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- Title
Of mermaids and monsters: Transgender history and the boundaries of the human in eighteenth‐ and early‐nineteenth‐century Britain.
- Authors
Gust, Onni
- Abstract
The figure of the monster has long been used by trans and intersex scholars, artists and activists to articulate their sense of being in a world dominated by binary, cisgender norms. Yet what does it mean to embrace 'the monstrous' and how might that embrace inform the construction of transgender history? This article examines the specificities of 'the monstrous' in eighteenth‐ and nineteenth‐century Britain and empire by focusing on two figures at the boundary of the human: 'the mermaid' and 'the hermaphrodite'. In doing so, it asks what the histories of these two marginal figures might tell us about the construction of 'the human' and argues that an alignment with the monster might enable trans historians to ally themselves with a vision of the future that goes beyond anthropocentrism.
- Subjects
TRANSGENDER history; TRANSGENDER people; INTERSEX people; INTERSEXUALITY; MONSTERS; MERMAIDS; HETERONORMATIVITY; ANTHROPOCENTRISM
- Publication
Gender & History, 2024, Vol 36, Issue 1, p112
- ISSN
0953-5233
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/1468-0424.12769