Newspaper Clippings Make a Spectacle of “Female Impersonation”
Two recently uploaded Newspaper and Magazine Clippings collections include material published between 1855 and 1949 that sensationalize instances of “female impersonation” and gender transgression. The pre 1900 collection features some of the oldest American trans history materials currently in the DTA, while the 1900 to 1949 collection carries many of the same themes about trans history into the early twentieth century. Topics of the articles range from stories about instances of trans practice as a theatrical device to the careers of prominent “female impersonators.” Other articles discuss the criminalization of trans practice and dramatize the discovery of people that passed as men or women. Many of the articles tell stories of events that occurred in other municipalities, creating a spectacle out of trans practice as something that calls for national concern. The articles seem to purposefully reduce people in these stories to their trans practice, treating them as objects of intrigue for their readers.
We found many of the titles in this collection amusing but problematic because their sensationalist language relies on strange verbiage and dramatic descriptors. For us, “Silly Kid Tries to Dupe Sleuths” became representative of some of the flippant and ultimately problematic language authors used to begin to describe people subverting gender norms of their time. “Silly Kid” dehumanizes the individual in question and “dupe sleuths” makes light of gender-transgressive practices. While there is a spectrum of othering trans practice in this collection, they all contribute to the marginalization of gender variant behavior.
