1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:14,800 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. 3 00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:18,239 Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. Today we're going to talk 4 00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:21,400 Speaker 1: about a collection of autobiographies that were written more than 5 00:00:21,440 --> 00:00:24,920 Speaker 1: a hundred years ago. The two that were published had 6 00:00:24,960 --> 00:00:28,680 Speaker 1: three names on the title pages. Those were Earl Lynde, 7 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:32,879 Speaker 1: Ralph Werther, and Jenny June, and there were slightly different 8 00:00:33,080 --> 00:00:37,720 Speaker 1: ordering and punctuation between the two books. To quote from 9 00:00:37,760 --> 00:00:42,000 Speaker 1: the first book, which was titled Autobiography of an Andrew Gine, quote, 10 00:00:42,440 --> 00:00:44,960 Speaker 1: I have been doomed to be a girl who must 11 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:49,919 Speaker 1: pass her earthly existence in a male body. So sometimes 12 00:00:49,960 --> 00:00:53,199 Speaker 1: these books are described as the first autobiographies of a 13 00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:57,400 Speaker 1: transgender person ever published in the West. They were printed 14 00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:00,520 Speaker 1: in nineteen eighteen and nineteen twenty two. That was more 15 00:01:00,520 --> 00:01:03,720 Speaker 1: than ten years before the publication of Man into Woman, 16 00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:07,080 Speaker 1: An Authentic Record of a Change of sex. That book 17 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:11,120 Speaker 1: had been created from Lily Elbe's diaries and letters after 18 00:01:11,120 --> 00:01:15,960 Speaker 1: her death. This was also decades before the term transgender 19 00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:19,119 Speaker 1: was coined and the way people understood and talked about 20 00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:22,920 Speaker 1: their own lives and the way doctors and psychologists described them. 21 00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:26,800 Speaker 1: That was all very, very different from today. So we're 22 00:01:26,840 --> 00:01:30,240 Speaker 1: going to do some level setting about the language that 23 00:01:30,319 --> 00:01:33,399 Speaker 1: this person used and how that language compares to what 24 00:01:33,600 --> 00:01:35,960 Speaker 1: is in use today. Before we talk about the books 25 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:39,280 Speaker 1: themselves and their significance and the life of the person 26 00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:42,600 Speaker 1: who wrote them, we also need to note that this 27 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:45,640 Speaker 1: person was living at a time when the amount of 28 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:50,680 Speaker 1: stigma and shame surrounding any kind of divergence from established 29 00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:54,360 Speaker 1: social engender norms was much greater than it is today. 30 00:01:54,400 --> 00:01:56,480 Speaker 1: I'm not saying we're in a great place right now, 31 00:01:56,680 --> 00:01:59,720 Speaker 1: but it was worse. There will be some discussions of 32 00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:03,440 Speaker 1: her asthment, sexual assault, self harm, and suicide. And also 33 00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:06,520 Speaker 1: we're not going to get into graphic detail about the 34 00:02:06,560 --> 00:02:08,840 Speaker 1: author's sex life, but that was a big part of 35 00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:11,120 Speaker 1: these books, so we will be discussing that a little 36 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:14,839 Speaker 1: bit as well. So we are not actually sure who 37 00:02:14,919 --> 00:02:18,400 Speaker 1: this person was, although there is research into that and 38 00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:22,560 Speaker 1: we will talk about it. Earland, Ralph Werther, and Jenny 39 00:02:22,639 --> 00:02:26,080 Speaker 1: June are all pseudonyms. None of them are the writer's 40 00:02:26,160 --> 00:02:29,080 Speaker 1: birth name, and this was of course to protect the 41 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:31,600 Speaker 1: author because so much of what was in these books 42 00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:35,920 Speaker 1: was illegal in the addition to being deeply stigmatized or both, 43 00:02:36,200 --> 00:02:40,919 Speaker 1: particularly in terms of the author's gender presentation and sexual experiences. 44 00:02:41,680 --> 00:02:45,760 Speaker 1: This meant that the autobiographies themselves were also illegal in 45 00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:49,440 Speaker 1: the United States under the Federal Comstock Law and other 46 00:02:49,520 --> 00:02:53,840 Speaker 1: anti obscenity laws. It took about eighteen years for the 47 00:02:53,880 --> 00:02:56,680 Speaker 1: author to find a publisher that was willing to take 48 00:02:56,720 --> 00:03:00,280 Speaker 1: on the risk involved with publishing Autobiography of an Andrew 49 00:03:00,360 --> 00:03:04,520 Speaker 1: John That was ultimately the Medico Legal Journal based in 50 00:03:04,639 --> 00:03:08,360 Speaker 1: New York. Alfred W. Herzog, who was both a doctor 51 00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:11,520 Speaker 1: and a lawyer, served as editor for the first two books, 52 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:15,519 Speaker 1: and they were sold by mail order only to people 53 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:21,560 Speaker 1: like doctors, lawyers, legislators, psychologists, and sociologists. In other words, 54 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:25,040 Speaker 1: people who could be interpreted is having some kind of 55 00:03:25,240 --> 00:03:29,880 Speaker 1: professional reason for needing to read them. This author wrote 56 00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:33,440 Speaker 1: a lot about gender and sexuality. As Tracy noted earlier, 57 00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:36,800 Speaker 1: these subjects were understood very differently in the US at 58 00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:39,640 Speaker 1: the time, and we're talked about with a totally different 59 00:03:39,720 --> 00:03:44,640 Speaker 1: vocabulary than would generally be used today. These autobiographies are 60 00:03:44,680 --> 00:03:50,040 Speaker 1: definitely part of LGBTQ history and specifically transgender history, but 61 00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:53,560 Speaker 1: as Tracy noted, earlier, the term transgender didn't exist then. 62 00:03:53,720 --> 00:03:57,520 Speaker 1: It didn't exist until about fifty years after these were published. 63 00:03:58,200 --> 00:04:00,720 Speaker 1: A lot of the words that were used in these 64 00:04:00,760 --> 00:04:04,160 Speaker 1: autobiographies and in other writing at the time really are 65 00:04:04,240 --> 00:04:08,120 Speaker 1: not used today. Like people who cross dressed or who 66 00:04:08,200 --> 00:04:12,920 Speaker 1: had same sex relationships were all described as sexual inverts. 67 00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:17,480 Speaker 1: Other words like bisexual were used with different meanings, so 68 00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:21,400 Speaker 1: in these books, bisexual generally describes a person who has 69 00:04:21,560 --> 00:04:26,039 Speaker 1: elements of two sexes, rather than describing a person who 70 00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:29,880 Speaker 1: is attracted to people of more than one gender. The 71 00:04:29,960 --> 00:04:34,240 Speaker 1: author uses andragine essentially to mean a feminine man and 72 00:04:34,480 --> 00:04:40,720 Speaker 1: fairy spelled fairiie to mean quote, a youthful andragine or 73 00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:44,440 Speaker 1: other passive invert, for they are perhaps not all members 74 00:04:44,520 --> 00:04:49,080 Speaker 1: of the extreme class of andragines, whom natural, predestination or 75 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:53,440 Speaker 1: other circumstances led to adopt the profession of the fie dejois, 76 00:04:54,160 --> 00:04:57,719 Speaker 1: in other words, to be a sex worker, a counterpart 77 00:04:57,760 --> 00:05:04,760 Speaker 1: to andragine is, or a masculine woman. Beyond that, today 78 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:08,200 Speaker 1: we think of sex and gender as two different things, 79 00:05:08,240 --> 00:05:11,919 Speaker 1: but at the time there often wasn't really a separation 80 00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:16,799 Speaker 1: between them. The idea of inversion didn't distinguish between people 81 