Date of Award
May 2015
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
History
First Advisor
Merry Wiesner-Hanks
Committee Members
Carolyn Eichner, Gwynne Kennedy
Keywords
Bearded Women, Cross-dressing, Gallathea, Queer, St. Wilgefortis, Transgender
Abstract
This thesis argues that gender non-conforming individuals in the late medieval and early modern periods were influenced by cultural examples of "deviant" gender behavior including cross-dressers, religious figures, women with male characteristics, literature, and popular entertainment. The thesis also argues that the fragmented approach historians have previously taken when examining the lives of gender non-conforming individuals has been inadequate and could be improved by envisioning the individuals not as individual anomalies or aberrations, but as participants in a long cultural tradition of gender non-conformity and transgression throughout western Europe.
Recommended Citation
Crannell, Marissa, "Utterly Confused Categories: Gender Non-Conformity in Late Medieval and Early Modern Western Europe" (2015). Theses and Dissertations. 800.
https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/800