#leah devun

[forislynx]

Modern scholars of queer, intersex, and transgender studies have produced important scholarship documenting the ways in which "the human" has been deeply inflected by our beliefs about gender and sexuality. As these scholars have shown, gender plays a central role in legitimizing personhood, granting only the full range of human privileges (including those of bodily integrity and self-determination) to individuals who fit into accepted, natural categories, while withholding it from those whose bodies or gendered practices are considered unnatural or unacceptable.

Leah DeVun, The Shape of Sex: Nonbinary Gender from Genesis to the Renaissance

[haveyoureadthistransbook]

The Shape of Sex: Nonbinary Gender from Genesis to the Renaissance by Lead DeVun

goodreads

The Shape of Sex is a pathbreaking history of nonbinary sex, focusing on ideas and individuals who allegedly combined or crossed sex or gender categories from 200–1400 C.E. Ranging widely across premodern European thought and culture, Leah DeVun reveals how and why efforts to define “the human” so often hinged on ideas about nonbinary sex. The Shape of Sex examines a host of thinkers—theologians, cartographers, natural philosophers, lawyers, poets, surgeons, and alchemists—who used ideas about nonbinary sex as conceptual tools to order their political, cultural, and natural worlds. DeVun reconstructs the cultural landscape navigated by individuals whose sex or gender did not fit the binary alongside debates about animality, sexuality, race, religion, and human nature. The Shape of Sex charts an embrace of nonbinary sex in early Christianity, its brutal erasure at the turn of the thirteenth century, and a new enthusiasm for nonbinary transformations at the dawn of the Renaissance. Along the way, DeVun explores beliefs that Adam and Jesus were nonbinary-sexed; images of “monstrous races” in encyclopedias, maps, and illuminated manuscripts; justifications for violence against purportedly nonbinary outsiders such as Jews and Muslims; and the surgical “correction” of bodies that seemed to flout binary divisions. In a moment when questions about sex, gender, and identity have become incredibly urgent, The Shape of Sex casts new light on a complex and often contradictory past. It shows how premodern thinkers created a system of sex and embodiment that both anticipates and challenges modern beliefs about what it means to be male, female—and human.

Mod opinion: I haven't heard of this book before and it does sound like it is more focussed on intersex history than trans* history, but it apparently also includes some perisex nonbinary history.

[little-cereal-draws]

Hi! I saw a post where you mentioned intersex Jesus being a part of medieval European alchemy and I'd love to learn more about that. Could you elaborate or maybe provide links to some articles? I know some saint mystics talked about Jesus being our Mother, and the holy wound in His side was often likened to a birth canal, especially in medieval times. Is it connected to that in any way?

I'd love to elaborate! (This is going to be a long post so buckle up lol)

I will be using the word "hermaphrodite" instead of "intersex" because that is the word that primary sources from medieval Europe and contemporary medieval scholars use when talking about this subject

The best scholarly article I've found is "The Jesus Hermaphrodite: Science and Sex Difference in Premodern Europe" by Leah DeVun. It talks about how the image of the hermaphrodite was used in a metaphorical way by alchemists to show the combining/transforming of two different metals. They believed that certain metals/elements were gendered, so combining male and female "traits" would make something of a completely new sex; similar to the way they perceived hermaphrodites as both but also neither sex.

The article then goes on to talk about two medieval texts: Aurora consurgens and the Book of the Holy Trinity. Aurora consurgens is an alchemic text and has the image below in it. The hermaphrodite is holding a rabbit and bat, both of which were thought to be hermaphroditic species where both males and females gave birth, to emphasize their dual sexuality as well as the conflicting male and female attributes of alchemy.

The Book of the Holy Trinity transitioned from the traditional alchemic hermaphrodite, like seen above, into the religious sphere by arguing that Jesus and Mary were two sides of the same coin. The author of the text says, "one can never see the mother of God without also seeing that God eternally hides and intermingles [his mother] within him. God was and is eternally his own mother and his own father, human and divine, his divinity and his humanity intermingled within. And he depends on that which he wishes to be hidden most of all within himself, the divine and the human, the feminine and the masculine." This makes Jesus/Mary a hermaphrodite.

