Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised for those
Speaker 1: who never attended Sunday School, or maybe just slept through
Speaker 1: those lessons, or for those like me who didn't get
Speaker 1: these lessons at all in Hebrews School. I'd like to
Speaker 1: start by briefly recapping the story of Mary Magdalen. According
Speaker 1: to the most common narratives, Magdalen was one of Jesus's followers,
Speaker 1: present not only throughout his travels but by his side
Speaker 1: at both his crucifixion and resurrection. In a number of
Speaker 1: denominations of Christianity, including Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, she is
Speaker 1: considered a saint somewhere along the way, though Magdalen's identity
Speaker 1: in the cultural consciousness shifted. Nowhere in the four Gospels
Speaker 1: of the New Testament is it mentioned that this woman
Speaker 1: was a prostitute or a sinner. But that is the
Speaker 1: image likely conjured in your mind when I first said
Speaker 1: her name. According to the BBC, it was actually in
Speaker 1: the sixth century that Mary Magdalen became confused with two
Speaker 1: other women in the Bible, Mary of Bethany, and another
Speaker 1: unnamed sinner from Luke's Gospel. Both these women washed Jesus's
Speaker 1: feet with their hair, I imagine, hoping that one day
Speaker 1: Lady Gaga would sing about them. In five hundred and
Speaker 1: ninety one, Pope Gregory the First gave an Easter sermon
Speaker 1: conflating all three female figures into one, and thus Mary
Speaker 1: Magdalen as we now know her, was born. In nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty nine, the Catholic Church declared that Mary Magdalen was
Speaker 1: not the sinner nor the prostitute in question. But after
Speaker 1: fourteen centuries, it's hard to walk back a mistake like
Speaker 1: that in the minds of the public. In the nineteenth century,
Speaker 1: only a little less than one hundred years before the
Speaker 1: Catholic Church would set the record straight, one writer would
Speaker 1: quote earn the fate of a prostitute unquote for publishing
Speaker 1: works about Magdalen, among other indecent pieces of literature. Mark
Speaker 1: de Montefoe originally published the history of Mary Magdalen with
Speaker 1: the title The Courtesans of Antiquity, and the book quickly
Speaker 1: came under scrutiny by an increasingly authoritative Catholic Church for
Speaker 1: being an erotic history of a religious figure who was
Speaker 1: lest we failed to acknowledge the irony erroneously eroticized by
Speaker 1: the Catholic Church in the first place. The censorship of
Speaker 1: the author De Montefoe didn't start and stop with that
Speaker 1: title change. Continue uking to publish provocative work over the
Speaker 1: next few years would land the writer on trial and
Speaker 1: eventually sentenced to eight days in San Lazar Prison, a
Speaker 1: forced labor camp for prostitutes and violent female criminals. Des
Speaker 1: Montefaut was indignant at this ruling for a number of reasons,
Speaker 1: one being that he was a member of the nobility.
Speaker 1: He said, quote they dared to carry out such infamy
Speaker 1: on my person. Another, arguably more important reason is that
Speaker 1: de Montefa's colleagues, who were charged with similar transgressions were
Speaker 1: sent to San Pelagier Prison, a comparatively lenient facility for
Speaker 1: artists and writers, primarily Dsmntefou was affronted because he was
Speaker 1: being sentenced not as a writer, but as a woman.
Speaker 1: Born Marie Amali Chatrall, de Montefau mark Mont began writing
Speaker 1: under his professional and often personal chosen name at only
Speaker 1: sixteen years old, but it was more than just a
Speaker 1: nom de plume. He began to wear men's clothing more
Speaker 1: regularly as he got older, and was wearing them full
Speaker 1: time by eighteen eighty. In portraiture, we see Mark's look
Speaker 1: evolved from the kind of loose fitting androgynous style similar
Speaker 1: to masculine dandies of the era, to close cropped hair
Speaker 1: and well fitted suits in fashion with French men at
Speaker 1: the turn of the century. For reference as to when
Speaker 1: the concept of transgender identity as we know it first
Speaker 1: entered the French luxicon, de Montefot's last works were published
Speaker 1: in nineteen hundred, and it was only five years before
Speaker 1: that that something close to quote transgender made it into
Speaker 1: the French language in a translation of psycho Pathia Sexualis
Speaker 1: and its chapter on quote androgyny and guy Injury. It
Speaker 1: was a groundbreaking work at the time as one of
Speaker 1: the first psychological works on homosexuality, but as you can
Speaker 1: probably guess from the name with Psychopathia in the title,
Speaker 1: it proposed that homosexuality was a mental illness. The nature
Speaker 1: of transgender identities are a complex project when discussing historical
Speaker 1: figures whose relationship with gender was well complex. Des Montefot
Speaker 1: lived in France during a period in which gender was
Speaker 1: highly policed. Starting in eighteen hundred, it was in fact
Speaker 1: illegal for French women to wear pants without obtaining a permit.
