1 00:00:00,680 --> 00:00:05,040 Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm 2 00:00:05,080 --> 00:00:13,160 Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised for those 3 00:00:13,200 --> 00:00:17,480 Speaker 1: who never attended Sunday School, or maybe just slept through 4 00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:21,000 Speaker 1: those lessons, or for those like me who didn't get 5 00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:24,159 Speaker 1: these lessons at all in Hebrews School. I'd like to 6 00:00:24,200 --> 00:00:29,520 Speaker 1: start by briefly recapping the story of Mary Magdalen. According 7 00:00:29,600 --> 00:00:34,640 Speaker 1: to the most common narratives, Magdalen was one of Jesus's followers, 8 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:38,600 Speaker 1: present not only throughout his travels but by his side 9 00:00:38,680 --> 00:00:43,360 Speaker 1: at both his crucifixion and resurrection. In a number of 10 00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:49,040 Speaker 1: denominations of Christianity, including Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, she is 11 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:54,560 Speaker 1: considered a saint somewhere along the way, though Magdalen's identity 12 00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:59,960 Speaker 1: in the cultural consciousness shifted. Nowhere in the four Gospels 13 00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:03,320 Speaker 1: of the New Testament is it mentioned that this woman 14 00:01:03,520 --> 00:01:06,959 Speaker 1: was a prostitute or a sinner. But that is the 15 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:11,200 Speaker 1: image likely conjured in your mind when I first said 16 00:01:11,240 --> 00:01:15,000 Speaker 1: her name. According to the BBC, it was actually in 17 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:19,720 Speaker 1: the sixth century that Mary Magdalen became confused with two 18 00:01:19,880 --> 00:01:23,560 Speaker 1: other women in the Bible, Mary of Bethany, and another 19 00:01:23,760 --> 00:01:29,360 Speaker 1: unnamed sinner from Luke's Gospel. Both these women washed Jesus's 20 00:01:29,480 --> 00:01:33,000 Speaker 1: feet with their hair, I imagine, hoping that one day 21 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:36,640 Speaker 1: Lady Gaga would sing about them. In five hundred and 22 00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:40,560 Speaker 1: ninety one, Pope Gregory the First gave an Easter sermon 23 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:46,119 Speaker 1: conflating all three female figures into one, and thus Mary 24 00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:50,520 Speaker 1: Magdalen as we now know her, was born. In nineteen 25 00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:54,440 Speaker 1: sixty nine, the Catholic Church declared that Mary Magdalen was 26 00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:58,360 Speaker 1: not the sinner nor the prostitute in question. But after 27 00:01:58,480 --> 00:02:02,200 Speaker 1: fourteen centuries, it's hard to walk back a mistake like 28 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:06,520 Speaker 1: that in the minds of the public. In the nineteenth century, 29 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:09,520 Speaker 1: only a little less than one hundred years before the 30 00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:13,239 Speaker 1: Catholic Church would set the record straight, one writer would 31 00:02:13,400 --> 00:02:18,679 Speaker 1: quote earn the fate of a prostitute unquote for publishing 32 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:25,480 Speaker 1: works about Magdalen, among other indecent pieces of literature. Mark 33 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:29,840 Speaker 1: de Montefoe originally published the history of Mary Magdalen with 34 00:02:29,919 --> 00:02:34,360 Speaker 1: the title The Courtesans of Antiquity, and the book quickly 35 00:02:34,440 --> 00:02:39,720 Speaker 1: came under scrutiny by an increasingly authoritative Catholic Church for 36 00:02:39,919 --> 00:02:43,840 Speaker 1: being an erotic history of a religious figure who was 37 00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:49,400 Speaker 1: lest we failed to acknowledge the irony erroneously eroticized by 38 00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:53,960 Speaker 1: the Catholic Church in the first place. The censorship of 39 00:02:54,040 --> 00:02:58,040 Speaker 1: the author De Montefoe didn't start and stop with that 40 00:02:58,200 --> 00:03:02,600 Speaker 1: title change. Continue uking to publish provocative work over the 41 00:03:02,600 --> 00:03:06,560 Speaker 1: next few years would land the writer on trial and 42 00:03:06,600 --> 00:03:11,560 Speaker 1: eventually sentenced to eight days in San Lazar Prison, a 43 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:17,359 Speaker 1: forced labor camp for prostitutes and violent female criminals. Des 44 00:03:17,400 --> 00:03:21,480 Speaker 1: Montefaut was indignant at this ruling for a number of reasons, 45 00:03:21,919 --> 00:03:24,919 Speaker 1: one being that he was a member of the nobility. 46 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:29,239 Speaker 1: He said, quote they dared to carry out such infamy 47 00:03:29,360 --> 00:03:34,320 Speaker 1: on my person. Another, arguably more important reason is that 48 00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:38,880 Speaker 1: de Montefa's colleagues, who were charged with similar transgressions were 49 00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:44,320 Speaker 1: sent to San Pelagier Prison, a comparatively lenient facility for 50 00:03:44,640 --> 00:03:50,160 Speaker 1: artists and writers, primarily Dsmntefou was affronted because he was 51 00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:54,800 Speaker 1: being sentenced not as a writer, but as a woman. 52 00:03:55,840 --> 00:04:01,400 Speaker 1: Born Marie Amali Chatrall, de Montefau mark Mont began writing 53 00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:05,360 Speaker 1: under his professional and often personal chosen name at only 54 00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:08,520 Speaker 1: sixteen years old, but it was more than just a 55 00:04:08,880 --> 00:04:12,600 Speaker 1: nom de plume. He began to wear men's clothing more 56 00:04:12,680 --> 00:04:16,559 Speaker 1: regularly as he got older, and was wearing them full 57 00:04:16,640 --> 00:04:21,360 Speaker 1: time by eighteen eighty. In portraiture, we see Mark's look 58 00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:26,080 Speaker 1: evolved from the kind of loose fitting androgynous style similar 59 00:04:26,160 --> 00:04:30,680 Speaker 1: to masculine dandies of the era, to close cropped hair 60 00:04:30,839 --> 00:04:34,840 Speaker 1: and well fitted suits in fashion with French men at 61 00:04:34,839 --> 00:04:38,880 Speaker 1: the turn of the century. For reference as to when 62 00:04:38,920 --> 00:04:42,560 Speaker 1: the concept of transgender identity as we know it first 63 00:04:42,760 --> 00:04:47,920 Speaker 1: entered the French luxicon, de Montefot's last works were published 64 00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:52,080 Speaker 1: in nineteen hundred, and it was only five years before 65 00:04:52,160 --> 00:04:56,599 Speaker 1: that that something close to quote transgender made it into 66 00:04:56,680 --> 00:05:01,359 