As a bit of a fun side note to your ask, the author of the Book of the Holy Trinity gives a few more supporting points to his argument and then turns to say that as Christ contains Mary, He also contains the Antichrist which the Book illustrates like this:

The idea of the hermaphrodite Christ really took off after that and boosted the cult of Saint Wilgefortis, saint of monsters. Images of the hermaphrodite Wilgefortis were often indistinguishable from images of Christ because they were both depicted on a cross but where they both have beards, Wilgefortis only has one shoe on: a playful medieval illusion to female sex organs. Images of Saint Wilgefortis below (some images from the 1800s, some from the 1400s). You can read more about Wilegfortis in Bearded Woman, Female Christ: Gendered Transformations in the Legends and Cult of Saint Wilgefortis by Lewis Wallace.

About a hundred years later, “The Lamentation around the remains of Christ,” below, was made depicting Jesus with breasts and feminine curves. Not much is known about it and Christ's hermaphroditic traits weren't even discovered until it was restored in the 21st century. Because of how recent this discovery is, not much scholarly work has been published on it, but I did find this: "The androgyny of Christ" by H. Valdes‑Socin. It is now at the Museum of Notre-Dame à la Rose Hospital in Lessines, Belgium.

And you're absolutely right about Christ's stab wound being like a birth canal! I think the article Mysticism and queer readings of Christ’s Side Wound in the Prayer Book of Bonne of Luxembourg by  Dr. Maeve K. Doyle does a good job of explaining it. Dr. Doyle says, "The image of the side wound, ... grants feminine bodily attributes to Christ, destabilizing assumptions about his gender. In mystical images and texts, Christ’s capacity to transcend the gender binary, like his capacity to transcend the binary of life and death, underscores his divinity." Dr. Doyle then goes on to talk about how images of the stab wound looking like a birth canal would also be comforting to medieval women, trans people, and homosexuals on both sides. Now I'm not Christian but I think it's really amazing that such a simple image can elicited so much comfort and joy in so many groups of people who were not able to fully be themselves in the era they lived in. It was a reminder that even Christ was like them, their feelings were valid (to an extent), and that Jesus loved them anyway. Medieval Jesus stab wounds below for people interested.

----

Just for fun here are some more cool things!

A medieval wooden architectural relief with a person with a beard, phallus, and breasts

Potta di Modena Metope/The Hermaphrodite (left) and detail from the Southern Archivolt (right) of the Modena Cathedral Modena, Italy, c. 1099-1319, Marble reliefs

The Potta di Modena Metope (left) is damaged because people in the 1500s thought it was too sexual/offensive so they vandalized it

More journal articles:

Bearded Women in Early Modern England by Mark Albert Johnston

The Third Sex: The Idea of the Hermaphrodite in Twelfth-Century Europe by Cary J. Nederman

Transvestites in the Middle Ages by Vern L. Bullough

[dogrosedreams]

🍊 Blue and orange 🫐

I started reading The Shape of Sex by Leah DeVun a few days ago and I’m really enjoying it so far! It might seem like a small detail but they always treat the medieval people they’re writing about with respect as complex human beings who lived real lives, and some medieval historians don’t always manage that in their writings. Would definitely recommend this book if it sounds at all interesting to you and I’m very excited to read more of it!

[multapohja966]

some fav things this year

Read

Detransition, baby - Torrey Peters' book. just adding a one more assurance that it is just as good as everyone says.

Shopping Star as a semiotechnical code modulating Greek femininity in pharmacopornographic capitalism - fun opulence of hard words discussing interesting things. (article utilising Preciado's analysis tools to discuss (post)recession Greece)

Chimamire Sukeban Chainsaw - Rei Mikamoto's insane gory gross, hard to explain, manga about a girl with a chainsaw trying to kill the person responsible for turning her classmates into grotesque minions.

One Piece - caught up finally. yes, it is worth it.

