amphibious-thing

[amphibious-thing]

Using the pronouns a historical figure used in their lifetime is not making an conclusive statement about how they would identify if they were alive today and we have to stop acting like it is.

#queer history

[amphibious-thing]

Have you read Jen Manion's Female Husbands: A Trans History?

And if so, would you recommend it as an academically rigorous text, or is it more pop-sci?

I haven't read it but it's on my mental list of books I should probably check out at some point.

#if anyone has read it feel free to share your thoughts

[amphibious-thing]

I wish I had the kind of friends I could ask to go to queer exhibition openings with me but it’s not really their thing

#too much social anxiety to go alone but it looks fun #+free drinks #anyone want to do fun stuff like look at queer art with me? #I would be happier being single if I had a buddy to do this sort of thing with y’know #a +1 buddy for +1 needs #personal #I’ll probably delete this later

[amphibious-thing]

Queer kids and young adults not knowing queer history is a systemic issue not a personal failure.

[amphibious-thing]

Anti-intellectualism isn’t when someone likes a piece of media you don’t like.

#oh no women are reading erotica it truly is the downfall of literature as we know it!!!!!

[amphibious-thing]

By changing the way the public understood d'Eon's gender transgression it changes the cultural meaning of the rumour that her and Franklin were lovers. A rumour that Franklin was engaging in fornication is really not that scandalous. A rumour that Franklin was engaging in sodomy would be very scandalous.

#franklin #historical fiction

[amphibious-thing]

#I don't know whats being said but I liked seeing the hair soo #franklin #historical fiction

[amphibious-thing]

Me: I liked it

Also me: here’s everything wrong with it

[amphibious-thing]

So lets talk about Franklin. Overall I liked it. But it wasn't particularly historically accurate. This is hardly an issue that's unique to Franklin, it's an issue with the genre in general. It's impossible to take people's real lives, with all their complexity, and compress them into a entertaining, well paced TV show while also being completely historically accurate. Things inevitably get left out, timelines get muddled, a dash of creative license can get out of hand all to quickly. Straight off the bat Franklin lets us know it's not too concerned with historical accuracy by just completely leaving Silas Deane out.

That considered I liked it. I really enjoyed Romain Brau's performance. The moment when everyone is laughing at d'Eon in the theatre and it cuts to a close up of her face, you can see her pain, but also her resolve, her strength.

We see this strength again in the conversation between her and Franklin.

However. They got her name wrong. I know pretty much everyone deadnames d'Eon but really?!? It doesn't make sense in the narrative at all. D'Eon is being introduced as a woman why would her deadname be used in this scenario. Just in case you haven't heard me say it a thousand times, d'Eon's name was Charlotte-Geneviève-Louise-Auguste-André-Timothée d’Eon de Beaumont, or Geneviève d'Eon for short.

The timeline also seems confused. In one scene Temple makes a bet on d'Eon's sex but historically these bets had pretty much stopped after d'Eon was declared a woman in both England and France. There had been a lot of speculation over her sex in the past but by the time she returned to France there seemed to be an answer; d'Eon was a woman who had disguised herself as a man. While there were certainly people who made fun of d'Eon, they made fun of her under the belief that she, to put it bluntly, had a vagina. In Franklin the jokes made at her expense rely on the insinuation that she had a penis and the satirical cartoon of d'Eon and Franklin having sex depicts her with a penis.

Historically there were rumors that d'Eon and Franklin were lovers but these rumors were based on the widely held belief that d'Eon was a woman. And woman was understood in a very cisnormative way.

The pamphlet History of a French Louse (published in French and later translated into English) follows the story of a louse who finds himself on d'Eon. The louse describes d'Eon as "a woman whose manners were so absurd, so masculine, and unsuitable to her sex". The louse is still residing on d’Eon when she goes to dine at Franklin’s place:

My heroine [d’Eon] left her seat to place herself close to the master of the house [Franklin], to whom she sung some verses of her own composing, which I should not have thought excellent but for that circumstance; however they were greatly applauded. I plainly observed his excellency express his gratitude to his Apollo by an ardent kiss, but without quitting his spectacles; at the same time he whispered in her ear, Shall it be this evening, my goddess?