Speaker 1: the French language in a translation of psycho Pathia Sexualis 67 00:05:01,360 --> 00:05:06,440 Speaker 1: and its chapter on quote androgyny and guy Injury. It 68 00:05:06,520 --> 00:05:09,240 Speaker 1: was a groundbreaking work at the time as one of 69 00:05:09,279 --> 00:05:13,520 Speaker 1: the first psychological works on homosexuality, but as you can 70 00:05:13,560 --> 00:05:17,760 Speaker 1: probably guess from the name with Psychopathia in the title, 71 00:05:18,400 --> 00:05:23,200 Speaker 1: it proposed that homosexuality was a mental illness. The nature 72 00:05:23,279 --> 00:05:28,120 Speaker 1: of transgender identities are a complex project when discussing historical 73 00:05:28,160 --> 00:05:34,720 Speaker 1: figures whose relationship with gender was well complex. Des Montefot 74 00:05:34,720 --> 00:05:38,159 Speaker 1: lived in France during a period in which gender was 75 00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:42,880 Speaker 1: highly policed. Starting in eighteen hundred, it was in fact 76 00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:48,120 Speaker 1: illegal for French women to wear pants without obtaining a permit. 77 00:05:48,600 --> 00:05:52,599 Speaker 1: More on that later. But Mark's expression of identity went 78 00:05:52,680 --> 00:05:58,400 Speaker 1: beyond dressing in masculine clothes. In professional and many personal settings, 79 00:05:58,440 --> 00:06:02,920 Speaker 1: Mark preferred to be with masculine language and addressed by 80 00:06:03,200 --> 00:06:06,520 Speaker 1: his names Mark de Montefa and later his pen name 81 00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:11,960 Speaker 1: Paul Erasme. Throughout his life, he alternated between signing his 82 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:16,360 Speaker 1: personal letters with Mark and with Marie, and an eighteen 83 00:06:16,520 --> 00:06:21,200 Speaker 1: eighty letter from his mother uses both moncher and font 84 00:06:21,279 --> 00:06:25,599 Speaker 1: the masculine and ma Cherie infant of feminine within the 85 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:31,280 Speaker 1: same page to address her quote, dear child. Because in public, 86 00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:34,280 Speaker 1: in regards to his work and often in his personal life, 87 00:06:34,360 --> 00:06:38,320 Speaker 1: Demntefoe preferred to be referred to in the masculine. I'll 88 00:06:38,320 --> 00:06:42,400 Speaker 1: be using him pronouns for the writer as we discuss 89 00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:46,640 Speaker 1: his life and career in the Spotlight. But this, of course, 90 00:06:46,800 --> 00:06:51,279 Speaker 1: isn't just a story about Demontefo's gender identity. It's a 91 00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:56,800 Speaker 1: story about telling stories, about censorship, and about someone who 92 00:06:56,880 --> 00:07:02,520 Speaker 1: wouldn't and couldn't stop telling stories no matter the consequences. 93 00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:17,840 Speaker 1: I'm Danish schwartz and this is noble blood. Marc de 94 00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:22,080 Speaker 1: Montefau was born in Paris in eighteen forty five, and 95 00:07:22,200 --> 00:07:26,280 Speaker 1: the education that would one day serve his writing began early. 96 00:07:26,920 --> 00:07:30,040 Speaker 1: His mother was Catholic and taught him the principles of 97 00:07:30,080 --> 00:07:33,960 Speaker 1: the religion. His father, though, was a physician and a 98 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:38,640 Speaker 1: freethinker during the Libris Pinset boom of the nineteenth century. 99 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:43,640 Speaker 1: French freethinkers of that time generally rejected a religious dogma 100 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:47,880 Speaker 1: and sought to define the world through observation and experience. 101 00:07:48,640 --> 00:07:52,480 Speaker 1: Mark in his work would incorporate both of his parents' lessons, 102 00:07:52,840 --> 00:07:55,760 Speaker 1: but it was certainly his father who influenced his own 103 00:07:55,840 --> 00:08:00,040 Speaker 1: outlook on life as far as more formal education and 104 00:08:00,680 --> 00:08:03,960 Speaker 1: Mark found a talent for art, and he would study 105 00:08:04,040 --> 00:08:08,920 Speaker 1: at a private studio because women weren't permitted places at 106 00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:13,120 Speaker 1: Paris's Le Call de Beaux Art until eighteen ninety seven. 107 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:18,040 Speaker 1: Writing would still prove to be his greater passion. In 108 00:08:18,120 --> 00:08:20,920 Speaker 1: his youth, he published a few pieces in a travel 109 00:08:20,960 --> 00:08:25,440 Speaker 1: magazine and had written an unpublished novel, But the young 110 00:08:25,520 --> 00:08:29,360 Speaker 1: artist began publishing under the name Marc de Montefau at 111 00:08:29,400 --> 00:08:33,320 Speaker 1: around eighteen or nineteen, his first piece appearing in the 112 00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:39,000 Speaker 1: influential journal Lartiste in eighteen sixty five. One year earlier, 113 00:08:39,120 --> 00:08:44,040 Speaker 1: Mark had married Spanish noble Juan Francis Leon Equivnent, the 114 00:08:44,160 --> 00:08:48,840 Speaker 1: Comte de Luna, making Mark a countess. Leon was over 115 00:08:48,920 --> 00:08:52,560 Speaker 1: a decade older than Mark, and he had been previously married, 116 00:08:52,760 --> 00:08:56,080 Speaker 1: but the two found common ground with a shared passion 117 00:08:56,120 --> 00:08:59,400 Speaker 1: for the arts. De Comte had been living in Paris 118 00:08:59,440 --> 00:09:03,360 Speaker 1: for several years by eighteen sixty four, working as the 119 00:09:03,559 --> 00:09:09,160 Speaker 1: personal secretary to the famed writer Arsin Hussey. Hussey is 120 00:09:09,240 --> 00:09:13,080 Speaker 1: an incredibly minor character in this story, but indulge me 121 00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:16,600 Speaker 1: just a moment to reading the headline of his eighteen 122 00:09:16,679 --> 00:09:21,720 Speaker 1: ninety six New York Times obituary, It's just extraordinary. Arsin 123 00:09:21,800 --> 00:09:26,160 Speaker 1: whosey dead last of the Romanticists and most faithful of 124 00:09:26,240 --> 00:09:30,480 Speaker 1: the idealists, A prince Charming of the Empire. His was 125 00:09:30,520 --> 00:09:34,240 Speaker 1: one of the most attractive personalities of Paris, and his 126 00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:37,920 Speaker 1: work is an artist's May we all hope to be 127 00:09:38,040 --> 00:09:42,960 Speaker 1: remembered half as glowingly. Anyway, this Prince Charming of the 128 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:47,640 Speaker 1: Empire was more importantly the editor of Lartiste, and under 129 00:09:47,679 --> 00:09:53,440 Speaker 1: his leadership it became the most influential cultural journal in France. 