cahn

Background: The kids' school has a topic for "Unit" every trimester that a lot of their work (reading, writing, some math) revolves around. These topics range from time/geographic periods ('Colonial America') to geography ('Asia') to science ('Space') to social science ('Business and Economics'). (I have some issues with this way of doing things, but that's a whole separate post.) Anyway, for Reasons, they have had to come up with a new topic this year, and E's 7/8 class is doing "World Fairs" as their new topic.

Me: I know E's teacher is all about World Fairs and I know she is great and will do a good job. But I feel like if we had a different teacher who wasn't so into World Fairs, they wouldn't do such a good job and another topic would be better.
Me: Like... the Enlightenment!
D: Heh, you could teach that! But you'd have to restrain yourself from making everything about Frederick the Great.
Me: But that's the thing! Everyone does relate to each other in this time period! Voltaire -- and his partner Émilie du Châtelet, who was heavily involved in the discourse of conservation of energy and momentum -- well, I've told you Voltaire had a thing with Fritz -- and then there's Empress Maria Theresa, who went to war with him a few times -- and Catherine the Great --
D, meditatively: You know --
Me: *am innocently not warned even though this is the same tone of voice that is often followed by, say, a bad pun*
D: -- it's impressive how everyone from this 'the Great' family is so famous!
Me: *splutters*
D, thoughtfully: But of course there's probably selection bias, as the ones who aren't famous don't get mentioned. You never see 'Bob the Great' in the history books...
Me: *splutters more*

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

mildred_of_midgard

1770:

Rumors break out about the Chevalier d'Eon being secretly a woman. They spread across Europe like wildfire. People start *placing bets*, and bankers are acting as bookies.

Chevalier d'Eon: This is an outrage! Who told you I was a woman? How dare you bet on my sex? I hereby challenge you to a duel!

Banker: Sorry about that, but you have to remember that in England, it's legal to place bets on anyone except the King, the Queen, and their children.

Chevalier d'Eon: A DUEL, SIR. Duels for everybody placing bets on the state of my genitalia!

Everyone: No one is going to fight you. Calm down.

Chevalier d'Eon: "Calm down." My honor is at stake here! And next thing I know, I'm going to be kidnapped so people can determine my sex. I am a victim of slander.

Kates: Ahem. While as a historian I cannot document the origin of rumors, by definition, all evidence points to you as the one who started them.

Chevalier d'Eon: That's nonsense! The only person I confided my true sex to was the Princess Dashkova, one-time BFF of future Catherine the Great, when I lived in Russia. She must have told someone!

Kates: Much like the correspondence of the King's Secret from that time contains no reference to you being hired to work as a woman and a man, Dashkova's memoirs make no reference to this. All evidence from your own correspondence points to you making this story up in the 1770s.

Chevalier d'Eon: Why would I do something as silly as that??

Kates: Because you wanted to go back to France, but you didn't want to be arrested and thrown in the Bastille when you got there. You figured this would both drum up some sympathy for you and give you a reason to leave England, as well as give you so much notoriety that Louis couldn't just throw you in a deep dark dungeon and expect the public to forget about you. Look, you were a double agent. You were one of the best damn double agents France ever had. Starting rumors without letting on that they came from you was part of your day job! You had both motive and opportunity, is what I'm saying.

Kates: Plus, don't forget the signed testimonies about the state of your penis upon your death.

Ghost of Fritz: *waves*

Kates: PLUS, even late in life, when you were dressing in women's clothes and presenting as a woman, random observers kept commenting on how masculine your body was. People would not have spontaneously looked at you, living as a man in England, and gone, "Oh, hey, must be a woman!" You made this up.

Chevalier d'Eon: *grumbles at future historians and their detective work*

Chevalier d'Eon: Anyway, it worked. In 1776, Louis XVI finally acknowledged I was a woman, and in 1777, after 15 years in England, I finally got to return to France safely.

Louis XVI: Well, Madame Chevaliere, now that you are a woman, you will obviously wear women's clothes and retire from the military and diplomacy.

Chevalier d'Eon: What?! I wanted to come back to France safely, not give up everything that made life worth living! I will be a woman wearing men's clothes and a man's life.

Louis: I will arrest you if you do that!

Chevalier d'Eon's fellow dragoons: We protest! Not because we want women in the army, but because wearing the uniform of a captain of dragoons is an honor! You're supposed to wear it every time you go out in public for the rest of your life. If the King can violate one of his own laws, he's a tyrant who can do anything. None of us will be safe!

Louis: I have the arrest warrant right here in my hand…your call, Chevalier.

Marie Antoinette: Don't worry, you can borrow my dressmaker, the famous Rose Bertin! We'll teach you how to be a lady again.

Chevalier d'Eon: *banging head against wall*

Chevalier d'Eon: FINE. I guess it's better than the Bastille, but not by much. The stays hurt my
shoulders, stomach, and groin. “I find women's clothes too complicated for dressing and undressing promptly. Full of inconvenience, unseasonable for winter, impractical for all occasions except those uniquely suited for embodying vanity, luxury, and vice." Also, narrow high heels are the worst; I'm going to keep wearing low rounded heels.

