To celebrate LGBT History Month 2019, the EFL have put together a display exploring gender identity in fiction.
The books included in the display are not a prescriptive list of texts, neither are they an indication of a particular way of describing gender identity. Instead, we have gathered texts from a wide range of writers, time periods, and styles, to act as examples of how authors have represented gender identity within fiction.
The Roaring Girle. Or Moll-Cutpurse (1611)
Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker
Facsimile (1914)
This play by Middleton and Dekker, fictionalises the story of the real Mary Frith (c.1584 – 1659).
In a 1612 court appearance, Mary confessed to frequenting “taverns and tobacco shops”. It also states she had “worn men’s clothing, and performed in male attire upon the stage of the Fortune Theatre”. She was charged with “immodest behaviour”.
During her life she most often wore men’s clothes, or when required “a masculine doublet above and a petticoat below”, but there is no evidence she presented herself as a man, or attempted to live as one. It is perhaps for this reason that the treatment of her life in fiction by Middleton and Dekker is favourable. Mary Frith is seen as inoffensive and at times entertaining, rather than a threat to gender norms.
In the three remaining portraits that depict her, Mary is often seen to be wearing both male and female clothes, and in the introduction to a 1993 edition of her autobiography The Life and death of Mistress Mary Frith, the editor states:
“To wear the clothing of both male and female…is to call attention to the constructed nature of gender and to disrupt any naturalized view of gender, for the denial to be one of the other…is to undermine claims about the essential nature of differences between male and female.”
Nakayama, Randall S. (ed.) The Life and death of Mistress Mary Frith, commonly called Moll Cutpurse (Garland Publishing: New York, 1993)
Moll Cutpurse: Her True Story (1993)
Ellen Galford
This novel by Ellen Galford is written in the style of a pulp novel, portraying Moll Cutpurse as a kind of lesbian Robin Hood.
Trumpet (1998)
Jackie Kay
Trumpet is the debut novel by Scottish poet Jackie Kay, and tells the story of jazz musician Joss Moody. Joss lives his life as a man, and only at his death does everyone learn that he was assigned female at birth.
The novel is based on the life of the jazz musician Billy Tipton, a white transgender man, but Jackie Kay reimagines his story through the eyes of a trans black man, which allows for a discussion of the intersection between gender identity and race in Britain.
Children’s Fiction
In recent years, children’s publishing has been at the forefront of gender expressions in fiction, ensuring that children of all ages have available to them stories that represent a range of gender identities.
Introducing Teddy, by Jessica Walton and illustrated by Dougal Macpherson (2016), is a picture book that tells the story of a teddy who one day has to tell their best friend Errol that they would like to be called Tilly: “I need to be myself, Errol. In my heart, I’ve always known that I’m a girl teddy, not a boy teddy.”
The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler by Gene Kemp (1977) is a novel for ages 8-12 and a 20th century children’s classic. It tells the story to Tyke and Danny Price, two best friends who are always getting into trouble. The gender of Tyke is not revealed until the end of the story.
George by Alex Gino (2015) is a novel for ages 8-12, and tells the story of George who has been keeping secret that she is a girl. She comes up with a plan, helped by her best friend Kelly, so that she can play Charlotte in the school production of Charlotte’s Web, allowing everyone to see who she really is.
If I was your Girl by Meredith Russo (2016) is one of the first Young Adult novels about a trans girl, written by a trans woman, and tells the story of Amanda, who is trying to keep the secret of her gender identity. It is a realistic and honest portrayal of a trans teen in America.
Written on the Body (1992)
Jeanette Winterson
Written on the Body is a novel about obsessive love as well as a meditation on the unreality of sexual relationships and their inherent possessiveness. The narrator is never named, and at no point do we know definitively what their gender is.
Girl Meets Boy (2007)
Ali Smith
In Girl Meets Boy, Ali Smith retells the Greek tale of Iphis and Ianthe, as the story of Anthea and Robin. Robin is a gender fluid character who is described as having “a girl’s toughness. She had a boy’s gentleness. She was as meaty as a girl. She was as graceful as a boy.” The novel explores friendships, homophobia, and consumerism.
This exhibition has been curated by Jen Gallagher – EFL Reader Services Librarian