130 00:09:54,200 --> 00:09:58,520 Speaker 1: It's likely that it was Leon who connected Mark and Lartiste, 131 00:09:58,920 --> 00:10:03,200 Speaker 1: and we know the Compte supported and encouraged Mark's writing 132 00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:08,320 Speaker 1: throughout his career. Quite literally, a husband's permission was needed 133 00:10:08,360 --> 00:10:11,640 Speaker 1: at the time for a wife to publish. We don't 134 00:10:11,679 --> 00:10:15,199 Speaker 1: know exactly how Leon and Mark met, or whether or 135 00:10:15,280 --> 00:10:19,160 Speaker 1: not the marriage was arranged, but it's possible that Mark's 136 00:10:19,200 --> 00:10:23,720 Speaker 1: father ran in similar intellectual circles as who say. The 137 00:10:23,800 --> 00:10:28,920 Speaker 1: couple would eventually have one son, also called Mark, born 138 00:10:29,080 --> 00:10:33,960 Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy four. Mark was still presenting socially as 139 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:38,199 Speaker 1: a woman at this time, but in a surprisingly modern arrangement, 140 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:42,679 Speaker 1: Mark and Leon combined their last names, both going by 141 00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:46,720 Speaker 1: the surname Kuvan des Montefau. This was arranged at the 142 00:10:46,840 --> 00:10:50,559 Speaker 1: request of Mark's father, who was disappointed that he didn't 143 00:10:50,559 --> 00:10:55,000 Speaker 1: have a son to carry on the family name. Leon 144 00:10:55,040 --> 00:10:58,520 Speaker 1: would even eventually take to signing his name Leon de 145 00:10:58,640 --> 00:11:03,800 Speaker 1: Montefaux professionally, which made both Mark and his husband professionally 146 00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:09,440 Speaker 1: known as Monsieur de Montefaut. Contemporaries like Case eventually referred 147 00:11:09,480 --> 00:11:14,040 Speaker 1: to Mark as mister Mark de Montefaut to differentiate him 148 00:11:14,080 --> 00:11:18,800 Speaker 1: from his husband. The young Monsieur de Montefaut got his 149 00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:23,439 Speaker 1: first major story in May of eighteen sixty five when 150 00:11:23,480 --> 00:11:27,000 Speaker 1: he was asked to review the Salon. Not to be 151 00:11:27,080 --> 00:11:32,720 Speaker 1: confused with various salons hosted by intellectuals, the Capital s 152 00:11:32,720 --> 00:11:36,720 Speaker 1: Salon was the art event of the city. Each year, 153 00:11:37,040 --> 00:11:41,160 Speaker 1: thousands of artists submitted their work, hoping to be selected 154 00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:44,120 Speaker 1: by the committee for a spot on the floor to 155 00:11:44,240 --> 00:11:50,079 Speaker 1: sealing displays. The salon could be career making or career breaking, 156 00:11:50,520 --> 00:11:54,480 Speaker 1: hosting many of French art's most famous names at different 157 00:11:54,520 --> 00:11:59,320 Speaker 1: points of its history. Eighteen sixty five saw, for example, 158 00:11:59,480 --> 00:12:04,600 Speaker 1: the controversial nude portrait of a prostitute Olympia by Manet, 159 00:12:05,280 --> 00:12:11,360 Speaker 1: despite tensions between the traditional salon and the progressive Impressionists. 160 00:12:11,960 --> 00:12:16,920 Speaker 1: Perhaps surprisingly based on his future work, Mark dismissed this 161 00:12:17,040 --> 00:12:21,880 Speaker 1: painting as an immature eccentricity. If only the painter had 162 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:26,040 Speaker 1: a quote healthier mind, he noted, he might have produced 163 00:12:26,120 --> 00:12:30,520 Speaker 1: some real art. Years later, Mark would review the eighteen 164 00:12:30,640 --> 00:12:35,360 Speaker 1: seventy four Salon, lamenting quote, if there's anything we regret, 165 00:12:35,760 --> 00:12:40,120 Speaker 1: it's seeing studies of the nude abandoned for landscapes, So 166 00:12:40,360 --> 00:12:44,679 Speaker 1: perhaps his issue was with Manet more specifically, or perhaps 167 00:12:44,679 --> 00:12:47,600 Speaker 1: he just came around on the idea of nude paintings. 168 00:12:48,559 --> 00:12:52,800 Speaker 1: Mark didn't shy away from referencing sex himself. Within that 169 00:12:52,880 --> 00:12:57,160 Speaker 1: same eighteen sixty five essay, he argued that seeing too 170 00:12:57,200 --> 00:13:01,560 Speaker 1: many paintings in one day was overstimulus, writing that what 171 00:13:01,679 --> 00:13:05,480 Speaker 1: he needed was quote the visual virginity that is the 172 00:13:05,559 --> 00:13:09,600 Speaker 1: true guiding light of the painter and the critic. The 173 00:13:09,760 --> 00:13:16,120 Speaker 1: casual reference to a taboo subject like virginity was decidedly masculine. 174 00:13:16,280 --> 00:13:19,600 Speaker 1: For the time, readers would have had no incentive to 175 00:13:19,760 --> 00:13:23,160 Speaker 1: question whether or not this Mark de Montefau they were 176 00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:27,040 Speaker 1: reading was the stereotypical man they were no doubt picturing. 177 00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:31,320 Speaker 1: Mark would continue to review the Salon for years to come, 178 00:13:31,920 --> 00:13:35,840 Speaker 1: his essays commenting not only on the art itself, but 179 00:13:35,960 --> 00:13:39,080 Speaker 1: his general thoughts on the state of the culture in 180 00:13:39,120 --> 00:13:42,560 Speaker 1: which they were produced. Speaking to the mood at the 181 00:13:42,600 --> 00:13:46,240 Speaker 1: turn of the century, he reflected in his eighteen sixty 182 00:13:46,320 --> 00:13:50,160 Speaker 1: eight essay that the French needed quote a renewal in 183 00:13:50,200 --> 00:13:54,400 Speaker 1: their organs, sight and perception of things, and quote as 184 00:13:54,440 --> 00:13:58,320 Speaker 1: he sensed an encroaching on we Mark was searching for, 185 00:13:58,679 --> 00:14:02,880 Speaker 1: as summarized by these scholar vandlen Gutner, an expression of 186 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:10,200 Speaker 1: imagination and inspiration rather than just tactile sensation. Mark would 187 00:14:10,280 --> 00:14:14,240 Speaker 1: have to spark that inspiration himself, and he attempted to 188 00:14:14,280 --> 00:14:17,800 Speaker 1: do so a few short years later in eighteen seventy, 189 00:14:18,200 --> 00:14:23,400 Speaker 1: with the publication of The Courtesans of Antiquity, later titled 190 00:14:23,520 --> 00:14:28,320 Speaker 1: The History of Mary Magdalene. In her book Before trans 191 00:14:28,600 --> 00:14:32,680 Speaker 1: Three Gender Stories from nineteenth century France, which contains the 192 00:14:32,800 --> 00:14:38,000 Speaker 1: most detailed English language biography of Mark, historian Rachel Mesh 193 00:14:38,280 --> 00:14:41,320 Speaker 1: writes that the book was the first of quote many 194 00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:46,000 Speaker 1: efforts by Montefot to recover the history of sexuality in 195 00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:52,120 Speaker 1: order to demonstrate two seemingly opposing facts that aros had 196 00:14:52,200 --> 00:14:56,520 Speaker 1: long been part of the French Catholic tradition and that 197 00:14:56,640 --> 00:15:02,240 Speaker 1: sexual mores were more arbitrary products of culture, determined by 198 00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:06,520 Speaker 1: time and place end quote. You can also imagine Mark 199 00:15:06,760 --> 00:15:11,200 Speaker 1: reconciling those two seemingly opposing schools of thought that he 200 00:15:11,320 --> 00:15:14,520 Speaker 1: was raised by himself the fruit of a marriage between 201 00:15:14,560 --> 00:15:19,920 Speaker 1: a traditional Catholic woman and a freethinking man. The History 202 00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:24,040 Speaker 1: of Mary Magdalene was more literally a study of the 203 00:15:24,200 --> 00:15:30,000 Speaker 1: visual and literary representations of Mary Magdalen throughout history, with 204 00:15:30,200 --> 00:15:35,880 Speaker 1: language that was decidedly erotic when it was published, who 205 00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:40,320 Speaker 1: say printed excerpts in Lartiste, paired with an introduction that 206 00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:43,040 Speaker 1: may or may not have been written by Mark himself, 207 00:15:43,760 --> 00:15:48,440 Speaker 1: calling it a bold and curious work. This unattributed writer, 208 00:15:48,600 --> 00:15:51,920 Speaker 1: who again might be the author, goes on to note 209 00:15:52,040 --> 00:15:57,600 Speaker 1: that readers sometimes found de Montefot's art criticism too eloquent, 210 00:15:58,080 --> 00:16:02,040 Speaker 1: but now quote mister Mark de Montefau has stripped off 211 00:16:02,120 --> 00:16:06,240 Speaker 1: that fancy dress. He has understood that truth is all 212 00:16:06,280 --> 00:16:11,040 Speaker 1: the more beautiful when it marches fully nude. It is 213 00:16:11,240 --> 00:16:14,680 Speaker 1: a big old wink to those in the know. Again 214 00:16:14,840 --> 00:16:18,880 Speaker 1: possibly written by Mark, possibly written by someone close to him. 215 00:16:19,480 --> 00:16:23,360 Speaker 1: Based on the surviving photography we have, we know Mark 216 00:16:23,480 --> 00:16:26,520 Speaker 1: was still presenting feminine at this point in his life, 217 00:16:26,960 --> 00:16:30,840 Speaker 1: but he had, in a more metaphorical sense, stripped off 218 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:35,640 Speaker 1: that fancy dress a long time ago, publicly presenting as 219 00:16:35,720 --> 00:16:40,520 Speaker 1: male through his writing, using Mark exclusively as his nom 220 00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:45,480 Speaker 1: de plume. However, as Mesh theorizes, it's also possible that 221 00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:49,920 Speaker 1: he was wearing men's clothes to attend the salons he 222 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:54,600 Speaker 1: reviewed and passing publicly. His entry ticket to the salon 223 00:16:54,840 --> 00:16:58,680 Speaker 1: was for a Monsieur de Montefau, and it would likely 224 00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:01,640 Speaker 1: have raised many quests if he had showed up in 225 00:17:01,760 --> 00:17:07,840 Speaker 1: a dress back to Mary Magdalen, though Lartiste was perhaps 226 00:17:08,040 --> 00:17:12,280 Speaker 1: leaning into the age old tactic of outrage marketing, also 227 00:17:12,440 --> 00:17:16,800 Speaker 1: describing the book as a quote, danger and audacious act, 228 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:21,760 Speaker 1: practically sacrilege. As you know from the top of this episode, 229 00:17:22,320 --> 00:17:27,159 Speaker 1: outrage there was. The work was highly successful for a while, 230 00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:32,000 Speaker 1: reprinted four times before the Franco Prussian War, but in 231 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:36,600 Speaker 1: the war's aftermath, the Catholic Church was reasserting their power 232 00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:41,640 Speaker 1: in the country, and writers and journalists increasingly ended up 233 00:17:41,800 --> 00:17:46,439 Speaker 1: on trial. The controversy with Magdalen put Mark on the 234 00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:51,200 Speaker 1: Church's radar, but he wouldn't be officially charged with offense 235 00:17:51,280 --> 00:17:56,520 Speaker 1: to public decency until eighteen seventy six, when he published 236 00:17:56,520 --> 00:18:00,480 Speaker 1: a re edition of a late seventeenth century texx that 237 00:18:00,600 --> 00:18:05,040 Speaker 1: was already controversial in its own time. Yes, Mark was 238 00:18:05,119 --> 00:18:08,920 Speaker 1: sentenced to jail for a work that wasn't even his. 239 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:13,040 Speaker 1: I thought, if we were going to eliminate him from memory, 240 00:18:13,320 --> 00:18:16,760 Speaker 1: Mark said of that writer he republished during his trial 241 00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:21,520 Speaker 1: we could put him in a library instead. Mark also 242 00:18:21,600 --> 00:18:25,119 Speaker 1: spent his time on the stand mocking his accusers the 243 00:18:25,320 --> 00:18:29,400 Speaker 1: quote narrow minded men whose hair, for good reason could 244 00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:33,879 Speaker 1: hardly stand on end. In horror, when he heard the 245 00:18:33,920 --> 00:18:38,320 Speaker 1: guilty verdict, he ran to the prefect's office and asked 246 00:18:38,400 --> 00:18:42,679 Speaker 1: how a publishing infraction could land him a comtesse no 247 00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:47,560 Speaker 1: less in the notorious San Lazaree. It wasn't at all 248 00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:52,120 Speaker 1: to inflict personal injury upon you, the police prefect told him. 249 00:18:52,359 --> 00:18:56,200 Speaker 1: But because the administration would not put a woman insane 250 00:18:56,280 --> 00:19:00,320 Speaker 1: peleget Mark was furious. He wrote that he would being 251 00:19:00,359 --> 00:19:04,120 Speaker 1: treated quote like a woman who had blatantly acted against 252 00:19:04,160 --> 00:19:10,320 Speaker 1: all social structures instead of the quote archaeologist, bibliographer and critic. 253 00:19:10,760 --> 00:19:14,600 Speaker 1: He considered himself to be above all else. Quote I 254 00:19:14,760 --> 00:19:19,320 Speaker 1: admit that despite my enormous efforts, he reflected, my mind 255 00:19:19,560 --> 00:19:23,520 Speaker 1: can simply not accept the logic of this sentence, and 256 00:19:23,640 --> 00:19:28,200 Speaker 1: I doubt that the reader can either summed upmost efficiently, 257 00:19:28,520 --> 00:19:32,600 Speaker 1: he would write, quote. What I found unnatural and perhaps 258 00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:36,880 Speaker 1: unfair is the fact that a fence to decency can 259 00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:40,359 Speaker 1: be purged for all writers in San Pelagee, and for 260 00:19:40,520 --> 00:19:46,000 Speaker 1: me alone in jail. As a freethinker, Mark was taught 261 00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:51,360 Speaker 1: to question, to reject convention. What the administration accepted as 262 00:19:51,480 --> 00:19:55,920 Speaker 1: fair was ludicrous to him. He once later described himself 263 00:19:55,960 --> 00:19:59,919 Speaker 1: as inhabiting the skin of an artist. Overcome with me 264 00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:04,160 Speaker 1: male literary spasms. It gives us a lot of insight 265 00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:09,040 Speaker 1: into his sense of self. The artist has no gender associations, 266 00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:13,879 Speaker 1: but the compulsions he had to wright are masculine. Based 267 00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:18,880 Speaker 1: on the other quotes, Mark clearly believes the identity of artists, 268 00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:23,520 Speaker 1: archaeologist and bibliographer and critic are more important than any 269 00:20:23,560 --> 00:20:27,399 Speaker 1: notions of gender, but he still felt compelled to