Speaker 1: More on that later. But Mark's expression of identity went
Speaker 1: beyond dressing in masculine clothes. In professional and many personal settings,
Speaker 1: Mark preferred to be with masculine language and addressed by
Speaker 1: his names Mark de Montefa and later his pen name
Speaker 1: Paul Erasme. Throughout his life, he alternated between signing his
Speaker 1: personal letters with Mark and with Marie, and an eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty letter from his mother uses both moncher and font
Speaker 1: the masculine and ma Cherie infant of feminine within the
Speaker 1: same page to address her quote, dear child. Because in public,
Speaker 1: in regards to his work and often in his personal life,
Speaker 1: Demntefoe preferred to be referred to in the masculine. I'll
Speaker 1: be using him pronouns for the writer as we discuss
Speaker 1: his life and career in the Spotlight. But this, of course,
Speaker 1: isn't just a story about Demontefo's gender identity. It's a
Speaker 1: story about telling stories, about censorship, and about someone who
Speaker 1: wouldn't and couldn't stop telling stories no matter the consequences.
Speaker 1: I'm Danish schwartz and this is noble blood. Marc de
Speaker 1: Montefau was born in Paris in eighteen forty five, and
Speaker 1: the education that would one day serve his writing began early.
Speaker 1: His mother was Catholic and taught him the principles of
Speaker 1: the religion. His father, though, was a physician and a
Speaker 1: freethinker during the Libris Pinset boom of the nineteenth century.
Speaker 1: French freethinkers of that time generally rejected a religious dogma
Speaker 1: and sought to define the world through observation and experience.
Speaker 1: Mark in his work would incorporate both of his parents' lessons,
Speaker 1: but it was certainly his father who influenced his own
Speaker 1: outlook on life as far as more formal education and
Speaker 1: Mark found a talent for art, and he would study
Speaker 1: at a private studio because women weren't permitted places at
Speaker 1: Paris's Le Call de Beaux Art until eighteen ninety seven.
Speaker 1: Writing would still prove to be his greater passion. In
Speaker 1: his youth, he published a few pieces in a travel
Speaker 1: magazine and had written an unpublished novel, But the young
Speaker 1: artist began publishing under the name Marc de Montefau at
Speaker 1: around eighteen or nineteen, his first piece appearing in the
Speaker 1: influential journal Lartiste in eighteen sixty five. One year earlier,
Speaker 1: Mark had married Spanish noble Juan Francis Leon Equivnent, the
Speaker 1: Comte de Luna, making Mark a countess. Leon was over
Speaker 1: a decade older than Mark, and he had been previously married,
Speaker 1: but the two found common ground with a shared passion
Speaker 1: for the arts. De Comte had been living in Paris
Speaker 1: for several years by eighteen sixty four, working as the
Speaker 1: personal secretary to the famed writer Arsin Hussey. Hussey is
Speaker 1: an incredibly minor character in this story, but indulge me
Speaker 1: just a moment to reading the headline of his eighteen
Speaker 1: ninety six New York Times obituary, It's just extraordinary. Arsin
Speaker 1: whosey dead last of the Romanticists and most faithful of
Speaker 1: the idealists, A prince Charming of the Empire. His was
Speaker 1: one of the most attractive personalities of Paris, and his
Speaker 1: work is an artist's May we all hope to be
Speaker 1: remembered half as glowingly. Anyway, this Prince Charming of the
Speaker 1: Empire was more importantly the editor of Lartiste, and under
Speaker 1: his leadership it became the most influential cultural journal in France.