00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:20,560 Speaker 1: that we might describe as gay, men, lesbians, or bisexuals 82 00:05:20,600 --> 00:05:24,560 Speaker 1: today and people we might describe as transgender. This was 83 00:05:24,640 --> 00:05:28,800 Speaker 1: all one thing, along with pretty much any other divergence 84 00:05:28,880 --> 00:05:32,919 Speaker 1: from what was considered the norm. During this period. Many, 85 00:05:33,080 --> 00:05:37,320 Speaker 1: but not all, psychologists and sexologists also took an approach 86 00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:40,320 Speaker 1: that was very binary in terms of male and female, 87 00:05:40,800 --> 00:05:44,200 Speaker 1: with anything that didn't fit within that binary considered to 88 00:05:44,240 --> 00:05:48,560 Speaker 1: be part of a third sex. Many psychologists also described 89 00:05:48,600 --> 00:05:52,159 Speaker 1: a man who was attracted to men as being inwardly female, 90 00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:56,120 Speaker 1: or a woman attracted to women as inwardly male. It 91 00:05:56,200 --> 00:05:58,560 Speaker 1: was sort of conflating what we think of as gender 92 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:02,480 Speaker 1: and sexual orientation today. In the introduction to the first 93 00:06:02,520 --> 00:06:06,120 Speaker 1: of these autobiographies, Herzog wrote, quote, it must be understood 94 00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:10,400 Speaker 1: that the congenital homosexualist is really a human being born 95 00:06:10,480 --> 00:06:14,239 Speaker 1: with the body of a male, with perhaps some female characteristics, 96 00:06:14,440 --> 00:06:18,320 Speaker 1: but with the soul of a female. The congenital homosexualist 97 00:06:18,440 --> 00:06:21,880 Speaker 1: always feels himself as a female, and therefore is always 98 00:06:21,880 --> 00:06:25,159 Speaker 1: attracted towards men, and would rather be in their society 99 00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:28,839 Speaker 1: than the society of females who are sexually repulsive to him. 100 00:06:29,600 --> 00:06:33,479 Speaker 1: Because of these and other huge differences in language and 101 00:06:33,560 --> 00:06:37,839 Speaker 1: how people have understood gender and sexuality. Historians who have 102 00:06:37,880 --> 00:06:41,240 Speaker 1: studied these autobiographies over the decades since they were written 103 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:44,960 Speaker 1: have interpreted them in a range of ways. Some have 104 00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:48,960 Speaker 1: described Jenny June as a gay man, others as non 105 00:06:49,040 --> 00:06:53,799 Speaker 1: binary or as a transgender woman. The autobiographies describe Jenny 106 00:06:53,880 --> 00:06:57,240 Speaker 1: June as having a small stature of feminine frame and 107 00:06:57,440 --> 00:07:01,359 Speaker 1: breasts as an adult, so others conclude that the writer 108 00:07:01,600 --> 00:07:06,560 Speaker 1: was intersects, and some have avoided making any specific interpretation. 109 00:07:06,680 --> 00:07:10,280 Speaker 1: Because of all these differences in language and cultural context, 110 00:07:10,880 --> 00:07:13,760 Speaker 1: historians who have written about these books and their author 111 00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:16,720 Speaker 1: in recent years have also taken a number of approaches 112 00:07:16,760 --> 00:07:20,320 Speaker 1: in terms of the author's name and pronouns. For example, 113 00:07:20,360 --> 00:07:24,920 Speaker 1: Susan Stryker's Transgender History briefly mentions these books and names 114 00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:28,160 Speaker 1: their author as Earl Lynde, who also used the names 115 00:07:28,240 --> 00:07:32,800 Speaker 1: Ralph Werther and Jenny June, but doesn't otherwise use identifying 116 00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:37,760 Speaker 1: names or pronouns. In Histories of the Transgender Child, Jules 117 00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:42,080 Speaker 1: gil Peterson describes Jenny June using she her pronouns, but 118 00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:45,360 Speaker 1: when describing research into who this person might have been, 119 00:07:45,760 --> 00:07:49,360 Speaker 1: Gerard Channing Joseph uses the name Jenny June and he 120 00:07:49,600 --> 00:07:53,120 Speaker 1: him pronouns because those are the pronouns that the author 121 00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:57,360 Speaker 1: generally used, and in Joseph's words, quote, I honor his 122 00:07:57,600 --> 00:08:02,920 Speaker 1: usage here. Language round, gender, and sexuality have evolved so 123 00:08:03,040 --> 00:08:05,960 Speaker 1: much in the last hundred years and will continue to 124 00:08:06,240 --> 00:08:09,680 Speaker 1: evolve that I don't think there's a perfect approach here 125 00:08:09,760 --> 00:08:13,080 Speaker 1: that everyone will agree on, and I am in no 126 00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:15,680 Speaker 1: way passing judgment on the choices of any of the 127 00:08:15,720 --> 00:08:19,640 Speaker 1: historians that we just mentioned on the show. We've generally 128 00:08:19,640 --> 00:08:22,160 Speaker 1: tried to take our cues from the people that we're 129 00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:24,840 Speaker 1: talking about as much as we can, and part of 130 00:08:24,880 --> 00:08:28,840 Speaker 1: me really strongly resist the idea of reassigning someone's pronouns 131 00:08:28,880 --> 00:08:31,840 Speaker 1: to something other than what they used for themselves. We 132 00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:34,520 Speaker 1: can imagine what a person might do or how they 133 00:08:34,600 --> 00:08:38,000 Speaker 1: might identify if they were living today, but it's important 134 00:08:38,040 --> 00:08:41,960 Speaker 1: to recognize the context that they were actually living in. 135 00:08:42,679 --> 00:08:46,000 Speaker 1: As Joseph notes, the author of these books did usually 136 00:08:46,040 --> 00:08:49,480 Speaker 1: describe their own life using he him pronouns and place 137 00:08:49,559 --> 00:08:52,840 Speaker 1: the names Ralph Werther and Earl Lynde first in these 138 00:08:52,880 --> 00:08:57,280 Speaker 1: autobiographies and in other writing at the same time. Though 139 00:08:57,640 --> 00:09:01,400 Speaker 1: in these autobiographies, the author write. It's over and over 140 00:09:01,640 --> 00:09:04,760 Speaker 1: about feeling like a woman and wanting to be a woman, 141 00:09:05,120 --> 00:09:08,640 Speaker 1: and praying to be made into a woman, and saying 142 00:09:08,679 --> 00:09:12,040 Speaker 1: things like quote, please don't call me boy, call me girl. 143 00:09:12,840 --> 00:09:16,320 Speaker 1: We'll be reading some passages about how terrible it felt 144 00:09:16,320 --> 00:09:19,560 Speaker 1: to the author to be made to wear boy's clothes 145 00:09:19,559 --> 00:09:23,440 Speaker 1: and to use the boy's bathroom at school. So, especially 146 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:26,920 Speaker 1: while we're living in this moment when so many states 147 00:09:26,920 --> 00:09:29,360 Speaker 1: in the United States are trying to pass or have 148 00:09:29,760 --> 00:09:34,800 Speaker 1: past anti trans laws, including laws that are banning evidence based, 149 00:09:35,080 --> 00:09:40,200 Speaker 1: necessary and life saving medical care for children. Using key 150 00:09:40,280 --> 00:09:43,839 Speaker 1: him pronouns for this person seemed really wrong. I'm sure 151 00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:45,760 Speaker 1: the United States is not the only place where this 152 00:09:45,840 --> 00:09:47,760 Speaker 1: is happening, but the US is where we live. It's 153 00:09:47,800 --> 00:09:50,679 Speaker 1: what I can speak to. So with all that in mind, 154 00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:54,160 Speaker 1: when we quote from historical texts in this episode, we're 155 00:09:54,240 --> 00:09:57,240 Speaker 1: quoting them as they are written, but when we're using 156 00:09:57,240 --> 00:09:59,960 Speaker 1: our own words, we'll use she her pronouns to tie 157 00:10:00,080 --> 00:10:03,880 Speaker 1: about Jenny June. So with all of that level setting, 158 00:10:04,760 --> 00:10:06,720 Speaker 1: we will take a little break, and then when we 159 00:10:06,800 --> 00:10:19,280 Speaker 1: come back, we will talk more about the books Jenny 160 00:10:19,360 --> 00:10:24,360 Speaker 1: June wrote three autobiographies. The first autobiography of an Androgyne 161 00:10:24,559 --> 00:10:28,240 Speaker 1: originally covered her life from birth until about the age 162 00:10:28,240 --> 00:10:31,120 Speaker 1: of thirty two, but as we mentioned at the top 163 00:10:31,160 --> 00:10:33,360 Speaker 1: of the show, it took her eighteen years to find 164 00:10:33,400 --> 00:10:36,160 Speaker 1: a publisher, so she filled in a little detail about 165 00:10:36,160 --> 00:10:39,600 Speaker 1: those eighteen years before the book went to print. Although 166 00:10:39,640 --> 00:10:42,400 Speaker 1: she said she was writing this book for a professional audience, 167 00:10:42,520 --> 00:10:45,960 Speaker 1: it doesn't read like an academic text. There's a lot 168 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:48,200 Speaker 1: of writing about her sex life, and it's in a 169 00:10:48,280 --> 00:10:51,080 Speaker 1: tone and a level of detail that seemed kind of 170 00:10:51,120 --> 00:10:55,440 Speaker 1: incongruous with the idea of professional writing. Aside from that, 171 00:10:55,720 --> 00:10:59,600 Speaker 1: it's cleared that she thought doctors and psychiatrists didn't understand 172 00:10:59,679 --> 00:11:01,920 Speaker 1: people like her, and she wanted to fill in the 173 00:11:02,040 --> 00:11:05,840 Speaker 1: gaps in their knowledge and also try to dispel stigma. 