write 270 00:20:27,480 --> 00:20:31,359 Speaker 1: publicly as a man. Mark was then asked if he 271 00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:34,920 Speaker 1: would like to request a pardon, which he rejected as 272 00:20:34,960 --> 00:20:39,359 Speaker 1: that would mean admitting wrongdoing, and instead he decided to 273 00:20:39,520 --> 00:20:44,280 Speaker 1: flee to Brussels. From there he negotiated with the authorities 274 00:20:44,600 --> 00:20:48,000 Speaker 1: to serve his sentence instead in Maison du Bois, a 275 00:20:48,160 --> 00:20:52,600 Speaker 1: mental institution. The stint did little to change his ways. 276 00:20:52,680 --> 00:20:55,840 Speaker 1: The very next year he published The Vestal Virgins of 277 00:20:55,880 --> 00:21:00,479 Speaker 1: the Church, another erotic history, and so back to Maisson 278 00:21:00,520 --> 00:21:04,919 Speaker 1: de Bois he went. Mark eventually stopped writing these histories 279 00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:09,280 Speaker 1: when he found himself unable to obtain reference materials from 280 00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:14,360 Speaker 1: the library, the librarians having been convinced not to help him. 281 00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:17,719 Speaker 1: That was fine, he would just turn to writing fiction. 282 00:21:18,680 --> 00:21:21,639 Speaker 1: You won't be surprised at this point to hear that 283 00:21:21,800 --> 00:21:26,600 Speaker 1: eleven passages of his first novel, Madame de croiss were 284 00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:32,199 Speaker 1: condemned as indecent. Once again, back to Messan du Bois, 285 00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:36,080 Speaker 1: The story goes that this time a worker warned him 286 00:21:36,359 --> 00:21:40,400 Speaker 1: that the doctors had put arsenic into his acne medication. 287 00:21:41,119 --> 00:21:45,119 Speaker 1: He pulled the classic move of pretending to swallow while 288 00:21:45,160 --> 00:21:49,840 Speaker 1: secretly dumping the medicine into the garden, successfully avoiding a 289 00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:54,639 Speaker 1: threat on his life. Outside of his very vocal and 290 00:21:54,840 --> 00:22:00,760 Speaker 1: apparently murderous detractors, Mark was also growing a sizeable fan base. 291 00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:06,320 Speaker 1: The controversy surrounding his novel was, as it often still is, 292 00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:11,120 Speaker 1: a great marketing tool, and the novel was highly in demand. 293 00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:15,800 Speaker 1: There was, also, however, a new faction of critics who 294 00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:20,040 Speaker 1: felt betrayed that Mark de Montefaut was not who they 295 00:22:20,080 --> 00:22:24,840 Speaker 1: thought he was. Reporting from one of his trials revealed 296 00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:30,280 Speaker 1: that the quote booklover was in fact a young blonde woman, 297 00:22:30,600 --> 00:22:35,000 Speaker 1: tall and frail, with listless blue eyes and a charmingly 298 00:22:35,160 --> 00:22:40,040 Speaker 1: bold attitude, while another noted she always had that same 299 00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:44,639 Speaker 1: look of a woman dressed as a man. It's unclear 300 00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:48,560 Speaker 1: at what point readers at large learned the quote unquote 301 00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:52,919 Speaker 1: truth of his perceived past as a quote woman, wife 302 00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:56,480 Speaker 1: and mother. But the public began to look into his 303 00:22:56,600 --> 00:23:01,040 Speaker 1: life so scrutinously that it became a matter of his safety. 304 00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:05,560 Speaker 1: Isn't it high time that public modesty return? When critic 305 00:23:05,680 --> 00:23:10,159 Speaker 1: raved that it cuts short the grotesque ravings of these women. 306 00:23:10,560 --> 00:23:15,120 Speaker 1: Could they be wives and mothers? These mad women, these crazies, 307 00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:19,440 Speaker 1: these hysterics. He then went on to suggest that Mark 308 00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:24,840 Speaker 1: and quote women like him should be locked in mental institutions, 309 00:23:24,880 --> 00:23:30,840 Speaker 1: subjected to special showers. There was, on another hand, also 310 00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:35,680 Speaker 1: a new erotic interest in Mark, a fetishization, with one 311 00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:42,080 Speaker 1: journalist noting his angelic eyes and the sharp groans issued 312 00:23:42,119 --> 00:23:46,960 Speaker 1: from his mouth in court. He would write two more novels, 313 00:23:47,160 --> 00:23:52,040 Speaker 1: The Perverts and Sabine, both of which managed to escape scrutiny, 314 00:23:52,359 --> 00:23:56,240 Speaker 1: but Mark was ironically still forced to flee to Belgium again, 315 00:23:56,760 --> 00:24:01,359 Speaker 1: this time to avoid legal fees. Eeteen eighty he returned 316 00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:06,679 Speaker 1: to Paris published a collection of droll stories, described by 317 00:24:06,760 --> 00:24:11,840 Speaker 1: Mesh as erotic Rabelasian tales in which young damsels stumble 318 00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:16,040 Speaker 1: accidentally onto the pleasures of the flesh, and was forced 319 00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:19,440 Speaker 1: to flee back to Belgium, this time with his husband 320 00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:24,119 Speaker 1: and son. Mark described this period as quote one of 321 00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:28,560 Speaker 1: the most painful of my life. Rumors began to spread 322 00:24:28,720 --> 00:24:32,320 Speaker 1: that he and Leon were in fact not married and 323 00:24:32,440 --> 00:24:35,960 Speaker 1: rather living in sin with children born out of wedlock. 324 00:24:36,720 --> 00:24:41,320 Speaker 1: Friends withdrew from his life. A soiree he hosted was 325 00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:46,280 Speaker 1: apparently infiltrated by a marquise attempting to seduce him in 326 00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:51,200 Speaker 1: order to prove that Montefau was secretly harboring passions for women. 327 00:24:52,119 --> 00:24:56,439 Speaker 1: As to the legitimacy of that claim, Mark often invoked 328 00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:59,680 Speaker 1: the words of Sappho in his work, and while there 329 00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:03,320 Speaker 1: is no no evidence of affairs with women, he certainly 330 00:25:03,359 --> 00:25:07,639 Speaker 1: had fixations with a number of female friends and even rivals, 331 00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:12,359 Speaker 1: but more on that in the epilogue. Shortly after the 332 00:25:12,400 --> 00:25:16,560 Speaker 1: family returned to Paris in eighteen eighty two, Mark was 333 00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:21,080 Speaker 1: publicly humiliated with the publication of a short story called 334 00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:25,119 Speaker 1: Madame de Sade in the French paper Le Figaro. The 335 00:25:25,200 --> 00:25:28,159 Speaker 1: tale is about a young woman who is sentenced to 336 00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:33,000 Speaker 1: prison for pornographic publications, with the twist being that she 337 00:25:33,119 --> 00:25:36,720 Speaker 1: was actually put up to writing them by her husband, 338 00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:40,280 Speaker 1: who knew that her jail time would be great for sales. 