Jennie June (autobiographer)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jennie June was one of the earliest transgender individuals to publish an autobiography in the United States.[1][2]

Biography[]

Jennie June was born into a Puritan family[1] in 1874 in Connecticut. His[note 1] birth name is unknown; he used at various times the pseudonyms "Jennie June", "Earl Lind", and "Ralph Werther".[1][3] At the time, the term "transgender" had not been coined; instead words such as "androgyne", "invert", and "fairie" were used. He struggled throughout his life up to his late twenties with his extreme desire to perform fellatio, claiming to have partaken in over sixteen hundred sexual encounters in the span of a dozen years.[4]

As a young adult, June found safe havens in places such as Paresis Hall in New York City to take on his new identity. Paresis Hall, or Columbia Hall, was one of many establishments considered the center of homosexual nightlife where male prostitutes would solicit men under an effeminate persona. Places like Paresis Hall provided a place where people like June could gather and feel more free to express themselves and socialize with similar people in a time when cross dressing was socially unacceptable and illegal.[5][better source needed] June then formed the Cercle Hermaphroditos in 1895 along with other androgynes who frequented Paresis Hall. The organization was formed in the hopes "to unite for defense against the world's bitter persecution" and to show that being transgender was natural, although there is not much solid evidence that this organization actually existed.[6]

At the age of 28, June had himself castrated, a decision that he believed would make him healthier and decrease his extreme and "disturbing" desires for sex, as well as eliminating some of his other masculine features, such as facial hair.[4]

According to Wayne Koestenbaum in The Queen's Throat, June believed that he could "diagnose a man sexually simply by hearing him sing", and wanted to be an opera soprano.[7]

Autobiography of an Androgyne and The Female-Impersonators[]

June published his first autobiography, The Autobiography of an Androgyne, in 1918, and his second, The Female-Impersonators, in 1922. While June did not describe himself as transgender, since the term was not in use yet, he aligned himself with femininity, despite having been assigned male at birth. This makes him one of the earliest instances of someone who is transgender or gender nonconforming in American history to publicize his own story. In a preface to the book,[which?] June explains that he has kept diaries of his life and that his autobiography has been taken from those.

June self-identified as a "fairie", "androgyne", "effeminate man", and a passive "invert".[4] He did not separate his gender from his sexuality, as was typical of the time period, and he also tied age into that, feeling as though age changed how and what people desired (he himself having a fondness of playing the role of a younger person when with certain people). He organized the book into episode-like sections, wherein he discusses incidents in his life as well as his opinions on certain social matters.[8]

The memoir describes in detail many personal narratives as well as his sexual encounters and desires, including the story of his castration, but also contains pleas for understanding and acceptance of these "fairies". The Autobiography of an Androgyne also describes how June felt that he lived a double life in the sense that he was an educated, middle-class white male scholar but also had intense yearnings for performing sexual acts that distracted him and caused him suffering.

The Riddle of the Underworld[]

In 2010, Dr. Randall Sell, a professor at Drexel University, discovered a third volume of June's autobiography called The Riddle of the Underworld, which was written in 1921. This third volume includes an encounter in which June was beaten by men whom he tried to pick up. He once again defends gender and sexual nonconformists, insisting that they were simply born of a different nature, but natural nonetheless.[9]

Bibliography[]

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ June referred to himself with masculine pronouns throughout his writing.

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale: Earl Lind 1874". Yale University. n.d. Archived from the original on June 4, 2008.
  2. ^ "Earl Lind (Ralph Werther-Jennie June): The Riddle of the Underworld, 1921". Out History. October 9, 2010. Archived from the original on June 27, 2013. Retrieved May 5, 2012.
  3. ^ Herrmann, Anne (2000). "The Androgyne as "Fairie": A Self-Authored Case History". Queering the Moderns: Poses/Portraits/Performances. Springer. pp. 143–163. ISBN 978-1-349-62967-1.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c Meyerowitz, J. "Thinking Sex With An Androgyne". GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 17.1 (2010): 97–105. Web. Retrieved April 13, 2017.
  5. ^ Gross, Tasha. "LGBTQ History: Cooper Square and Bowery". LGBTQ History: Cooper Square and Bowery. N.p., December 4, 2014. Web. Retrieved April 13, 2017.
  6. ^ Katz, Jonathan Ned. "Transgender Memoir of 1921 Found". Humanities and Social Sciences Online. N.p., 10 October 2010. Web. Retrieved April 13, 2017.
  7. ^ Wayne Koestenbaum, The Queen's Throat: Opera, Homosexuality and the Mystery of Desire, Gay Men's Press, 1994, page 14
  8. ^ June, Jennie (1918). Autobiography of an Androgyne. Rutgers University Press.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b "Earl Lind (Ralph Werther-Jennie June): The Riddle of the Underworld, 1921". OutHistory.org. N.p., n.d. Web. Retrieved April 13, 2017.
  10. ^ Contemporary reviews:
  11. ^ Contemporary reviews:

External links[]

Retrieved from ""