174 00:11:06,040 --> 00:11:09,280 Speaker 1: As she concluded, quote, I trust that the publication of 175 00:11:09,320 --> 00:11:12,800 Speaker 1: my life story will contribute to a correct estimate of 176 00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:17,040 Speaker 1: androginism on the part of scientists, the molders of public opinion, 177 00:11:17,400 --> 00:11:20,800 Speaker 1: and the lawmakers, and to a more kindly treatment by 178 00:11:20,840 --> 00:11:24,920 Speaker 1: society of those born with this curse. It is only 179 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:27,480 Speaker 1: expressing half the truth to say that they are more 180 00:11:27,520 --> 00:11:31,120 Speaker 1: to be pitied than scorned, they are wholly to be pitied. 181 00:11:32,120 --> 00:11:35,480 Speaker 1: Not long after Autobiography of an Androgyne went to print, 182 00:11:35,559 --> 00:11:39,160 Speaker 1: Jenny June started working on The Female Impersonators, which came 183 00:11:39,160 --> 00:11:42,480 Speaker 1: out in nineteen twenty two. This is a counterpart to 184 00:11:42,559 --> 00:11:46,040 Speaker 1: her first book, this time written for a general audience, 185 00:11:46,240 --> 00:11:50,400 Speaker 1: with the same overall goals. In her words, quote, my 186 00:11:50,520 --> 00:11:53,520 Speaker 1: aim was to save thousands of innocent step children of 187 00:11:53,600 --> 00:11:56,800 Speaker 1: nature from an aggregate of tens of thousands of years 188 00:11:56,800 --> 00:11:59,680 Speaker 1: in prison, and bring about a repeal of the laws 189 00:11:59,720 --> 00:12:02,800 Speaker 1: under which they are incarcerated and which are still in 190 00:12:02,840 --> 00:12:06,880 Speaker 1: the codes, because civilized man has not yet entirely emerged 191 00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:10,880 Speaker 1: from the prejudice and superstition of the dark ages. My 192 00:12:11,040 --> 00:12:13,520 Speaker 1: second aim was to put a stop to the continuous 193 00:12:13,559 --> 00:12:17,559 Speaker 1: string of murders of these step children, the assassins laboring 194 00:12:17,679 --> 00:12:22,040 Speaker 1: under the delusion that homosexuality is due to deepest moral depravity, 195 00:12:22,400 --> 00:12:25,760 Speaker 1: and feeling that they are mandatories of society. In ridding 196 00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:29,960 Speaker 1: the world of these quote monsters, my third aim was 197 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:34,960 Speaker 1: to save hundreds of these superlatively melancholy sexual intermediates from 198 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:38,840 Speaker 1: suicide as the result of bitter persecution by those who 199 00:12:38,840 --> 00:12:41,199 Speaker 1: pride themselves on the fact that in their own case, 200 00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:46,200 Speaker 1: sex has been thoroughly differentiated. In addition to the descriptions 201 00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:49,559 Speaker 1: of her life and her feelings and experiences, the Female 202 00:12:49,559 --> 00:12:55,160 Speaker 1: Impersonators included a lot of Jenny June's general thoughts on sexuality, masculinity, 203 00:12:55,160 --> 00:12:59,480 Speaker 1: and femininity, including the idea that androgynes have both male 204 00:12:59,559 --> 00:13:04,240 Speaker 1: and male elements. She included examples of mythical and historical 205 00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:09,120 Speaker 1: figures that she interpreted as andrew giants, including Apollo, Hermaphroditis, 206 00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:12,840 Speaker 1: and ganny Meade from Greek mythology, and the historical figures 207 00:13:12,840 --> 00:13:17,480 Speaker 1: of Alexander the Great, Walt Whitman, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Shakespeare. 208 00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:21,160 Speaker 1: She thought Shakespeare was a pen name for Francis Bacon, 209 00:13:21,200 --> 00:13:23,800 Speaker 1: which was a pretty popular idea in the mid late 210 00:13:23,880 --> 00:13:27,000 Speaker 1: nineteenth century. There were still people debating it in my 211 00:13:27,120 --> 00:13:30,880 Speaker 1: college when I was an undergrad. Will probably never do 212 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:34,319 Speaker 1: an episode on the who wrote William Shakespeare's works because 213 00:13:34,320 --> 00:13:38,760 Speaker 1: people feel too passionately about it. Yep. This book also 214 00:13:38,840 --> 00:13:41,720 Speaker 1: includes the stories of two other to use her term 215 00:13:41,880 --> 00:13:46,600 Speaker 1: female impersonators, who she names as Frank Unice and Angelo Phyllis. 216 00:13:47,360 --> 00:13:50,680 Speaker 1: To be clear, she did not mean female impersonators as 217 00:13:50,720 --> 00:13:54,040 Speaker 1: in vaudeville performers. Although the people she was talking about 218 00:13:54,120 --> 00:13:59,240 Speaker 1: could take the stage, these were instinctive female impersonators, so 219 00:13:59,559 --> 00:14:03,760 Speaker 1: she meant other people like herself, and she reprinted the 220 00:14:03,840 --> 00:14:07,560 Speaker 1: text of three newspaper articles reporting on the murders of 221 00:14:07,640 --> 00:14:12,800 Speaker 1: other androgynes, edited to preserve those people's anonymity. She offered 222 00:14:12,800 --> 00:14:15,760 Speaker 1: her commentary on the reporting and on the crimes that 223 00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:18,959 Speaker 1: were being reported. For example, one of these articles was 224 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:22,320 Speaker 1: about someone who had been found strangled on a yacht 225 00:14:22,440 --> 00:14:26,080 Speaker 1: dressed in women's clothes. According to the news report, there 226 00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:29,360 Speaker 1: was no reason for suicide and no motive for murder. 227 00:14:29,600 --> 00:14:34,080 Speaker 1: But in Jenny June's commentary quote, the strongest of reasons 228 00:14:34,120 --> 00:14:38,560 Speaker 1: for suicide and the strongest of motives for murder, andregines, 229 00:14:38,640 --> 00:14:42,600 Speaker 1: because so terribly misjudged by their associates, are the most 230 00:14:42,680 --> 00:14:47,400 Speaker 1: melancholy and prone to suicide of any class of mankind. Moreover, 231 00:14:47,600 --> 00:14:50,640 Speaker 1: they are often murdered on the strong motive of intense 232 00:14:50,920 --> 00:14:55,480 Speaker 1: loathing felt by prudes ignorant of abnormal psychology, in whose 233 00:14:55,560 --> 00:14:59,360 Speaker 1: eyes the andragine is a sodomite, with all the terrible 234 00:14:59,520 --> 00:15:04,080 Speaker 1: though false connotation of that term. Such prudes believe themselves 235 00:15:04,160 --> 00:15:07,280 Speaker 1: mandatories of society to rid the world of the monster. 236 00:15:08,200 --> 00:15:14,440 Speaker 1: The Female Impersonators ends with two condensed psychiatric articles about Andrewginism, 237 00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:19,160 Speaker 1: again with Jenny June's commentary, including pushing back in areas 238 00:15:19,160 --> 00:15:22,840 Speaker 1: where she thought the psychiatric community was just wrong. There 239 00:15:22,920 --> 00:15:25,400 Speaker 1: was also a selection of poems that she had written, 240 00:15:25,520 --> 00:15:29,920 Speaker 1: what she called Andregine Verse. There are also poems included 241 00:15:29,960 --> 00:15:34,240 Speaker 1: in Autobiography of An Androgine as well. Alfred W. Herzag 242 00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:38,640 Speaker 1: wrote introductions to both of these books. Regarding Autobiography of 243 00:15:38,680 --> 00:15:41,640 Speaker 1: an Andragine, he wrote, quote, this book is published in 244 00:15:41,680 --> 00:15:45,800 Speaker 1: an endeavor to obtain justice and humane treatment for the Androgines, 245 00:15:46,520 --> 00:15:50,360 Speaker 1: that class of homosexualists, into whom homosexuality is not an 246 00:15:50,360 --> 00:15:54,320 Speaker 1: acquired vice, but in whom it is congenital. He later 247 00:15:54,400 --> 00:15:56,880 Speaker 1: noted that he had agreed to publish it because he 248 00:15:56,960 --> 00:16:01,640 Speaker 1: had been quote persuaded that Andraginism is not sufficiently understood, 249 00:16:01,880 --> 00:16:06,640 Speaker 1: and