339 00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:44,120 Speaker 1: The woman in the story doesn't mind prison, however, rather 340 00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:47,720 Speaker 1: seeing it as an escape from her abusive husband, who 341 00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:51,240 Speaker 1: had taken advantage of her troubled mind. There was a 342 00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:55,679 Speaker 1: clear line between the oft legally troubled Monsieur de Montefaut 343 00:25:56,160 --> 00:26:01,600 Speaker 1: and the stories protagonist, and he was lit. He denounced 344 00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:05,840 Speaker 1: the author as a small earthworm and a miserable runt 345 00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:11,080 Speaker 1: who had ejaculated his garbage upon the paper. Mark and 346 00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:14,320 Speaker 1: Leon went to their friend, the editor of rival paper 347 00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:18,160 Speaker 1: Le Voltaire, to ask for help. I have a child, 348 00:26:18,359 --> 00:26:21,159 Speaker 1: Mark told him, my dear little Mark, whom you know, 349 00:26:21,359 --> 00:26:24,960 Speaker 1: and I owe him an honorable name. Yet they pass 350 00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:28,600 Speaker 1: off my husband, the most loyal of men, as the 351 00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:32,560 Speaker 1: most wretched of them all. Their friend agreed to ask 352 00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:37,399 Speaker 1: Francis Minard, the editor of Figaro, for a retraction, but 353 00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:41,920 Speaker 1: this was refused. Any similarities to persons living or dead, 354 00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:47,160 Speaker 1: or actual events was purely coincidental, so Mark took matters 355 00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:51,720 Speaker 1: into his own hands. Literally. The next day, the couple 356 00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:56,040 Speaker 1: purchased tickets to the premier night of the comedy Francaise, 357 00:26:56,520 --> 00:27:00,320 Speaker 1: knowing Magnard would be there. Mark showed up in a 358 00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:03,480 Speaker 1: tailcoat and white tie for a night at the theater, 359 00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:07,119 Speaker 1: and he and his husband waited for their target, the 360 00:27:07,280 --> 00:27:10,200 Speaker 1: editor of the figure out to leave his box at 361 00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:13,800 Speaker 1: the end of the third act. When he finally exited, 362 00:27:14,119 --> 00:27:17,919 Speaker 1: Leon approached with the intent to slap him, but another 363 00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:21,520 Speaker 1: man noticed and held him back. It was Mark, then, 364 00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:24,919 Speaker 1: who got in Menard's face. You are a coward and 365 00:27:25,080 --> 00:27:28,679 Speaker 1: a wretch, he shouted, alerting the other patrons. In the 366 00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:31,640 Speaker 1: name of my revolted conscience, I have come to say 367 00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:34,720 Speaker 1: this to your face. He then produced the newspaper with 368 00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:37,960 Speaker 1: the story in question and used it to slap the 369 00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:42,280 Speaker 1: editor hard right against the nose. As a writer and 370 00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:45,719 Speaker 1: a person, its clear Mark understood a number of things 371 00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:51,760 Speaker 1: very well, including both dramatic and comedic timing. As Mesh 372 00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:55,280 Speaker 1: points out in the book before trans it's possible that 373 00:27:55,320 --> 00:27:58,679 Speaker 1: Menard did not even recognize the person who had just 374 00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:02,240 Speaker 1: whacked him with a copy of his own magazine. I 375 00:28:02,359 --> 00:28:06,760 Speaker 1: mentioned the traditionally masculine tailcoat and white tie but this 376 00:28:06,920 --> 00:28:09,720 Speaker 1: was also the first time Mark had appeared in public 377 00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:14,400 Speaker 1: with cropped hair. Newspaper reporting on the incident the day 378 00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:19,000 Speaker 1: after shared the Montefau, the author of several smuddy stories 379 00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:22,520 Speaker 1: for which she was condemned by the police, was quote 380 00:28:22,800 --> 00:28:26,719 Speaker 1: wearing men's clothing since her return from Brussels, and no 381 00:28:26,760 --> 00:28:30,920 Speaker 1: one knows why another noted that quote. In fact, it 382 00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:33,800 Speaker 1: would be impossible to know that she was a member 383 00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:36,960 Speaker 1: of the fairer sex if you had seen him that night. 384 00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:42,000 Speaker 1: Mark would continue wearing masculine clothing for the rest of 385 00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:46,400 Speaker 1: his life, but perhaps surprisingly, he didn't write much about 386 00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:49,520 Speaker 1: that in his personal accounts. It didn't seem like this 387 00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:53,280 Speaker 1: was a big public transition. It seemed like this was 388 00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:56,120 Speaker 1: just the point that he began dressing the way he 389 00:28:56,160 --> 00:29:00,880 Speaker 1: had always envisioned himself all along. Writing to friend after 390 00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:05,160 Speaker 1: the slap incident, and I will not make an Oscar's joke, 391 00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:09,360 Speaker 1: Mark wrote of his clothing quote, I had already been 392 00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:12,720 Speaker 1: wearing in several circumstances when I had ventured to far 393 00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:17,080 Speaker 1: off neighborhoods to study behaviors men's clothing. He does not 394 00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:21,240 Speaker 1: specify what behaviors he was studying, but we can perhaps 395 00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:25,440 Speaker 1: infer he was gathering material for writing. He also writes 396 