subjects experienced any kind of gender fluid interiority. The authors seemed very invested in separating “true transvestites” from people who’s cross-dressing they could explain with reasoning they found more relatable. At one point they make the claim that queer gender expression is indicative of a criminal type of personality. I could excuse some of these attitudes as being typical of a book that was written in 1989, but there were writings by trans people at that time that could have been accessed by the authors.

[fausto · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting book, primary deals with the Netherlands and Germany and superficially with Italian, Spanish, French and Danish cases. Is very well written (its lecture is really fluid) and is very well supported by historical sources. The premise of the book is that in the Netherlands a "tradition" of female travestism has existed, in which women cross-dressed for patriotism, (straight and lesbian) love, and in order to scape poverty. As the subtitle says, the evidence provided came primary from the XVII and XVIII centuries. The authors used a lot of primary sources (mainly judicial records, archive material, historial literature and folk songs) but most of them in dutch, so is in fact, hardly accesible for the common reader. Also a considerable ammount of their english and french secondary sources came from the 1900-1930's so, again, not very accesible.
In any case, is a very particular book, and the only one that have a very profound analysis of the subject, so is a must read for anyone interested in lesbian and women's history.

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interessant boek, niet alleen wegens het onderwerp, maar ook wegens de manier waarop het over het onderwerp schrijft. Blijkbaar was dit een van de vroegste voorbeelden van de zogenaamde sociale geschiedenis, waarin aandacht werd gegeven aan het leven van de gewone mensen. Nadeel is wel dat het taalgebruik, vooral als het over transseksualiteit gaat, nogal verouderd is ("Transseksualiteit is nog niet te genezen", meen ik te hebben gelezen).

Ook nogal deprimerend boek, eigenlijk. Het leven van vrouwen was geen pretje, en dat van vrouwen in mannenkleren (of het nu om sociale, seksuele of gendergerelateerde redenen was) al helemaal niet. Ik was ook geen fan van de manier waarop het boek werd ingedeeld. Tijd voor een heruitgave?

[Richard Rimachi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Encontré este libro ofertado en una sede de Wong, por lo que me lo compré. Vaya datos que tiene, no sabía casi nada de lo expuesto y me amplió la mirada de conocimientos previos, como que durante el Renacimiento el tópico del "mundo al revés" también dio lugar a una serie de estampas y grabados, incluidos la de travestidas.

Me hubiese gustado que los autores ampliaran más el tema de género y las teorías que ellos manejan o discuten, ya que se dan por sentadas algunas nociones como la feminidad. De todos modos, siendo un ensayo breve resulta muy informativo y hasta entretenido cuando se exponen las vidas de estas mujeres.

[Devoney Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books I read for university, it was cited in an article I was using for a paper and I thought it might have some relevant information. It did however, it’s a bit of an older book, so it’s got some dated terms and ideas and definitely does not make any effort to discuss colonialism even when it’s brought up that the colonies were a source of economic opportunities for even the “lowest of white women” because of the discrimination towards indigenous women. It is a quick read that covers a decent amount of stories and theories but it’s also really only a starting place.

[Ángela C. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mucho ruido y pocas nueces. El tema prometía pero no me gustó nada la forma en que está escrito. Tremendamente repetitivo. ZzZzZzZz...

[Immy Murmure · Rating 3 out of 5]

(it is dated and does not treat the subject of intersex and trans people well)

[Timo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een heel boek over een onderwerp als dit is precies wat me aan is gaan spreken aan de geschiedwetenschap. Het maakt duidelijk dat het verleden goed vreemd is, een ver-van-mijn-bed-show, maar waarvan de wortels van het heden door een goede uitleg blootgelegd kunnen worden. Aanrader!