that therefore androgynes were unjustly made to suffer. Herzog 250 00:16:06,680 --> 00:16:09,840 Speaker 1: also explained why, even though he was listed as editor, 251 00:16:10,080 --> 00:16:13,120 Speaker 1: he had not made changes to the author's words beyond 252 00:16:13,160 --> 00:16:17,440 Speaker 1: ones that were necessary to protect people's anonymity. Essentially, he 253 00:16:17,560 --> 00:16:20,840 Speaker 1: thought that the author had created quote a psychoanalysis of 254 00:16:20,920 --> 00:16:25,760 Speaker 1: himself without attempting to do so. Herzog thought that inadvertently 255 00:16:25,800 --> 00:16:31,200 Speaker 1: created psychoanalysis was worthy of careful professional study. We don't 256 00:16:31,240 --> 00:16:34,560 Speaker 1: want to leave the impression that Herzog was entirely supportive 257 00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:38,240 Speaker 1: of Jenny June or her efforts, though in introductions to 258 00:16:38,360 --> 00:16:40,800 Speaker 1: both of the books he treats her and people like 259 00:16:40,960 --> 00:16:45,320 Speaker 1: her with both empathy and revulsion. He drew a clear 260 00:16:45,480 --> 00:16:49,840 Speaker 1: distinction between people who are born andregines, or maybe develop 261 00:16:49,920 --> 00:16:53,720 Speaker 1: these kinds of affinities during childhood, and people who chose 262 00:16:53,800 --> 00:16:57,280 Speaker 1: to pursue same sex relationships later on in life. He 263 00:16:57,360 --> 00:17:02,120 Speaker 1: described that as a vice. Also described Autobiography of An 264 00:17:02,200 --> 00:17:06,600 Speaker 1: Androgine as having quote neither literary nor scientific value, and 265 00:17:06,760 --> 00:17:10,480 Speaker 1: he called it subject matter nauseating. He also described The 266 00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:13,880 Speaker 1: Female Impersonators as a failure as a book meant to 267 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:17,720 Speaker 1: quote set forth the facts of androginism for the general public. 268 00:17:18,280 --> 00:17:20,680 Speaker 1: He said that he thought the general public would find 269 00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:24,400 Speaker 1: it immoral or revolting. At the same time, though this 270 00:17:24,600 --> 00:17:28,240 Speaker 1: was all happening when cross dressing and same sex relationships 271 00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:33,440 Speaker 1: were illegal, especially same sex relationships between men and Herzog 272 00:17:33,520 --> 00:17:36,360 Speaker 1: stress that people like Jenny June should not be punished 273 00:17:36,359 --> 00:17:40,119 Speaker 1: for who they were or for quote harmless sexual lapses. 274 00:17:41,119 --> 00:17:45,480 Speaker 1: Both Herzog and Jenny June also differentiated between pederasts and 275 00:17:45,600 --> 00:17:49,080 Speaker 1: others who were abusing or otherwise harming people, and people 276 00:17:49,119 --> 00:17:51,600 Speaker 1: who were simply trying to live their lives according to 277 00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:56,720 Speaker 1: their own innate natures and who were being unjustly imprisoned, blackmailed, 278 00:17:56,880 --> 00:18:01,240 Speaker 1: driven to suicide, or murdered. Jenny June wrote her third book, 279 00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:04,800 Speaker 1: Riddle of the Underground, in tandem with the second, and 280 00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:08,200 Speaker 1: it's not clear why the Medico Legal Journal didn't publish 281 00:18:08,200 --> 00:18:11,160 Speaker 1: it as it did the others. At this point, all 282 00:18:11,200 --> 00:18:14,120 Speaker 1: we have of this text are fragments that were discovered 283 00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:17,800 Speaker 1: by doctor Randall Sell in twenty ten. These fragments were 284 00:18:17,800 --> 00:18:20,600 Speaker 1: in the archives of the United States National Laboratory of 285 00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:24,960 Speaker 1: Medicine in the papers of doctor Victor Robinson. Robinson had 286 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:28,040 Speaker 1: worked out a contract with the author to publish Riddle 287 00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:32,200 Speaker 1: of the Underground serially in the journal Medical Life. While 288 00:18:32,200 --> 00:18:35,200 Speaker 1: we don't have all the text of Riddle of the Underground, 289 00:18:35,240 --> 00:18:38,080 Speaker 1: we do have Jenny June's description of it, which was 290 00:18:38,119 --> 00:18:42,080 Speaker 1: published as an advertisement at the end of the Female Impersonators. 291 00:18:42,920 --> 00:18:45,280 Speaker 1: Like the first two books, it covered her life and 292 00:18:45,320 --> 00:18:49,960 Speaker 1: her experiences with her gender and sexuality. It also focused 293 00:18:49,960 --> 00:18:52,440 Speaker 1: on the histories of the white light and red light 294 00:18:52,520 --> 00:18:55,400 Speaker 1: districts of New York since the start of the nineteenth century, 295 00:18:55,800 --> 00:18:59,959 Speaker 1: as well as vice and crime, slums, lodging houses, nightlife, 296 00:19:00,240 --> 00:19:03,359 Speaker 1: and her time as a female impersonator in these parts 297 00:19:03,359 --> 00:19:06,760 Speaker 1: of the city. It does not seem as though Victor 298 00:19:06,840 --> 00:19:09,720 Speaker 1: Robinson wound up printing a Riddle of the Underground in 299 00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:13,760 Speaker 1: Medical Life. It seems like if he had, someone would 300 00:19:13,760 --> 00:19:15,840 Speaker 1: have found it by now. I was only able to 301 00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:18,840 Speaker 1: find a scan of that publication from nineteen twenty, which 302 00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:22,080 Speaker 1: was before Riddle of the Underground was written. But if 303 00:19:22,119 --> 00:19:24,960 Speaker 1: it were ever unearthed, this could turn out to be 304 00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:28,800 Speaker 1: just a really important resource into the underground nightlife and 305 00:19:28,840 --> 00:19:32,240 Speaker 1: the social life of LGBTQ people in New York during 306 00:19:32,280 --> 00:19:34,960 Speaker 1: this period. We're going to take a quick break, and 307 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:37,639 Speaker 1: after that we'll talk about what we know about Jenny 308 00:19:37,720 --> 00:19:51,159 Speaker 1: June's life as gleaned from these anonymized autobiographies. As we 309 00:19:51,240 --> 00:19:53,320 Speaker 1: said at the top of the show, we don't know 310 00:19:53,440 --> 00:19:57,880 Speaker 1: for sure who Jenny June was, and identifying details were 311 00:19:57,960 --> 00:20:00,840 Speaker 1: changed in these books to try to protect people was anonymity. 312 00:20:01,520 --> 00:20:05,040 Speaker 1: But according to Jenny June's autobiographies, she was born in 313 00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:08,000 Speaker 1: Connecticut in eighteen seventy four and was the fourth of 314 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:11,719 Speaker 1: her parents eleven children, although at another point in the 315 00:20:11,760 --> 00:20:14,840 Speaker 1: same book she describes herself as the shortest out of 316 00:20:14,880 --> 00:20:18,920 Speaker 1: their eight children. Not sure what's going on with that discrepancy. 317 00:20:19,560 --> 00:20:23,040 Speaker 1: This was an affluent Protestant family. They were living in 318 00:20:23,080 --> 00:20:26,360 Speaker 1: the nicest area of their town, which was about fifty 319 00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:30,560 Speaker 1: miles north of New York City. Jenny June described having 320 00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:34,520 Speaker 1: sexual experiences starting at a very young age, and these 321 00:20:34,560 --> 00:20:37,240 Speaker 1: were with other children, not with adults, although in one 322 00:20:37,320 --> 00:20:39,919 Speaker 1: case this was with the boy who was five years older. 323 00:20:40,520 --> 00:20:44,240 Speaker 1: That is very disturbing to read. Yeah, the age difference, 324 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:47,560 Speaker 1: even among children that young. It just it felt like 325 00:20:47,600 --> 00:20:51,480 Speaker 1: a lot. Yeah. At this point, all children usually wore 326 00:20:51,560 --> 00:20:54,840 Speaker 1: dresses or gowns for their first few years of life, 327 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:58,679 Speaker 1: and in Autobiography of an Androgyne, Jenny June described the 328 00:20:58,760 --> 00:21:03,320 Speaker 1: expectation that she start wearing trousers this way quote. My 329 00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:06,240 Speaker 1: first impression of the stern realities of life came at 330 00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:09,080 Speaker 1: the age of six, when my parents insisted on putting 331 00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:12,800 Speaker 1: me in breeches. I wanted to wear skirts all my life. 332 00:21:12,840 --> 00:21:16,159 Speaker 1: I shrunk from going out in distinctively male garb and 333 00:21:16,359 --> 00:21:19,640 Speaker 1: dodged behind the trees when I discovered an acquaintance approaching. 