Speaker 1: It's likely that it was Leon who connected Mark and Lartiste,
Speaker 1: and we know the Compte supported and encouraged Mark's writing
Speaker 1: throughout his career. Quite literally, a husband's permission was needed
Speaker 1: at the time for a wife to publish. We don't
Speaker 1: know exactly how Leon and Mark met, or whether or
Speaker 1: not the marriage was arranged, but it's possible that Mark's
Speaker 1: father ran in similar intellectual circles as who say. The
Speaker 1: couple would eventually have one son, also called Mark, born
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy four. Mark was still presenting socially as
Speaker 1: a woman at this time, but in a surprisingly modern arrangement,
Speaker 1: Mark and Leon combined their last names, both going by
Speaker 1: the surname Kuvan des Montefau. This was arranged at the
Speaker 1: request of Mark's father, who was disappointed that he didn't
Speaker 1: have a son to carry on the family name. Leon
Speaker 1: would even eventually take to signing his name Leon de
Speaker 1: Montefaux professionally, which made both Mark and his husband professionally
Speaker 1: known as Monsieur de Montefaut. Contemporaries like Case eventually referred
Speaker 1: to Mark as mister Mark de Montefaut to differentiate him
Speaker 1: from his husband. The young Monsieur de Montefaut got his
Speaker 1: first major story in May of eighteen sixty five when
Speaker 1: he was asked to review the Salon. Not to be
Speaker 1: confused with various salons hosted by intellectuals, the Capital s
Speaker 1: Salon was the art event of the city. Each year,
Speaker 1: thousands of artists submitted their work, hoping to be selected
Speaker 1: by the committee for a spot on the floor to
Speaker 1: sealing displays. The salon could be career making or career breaking,
Speaker 1: hosting many of French art's most famous names at different
Speaker 1: points of its history. Eighteen sixty five saw, for example,
Speaker 1: the controversial nude portrait of a prostitute Olympia by Manet,
Speaker 1: despite tensions between the traditional salon and the progressive Impressionists.
Speaker 1: Perhaps surprisingly based on his future work, Mark dismissed this
Speaker 1: painting as an immature eccentricity. If only the painter had
Speaker 1: a quote healthier mind, he noted, he might have produced
Speaker 1: some real art. Years later, Mark would review the eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy four Salon, lamenting quote, if there's anything we regret,
Speaker 1: it's seeing studies of the nude abandoned for landscapes, So
Speaker 1: perhaps his issue was with Manet more specifically, or perhaps
Speaker 1: he just came around on the idea of nude paintings.
Speaker 1: Mark didn't shy away from referencing sex himself. Within that
Speaker 1: same eighteen sixty five essay, he argued that seeing too
Speaker 1: many paintings in one day was overstimulus, writing that what
Speaker 1: he needed was quote the visual virginity that is the
Speaker 1: true guiding light of the painter and the critic. The
Speaker 1: casual reference to a taboo subject like virginity was decidedly masculine.
Speaker 1: For the time, readers would have had no incentive to
Speaker 1: question whether or not this Mark de Montefau they were
Speaker 1: reading was the stereotypical man they were no doubt picturing.
