Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

BOOKS Jen Manion talks 'Female Husbands' and writing process
by Carrie Maxwell, Windy City Times
2020-04-15

This article shared 5281 times since Wed Apr 15, 2020
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


In their new book, Female Husbands: A Trans History, Jen Manion illuminates the stories of people assigned female at birth who transed gender to live as men and also marry women in the United Kingdom and United States from 1746 to just before World War I.

While Manion was doing historic research on other topics they would stumble upon short anecdotes in newspapers about female husbands and they wanted to figure out what to make of these stories. That is how this book came to fruition.

When asked to describe their book to someone who does not know about female husbands, Manion said "gender and sexual minority communities have been around forever. We might seem 'new' or 'modern' to some people but history shows nothing could be further from the truth. These female husbands were widely known about and debated in newspapers in both countries during that time and I wanted to share this with a new audience."

Manion decided to focus on the United Kingdom and the United States during those years because that is where the term female husband was used in newspaper reporting.

In terms of their research process, Manion said they verified all their newspaper articles with other archival sources.

"I was able to show that these stories were not just made up by newspaper editors," said Manion. "These couples had legal marriage licenses that I found in the archives. I dug a layer deeper to fill in the context of their lives, the people who encountered them and how they moved through society."

What Manion found was that there was a lot of sadness with these people's stories. They also pointed to the most interesting story in the book was about James Howe and their wife Mary who ran several taverns in the United Kingdom including one in London for more than 20 years. Manion explained that the Howe's were two poor teenagers who made a pact where one of them would live as a man, they would get married and live their lives together.

"There is quite a bit written about the Howe's and it is very interesting," said Manion. "Their story broke after their wife died because James outed themself as someone assigned female at birth. Over the course of 100 years, newspaper editors regurgitated their story with different kinds of language and judgments embedded."

This is not the first book that Manion has written. They are also the author of Liberty's Prisoners: Carceral Culture in Early America and Taking Back the Academy: History of Activism, History as Activism along with countless scholarly articles on a variety of LGBTQ issues.

Manion's journey as an author and college professor began as a child growing up in a small town two hours from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and got their Ph.D. from Rutgers University. Currently, Manion is an associate professor of history at Amherst College and previously taught at Connecticut College. While at Connecticut College, Manion founded the LGBTQ Resource Center and served as its director.

The reason why Manion gravitated to academia as a career choice was because "college just completely blew my mind. It was rather overwhelming and exciting to me to be surrounded by so many different kinds of people who knew about everything one could possibly know. Colleges are places of tremendous possibility, where people who are curious and open-minded can thrive. I knew I wanted to be a part of that world."

Writing was a natural step for Manion because they loved reading and researching topics and wanted to share these findings with the world.

"It is very gratifying to string words together in a way that helps to clarify an idea or an issue for people," said Manion. "My topics choose me. As a historian, what I write about depends on what sources I have found. But I only spend time on things that have relevance beyond the world of academic history—such as mass incarceration or transgender liberation—otherwise, I do not think I am making the best use of my time and resources."

When Manion is not teaching or writing books and scholarly articles, they enjoy spending time with their spouse of six years, Jessica Halem. Halem is Harvard Medical School's LGBTQ Outreach and Engagement Director and former Chicagoan. The couple has been together for 10 years and married in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 2014.

In their new book's acknowledgements, Manion wrote that Halem declared them their female husband. Manion said, "Somewhere in the middle of this project we realized that the term female husband was the perfect category for me. Some of it is about my gender expression but it is also about caretaking and responsibility that the term husband connotes."

"It's wonderful to learn old-timey language that speaks to the ways that gender lives as both as personal identity and a relational identity," said Halem. "I hope other people in the queer community take this word for a spin. This book also contains the untold stories of the queer wives who are too often ignored in relation to transgender and non-binary people."

Manion's future plans include continuing to teach and keep writing about trans history because there is so much more that needs to be done of this topic.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Manion's book tour has been put on hold, however, they are planning on coming to Women and Children First when medical personnel say travel and gatherings are allowed to resume.

See JenManion.com .


This article shared 5281 times since Wed Apr 15, 2020
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

Kara Swisher talks truth, power in tech at Chicago Humanities event 2024-03-25
- Lesbian author, award-winning journalist and podcast host Kara Swisher spoke about truth and power in the tech industry through the lens of her most recent book, Burn Book: A Tech Love Story, March 21 at First ...