00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:29,960 Speaker 1: that he realized he was quote perfectly incognito dressed as 397 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:32,360 Speaker 1: a man in Paris, and so when he was in 398 00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:36,520 Speaker 1: exile in Belgium he often used men's clothing to pass 399 00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:40,320 Speaker 1: as his son's tutor instead of his mother to quote 400 00:29:40,600 --> 00:29:44,480 Speaker 1: watch over my child in full security. He then goes 401 00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:48,080 Speaker 1: on to explain I adopted the suit that I still wear, 402 00:29:48,720 --> 00:29:51,320 Speaker 1: meaning that he simply adjusted to dressing as a man 403 00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:55,040 Speaker 1: full time. The white high formal wear at the theater 404 00:29:55,360 --> 00:29:58,560 Speaker 1: was explained as well. It wasn't in order to slap 405 00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:02,320 Speaker 1: a wretch that I put on a casino and white necktie. Rather, 406 00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:06,640 Speaker 1: he adhered to quote all the clothing etiquette necessitated by 407 00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:09,920 Speaker 1: the places where I went. In other words, he didn't 408 00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:12,239 Speaker 1: choose to dress like a man to go to the 409 00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:15,840 Speaker 1: theater as a statement. He simply dressed as a man 410 00:30:16,160 --> 00:30:18,440 Speaker 1: in the clothes that a man would wear going to 411 00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:22,800 Speaker 1: the theater. As I mentioned at the top of the episode, 412 00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:26,520 Speaker 1: it was in fact illegal for women, and in Mark's case, 413 00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:32,120 Speaker 1: those French society considered women legally to wear pants anytime 414 00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:37,800 Speaker 1: except during carnival. A special hants permit was required and 415 00:30:37,880 --> 00:30:42,480 Speaker 1: could only be obtained with a doctor's approval for medical reasons. 416 00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:46,120 Speaker 1: You can imagine that gender affirming care was not on 417 00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:49,000 Speaker 1: the list at the time, but for the record, what 418 00:30:49,160 --> 00:30:53,880 Speaker 1: did constitute as a valid medical reason has not been documented. 419 00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:58,800 Speaker 1: It's also worth noting that while effectively obsolete, the law 420 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:04,880 Speaker 1: wasn't officially repealed until two thousand and thirteen, yes two 421 00:31:04,920 --> 00:31:10,920 Speaker 1: thousand thirteen. For Marx surviving archives, we see correspondence in 422 00:31:10,960 --> 00:31:15,520 Speaker 1: which he seeks information about obtaining a pants permit, but 423 00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:19,080 Speaker 1: we know he never actually got one. Instead, he likely 424 00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:24,440 Speaker 1: had an oral agreement with those necessary bureaucrats. There are 425 00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:29,160 Speaker 1: four accessible photographic portraits of Mark, and in three of 426 00:31:29,200 --> 00:31:32,800 Speaker 1: the four of them, he is wearing pants. One such photograph, 427 00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:37,600 Speaker 1: dated around eighteen eighty, was later gifted from Mark Junior 428 00:31:37,960 --> 00:31:41,720 Speaker 1: to one of Mark Senior's friends. Inscribed by him as 429 00:31:41,800 --> 00:31:45,720 Speaker 1: the quote last feminine portrait of the man who was 430 00:31:45,760 --> 00:31:51,480 Speaker 1: his mother, this picture captures the androgynous dandy esque look 431 00:31:51,600 --> 00:31:55,800 Speaker 1: I described earlier. Mark's look can be interpreted in this 432 00:31:55,920 --> 00:32:01,360 Speaker 1: photograph as that of a particularly rebellious young frenchwoman or 433 00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:06,000 Speaker 1: a young frenchman in Oscar Wilde Circle As time goes 434 00:32:06,080 --> 00:32:11,040 Speaker 1: on and Mark matures, his style shifts further. His mid 435 00:32:11,120 --> 00:32:16,320 Speaker 1: length hair becomes a close cropped, decidedly masculine style, and 436 00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:19,680 Speaker 1: he trades his loose fitting pants that both men and 437 00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:25,080 Speaker 1: women might have worn for well tailored suits. But let's 438 00:32:25,120 --> 00:32:29,240 Speaker 1: return to that incident at the theater. Now it was 439 00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:32,760 Speaker 1: public knowledge that Mark was not only back in town, 440 00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:37,520 Speaker 1: but guilty of assault. He would have to return to you, 441 00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:42,640 Speaker 1: guessed at Brussels. He had no regrets writing what woman 442 00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:45,760 Speaker 1: who loved her husband, upon seeing him treated this way 443 00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:50,240 Speaker 1: would not have acted as I did. The authorities attempted 444 00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:54,000 Speaker 1: to make a public spectacle of Mark's arrest by sending 445 00:32:54,040 --> 00:32:57,200 Speaker 1: two free theater tickets to the couple's home, but the 446 00:32:57,360 --> 00:33:00,960 Speaker 1: sting operation was a failure when Lay showed up with 447 00:33:01,040 --> 00:33:05,200 Speaker 1: the young Mark for some father's son bonding time. In 448 00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:08,440 Speaker 1: eighteen eighty four, Mark would finally return to Paris for 449 00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:13,200 Speaker 1: good and begin publishing yet again. He would continue publishing, 450 00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:17,560 Speaker 1: chiefly his droll stories, which often found young women in 451 00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:24,880 Speaker 1: humorously compromising situations thanks to their confusion surrounding gender and sexuality. 452 00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:29,360 Speaker 1: One story follows a young provincial woman on her first 453 00:33:29,360 --> 00:33:33,800 Speaker 1: trip to Paris, She goes to buy a lamp un suspension, 454 00:33:34,160 --> 00:33:40,040 Speaker 1: but accidentally asks for un suspensier a jockstrap. Later, she 455 00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:44,400 Speaker 1: sees the word hermaphrodite and asks her aunt what it means. 