Speaker 1: Mark would continue to review the Salon for years to come,
Speaker 1: his essays commenting not only on the art itself, but
Speaker 1: his general thoughts on the state of the culture in
Speaker 1: which they were produced. Speaking to the mood at the
Speaker 1: turn of the century, he reflected in his eighteen sixty
Speaker 1: eight essay that the French needed quote a renewal in
Speaker 1: their organs, sight and perception of things, and quote as
Speaker 1: he sensed an encroaching on we Mark was searching for,
Speaker 1: as summarized by these scholar vandlen Gutner, an expression of
Speaker 1: imagination and inspiration rather than just tactile sensation. Mark would
Speaker 1: have to spark that inspiration himself, and he attempted to
Speaker 1: do so a few short years later in eighteen seventy,
Speaker 1: with the publication of The Courtesans of Antiquity, later titled
Speaker 1: The History of Mary Magdalene. In her book Before trans
Speaker 1: Three Gender Stories from nineteenth century France, which contains the
Speaker 1: most detailed English language biography of Mark, historian Rachel Mesh
Speaker 1: writes that the book was the first of quote many
Speaker 1: efforts by Montefot to recover the history of sexuality in
Speaker 1: order to demonstrate two seemingly opposing facts that aros had
Speaker 1: long been part of the French Catholic tradition and that
Speaker 1: sexual mores were more arbitrary products of culture, determined by
Speaker 1: time and place end quote. You can also imagine Mark
Speaker 1: reconciling those two seemingly opposing schools of thought that he
Speaker 1: was raised by himself the fruit of a marriage between
Speaker 1: a traditional Catholic woman and a freethinking man. The History
Speaker 1: of Mary Magdalene was more literally a study of the
Speaker 1: visual and literary representations of Mary Magdalen throughout history, with
Speaker 1: language that was decidedly erotic when it was published, who
Speaker 1: say printed excerpts in Lartiste, paired with an introduction that
Speaker 1: may or may not have been written by Mark himself,
Speaker 1: calling it a bold and curious work. This unattributed writer,
Speaker 1: who again might be the author, goes on to note
Speaker 1: that readers sometimes found de Montefot's art criticism too eloquent,
Speaker 1: but now quote mister Mark de Montefau has stripped off
Speaker 1: that fancy dress. He has understood that truth is all
Speaker 1: the more beautiful when it marches fully nude. It is
Speaker 1: a big old wink to those in the know. Again
Speaker 1: possibly written by Mark, possibly written by someone close to him.
Speaker 1: Based on the surviving photography we have, we know Mark
Speaker 1: was still presenting feminine at this point in his life,
Speaker 1: but he had, in a more metaphorical sense, stripped off
Speaker 1: that fancy dress a long time ago, publicly presenting as
Speaker 1: male through his writing, using Mark exclusively as his nom
Speaker 1: de plume. However, as Mesh theorizes, it's also possible that
Speaker 1: he was wearing men's clothes to attend the salons he
Speaker 1: reviewed and passing publicly. His entry ticket to the salon
Speaker 1: was for a Monsieur de Montefau, and it would likely
Speaker 1: have raised many quests if he had showed up in
Speaker 1: a dress back to Mary Magdalen, though Lartiste was perhaps
Speaker 1: leaning into the age old tactic of outrage marketing, also
Speaker 1: describing the book as a quote, danger and audacious act,
Speaker 1: practically sacrilege. As you know from the top of this episode,
Speaker 1: outrage there was. The work was highly successful for a while,
Speaker 1: reprinted four times before the Franco Prussian War, but in
Speaker 1: the war's aftermath, the Catholic Church was reasserting their power
Speaker 1: in the country, and writers and journalists increasingly ended up
Speaker 1: on trial. The controversy with Magdalen put Mark on the
Speaker 1: Church's radar, but he wouldn't be officially charged with offense
Speaker 1: to public decency until eighteen seventy six, when he published
Speaker 1: a re edition of a late seventeenth century texx that
Speaker 1: was already controversial in its own time. Yes, Mark was
Speaker 1: sentenced to jail for a work that wasn't even his.
Speaker 1: I thought, if we were going to eliminate him from memory,
Speaker 1: Mark said of that writer he republished during his trial
Speaker 1: we could put him in a library instead. Mark also
Speaker 1: spent his time on the stand mocking his accusers the
Speaker 1: quote narrow minded men whose hair, for good reason could
Speaker 1: hardly stand on end. In horror, when he heard the
Speaker 1: guilty verdict, he ran to the prefect's office and asked
Speaker 1: how a publishing infraction could land him a comtesse no
Speaker 1: less in the notorious San Lazaree. It wasn't at all
Speaker 1: to inflict personal injury upon you, the police prefect told him.
Speaker 1: But because the administration would not put a woman insane
Speaker 1: peleget Mark was furious. He wrote that he would being
Speaker 1: treated quote like a woman who had blatantly acted against
Speaker 1: all social structures instead of the quote archaeologist, bibliographer and critic.
