The Chevalier d'Eon
Feb. 13th, 2024 08:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
This is the first installment of my write-up on the Chevalier d'Eon based on the biography by Gary Kates' Monsieur d'Eon Is a Woman. The book was an informative read, but veeeery much a product of its time, which is 1995 (preface added in 2001). The author is actually surprisingly liberal for that period, but, well, here's his take:
At first, I thought that d'Eon must have been Europe's first transsexual, the victim of a disorder that certain psychiatrists label gender dysphoria. I assumed that today he would have been a prime candidate for sex reassignment surgery. Indeed, since the 1920s communities of transsexuals and transvestites have thought of d'Eon as their patron saint. However, several conversations with a psychiatrist who had worked in a gender identity clinic convinced me that d'Eon was not sick. He did not hate himself. He did not hate his body. He did not think that he was trapped in the wrong body. But if d'Eon was not a transsexual, then, well, what was he? Of course, my book argues that d'Eon came to a cognitive decision that it was best for him to live life as a woman.
Kates then uses that argument to conclude that he doesn't need to respect d'Eon's pronouns, and decides the most useful approach to writing about d'Eon is to use masculine pronouns, in order to emphasize to the reader that the subject of this bio was not a transgender ("transsexual") woman, but a man, full stop.
Now, I was certainly not any more well informed than this in 2001, but since it's 2023 and discourse has moved on, I had to decide what to do about pronouns. At first I was going with what the Mob AU fanfic author did, which was conclude that we have no idea what the Chevalier d'Eon would have wanted, because we're not in a position to ask the right questions, so she uses they/them. But after reading this book (I think the Mob AU author has only read Wikipedia), it seems like–assuming this book is more accurate than Wikipedia–the Chevalier d'Eon did not go back and forth between presenting as a man and a woman, but switched from presenting as a man to presenting as a woman, and subsequently lived and died as a woman. So I'm going to use "she/her" pronouns.
However, since I've told this story using dialogue, characters are going to use whatever pronouns they would have used at a given time, both for accuracy and because their decisions make no sense if you don't understand how they were perceiving this individual.
I'm also, because Kates presents the Chevalier d'Eon as an unreliable narrator who was consciously refashioning her narrative to her advantage, going to allow Kates to argue with the Chevalier in this write-up. I will also be interrupting the narrative a lot myself. :D
Here goes! The story of the Chevalier d'Eon (1728-1810).
( Russia )
( England and the King's Secret )
( Genderswap )
( Here at the end of all things )
So this was an interesting book. Despite the fact that the whole Joan of Arc treatment made me question everything about his credentials, the book is jam-packed with more information about the 18th century and the Chevalier's life than I could report here.
In particular, if you want to read the book, there's a ton on how 18th century society and intellectuals understood gender roles, and how that differed from the 19th century. There's also a lot on the Chevalier's intellectual and spiritual life, the books she read and what she wrote, her experience as a born-again Christian, and how both of those things led her to believe women were morally superior to men in a way that must have contributed to her desire to live life as one.
There's also a lot more on how famous figures interacted with her, what she thought of them, and what they thought of her, such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Benjamin Franklin, John Wilkes, and this entire ~dramatic~ episode with Beaumarchais. It's worth a read even if it's not the most rigorous history ever.
cahn, you might like this one.
Oh, and final note from our 19th century Duc de Broglie, he is predictably not a fan of the Chevalier d'Eon and gets eyerolly at the whole "I'm a woman!" thing, and thinks of it as shenanigans that just made it harder for the Comte de Broglie to focus on important things, like the First Partition of Poland. (Note that the rumors about the Chevalier being a woman started in 1770, and the First Partition was playing out in 1771-1774, so these two events overlapped.)
At first, I thought that d'Eon must have been Europe's first transsexual, the victim of a disorder that certain psychiatrists label gender dysphoria. I assumed that today he would have been a prime candidate for sex reassignment surgery. Indeed, since the 1920s communities of transsexuals and transvestites have thought of d'Eon as their patron saint. However, several conversations with a psychiatrist who had worked in a gender identity clinic convinced me that d'Eon was not sick. He did not hate himself. He did not hate his body. He did not think that he was trapped in the wrong body. But if d'Eon was not a transsexual, then, well, what was he? Of course, my book argues that d'Eon came to a cognitive decision that it was best for him to live life as a woman.
Kates then uses that argument to conclude that he doesn't need to respect d'Eon's pronouns, and decides the most useful approach to writing about d'Eon is to use masculine pronouns, in order to emphasize to the reader that the subject of this bio was not a transgender ("transsexual") woman, but a man, full stop.
Now, I was certainly not any more well informed than this in 2001, but since it's 2023 and discourse has moved on, I had to decide what to do about pronouns. At first I was going with what the Mob AU fanfic author did, which was conclude that we have no idea what the Chevalier d'Eon would have wanted, because we're not in a position to ask the right questions, so she uses they/them. But after reading this book (I think the Mob AU author has only read Wikipedia), it seems like–assuming this book is more accurate than Wikipedia–the Chevalier d'Eon did not go back and forth between presenting as a man and a woman, but switched from presenting as a man to presenting as a woman, and subsequently lived and died as a woman. So I'm going to use "she/her" pronouns.
However, since I've told this story using dialogue, characters are going to use whatever pronouns they would have used at a given time, both for accuracy and because their decisions make no sense if you don't understand how they were perceiving this individual.
I'm also, because Kates presents the Chevalier d'Eon as an unreliable narrator who was consciously refashioning her narrative to her advantage, going to allow Kates to argue with the Chevalier in this write-up. I will also be interrupting the narrative a lot myself. :D
Here goes! The story of the Chevalier d'Eon (1728-1810).
( Russia )
( England and the King's Secret )
( Genderswap )
( Here at the end of all things )
So this was an interesting book. Despite the fact that the whole Joan of Arc treatment made me question everything about his credentials, the book is jam-packed with more information about the 18th century and the Chevalier's life than I could report here.
In particular, if you want to read the book, there's a ton on how 18th century society and intellectuals understood gender roles, and how that differed from the 19th century. There's also a lot on the Chevalier's intellectual and spiritual life, the books she read and what she wrote, her experience as a born-again Christian, and how both of those things led her to believe women were morally superior to men in a way that must have contributed to her desire to live life as one.
There's also a lot more on how famous figures interacted with her, what she thought of them, and what they thought of her, such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Benjamin Franklin, John Wilkes, and this entire ~dramatic~ episode with Beaumarchais. It's worth a read even if it's not the most rigorous history ever.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Oh, and final note from our 19th century Duc de Broglie, he is predictably not a fan of the Chevalier d'Eon and gets eyerolly at the whole "I'm a woman!" thing, and thinks of it as shenanigans that just made it harder for the Comte de Broglie to focus on important things, like the First Partition of Poland. (Note that the rumors about the Chevalier being a woman started in 1770, and the First Partition was playing out in 1771-1774, so these two events overlapped.)