From the “things that make you go ‘huh’?” department. The Clipper was a weekly paper devoted to sports (which is why I read it) and the theater. It featured a regular column of answers to correspondents’ questions. To wit, this answer to a question (sadly, not included) from “Prima Donna, East St. Louis”:
While it would be perfectly appropriate for you to wear earrings while on the stage in your female impersonations, it would be equally inappropriate for you, being of the male sex, to wear them while not professionally engaged. Source: New York Clipper September 7, 1878
This serves to me as a reminder that not only has there never been an absolute gender binary, there has also never been a lack of people interested in challenging that binary conception, and an equal non-lack of people interested in policing it.Report