When it comes to exploring trans history, a wealth of stories have beenpassed down to us.
In particular, trans women in history are repeatedly attested in so many different areas.
Below, you’ll find more information about the history of transgender women.
Yes!
In some cases, we’ll be exploring historical trans women on an individual basis.
This includes cases where we can’t specifically prove whether someone is transgender or not. The historical record isn’t always clear on such things.
For example, the Roman Emperor Elagabalus’ story is full of things we can clearly read today as transgender. However, there’s also reason to believe these stories were a result of historical slander.
Is that true here? We’ll take a closer look to find out.
In others, we’ll explore groups of trans people. This includes the Gallae, an order of priestesses devoted to the goddess Kybele. The most reasonable reading of their stories is to consider them to be trans women in ancient Rome.
While examining these stories, we’ll keep in mind the definition of “transgender” in a historical sense, as coined by Susan Stryker in her book Transgender History:
Because “transgender” is a word that has come into widespread use only in the past couple of decades, its meanings are still under construction. I use it in this book to refer to people who move away from the gender they were assigned at birth, people who cross over (trans-) the boundaries constructed by their culture to define and contain that gender. Some people move away from their birth-assigned gender because they feel strongly that they properly belong to another gender in which it would be better for them to live; others want to strike out toward some new location, some space not yet clearly defined or concretely occupied; still others simply feel the need to get away from the conventional expectations bound up with the gender that was initially put upon them. In any case, it is the movement across a socially imposed boundary away from an unchosen starting place—rather than any particular destination or mode of transition—that best characterizes the concept of “transgender” that I want to develop here.
Susan Stryker – Transgender History, pg. 1
This helps us avoid any unnecessary hand-wringing about the term. We can sidestep the boring and pedantic conversation about whether or not people were actually ancient trans women in history.
Instead, we can explore these individuals and groups as what they were. We can use them to inspire modern trans people. We can learn from our historical siblings. And we can put to bed the ridiculous myth that trans people are a new invention.
Trans women have always existed.
Scroll on to discover more.
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