Speaker 1: He considered himself to be above all else. Quote I
Speaker 1: admit that despite my enormous efforts, he reflected, my mind
Speaker 1: can simply not accept the logic of this sentence, and
Speaker 1: I doubt that the reader can either summed upmost efficiently,
Speaker 1: he would write, quote. What I found unnatural and perhaps
Speaker 1: unfair is the fact that a fence to decency can
Speaker 1: be purged for all writers in San Pelagee, and for
Speaker 1: me alone in jail. As a freethinker, Mark was taught
Speaker 1: to question, to reject convention. What the administration accepted as
Speaker 1: fair was ludicrous to him. He once later described himself
Speaker 1: as inhabiting the skin of an artist. Overcome with me
Speaker 1: male literary spasms. It gives us a lot of insight
Speaker 1: into his sense of self. The artist has no gender associations,
Speaker 1: but the compulsions he had to wright are masculine. Based
Speaker 1: on the other quotes, Mark clearly believes the identity of artists,
Speaker 1: archaeologist and bibliographer and critic are more important than any
Speaker 1: notions of gender, but he still felt compelled to write
Speaker 1: publicly as a man. Mark was then asked if he
Speaker 1: would like to request a pardon, which he rejected as
Speaker 1: that would mean admitting wrongdoing, and instead he decided to
Speaker 1: flee to Brussels. From there he negotiated with the authorities
Speaker 1: to serve his sentence instead in Maison du Bois, a
Speaker 1: mental institution. The stint did little to change his ways.
Speaker 1: The very next year he published The Vestal Virgins of
Speaker 1: the Church, another erotic history, and so back to Maisson
Speaker 1: de Bois he went. Mark eventually stopped writing these histories
Speaker 1: when he found himself unable to obtain reference materials from
Speaker 1: the library, the librarians having been convinced not to help him.
Speaker 1: That was fine, he would just turn to writing fiction.
Speaker 1: You won't be surprised at this point to hear that
Speaker 1: eleven passages of his first novel, Madame de croiss were
Speaker 1: condemned as indecent. Once again, back to Messan du Bois,
Speaker 1: The story goes that this time a worker warned him
Speaker 1: that the doctors had put arsenic into his acne medication.
Speaker 1: He pulled the classic move of pretending to swallow while
Speaker 1: secretly dumping the medicine into the garden, successfully avoiding a
Speaker 1: threat on his life. Outside of his very vocal and
Speaker 1: apparently murderous detractors, Mark was also growing a sizeable fan base.
Speaker 1: The controversy surrounding his novel was, as it often still is,
Speaker 1: a great marketing tool, and the novel was highly in demand.
Speaker 1: There was, also, however, a new faction of critics who
Speaker 1: felt betrayed that Mark de Montefaut was not who they
Speaker 1: thought he was. Reporting from one of his trials revealed
Speaker 1: that the quote booklover was in fact a young blonde woman,
Speaker 1: tall and frail, with listless blue eyes and a charmingly
Speaker 1: bold attitude, while another noted she always had that same
Speaker 1: look of a woman dressed as a man. It's unclear
Speaker 1: at what point readers at large learned the quote unquote
Speaker 1: truth of his perceived past as a quote woman, wife
Speaker 1: and mother. But the public began to look into his
Speaker 1: life so scrutinously that it became a matter of his safety.
Speaker 1: Isn't it high time that public modesty return? When critic
Speaker 1: raved that it cuts short the grotesque ravings of these women.
Speaker 1: Could they be wives and mothers? These mad women, these crazies,
Speaker 1: these hysterics. He then went on to suggest that Mark
Speaker 1: and quote women like him should be locked in mental institutions,
Speaker 1: subjected to special showers. There was, on another hand, also
Speaker 1: a new erotic interest in Mark, a fetishization, with one
Speaker 1: journalist noting his angelic eyes and the sharp groans issued
Speaker 1: from his mouth in court. He would write two more novels,
Speaker 1: The Perverts and Sabine, both of which managed to escape scrutiny,
Speaker 1: but Mark was ironically still forced to flee to Belgium again,
Speaker 1: this time to avoid legal fees. Eeteen eighty he returned
Speaker 1: to Paris published a collection of droll stories, described by
Speaker 1: Mesh as erotic Rabelasian tales in which young damsels stumble
Speaker 1: accidentally onto the pleasures of the flesh, and was forced
Speaker 1: to flee back to Belgium, this time with his husband
Speaker 1: and son. Mark described this period as quote one of
Speaker 1: the most painful of my life. Rumors began to spread
Speaker 1: that he and Leon were in fact not married and
Speaker 1: rather living in sin with children born out of wedlock.
