The female husband

Masculinity vs femininity in 19th century America

Masculinities and RepresentationUniversità di Napoli l’Orientale, 22-23 May 2015

Marco Venuti

mvenuti@unict.it

Charity and SylviaOn 21 March, on the Italian online newspaper Il post I read an

article entitled “Storia di una coppia lesbica a inizio Ottocento”.

The translation of an article published in th e W as h ington P

the previous day with a fairly different title “The improbable, 200-

year-old story of one of America’s first same-sex ‘marriages’”

Intrigued by the story of Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake, I kept

reading more on the subject and found out that Rachel Hope

Cleves, associate professor of history at the University of Victoria,

had written a book about the lives of Charity and Sylvia and a

research article on the history of same-sex marriages in America

I decided to focus on their story and the way it has been

represented as the topic of my talk

William Cullen Bryant, Letters of a Traveller

I passed a few days in the valley of one of those streams of

northern Vermont, which find their way into Champlain. If I were

permitted to draw aside the veil of private life, I would briefly give

you the singular, and to me most interesting history of two

maiden ladies who dwell in this valley. I would tell you how, in

their youthful days, they took each other as companions for life,

and how this union, no less sacred to them than the tie of

marriage, has subsisted, in uninterrupted harmony, for forty

years, during which they have shared each other's occupations

and pleasures and works of charity while in health, and watched

over each other tenderly in sicknesss; for sickness has made long

and frequent visits to their dwelling.

William Cullen Bryant, Letters of a Traveller

I could tell you how they slept on the same pillow and had a

common purse, and adopted each other's relations, and how one

of them, more enterprising and spirited in her temper than the

other, might be said to represent the male head of the family, and

took upon herself their transactions with the world without, until

at length her health failed, and she was tended by her gentle

companion, as a fond wife attends her invalid husband. I would

tell you of their dwelling, encircled with roses, which now in the

days of their broken health, bloom wild without their tendance,

and I would speak of the friendly attentions which their

neighbors, people of kind hearts and simple manners, seem to

take pleasure in bestowing upon them, but I have already said

more than I fear they will forgive me for, if this should ever meet

their eyes, and I must leave the subject.

William Cullen Bryant, Letters of a Traveller

“union, no less sacred to them than the tie of marriage” which

has lasted in “uninterrupted harmony, for forty years”

“the friendly attentions which their neighbors, people of kind

hearts and simple manners, seem to take pleasure in bestowing

upon them”

“one of them, more enterprising and spirited in her temper than

the other, might be said to represent the male head of the family,

and took upon herself their transactions with the world without,

until at length her health failed, and she was tended by her gentle

companion, as a fond wife attends her invalid husband”

Data collection

Three corpora:

1. Cleves: comprising the two works by R. H. Cleves on Charity

and Sylvia

2. Reviews on the book published on Journals, newspapers,

blogs

3. A corpus compiled with bootcat using keywords from the

other two corpora as seeds

Data collection

1. Cleves:

1. 2 texts (the book and the research article)

2. 112,673 words

To investigate the representation of the two women in the original sources

and in the interpretation given by R. H. Cleves

Data collection

2. Reviews:

1. 54 texts (23 written by readers, 3 on academic journals)

2. 30372 words

To investigate the way contemporary readers perceived the story and

decided to frame it in their opinions

Data collection

3. The bootcat corpus:

1. 100 texts

2. 568757 words

3. Downloaded with Sketch Engine using keywords as seeds:

affections, "female husband", friendships, "gentle companion",

husbands, "impossible marriage", intimacies, lesbian, "lesbian history",

lesbianism, manless, mannish, marriages, masculinity, "same sex

marriage", "same-sex marriage", "same-sex union=, sexuality,

unmarried

To test findings with data on related topic (without the focus on 19th

centuryAmerican context)

Reference corpus

EnTenTen:

1. 22 million texts

2. 11 billion words

To compute keywords and terms.

As a reference for the identification of specific patterns

RQs

1. How is their relationship presented in in Cleves and in

Reviews?

2. What are the roles assigned to Charity and Sylvia in Cleves and

in Reviews?

3. What linguistic resources are used in attributing them their

roles?