While the pamphlet acknowledges that d'Eon had "appeared in the habit of a man, and wore the cross of St. Louis" it states that "she was a woman". Certainly History of a French Louse is mocking d'Eon and Franklin but the author clearly believed that d'Eon was woman.

Oh also they misgendered her in the credits!

#also what was with the pee scene what were we supposed to take away from that? #franklin #historical fiction #chevaliere d'eon #benjamin franklin

[amphibious-thing]

Ok full thoughts later but there is this issue with d’Eon where because we know she had a penis it’s framed from that perspective. But during the period that Franklin is set the public overwhelmingly believed that d’Eon had a vagina. There was in fact a whole court case about it where it was was legally declared that d’Eon had a vagina. The scandal in the eyes of the public was that, in a very cisnormative understanding of gender, a woman had passed as a man not that a man was now dressing as a woman.

#chevalière d'eon #franklin #historical fiction

[amphibious-thing]

They got her name wrong…

#full thoughts will have to wait because I have work early tomorrow #but current thoughts are THEY GOT HER FUCKING NAME WRONG! #can we please stop deadnaming d’Eon #franklin #historical fiction

[amphibious-thing]

Do you know d'Eon appears in episode 3 of the Franklin show apple made?

I did not know this. I’m going to have to watch it now aren’t I?

#hopefully it’s not too bad #I have low expectations because well look at most historical fiction d’Eon’s in

[amphibious-thing]

Every time I look at d’Eon’s Wikipedia page I’m stunned by how bad it is. Like even ignoring the pronoun issue it’s pretty bad. I want to fix it but also can’t be arsed fighting with people who have more wiki status than me (I have no status).

#please talk some sense into me #tell me not to edit her wiki page #chevalière d'eon

[amphibious-thing]

The way people talk about d'Eon is a really good example of how trans people are held to more restrictive expectations of gender conformity. Whether it's d'Eon talked like a grenadier and thus must have been a cis man forced to live as a woman or d'Eon's gender presentation was amazonian thus we must use they/them pronouns and masculine language in French and also deadname her it's all making assumptions about d'Eon's gender identity based on her gender presentation. It's all making the assumption that d'Eon can't have been a woman because she doesn't fit their expectations of how a woman should behave. The fact that d'Eon said she was a woman and used feminine names, titles, pronouns, &c are all ignored because d'Eon did not act how an 18th century Frenchwoman was supposed to act. And this often comes from people who do not consider themselves transphobic (and even some people who are trans themselves). It's well I'd never misgender a modern trans person but we don't know how d'Eon would identify today but we do know how she identified in her lifetime! Why are d'Eon's own words about her own gender dismissed while we hold up the opinions of people like Henriette Campan who seems to be, by d'Eon's own account, a judgmental mean girl who harassed and belittled d'Eon for not preforming femininity to her standards.

#chevalière d'eon #queer history

[amphibious-thing]

To clarify because this apparently wasn’t clear. This post is about people who say that life was better for women historically based on what life was like for wealthy women (and often not even an accurate understanding of what life was like for wealthy women).

This post is not about people who enjoy historical aesthetics or historical fiction. I also enjoy those things.

Why do middle class women like to imagine they would have been a wealthy heiress if they lived in the 19th century.

#I apologise for not considering how people might misunderstand this post on the piss on the poor website #that was my bad #completely on me #I might turn off reblogs because this is upsetting people

[amphibious-thing]

contemporaries said she talked like a "grenadier" why would a trans woman do that???

idk why would a trans woman who had been in the army talk like someone who had been in the army? It truly is a mystery.

the whole d’Eon was trying to signal to everyone that’s she was actually a man being forced to live as a woman theory really breaks down when you remember that gender nonconformity exists and that women can get out of carriages on their own or whatever

#chevalière d'eon #I might delete this later

[amphibious-thing]

the whole d’Eon was trying to signal to everyone that’s she was actually a man being forced to live as a woman theory really breaks down when you remember that gender nonconformity exists and that women can get out of carriages on their own or whatever

#chevalière d'eon #i might delete later #im just complaining because its so stupid