Speaker 1: Friends withdrew from his life. A soiree he hosted was
Speaker 1: apparently infiltrated by a marquise attempting to seduce him in
Speaker 1: order to prove that Montefau was secretly harboring passions for women.
Speaker 1: As to the legitimacy of that claim, Mark often invoked
Speaker 1: the words of Sappho in his work, and while there
Speaker 1: is no no evidence of affairs with women, he certainly
Speaker 1: had fixations with a number of female friends and even rivals,
Speaker 1: but more on that in the epilogue. Shortly after the
Speaker 1: family returned to Paris in eighteen eighty two, Mark was
Speaker 1: publicly humiliated with the publication of a short story called
Speaker 1: Madame de Sade in the French paper Le Figaro. The
Speaker 1: tale is about a young woman who is sentenced to
Speaker 1: prison for pornographic publications, with the twist being that she
Speaker 1: was actually put up to writing them by her husband,
Speaker 1: who knew that her jail time would be great for sales.
Speaker 1: The woman in the story doesn't mind prison, however, rather
Speaker 1: seeing it as an escape from her abusive husband, who
Speaker 1: had taken advantage of her troubled mind. There was a
Speaker 1: clear line between the oft legally troubled Monsieur de Montefaut
Speaker 1: and the stories protagonist, and he was lit. He denounced
Speaker 1: the author as a small earthworm and a miserable runt
Speaker 1: who had ejaculated his garbage upon the paper. Mark and
Speaker 1: Leon went to their friend, the editor of rival paper
Speaker 1: Le Voltaire, to ask for help. I have a child,
Speaker 1: Mark told him, my dear little Mark, whom you know,
Speaker 1: and I owe him an honorable name. Yet they pass
Speaker 1: off my husband, the most loyal of men, as the
Speaker 1: most wretched of them all. Their friend agreed to ask
Speaker 1: Francis Minard, the editor of Figaro, for a retraction, but
Speaker 1: this was refused. Any similarities to persons living or dead,
Speaker 1: or actual events was purely coincidental, so Mark took matters
Speaker 1: into his own hands. Literally. The next day, the couple
Speaker 1: purchased tickets to the premier night of the comedy Francaise,
Speaker 1: knowing Magnard would be there. Mark showed up in a
Speaker 1: tailcoat and white tie for a night at the theater,
Speaker 1: and he and his husband waited for their target, the
Speaker 1: editor of the figure out to leave his box at
Speaker 1: the end of the third act. When he finally exited,
Speaker 1: Leon approached with the intent to slap him, but another
Speaker 1: man noticed and held him back. It was Mark, then,
Speaker 1: who got in Menard's face. You are a coward and
Speaker 1: a wretch, he shouted, alerting the other patrons. In the
Speaker 1: name of my revolted conscience, I have come to say
Speaker 1: this to your face. He then produced the newspaper with
Speaker 1: the story in question and used it to slap the
Speaker 1: editor hard right against the nose. As a writer and
Speaker 1: a person, its clear Mark understood a number of things
Speaker 1: very well, including both dramatic and comedic timing. As Mesh
Speaker 1: points out in the book before trans it's possible that
Speaker 1: Menard did not even recognize the person who had just
Speaker 1: whacked him with a copy of his own magazine. I
Speaker 1: mentioned the traditionally masculine tailcoat and white tie but this
Speaker 1: was also the first time Mark had appeared in public
Speaker 1: with cropped hair. Newspaper reporting on the incident the day
Speaker 1: after shared the Montefau, the author of several smuddy stories
Speaker 1: for which she was condemned by the police, was quote
Speaker 1: wearing men's clothing since her return from Brussels, and no
Speaker 1: one knows why another noted that quote. In fact, it
Speaker 1: would be impossible to know that she was a member
Speaker 1: of the fairer sex if you had seen him that night.