4. Are the same linguistic choices salient in the bootcat corpus?

Relationships

Cleves

freq pMw

marriage 439 3251

relationship 172 1274

friendship 138 1022

couple 81 600

husband 179 1326

wife 130 963

partner 16 118

companion 38 281

lover 66 489

Reviews

freq pMw

marriage 190 5367

relationship 137 3870

friendship 23 650

couple 94 2655

husband 42 1186

wife 46 1299

partner 7 198

companion 16 452

lover 6 170

Romantic friendship

Relationships

Cleves

freq pMw

marriage 439 3251

relationship 172 1274

friendship 138 1022

couple 81 600

husband 179 1326

wife 130 963

partner 16 118

companion 38 281

lover 66 489

Reviews

freq pMw

marriage 190 5367

relationship 137 3870

friendship 23 650

couple 94 2655

husband 42 1186

wife 46 1299

partner 7 198

companion 16 452

lover 6 170

physical, sexual, same-sex, romantic

Relationships

Cleves

freq pMw

marriage 439 3251

relationship 172 1274

friendship 138 1022

couple 81 600

husband 179 1326

wife 130 963

partner 16 118

companion 38 281

lover 66 489

Reviews

freq pMw

marriage 190 5367

relationship 137 3870

friendship 23 650

couple 94 2655

husband 42 1186

wife 46 1299

partner 7 198

companion 16 452

lover 6 170

physical, sexual, same-sex, romantic, passionate

Relationships

Cleves

freq pMw

marriage 439 3251

relationship 172 1274

friendship 138 1022

couple 81 600

husband 179 1326

wife 130 963

partner 16 118

companion 38 281

lover 66 489

Reviews

freq pMw

marriage 190 5367

relationship 137 3870

friendship 23 650

couple 94 2655

husband 42 1186

wife 46 1299

partner 7 198

companion 16 452

lover 6 170

married, female,

same-sex

married, lesbian,

same-sex, queer

Relationships

Cleves

freq pMw

marriage 439 3251

relationship 172 1274

friendship 138 1022

couple 81 600

husband 179 1326

wife 130 963

partner 16 118

companion 38 281

lover 66 489

Reviews

freq pMw

marriage 190 5367

relationship 137 3870

friendship 23 650

couple 94 2655

husband 42 1186

wife 46 1299

partner 7 198

companion 16 452

lover 6 170

as [a] NOUN

“His words offer the plainest statement that Charity and Sylvia’s

relationship was viewed as a marriage.”

“if they had the opportunity, would select other women as

husbands rather than marry men”

“Charity portrayed herself as a husband when she called Sylvia

her “help-meet”—a common early American synonym for wife”

“Many people described the women as companions , echoing

Sylvia. Minister Jonathan Hovey addressed the women as ‘Miss

Charity Bryant & her beloved Companion,’”

Pattern distribution

[word="as"] []{0,3} [word="a|an|the"]{0,3}[tag="NN.*"]

In the Cleves and Review corpora and in EnTenTen as a reference

corpus

Pattern distribution

IN, DT, NN

1400 pMws 1836 pMws

Cleves Reviews

word Freq word Freq

as a man 10 as a couple 7

as a wife 5 as a marriage 6

as a marriage 4 as the wife 2

as a woman 3 as the husband 2

as a husband 3 as a household 2

as a lover 2 as a woman 1

as a friend 2 as a husband 1

as the head 1

as the goodwife 1

as a spouse 1

IN, DT, JJ, NN

644 pMws 1073 pMws

Cleves Reviews

word Freq word Freq

as a common synonym 4 as a married couple 17

as a single woman 3 as a fond wife 4

as a married couple 3 as a sexual relationship 1

as a female husband 3 as a lesbian couple 1

as a young woman 2 as a common household 1

as a fond wife 2

as a sexual institution 1

as a romantic institution 1

as a public institution 1

as a permanent union 1

as a permanent companion 1

IN, NNS

459 pMws 706 pMws

Cleves Reviews

word Freq word Freq

as wives 3 as companions 8

as spouses 3 as spouses 2

as lovers 3 as men 2

as companions 3 as seamstresses 1

as partners 2 as lesbians 1

as marriages 2 as individuals 1

as friends 2

as Women 2

as Men 2

as sister-wives 1

as lesbians 1

as husbands 1

as heads 1

IN, NN

451 pMws 593 pMws

Cleves Reviews

word Freq word Freq

as husband 4 as husband 3

as man 3 as head 3

as head 3 as head-of-household 1

IN, JJ, NNS

192 pMws 395 pMws

Cleves Reviews

word Freq word Freq

as single women 2 as guiding lights 7

as young women 1

as sexual partners 1

as romantic friends 1

as religious exemplars 1

as fey husbands 1

Distribution

To sum up

In both corpora there is a significant tendency to portray the

relationship as a ‘marriage’ (also in the eyes of their

contemporaries)

In both corpora there is a tendency to identify socially

recognizable gender roles

� a masculine husband (e.g. head of the family)

� And a feminine wife (e.g. tender and caring)

In both corpora there is a widespread use of recurring pattern,

AS + [A|AN|THE] + NN[S], to highlight the identification of easily

recognizable roles in the representation of Charity and Sylia’s

story

To sum upCharity and Sylvia