334 00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:23,000 Speaker 1: The sensation was almost as painful as if I had 335 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:26,679 Speaker 1: been compelled to walk the streets naked. Until I reached 336 00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:29,720 Speaker 1: my early thirties, I did not cease to regret being 337 00:21:29,800 --> 00:21:34,480 Speaker 1: compelled to taboo feminine apparel, and was constantly being criticized 338 00:21:34,520 --> 00:21:37,560 Speaker 1: by members of my family for choosing bright colors and 339 00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:41,320 Speaker 1: as fancy apparel as a male can possibly wear. From 340 00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:44,480 Speaker 1: the age of seven to twelve, I occasionally masqueraded in 341 00:21:44,480 --> 00:21:48,159 Speaker 1: a sister's dress coquetting with my boy acquaintances, the same 342 00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:51,560 Speaker 1: as if I were physically a girl. Jenny June started 343 00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:53,960 Speaker 1: going to a day school for boys at the age 344 00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:57,440 Speaker 1: of nine and was mocked and bullied by classmates for 345 00:21:57,560 --> 00:22:01,399 Speaker 1: being a feminine. She described being so horrified at the 346 00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:04,000 Speaker 1: idea of using the boy's bathroom that she wound up 347 00:22:04,040 --> 00:22:07,280 Speaker 1: losing control of her bladder during class and being sent 348 00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:10,960 Speaker 1: home to change. This, of course, led to more bullying, 349 00:22:11,080 --> 00:22:14,680 Speaker 1: including classmates beating her to quote make a man out 350 00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:19,280 Speaker 1: of you. Jenny June described an increasing fixation on sex 351 00:22:19,359 --> 00:22:23,479 Speaker 1: during her early teens, especially on oral sex. At around 352 00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:27,000 Speaker 1: age fifteen, she turned to devout religious belief with the 353 00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:30,800 Speaker 1: hope of changing herself. Quote. I definitely chose the Christian 354 00:22:30,840 --> 00:22:33,760 Speaker 1: ministry and a heathen land as my field of labor 355 00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:37,920 Speaker 1: when I had finished my education. This greatly increased interest 356 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:41,440 Speaker 1: in religion fortunately put a stop to my morbid reveries. 357 00:22:41,840 --> 00:22:44,639 Speaker 1: I now looked upon my yearning for fallacio as my 358 00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:48,640 Speaker 1: besetting sin, and until the age of nineteen, fought against 359 00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:51,480 Speaker 1: it as few others have struggled to be freed from 360 00:22:51,600 --> 00:22:56,760 Speaker 1: lustful desires. While pursuing this religious devotion, Jenny June became 361 00:22:57,080 --> 00:22:59,800 Speaker 1: really isolated and started to believe that she might not 362 00:22:59,880 --> 00:23:04,440 Speaker 1: live to adulthood. She had started contemplating suicide much earlier 363 00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:07,760 Speaker 1: in her childhood, and in her mid teens, these suicidal 364 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:11,560 Speaker 1: thoughts became a lot more frequent and pronounced. She went 365 00:23:11,560 --> 00:23:16,720 Speaker 1: through periods of intense shame and distress. In September of 366 00:23:16,760 --> 00:23:19,960 Speaker 1: eighteen ninety one, Jenny June started college in New York 367 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:24,000 Speaker 1: City in a weird irony. Her classmates soon gave her 368 00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:28,159 Speaker 1: the nickname Anthony Comstock, namesake of the Comstock laws that 369 00:23:28,200 --> 00:23:31,520 Speaker 1: would later make her books illegal. Because people thought that 370 00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:34,480 Speaker 1: she acted like a prude, she started going out at 371 00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:37,840 Speaker 1: night into different neighborhoods of New York looking for sex 372 00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:41,240 Speaker 1: and doing sex work, using aliases with the hope that 373 00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:44,680 Speaker 1: no one would trace her back to the college. Over 374 00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:47,840 Speaker 1: the course of her life, her aliases were Rafael, Wather, 375 00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:53,639 Speaker 1: Ralph Wather, Earl Lynde, Jenny, June, and Pussy. Raphael was 376 00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:56,720 Speaker 1: after the painter Raphael quote because he was the greatest 377 00:23:56,840 --> 00:24:01,040 Speaker 1: ultra androgyne who ever lived. He was my idol, my ideal. 378 00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:04,320 Speaker 1: I wished him to pass through the earthly life all 379 00:24:04,359 --> 00:24:08,560 Speaker 1: over again. In my body were there was after Gerta's 380 00:24:08,600 --> 00:24:12,440 Speaker 1: novel Sorrows of Young were there in her own words 381 00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:15,440 Speaker 1: quote As for the genesis of my first feminine name, 382 00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:19,040 Speaker 1: I chose Jenny at four. I have always considered it 383 00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:22,639 Speaker 1: the most feminine of names. When I began my double life, 384 00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:26,120 Speaker 1: I appended June. I adopted that surname because of its 385 00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:29,119 Speaker 1: beautiful associations, as well as the repetition of the J 386 00:24:29,359 --> 00:24:33,800 Speaker 1: and N. I later substituted the feminine pussy because so 387 00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:37,760 Speaker 1: nicknamed to my delight by the tremendously virile. I later 388 00:24:37,800 --> 00:24:41,720 Speaker 1: adopted Earl, primarily because it rhymes with girl, the creature 389 00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:45,240 Speaker 1: of enchantment that I longed to be, and secondarily because 390 00:24:45,240 --> 00:24:50,080 Speaker 1: it arouses noble ideas. I adopted Lynde after Jenny Lynde, 391 00:24:50,160 --> 00:24:53,720 Speaker 1: one of my models, kind of as an aside. Jenny 392 00:24:53,840 --> 00:24:57,240 Speaker 1: June was also the pen name of journalist and author 393 00:24:57,359 --> 00:25:01,440 Speaker 1: Jane Cunningham Crowley. This is something this Jenny June said 394 00:25:01,520 --> 00:25:05,840 Speaker 1: she realized only after the fact, and she also struggled 395 00:25:05,840 --> 00:25:09,520 Speaker 1: with her mental health. In her words, quote, paroxysms of 396 00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:13,520 Speaker 1: melancholia occasionally came upon me at night when I felt 397 00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:15,800 Speaker 1: their approach. I could not stand it to remain in 398 00:25:15,840 --> 00:25:18,760 Speaker 1: my room, where I must be noiseless, but went out 399 00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:21,280 Speaker 1: to a deserted spot in a large park near where 400 00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:25,640 Speaker 1: I lived, where I would shriek repeatedly. All my muscles 401 00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:28,760 Speaker 1: seemed to be rigid, and my fists were clenched. I 402 00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:31,919 Speaker 1: would dig my fingernails into my palms and wave my 403 00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:35,639 Speaker 1: arms wildly. Within a few minutes, my strength would be 404 00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:40,440 Speaker 1: completely gone. I looked upon these paroxysms as fits of insanity, 405 00:25:40,480 --> 00:25:44,360 Speaker 1: and I feared I would become permanently and violently insane. 