User:Graydoiron/sandbox/transgenderdraft

The story of “Lucy Nelson: Or, The Boy Girl” was published in 1831 and “Billy Bedlow; or, the Girl-Boy” was published in 1832 two months apart and the author was Eliza Leslie. This is an important part of transgender history because it shows how they trained and shamed children into being their assigned gender at birth.

The first story “Lucy Nelson: Or, The Boy Girl” shows a girl who identified with being a boy. In the story it talks about how the girl Lucy Nelson would partake in typical boyish activities and showed no interest in activities typical of girls. She often played with her brothers instead of her sisters also showing leadership among them. It was stated that everyone called her a boy-girl because of all the typical activities meant for boys and the fact that her clothes were torn, shoes were dirty, and she was sunburned showing just how opposing of girlish manors she was. The story goes on to show one day she lead her brothers up a ladder to the top of the barn roof, their father punished all of them but Lucy got another punishment as her parents were done with her boyish antics. As a punishment, she had to wear boys clothes for a month which she quite liked at first. It wasn’t until the humiliation of her brothers laughing at her and saying they would now treat her like a boy by being rough and ridiculing her that she started to not enjoy wearing the clothes. Out of fear of humiliation she put on her sister’s apron at dinner time with guests that was oversized to cover her clothes. The ending of the story shows that she was crying that she doesn’t want to be a boy and was grateful when her mother allowed her to dress back as a girl. She then started to partake in more activities suited for a  girl telling her mom that she would try to change her ways. This story shows us how gender played a role during this time and how it was important that boys and girls should play in a separate sphere. It also shows how the influences of society and others influence a persons idea of gender and who they are supposed to be. In this case she enjoyed participating in boy activities and wearing clothes for boys until the people around her started humiliating her and treating her poorly which she then associated that bad experience with what being a boy was. This discouraged her into believing that she has to be a girl who does girl activities and mannerisms and if she doesn't she will be reprimanded or humiliated.

The second story “Billy Bedlow; or, the Girl-Boy” showed a boy named Billy Bedlow who “embraced all-things girl”. Billy felt more feminine than masculine, he would perfume himself, wear gloves, and keep his hair longer. Growing up in Billy’s desire to be more feminine he was raised by a single mother who did not discourage him from trying to be more feminine. The end of Billy’s desire to become more feminine occurred at a birthday party on a ship. To the party, he wore one of his sister’s corsets under his jacket. He still felt uncomfortable in the clothes he was wearing because they were boy’s clothes. When he was at the party a boy tugged at the strings of his corset that were hanging out from under his coat and everyone saw that he had a corset on. The other children at the party laughed and teased him which humiliated Billy. After this encounter, he was offered a jacket that was more masculine which initially he rejected but after the humiliation he “thankfully” accepted. Then a boy taught him how to be more masculine such as cutting his hair and stop perfuming himself. Billy was deterred away from embracing his femininity by his peers. This story shows how cross-dressing was frowned upon and made people who wanted to do so feel humiliated or even in danger.

Bibliography

“Lucy Nelson; Or, The Boy Girl (Part 2) · Transgender Children in Antebellum America · OutHistory: It's About Time.” Outhistory.org, outhistory.org/exhibits/show/transgenderchildrenantebellum/lucy-nelson-2.

“Billy Bedlow; or, the Girl-Boy · Transgender Children in Antebellum America · OutHistory: It's About Time.” Outhistory.org, outhistory.org/exhibits/show/transgenderchildrenantebellum/billy-bedlow.

“Introduction · Transgender Children in Antebellum America · OutHistory: It's About Time.” Outhistory.org, outhistory.org/exhibits/show/transgenderchildrenantebellum/introduction.