"On lies, secrets, and silence": the politics of evidence and interpretive strategies.
Debates about identifying and naming lesbians in history and how to characterize relationships between women in earlier historical contexts have been passionately contested since publication of Carroll Smith-Rosenberg's (1975) essay "The Female World of Love and Ritual." Spurred by Adrienne Rich's influential concept of a lesbian continuum and more recent gender-crossings in Queer and Trans-theory, charting the ambiguous spaces of desire is a highly charged political act. Together, these debates pose significant challenges for feminist historians researching women whose lives disrupted any neat correspondence between sex, gender, and sexuality. This article traverses these issues in relation to Amy Bock, infamous as a criminal confidence artist and cross-dresser at the turn of the twentieth century and claimed in recent times as lesbian. Amy herself pleaded an inherited mental instability; the authorities at the time agreed she was a habitual criminal. Mad, bad, or lesbian? Or was she simply unconventional in her gender and sexuality? It is argued that how we approach these questions potentially tells us more about the desires of the researcher than those of our subjects.
Coleman
Jenny
J
School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand. J.D.Coleman@massey.ac.nz
D003219:Confidentiality / Q000266:history*; D003415:Crime / Q000266:history*; D008192:Deception; D005197:Famous Persons; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D018452:Homosexuality, Female / Q000266:history*; D006801:Humans; D009520:New Zealand; D011057:Politics; D013648:Tasmania