406 00:25:45,160 --> 00:25:48,920 Speaker 1: Jenny June started consulting doctors, hoping they would take away 407 00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:52,960 Speaker 1: what she described as her abnormal passion. The treatments she 408 00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:58,320 Speaker 1: received included drugs and electroshock therapy. One doctor advised her 409 00:25:58,359 --> 00:26:02,320 Speaker 1: to get married word quote, I cultivated the society of 410 00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:06,320 Speaker 1: a girlfriend, but after months of effort, feminine beauty proved 411 00:26:06,359 --> 00:26:09,320 Speaker 1: powerless to attract me in the least, while male beauty 412 00:26:09,480 --> 00:26:15,480 Speaker 1: was constantly increasing its way over me. Another doctor recommended castration, 413 00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:18,440 Speaker 1: but when Jenny June looked for someone to do the procedure, 414 00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:21,480 Speaker 1: she was told she might regret it later. At some point, 415 00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:24,440 Speaker 1: Jenny June was expelled from her college, although she did 416 00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:27,280 Speaker 1: eventually finish a bachelor's degree and went on to do 417 00:26:27,359 --> 00:26:31,800 Speaker 1: at least some graduate study. Finally, in eighteen ninety three, 418 00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:35,600 Speaker 1: she decided that this was how she was trying to change. 419 00:26:35,600 --> 00:26:38,600 Speaker 1: It was fruitless, and she should stop struggling against it. 420 00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:42,400 Speaker 1: She allowed herself to live in what she described as 421 00:26:42,440 --> 00:26:46,080 Speaker 1: her French doll baby spirit for about one night a week. 422 00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:50,920 Speaker 1: She wrote a lot about feeling both feminine and babyish. 423 00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:53,679 Speaker 1: Sometimes this one night a week allowed the rest of 424 00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:57,520 Speaker 1: her life to quote flow on peacefully and blissfully. But 425 00:26:57,640 --> 00:26:59,879 Speaker 1: at other times she felt just a huge amount of 426 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:04,879 Speaker 1: abhorrence and shame, she wrote, quote as the classy, hypocritical, 427 00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:09,639 Speaker 1: and bigoted overworld considers a bisexual as monster and outcast. 428 00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:12,920 Speaker 1: I was driven to a career in the democratic, frank, 429 00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:17,119 Speaker 1: liberal minded underworld. While my male soul was a leader 430 00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:21,280 Speaker 1: in scholarship at the University Uptown. My female soul, one 431 00:27:21,359 --> 00:27:24,399 Speaker 1: evening a week, flaunted itself as a French doll baby 432 00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:29,040 Speaker 1: in the shadowy haunts of nightlife downtown. She frequented a 433 00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:32,560 Speaker 1: hotel that she called Hotel Comfort to preserve its anonymity, 434 00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:35,600 Speaker 1: as well as a club that she called Pugilists Haven 435 00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:39,600 Speaker 1: because its regulars included a lot of prize fighters and gamblers. 436 00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:43,480 Speaker 1: She was also a regular at Columbia Hall, also known 437 00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:47,120 Speaker 1: by the disparaging nickname Press Hall, which was a gay 438 00:27:47,119 --> 00:27:50,159 Speaker 1: bar in brothel in the Bowery neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. 439 00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:53,520 Speaker 1: By the time the autobiographies were written, that had been 440 00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:56,000 Speaker 1: closed down, so she didn't need to disguise its name. 441 00:27:56,840 --> 00:28:01,640 Speaker 1: According to Jenny June, an organization called Circle Hermaphroditos had 442 00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:05,200 Speaker 1: been formed. Quote for Defense against the world's bitter persecution 443 00:28:05,240 --> 00:28:08,399 Speaker 1: of bisexuals, and they met in an upstairs room at 444 00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:12,560 Speaker 1: Columbia Hall. The only primary sources we really have about 445 00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:16,919 Speaker 1: this organization are Jenny June's autobiographies, so some historians have 446 00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:18,879 Speaker 1: concluded that it may have been more like kind of 447 00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:23,320 Speaker 1: an informal social circle that nicknamed itself, but it's possible 448 00:28:23,359 --> 00:28:27,240 Speaker 1: that this was the oldest known transgender rights organization in 449 00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:30,880 Speaker 1: the United States. She may have also been connected to 450 00:28:30,920 --> 00:28:35,600 Speaker 1: Aliah Walker, daughter of Madame CJ. Walker. Aliliah Walker had 451 00:28:35,640 --> 00:28:39,080 Speaker 1: become president of her late mother's cosmetics company, and she 452 00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:43,000 Speaker 1: was known for hosting enormous parties at her townhouse in Manhattan, 453 00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:47,720 Speaker 1: welcoming artists, writers, musicians, and other figures from the Harlem Renaissance, 454 00:28:48,040 --> 00:28:50,520 Speaker 1: as well as people who might be described as gay 455 00:28:50,600 --> 00:28:54,440 Speaker 1: or transgender today. Some of those were the same people. 456 00:28:55,320 --> 00:29:01,240 Speaker 1: I got absolutely derailed when researching this when I was like, wait, 457 00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:06,760 Speaker 1: Madam C. J. Walker's daughter, Wit. Yeah. Jenny June also 458 00:29:06,840 --> 00:29:10,560 Speaker 1: attended and participated in drag Balls, which she described as 459 00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:14,000 Speaker 1: the spectacle of a lifetime quote. Some of the costumes 460 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:17,520 Speaker 1: had been ordered from Paris and London. Many have already 461 00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:21,480 Speaker 1: graced the Mardi grav New Orleans or Niece. Practically every 462 00:29:21,560 --> 00:29:26,479 Speaker 1: romantic or grotesque character ever heard of is on the floor. Monkeys, parrots, geese, 463 00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:31,360 Speaker 1: yellow kids, Foxy Grandpa, Happy Hooligan, Cupid, Mephistophels, and a 464 00:29:31,440 --> 00:29:35,520 Speaker 1: thousand others. For about eighteen months, she spent a lot 465 00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:39,800 Speaker 1: of time in nocturnal rambles in parts of Manhattan, including 466 00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:44,640 Speaker 1: Hill's Kitchen, Fourteenth Street, and Mulberry Street. She was particularly 467 00:29:44,680 --> 00:29:48,520 Speaker 1: attracted to Irish American and Italian American men, so she 468 00:29:48,600 --> 00:29:52,520 Speaker 1: spent a lot of time in neighborhoods with large immigrant populations. 469 00:29:53,320 --> 00:29:56,440 Speaker 1: There were also class elements to all of this. Jenny 470 00:29:56,520 --> 00:29:59,440 Speaker 1: June was from a well off family but was cruising 471 00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:04,200 Speaker 1: in poorer neighborhoods. Sometimes these hookups seem to have been 472 00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:06,600 Speaker 1: fulfilling to her, and there were times when she wrote 473 00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:10,040 Speaker 1: about falling in love, but at multiple points she was 474 00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:14,800 Speaker 1: also robbed, beaten, sometimes to the point of requiring hospitalization, 475 00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:18,800 Speaker 1: or blackmailed, and more than once she was afraid that 476 00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:21,200 Speaker 1: she was going to be murdered because of what she 477 00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:25,920 Speaker 1: was doing. Eventually, Jenny June turned her attention to military 478 00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:30,200 Speaker 1: bases located outside of New York City. She describes herself 479 00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:33,360 Speaker 1: as popular and welcomed among some of the military men, 480 00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:36,760 Speaker 1: but she was also arrested at one point, and her family, 481 00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:40,720 Speaker 1: who lived nearby, found out about it. Although she never 482 00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:44,040 