Gay News

RuPaul finds 'Hidden Meanings' in new memoir 2024-03-18
- RuPaul Andre Charles made a rare Chicago appearance for a book tour on March 12 at The Vic Theatre, 3145 N. Sheffield Ave. Presented by National Public Radio station WBEZ 91.5 FM, the talk coincided with ...


Gay News

Without compromise: Holly Baggett explores lives of iconoclasts Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap 2024-03-04
- Jane Heap (1883-1964) and Margaret Anderson (1886-1973), each of them a native Midwesterner, woman of letters and iconoclast, had a profound influence on literary culture in both America and Europe in the early 20th Century. Heap ...


Gay News

There she goes again: Author Alison Cochrun discusses writing journey 2024-02-27
- By Carrie Maxwell When Alison Cochrun began writing her first queer romance novel in 2019, she had no idea it would change the course of her entire life. Cochrun, who spent 11 years as a high ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Women's college, banned books, military initiative, Oregon 2023-12-29
- After backlash regarding a decision to update its anti-discrimination policy and open enrollment to some transgender applicants, a Catholic women's college in Indiana will return to its previous admission policy, per The National Catholic Reporter. In ...


Gay News

NATIONAL School items, Miami attack, Elliot Page, Fire Island 2023-12-22
- In Virginia, new and returning members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and Fairfax County School Board were inaugurated—with some school board members opting to use banned books on the topics of slavery and LGBTQ+ ...


Gay News

Chicago author's new guide leads lesbian fiction authors toward inspiration and publication 2023-12-07
- From a press release: Award-winning and bestselling lesbian fiction author Elizabeth Andre—the pen name for a Chicago-based interracial lesbian couple—has published her latest book, titled Self-Publishing Lesbian Fiction, Write Your ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Tenn. law, banned books, rainbow complex, journalists quit 2023-12-01
- Under pressure from a lawsuit over an anti-LGBTQ+ city ordinance, officials in Murfreesboro, Tennessee removed language that banned homosexuality in public, MSNBC noted. Passed in June, Murfreesboro's "public decency" ordinance ...


Gay News

BOOKS Lucas Hilderbrand reflects on gay history in 'The Bars Are Ours' 2023-11-29
- In The Bars Are Ours (via Duke University Press), Lucas Hilderbrand, a professor of film and media studies at the University of California-Irvine, takes readers on a historical journey of gay bars, showing how the venues ...


Gay News

BOOKS Owen Keehnen takes readers to an 'oasis of pleasure' in 'Man's Country' 2023-11-27
- In the book Man's Country: More Than a Bathhouse, Chicago historian Owen Keehnen takes a literary microscope to the venue that the late local icon Chuck Renslow opened in 1973. Over decades, until it was demolished ...


Gay News

Photographer Irene Young launches book with stellar concerts 2023-11-20
- "Something About the Women" was appropriately the closing song for two sold-out, stellar concerts at Berkeley's Freight & Salvage November 19, in celebration of the new book of the same name by Irene Young, the legendary ...


Gay News

Rustin film puts a gay pioneer into the spotlight 2023-11-16
- The story of activist Bayard Rustin is one that should be told in classrooms everywhere. Instead, because Rustin was an openly same-gender-loving man, his legacy has gone relatively unnoticed outside of LGBTQ+-focused history books. Netflix hopes ...


Gay News

Billy Masters: The times Streisand failed to make a splash 2023-11-13
- "Fame is a hollow trophy. No matter who you are, you can only eat one pastrami sandwich at a time."—Wise words from Barbra Streisand. You all know that Barbra Streisand's book is out. And I ...


Gay News

Charles Busch dishes on life as a storyteller 2023-11-09
- Performer/writer Charles Busch, who recently penned his autobiography, Leading Lady: A Memoir of a Most Unusual Boy, said that collecting his most precious and salient memories in a book felt "inevitable." "Storytelling is such an essential ...


Gay News

LGBT HISTORY PROJECT: Exploring 70 years of lesbian publications, from 1940s zines to modern glossy magazines 2023-11-02
- Since the '40s, lesbians have created a vibrant history of publications. From the exploration of daily lesbian life to literary and feminist pursuits, to the modern age of glossy magazines, for over 70 years, lesbians have ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.