456 00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:48,040 Speaker 1: Her aunt, panicking, tells her it's a kind of fish, 457 00:33:48,520 --> 00:33:51,880 Speaker 1: which our young protagonist, of course, goes on to try 458 00:33:51,880 --> 00:33:56,080 Speaker 1: to order at a restaurant. Mark would also publish more 459 00:33:56,240 --> 00:34:00,880 Speaker 1: historical work, one in particular focused on France. Huis Timoleon 460 00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:05,800 Speaker 1: Abbe de Choisse, a seventeenth eighteenth century French writer who 461 00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:09,920 Speaker 1: was known for both his historical and religious works, and 462 00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:14,200 Speaker 1: also known for his cross dressing. Thus lived and died 463 00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:18,879 Speaker 1: Francois Timolon de Choise, Mark wrote, the one who had 464 00:34:18,960 --> 00:34:22,800 Speaker 1: been exiled repeatedly as a girl, and who was later 465 00:34:22,960 --> 00:34:27,239 Speaker 1: celebrated as a hero. It's not hard to imagine that 466 00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:31,839 Speaker 1: Mark felt a kindred spirit. Later in his life, Mark 467 00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:35,560 Speaker 1: began to publish under a new name, Paul Arasme, likely 468 00:34:35,600 --> 00:34:38,840 Speaker 1: to avoid the scandal surrounding the name Mark de Montefau. 469 00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:42,000 Speaker 1: My life as a writer is so connected to my 470 00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:45,319 Speaker 1: private life. He once wrote that it would be impossible 471 00:34:45,360 --> 00:34:49,439 Speaker 1: to separate them in two. Paul, like Mark before him, 472 00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:53,359 Speaker 1: was easily accepted by readers as a man, and Mark 473 00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:57,920 Speaker 1: would continue writing under that name four years. Upon Mark's 474 00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:01,680 Speaker 1: death in nineteen twelve, a dolence letter to the young 475 00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:05,759 Speaker 1: Mark his son read quote, believe, dear friend, that the 476 00:35:05,800 --> 00:35:09,720 Speaker 1: great soul of Paul Arassme will manage to survive all 477 00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:14,759 Speaker 1: events and will conserve the precious and imperishable memory of 478 00:35:14,800 --> 00:35:21,640 Speaker 1: the contest Demontefau, contest Demontefau, Paul Erassme, Monsieur de Montefou, 479 00:35:22,040 --> 00:35:26,760 Speaker 1: Marc Marie. All of these are the same fascinating soul. 480 00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:30,480 Speaker 1: In his lifetime, he would refer to himself as a man, 481 00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:33,840 Speaker 1: as a woman, as a wife, which of course makes 482 00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:37,720 Speaker 1: writing about him a little tricky. But perhaps it's best 483 00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:41,759 Speaker 1: to put it in Mark's own words. I am myself 484 00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:58,239 Speaker 1: myself alone. Mark once wrote, ultimately, I am me. That's 485 00:35:58,280 --> 00:36:01,279 Speaker 1: the story of Mark de Montefou. Keep listening after a 486 00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:14,960 Speaker 1: brief sponsor break to hear a little bit about Mark's lovers. 487 00:36:15,960 --> 00:36:18,799 Speaker 1: We know that the marriage between Mark and Leon was 488 00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:22,719 Speaker 1: full of mutual support. After all, Mark did slap a 489 00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:26,520 Speaker 1: man to defend his husband's honor. But Mark was not 490 00:36:26,800 --> 00:36:30,880 Speaker 1: without his extramarital affairs. The affair we know about was 491 00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:35,160 Speaker 1: between him and Villiers del Adam, a fellow writer and 492 00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:39,560 Speaker 1: a friend of both Mark and Leon. Villiers ultimately ended it, 493 00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:43,520 Speaker 1: not wanting to betray either his friend lyon any further, or, 494 00:36:43,560 --> 00:36:48,240 Speaker 1: as he saw it, not wanting to betray his future wife. Listen. 495 00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:51,480 Speaker 1: He wrote to Mark in a letter, I have loved enough. 496 00:36:51,920 --> 00:36:54,880 Speaker 1: I am incapable of caprices, and if I love again, 497 00:36:55,200 --> 00:36:58,799 Speaker 1: I only want to love my wife. It's pretty romantic 498 00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:02,600 Speaker 1: for a breakup letter, even if it's a slightly more 499 00:37:02,640 --> 00:37:06,279 Speaker 1: poetic version of I'm sorry, I can't don't hate me. 500 00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:10,600 Speaker 1: Then there was the affair that Mesh speculates about, but 501 00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:14,960 Speaker 1: we can't prove. A Limp. Adorad was a writer around 502 00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:20,200 Speaker 1: twenty years Montefoe's senior. The two were friends until Montefoe 503 00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:24,640 Speaker 1: became a public enemy and alleged his friend attempted to 504 00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:28,880 Speaker 1: send her doctor to spy on him. If you remember 505 00:37:28,960 --> 00:37:33,840 Speaker 1: the indecently condemned novel Madame de Croisse, Mesh argues the 506 00:37:33,920 --> 00:37:38,040 Speaker 1: character Es is a stand in for a Limp in 507 00:37:38,120 --> 00:37:41,640 Speaker 1: the novel. Teres is a woman who, despite being depicted 508 00:37:41,760 --> 00:37:45,520 Speaker 1: as much older than the novel's protagonist, Raymond is a 509 00:37:45,640 --> 00:37:51,520 Speaker 1: known beauty, even women felt unexpected raptures. Montefau writes as 510 00:37:51,560 --> 00:37:55,920 Speaker 1: the female protagonist upon seeing her friend naked, when faced 511 00:37:55,960 --> 00:38:00,040 Speaker 1: with the physical perfection which offered itself willingly during a 512 00:37:59,800 --> 00:38:04,440 Speaker 1: friendly visit to the touch of men, could the friends 513 00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:09,320 Speaker 1: to enemies potentially have been friends to lovers to enemies? 514 00:38:09,920 --> 00:38:28,600 Speaker 1: We'll never know. Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio 515 00:38:29,040 --> 00:38:32,759 Speaker 1: and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manke. Noble Blood is 516 00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:37,440 Speaker 1: created and hosted by me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing 517 00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:43,240 Speaker 1: and researching by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, 518 00:38:43,360 --> 00:38:47,440 Speaker 1: and Lori Goodman. The show is edited and produced by 519 00:38:47,560 --> 00:38:52,920 Speaker 1: Noemi Griffin and rima Il Kahali, with supervising producer Josh 520 00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:58,440 Speaker 1: Thain and executive producers Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. 521 00:38:58,960 --> 00:39:04,840 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 522 00:39:05,160 --> 00:39:09,680 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.