Mildred: More proof that men had stopped wearing high heels by mid-century. The Chevalier d'Eon was born in 1728.

Chevalier d'Eon: Also, I'm afraid that if I put on women's clothes, everyone's going to treat me like a woman, and if there's one thing I value in life, it's liberty.

Kates: I will talk a lot about Joan of Arc in this book. I will dedicate an entire chapter to Joan of Arc. But bizarrely, I will not mention the drama around her wearing men's clothes at all. There will be one passing reference to the Chevalier d'Eon pointing out that Joan refused to wear women's clothes, but I am apparently completely ignorant of the role it played in her trial and condemnation, leading Mildred to google me to see if I'm a serious historian at all.

Mildred: History professor at Pomona College. Not to be a snob, but meh. Research profile also meh; I wouldn't be surprised if he never picked up a medieval history book in his life. It was just weird to see ~75 mentions of Joan's name in the book and nary a discussion of the cross-dressing battle.

Chevalier d'Eon: Meanwhile, I have a fantastic track record in both the military and diplomatic services; that means I can continue to serve, right?

Louis: No. You are a woman. Please to be behaving like a woman.

Chevalier d'Eon: I knew it! I knew dressing like a woman would limit me to a woman's life. At the very least, I'm going to continue acting like a man in terms of body language, chivalry towards ladies, etc.

Chevalier d'Eon: And in the meantime, I haven't given up on the military idea. The American Revolution has started, I'm a huge fan of liberty, and more than anything I want to go to America and fight for the cause! I will begin a letter-writing campaign in which I bother everyone with any power or influence at all, to try to get myself a post with the French troops in America!

Louis XVI: OMG WTF. I hereby order you to leave Versailles and return to your hometown in Burgundy and stop making a nuisance of yourself.

Chevalier d'Eon: *is still in Versailles, complaining about boredom*

Louis XVI: Fine, arrest her.

Chevalier d'Eon: This is just like the time Joan of Arc was arrested for wearing a military uniform, an episode on which Kates will not elaborate at all!

Chevalier d'Eon: Like any good French noble, I think life in the provinces sucks. If I can't have Paris, I want London! Please can I go to London, pretty please?

French ministers: No, you idiot, we're at war with England. That American Revolution thing? Ever heard of it? In France you stay, at least until the war's over.

From:

selenak

Kates: Plus, don't forget the signed testimonies about the state of your penis upon your death.

Ghost of Fritz: *waves*

LOL. At least d'Eon didn't have Dr. Zimmerman theorize about said penis being broken as a mixture of a botched operation, STD and psychology?

I will talk a lot about Joan of Arc in this book. I will dedicate an entire chapter to Joan of Arc. But bizarrely, I will not mention the drama around her wearing men's clothes at all.

That is really weird. It's not like this was a minor part of her persona! Incidentally, does Kates mention Julie D'Aubigny? (Not that she tried to save France, but she did wear men's clothing, did duel and cause lots of scandals, so...)

From:

mildred_of_midgard

LOL. At least d'Eon didn't have Dr. Zimmerman theorize about said penis being broken as a mixture of a botched operation, STD and psychology?

WELL. Since you mention it, here's what Kates has to say:

Complicating the story even more is d'Eon's claim that he had suffered in childhood from a urinary tract disorder. As a rhetorical device in the autobiography, this important "fact" moves us to sympathize with him, removing him even further from any blame or responsibility. Likewise, it may tempt us to view his childhood medical problem as a cause of his later transsexualism. But surely there have been thousands of children who have had such problems and have maintained ordinary gender roles. The story about the urinary tract disorder may explain not so much why d'Eon wanted to become a woman, but rather, why he was asexual and remained a virgin throughout his life. Perhaps the disorder left some physical or psychological discomfort that lingered in later life.

That is really weird. It's not like this was a minor part of her persona!

It was really weird to have a ton of material on Joan of Arc and a ton of material on the fight with authorities to be allowed to wear men's clothes, and nothing about Joan's fight with authorities to be allowed to wear men's clothes. What I suspect is that Kates didn't touch a biography of Joan, but only researched 18th century discourse about Joan. Which was apparently not about her fight with authorities to be allowed to wear men's clothes! (Though the Chevalier d'Eon clearly knew about it, since Kates does mention in passing the Chevalier talking about this episode.)

Incidentally, does Kates mention Julie D'Aubigny? (Not that she tried to save France, but she did wear men's clothing, did duel and cause lots of scandals, so...)

Doesn't look like it, from searching through this book.

Edited Date: 2023-12-13 01:46 pm (UTC)

From:

cahn

Starting rumors without letting on that they came from you was part of your day job!

Huh! Well, if the shoe fits...

Kates: Plus, don't forget the signed testimonies about the state of your penis upon your death.

Ghost of Fritz: *waves*

Hee!