Speaker 1: Mark would continue wearing masculine clothing for the rest of
Speaker 1: his life, but perhaps surprisingly, he didn't write much about
Speaker 1: that in his personal accounts. It didn't seem like this
Speaker 1: was a big public transition. It seemed like this was
Speaker 1: just the point that he began dressing the way he
Speaker 1: had always envisioned himself all along. Writing to friend after
Speaker 1: the slap incident, and I will not make an Oscar's joke,
Speaker 1: Mark wrote of his clothing quote, I had already been
Speaker 1: wearing in several circumstances when I had ventured to far
Speaker 1: off neighborhoods to study behaviors men's clothing. He does not
Speaker 1: specify what behaviors he was studying, but we can perhaps
Speaker 1: infer he was gathering material for writing. He also writes
Speaker 1: that he realized he was quote perfectly incognito dressed as
Speaker 1: a man in Paris, and so when he was in
Speaker 1: exile in Belgium he often used men's clothing to pass
Speaker 1: as his son's tutor instead of his mother to quote
Speaker 1: watch over my child in full security. He then goes
Speaker 1: on to explain I adopted the suit that I still wear,
Speaker 1: meaning that he simply adjusted to dressing as a man
Speaker 1: full time. The white high formal wear at the theater
Speaker 1: was explained as well. It wasn't in order to slap
Speaker 1: a wretch that I put on a casino and white necktie. Rather,
Speaker 1: he adhered to quote all the clothing etiquette necessitated by
Speaker 1: the places where I went. In other words, he didn't
Speaker 1: choose to dress like a man to go to the
Speaker 1: theater as a statement. He simply dressed as a man
Speaker 1: in the clothes that a man would wear going to
Speaker 1: the theater. As I mentioned at the top of the episode,
Speaker 1: it was in fact illegal for women, and in Mark's case,
Speaker 1: those French society considered women legally to wear pants anytime
Speaker 1: except during carnival. A special hants permit was required and
Speaker 1: could only be obtained with a doctor's approval for medical reasons.
Speaker 1: You can imagine that gender affirming care was not on
Speaker 1: the list at the time, but for the record, what
Speaker 1: did constitute as a valid medical reason has not been documented.
Speaker 1: It's also worth noting that while effectively obsolete, the law
Speaker 1: wasn't officially repealed until two thousand and thirteen, yes two
Speaker 1: thousand thirteen. For Marx surviving archives, we see correspondence in
Speaker 1: which he seeks information about obtaining a pants permit, but
Speaker 1: we know he never actually got one. Instead, he likely
Speaker 1: had an oral agreement with those necessary bureaucrats. There are
Speaker 1: four accessible photographic portraits of Mark, and in three of
Speaker 1: the four of them, he is wearing pants. One such photograph,
Speaker 1: dated around eighteen eighty, was later gifted from Mark Junior
Speaker 1: to one of Mark Senior's friends. Inscribed by him as
Speaker 1: the quote last feminine portrait of the man who was
Speaker 1: his mother, this picture captures the androgynous dandy esque look
Speaker 1: I described earlier. Mark's look can be interpreted in this
Speaker 1: photograph as that of a particularly rebellious young frenchwoman or
Speaker 1: a young frenchman in Oscar Wilde Circle As time goes
Speaker 1: on and Mark matures, his style shifts further. His mid
Speaker 1: length hair becomes a close cropped, decidedly masculine style, and
Speaker 1: he trades his loose fitting pants that both men and
Speaker 1: women might have worn for well tailored suits. But let's
Speaker 1: return to that incident at the theater. Now it was
Speaker 1: public knowledge that Mark was not only back in town,
Speaker 1: but guilty of assault. He would have to return to you,
Speaker 1: guessed at Brussels. He had no regrets writing what woman
Speaker 1: who loved her husband, upon seeing him treated this way
Speaker 1: would not have acted as I did. The authorities attempted
Speaker 1: to make a public spectacle of Mark's arrest by sending
Speaker 1: two free theater tickets to the couple's home, but the
Speaker 1: sting operation was a failure when Lay showed up with
Speaker 1: the young Mark for some father's son bonding time. In
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty four, Mark would finally return to Paris for
Speaker 1: good and begin publishing yet again. He would continue publishing,
Speaker 1: chiefly his droll stories, which often found young women in
Speaker 1: humorously compromising situations thanks to their confusion surrounding gender and sexuality.
Speaker 1: One story follows a young provincial woman on her first
Speaker 1: trip to Paris, She goes to buy a lamp un suspension,
Speaker 1: but accidentally asks for un suspensier a jockstrap. Later, she
Speaker 1: sees the word hermaphrodite and asks her aunt what it means.