Speaker 1: discussed it with them, Her father quote soon began to 483 00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:47,640 Speaker 1: treat me regularly with extreme bitterness, as if he wished 484 00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:51,040 Speaker 1: I had never been born. Some of the soldiers that 485 00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:54,200 Speaker 1: one of the military bases also tried to blackmail her, 486 00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:56,600 Speaker 1: and when she tried to run away from them, they 487 00:30:56,680 --> 00:31:00,440 Speaker 1: caught up to her and beat her severely. In her account, 488 00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:03,160 Speaker 1: she tried to bring these soldiers to justice, which led 489 00:31:03,200 --> 00:31:05,680 Speaker 1: to a court martial in which she felt like she 490 00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:10,080 Speaker 1: was the one on trial. Eventually, Jenny June, in her 491 00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:13,840 Speaker 1: masculine persona, was hired as a private secretary to an 492 00:31:13,840 --> 00:31:18,000 Speaker 1: elderly rich man. This allowed her to travel to Europe 493 00:31:18,040 --> 00:31:20,400 Speaker 1: in his company, and she sought out the kinds of 494 00:31:20,480 --> 00:31:23,480 Speaker 1: underground nightlife that she had already known in New York 495 00:31:23,840 --> 00:31:28,560 Speaker 1: and visited military bases overseas. But after they returned from 496 00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:31,760 Speaker 1: some travel, she was recognized by a delivery driver who 497 00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:35,160 Speaker 1: came to her employer's house, and she had to resign. 498 00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:39,600 Speaker 1: Throughout all of this, Jenny June had experienced a huge 499 00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:44,280 Speaker 1: amount of emotional and psychological distress because of her desire 500 00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:47,480 Speaker 1: to be a woman and her desire for sexual experiences 501 00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:52,520 Speaker 1: with men. She described her desires as insatiable and accompanied 502 00:31:52,520 --> 00:31:57,200 Speaker 1: by spermataria or excessive seamen. In the nineteenth century, this 503 00:31:57,280 --> 00:32:01,000 Speaker 1: was a diagnosis that was often connected to social concerns 504 00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:05,120 Speaker 1: about male sexuality and sexual practices, so it's not really 505 00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:09,280 Speaker 1: clear whether Jenny June was having a physiological issue or 506 00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:12,080 Speaker 1: whether this was more something connected to a lot of 507 00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:16,760 Speaker 1: social stigma around sex. Regardless, at the age of twenty eight, 508 00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:19,240 Speaker 1: she chose to be castrated with the hope of getting 509 00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:21,960 Speaker 1: relief from all of this, and just for clarity, this 510 00:32:22,040 --> 00:32:25,719 Speaker 1: was the removal of her testicles, not her penis. She 511 00:32:25,800 --> 00:32:29,400 Speaker 1: had also been waxing her facial hair for years. As 512 00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:31,440 Speaker 1: it grew back in. She would stay home for the 513 00:32:31,520 --> 00:32:33,760 Speaker 1: last couple of days before it became long enough to 514 00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:36,320 Speaker 1: wax again so that people would not see her with it. 515 00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:40,040 Speaker 1: She had hoped that castration would address this as well. 516 00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:43,560 Speaker 1: Quote minor motives were that I would prefer to possess 517 00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:46,240 Speaker 1: one less mark of the male, and that I thought 518 00:32:46,320 --> 00:32:49,280 Speaker 1: that facial hair cells would cease to function, and I 519 00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:52,760 Speaker 1: thus be rid of my most detested and most troublesome 520 00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:57,640 Speaker 1: badge of masculinity. About two years passed after her surgery, 521 00:32:57,680 --> 00:33:01,040 Speaker 1: before Jenny June felt like her sexual or as were subsiding, 522 00:33:01,400 --> 00:33:05,400 Speaker 1: although her facial hair never really changed. Even though that 523 00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:08,560 Speaker 1: effect hadn't been as she hoped, she described this as 524 00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:11,360 Speaker 1: giving her a new lease on life once she had 525 00:33:11,360 --> 00:33:14,880 Speaker 1: recovered from an initial loss of physical strength that followed 526 00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:18,800 Speaker 1: the procedure. At the age of thirty two, Jenny June 527 00:33:18,840 --> 00:33:21,480 Speaker 1: moved out of the city to a smaller town where 528 00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:24,120 Speaker 1: it was no longer possible to maintain a double life. 529 00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:28,680 Speaker 1: While still remaining anonymous. She wrote her autobiographies and eventually 530 00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:31,760 Speaker 1: got a job as an assistant at the Medico Legal Journal. 531 00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:34,800 Speaker 1: When she first tried to get her book published there, 532 00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:37,600 Speaker 1: she said it had been written by a friend. By 533 00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:39,760 Speaker 1: the time the first of the books was published, she 534 00:33:39,800 --> 00:33:42,640 Speaker 1: wrote a feeling as though her sex drive had nearly 535 00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:45,160 Speaker 1: reached its end, something that she found to be a 536 00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:48,480 Speaker 1: huge relief. Has this work as a private secretary and 537 00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:51,040 Speaker 1: the work as an assistant at the Medical Legal Journal, 538 00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:53,840 Speaker 1: these were like a couple of jobs that she had 539 00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:55,600 Speaker 1: over the course of her life that she wrote about, 540 00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:58,720 Speaker 1: and she had just a series of like professional level 541 00:33:58,840 --> 00:34:02,640 Speaker 1: jobs doing a variety of things that we did not 542 00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:05,800 Speaker 1: really get into a lot of detail. In addition to 543 00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:09,439 Speaker 1: her autobiographies, Jenny June also published articles in at least 544 00:34:09,440 --> 00:34:13,520 Speaker 1: one medical journal, the American Journal of Urology and Sexology. 545 00:34:13,640 --> 00:34:17,000 Speaker 1: This was under the name Ralph Werther Jenny June. She 546 00:34:17,040 --> 00:34:19,960 Speaker 1: did this over the course of nineteen eighteen and nineteen nineteen. 547 00:34:20,680 --> 00:34:23,839 Speaker 1: Some of these articles cover the same basic territory as 548 00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:28,560 Speaker 1: her autobiography. One piece, which was titled The Girl Boys Suicide, 549 00:34:28,719 --> 00:34:31,960 Speaker 1: combines her own experiences as a child with that of 550 00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:34,520 Speaker 1: another child that she knew of when she was growing up, 551 00:34:34,880 --> 00:34:38,280 Speaker 1: who had died by suicide after being tormented by peers 552 00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:42,640 Speaker 1: for being effeminate. Jenny June's autobiography does seem to have 553 00:34:42,719 --> 00:34:47,200 Speaker 1: gotten some academic and medical attention. US Army doctor Robert W. 554 00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:50,799 Speaker 1: Shufelt references it in a nineteen oh five paper in 555 00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:54,600 Speaker 1: the Pacific Medical Journal. Shoefelt got a copy of the 556 00:34:54,600 --> 00:34:58,080 Speaker 1: manuscript from someone, in his words, well known to the author. 