Speaker 1: Her aunt, panicking, tells her it's a kind of fish,
Speaker 1: which our young protagonist, of course, goes on to try
Speaker 1: to order at a restaurant. Mark would also publish more
Speaker 1: historical work, one in particular focused on France. Huis Timoleon
Speaker 1: Abbe de Choisse, a seventeenth eighteenth century French writer who
Speaker 1: was known for both his historical and religious works, and
Speaker 1: also known for his cross dressing. Thus lived and died
Speaker 1: Francois Timolon de Choise, Mark wrote, the one who had
Speaker 1: been exiled repeatedly as a girl, and who was later
Speaker 1: celebrated as a hero. It's not hard to imagine that
Speaker 1: Mark felt a kindred spirit. Later in his life, Mark
Speaker 1: began to publish under a new name, Paul Arasme, likely
Speaker 1: to avoid the scandal surrounding the name Mark de Montefau.
Speaker 1: My life as a writer is so connected to my
Speaker 1: private life. He once wrote that it would be impossible
Speaker 1: to separate them in two. Paul, like Mark before him,
Speaker 1: was easily accepted by readers as a man, and Mark
Speaker 1: would continue writing under that name four years. Upon Mark's
Speaker 1: death in nineteen twelve, a dolence letter to the young
Speaker 1: Mark his son read quote, believe, dear friend, that the
Speaker 1: great soul of Paul Arassme will manage to survive all
Speaker 1: events and will conserve the precious and imperishable memory of
Speaker 1: the contest Demontefau, contest Demontefau, Paul Erassme, Monsieur de Montefou,
Speaker 1: Marc Marie. All of these are the same fascinating soul.
Speaker 1: In his lifetime, he would refer to himself as a man,
Speaker 1: as a woman, as a wife, which of course makes
Speaker 1: writing about him a little tricky. But perhaps it's best
Speaker 1: to put it in Mark's own words. I am myself
Speaker 1: myself alone. Mark once wrote, ultimately, I am me. That's
Speaker 1: the story of Mark de Montefou. Keep listening after a
Speaker 1: brief sponsor break to hear a little bit about Mark's lovers.
Speaker 1: We know that the marriage between Mark and Leon was
Speaker 1: full of mutual support. After all, Mark did slap a
Speaker 1: man to defend his husband's honor. But Mark was not
Speaker 1: without his extramarital affairs. The affair we know about was
Speaker 1: between him and Villiers del Adam, a fellow writer and
Speaker 1: a friend of both Mark and Leon. Villiers ultimately ended it,
Speaker 1: not wanting to betray either his friend lyon any further, or,
Speaker 1: as he saw it, not wanting to betray his future wife. Listen.
Speaker 1: He wrote to Mark in a letter, I have loved enough.
Speaker 1: I am incapable of caprices, and if I love again,
Speaker 1: I only want to love my wife. It's pretty romantic
Speaker 1: for a breakup letter, even if it's a slightly more
Speaker 1: poetic version of I'm sorry, I can't don't hate me.
Speaker 1: Then there was the affair that Mesh speculates about, but
Speaker 1: we can't prove. A Limp. Adorad was a writer around
Speaker 1: twenty years Montefoe's senior. The two were friends until Montefoe
Speaker 1: became a public enemy and alleged his friend attempted to
Speaker 1: send her doctor to spy on him. If you remember
Speaker 1: the indecently condemned novel Madame de Croisse, Mesh argues the
Speaker 1: character Es is a stand in for a Limp in
Speaker 1: the novel. Teres is a woman who, despite being depicted
Speaker 1: as much older than the novel's protagonist, Raymond is a
Speaker 1: known beauty, even women felt unexpected raptures. Montefau writes as
Speaker 1: the female protagonist upon seeing her friend naked, when faced
Speaker 1: with the physical perfection which offered itself willingly during a
Speaker 1: friendly visit to the touch of men, could the friends
Speaker 1: to enemies potentially have been friends to lovers to enemies?
Speaker 1: We'll never know. Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manke. Noble Blood is
Speaker 1: created and hosted by me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing
Speaker 1: and researching by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender,
Speaker 1: and Lori Goodman. The show is edited and produced by
Speaker 1: Noemi Griffin and rima Il Kahali, with supervising producer Josh
Speaker 1: Thain and executive producers Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.