557 00:34:58,600 --> 00:35:03,000 Speaker 1: It might have been Jenny June herself. Shufelt seems to 558 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:05,399 Speaker 1: have believed that the author of the manuscript had died 559 00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:09,120 Speaker 1: by suicide around the age of thirty. In an article 560 00:35:09,239 --> 00:35:14,000 Speaker 1: about perversion and inversion, Shufelt described the autobiography as required 561 00:35:14,040 --> 00:35:18,839 Speaker 1: reading for quote every sociologist, anthropologist, and professional person in 562 00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:23,560 Speaker 1: this country. Numerous medical journals mentioned or reviewed at least 563 00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:27,200 Speaker 1: one of these books in the years after they were published. Yeah, 564 00:35:27,239 --> 00:35:29,640 Speaker 1: she clearly got a copy of it at some point 565 00:35:29,719 --> 00:35:32,480 Speaker 1: during that eighteen year process of trying to find a publisher. 566 00:35:33,600 --> 00:35:38,279 Speaker 1: Autobiography of an Androgyne found renewed interest after being reprinted 567 00:35:38,280 --> 00:35:40,800 Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy five and then again in two thousand 568 00:35:40,840 --> 00:35:43,799 Speaker 1: and eight, and then throughout that time, researchers have tried 569 00:35:43,840 --> 00:35:46,920 Speaker 1: to figure out who Jenny June may have been, since 570 00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:50,080 Speaker 1: that would add further context to our understanding of her 571 00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:53,160 Speaker 1: life and of the world that she was describing in 572 00:35:53,160 --> 00:35:57,400 Speaker 1: the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In October twenty 573 00:35:57,480 --> 00:36:01,960 Speaker 1: twenty two, the website out History announced that Channing Gerard 574 00:36:02,040 --> 00:36:06,040 Speaker 1: Joseph had concluded that Jenny June was journalist and essayist 575 00:36:06,160 --> 00:36:10,759 Speaker 1: Maury Sabin. Joseph based this conclusion on extensive research through 576 00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:15,040 Speaker 1: resources like census records and details from Jenny June's and 577 00:36:15,160 --> 00:36:18,520 Speaker 1: Maury Saban's lives, as well as comparisons of their written 578 00:36:18,520 --> 00:36:22,479 Speaker 1: work and known photos of them. Maury Sabin was born 579 00:36:22,520 --> 00:36:26,239 Speaker 1: in Massachusetts rather than Connecticut, in eighteen seventy rather than 580 00:36:26,280 --> 00:36:31,160 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy four. Both attended prep schools for boys. Both 581 00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:35,840 Speaker 1: were expelled from college. Saban also had a sister named Jenny. 582 00:36:35,920 --> 00:36:40,200 Speaker 1: May and Joseph found similarities between Jenny June's writing style 583 00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:44,960 Speaker 1: and Maury Saban's published essays. Other potential authors have also 584 00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:48,080 Speaker 1: been proposed over the years as well. This is really 585 00:36:48,080 --> 00:36:52,640 Speaker 1: tricky to conclusively prove since, as we said earlier, details 586 00:36:52,680 --> 00:36:57,480 Speaker 1: from Jenny June's books are intentionally obbuscated. Unfortunately, since we 587 00:36:57,560 --> 00:37:00,440 Speaker 1: don't know who was writing under the name Jenny, we 588 00:37:00,600 --> 00:37:04,440 Speaker 1: really don't know what happened to her after those autobiographies end. 589 00:37:06,800 --> 00:37:08,840 Speaker 1: So much to talk about on Friday. There is so 590 00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:11,719 Speaker 1: much to talk about on Friday. In the meantime, we 591 00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:17,400 Speaker 1: have a listener mail that is a little lighter, although 592 00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:20,399 Speaker 1: it is also about our Brown Dog Affair episode which 593 00:37:20,400 --> 00:37:24,080 Speaker 1: was about vivisection. This is from Katie and Katie wrote, 594 00:37:24,120 --> 00:37:26,840 Speaker 1: Hello Holly and Tracy. Never thought i'd have a reason 595 00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:29,799 Speaker 1: to write you, but I'm glad to today. I heard 596 00:37:29,800 --> 00:37:33,880 Speaker 1: your Brown Dog Affair episode, such a heartbreaking tale. While listening, 597 00:37:33,920 --> 00:37:36,680 Speaker 1: I realized I used to live near the statue the 598 00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:40,200 Speaker 1: newer iteration. I've passed it many a time when walking 599 00:37:40,239 --> 00:37:43,520 Speaker 1: my own dog through Battersea Park, so yes, you may 600 00:37:43,560 --> 00:37:45,879 Speaker 1: be happy to know it is indeed in Battersea Park. 601 00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:48,360 Speaker 1: What's more, the statue is in a little patch of 602 00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:52,320 Speaker 1: doggy heaven. It's more hidden away now. It's an enclosed 603 00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:56,240 Speaker 1: walkway surrounded by trees, somewhere near the pagoda. It's probably 604 00:37:56,280 --> 00:37:59,120 Speaker 1: the most squirrel populated part of the park, so you'll 605 00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:01,719 Speaker 1: often hear dog running around having the time of their 606 00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:04,360 Speaker 1: life near it. We also get a lot of birds 607 00:38:04,360 --> 00:38:07,759 Speaker 1: and green parrots here. Yeah, the green parrots are kind 608 00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:10,200 Speaker 1: of a thing in London. There's many a rumor as 609 00:38:10,239 --> 00:38:12,960 Speaker 1: to why they're about. Beyond it is a huge open 610 00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:15,960 Speaker 1: field where dogs and owners are often found playing together. 611 00:38:16,760 --> 00:38:20,280 Speaker 1: If I remember correctly. The inscription is now kind of different, 612 00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:22,560 Speaker 1: more subtle, but to me at least, I think it's 613 00:38:22,600 --> 00:38:25,439 Speaker 1: the perfect resting place for any dog after a hard life. 614 00:38:25,480 --> 00:38:27,919 Speaker 1: I do think if dogs have a heaven it must 615 00:38:27,920 --> 00:38:31,239 Speaker 1: look at least a little like Battersea Park. I know 616 00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:34,040 Speaker 1: you guys like your pet photos, so please enjoy some 617 00:38:34,160 --> 00:38:38,399 Speaker 1: of our not so little Welsh Corgi named Badger. He's 618 00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:40,919 Speaker 1: as cute as he is troublesome, and we work hard 619 00:38:40,920 --> 00:38:42,680 Speaker 1: to give him the best life a dog and have 620 00:38:42,880 --> 00:38:45,480 Speaker 1: goodness knows, he repays the love tenfold. I hope this 621 00:38:45,560 --> 00:38:48,319 Speaker 1: helps you both smile. Thank you for making our dog 622 00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:52,880 Speaker 1: walks so very educational. Best wishes, Katie. What unadorable Welsh 623 00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:57,480 Speaker 1: corgy in one picture sitting next to a pumpkin and 624 00:38:57,719 --> 00:39:00,640 Speaker 1: other looks like next to maybe a square shmellow with 625 00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:06,000 Speaker 1: a cant of Doctor Pepper a big close up of 626 00:39:06,160 --> 00:39:09,920 Speaker 1: doggy face. Thank you so much for this email, Katie. 627 00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:11,719 Speaker 1: I'm glad to have a little more knowledge of what 628 00:39:11,840 --> 00:39:13,440 Speaker 1: that part of the park is like, aunt to have 629 00:39:13,560 --> 00:39:17,920 Speaker 1: these adorable dog pictures. We'll talk some more about our 630 00:39:17,920 --> 00:39:21,880 Speaker 1: personal thoughts in this episode on Friday. If you'd like 631 00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:24,000 Speaker 1: to send us a note, We're at History Podcast at 632 00:39:24,040 --> 00:39:26,839 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio dot com, and we're all over social media at 633 00:39:26,840 --> 00:39:29,720 Speaker 1: missed in History, where you'll find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest 634 00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:33,319 Speaker 1: and Instagram and You can subscribe to our show at 635 00:39:33,320 --> 00:39:36,040 Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app or wherever else you'll like be at 636 00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:43,640 Speaker 1: your podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class is a 637 00:39:43,680 --> 00:39:48,080 Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the 638 00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:51,600 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 639 00:39:51,600 --> 00:39:52,320 Speaker 1: favorite shows.