67,292 Things Car Guys Can Teach Transsexuals by Adrian Glenn - part of the 2 Trans 2 Furious zine. as a car guy associate and transsexual i deeply loved this one.

The Shape of Premodern Nonbinarity: A Conversation with Leah DeVun - I'll never stop talking about this article.

Watched

Bronson - Tom Hardy movie, biography of "Britain's most violent prisoner " Charles Bronson. It doesn't completely highlight everything essential about his story (having a less than nuanced view on untreated mental illness and its relationship with incarceration) but it's such a good fucking movie!! And at least artistically very loyal to who it's depicting (insane and absurdist).

this video of jack harlow at a chiropractic appointment - we live such weird fucking times. like it isn't heartfelt but it isn't disgusting either it's just, w-what? eh?

Little chinese everywhere - vlogger Yan who travels though less tourist heavy provinces in China, really respectful look to everyday life in more rural communities. these have given me a lot of peace and joy. a lot of extremely intresting architecture as well.

Inflatables and the adults who love collecting them - by furry youtuber Ash Coyote. Truly a gem of respectful by fandom, of fandom documentaries. Touching and lovely!!

MerPeople - don't touch netflix anymore but this documentary of the mermaid community and industry is incredibly good.

this rose ramdin x html jones vid - the well read terminally online gen z musical artists who get their estrogen money from twitter shitposting are the modern greek philosphers. in the sense that i'd sit on a stone public square step and listen to a convo like this for the whole day.

A normal creepypasta retrospective - there's hope for youtube actually

Cat soup / Nekojiru-sou movie

Earth Maiden Arjuna - early 2000s environmentalist anime series lovers make some noicee. this one is sooo lovely and gorgeous. real hidden gem.

Gigs

Sabaton - as expected, bit of a weird vibe in the crowd demographic :--------D but show itself is an insane fucking spectacle I'm happy I saw. You can really sense these men are swedish, the "my country hasn't been in an active war for two centuries" theater kid energy is wild. Tank on stage.

Death Grips - I'm pretty sure this rebooted my whole brain. Went with close friend, pretty sure my biggest bruise came form her hands.

Antti Tuisku - Farewell gig of the best pop performer in finland. I do not understand how he doesn't pass out on stage with everything he's doing. The jesus allegory album is forever my favorite, it's so genious in how it discusses fame so well while staying funny and self-avare. Neck hurt for the next week due to headbanging.

Suistamon sähkö - small gig yet one of the absolute best this year. (i cried) You need to see these guys live, the vocal ability of the main singers is absurd, it doesn't come through fully in recordings. And they create a very special atmosphere and community within their gigs, literally joined hands and danced in a circle.

[theressomethinghappeninginparis]

Here's the rest of my luggage I've been carrying around. I hope it relieves me to share that. I surely can't talk to the police, or show my face, or reveal any other information. But I wish to not be all alone in this.

Transcript of the first page: This is Fayolah's second mail I had access to. She talked about her collegue scanning two pages for her and she attached that to the mail. The two pages contain one head that looks...kinda evil or at least mean spirited with three knives(?) surrounding it, and the other image is the symbol I've seen- in Vasiley's faxes to Werner von Croy. I also see Lux Veritatis next to it. So- does Vasiley skinwalk an ancient Templar club now? Or is it just an aesthetic choice to pick their symbol? Or, tinfoil: is he related to them in any way?

Transcript of the second and third page: Here's the list I found with books on alchemy and magic by another friend of Margot, Alessia. None of the books is available in my library and I hope to get to read them online. If you want to support my research and help me, you're welcome to look for clues there, too.

Leah DeVun: Prophecy, Alchemy and the End of Time, John of Rupecissa in the late Middle Ages

Richard Kieckhefer: Magic in the Middle Ages

Stepfen A Mitchell: Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages

Michael David Bailey: Magic and Superstition in Europe: A Consise History from Antiquity to the Present

Arthur Versluis: Magic and Mysticism: An Introduction to Western Esotericism

Mark Stavish: The Path of Alchemy: Energetic Healing & the World of Natural Magic

Robert Allen Bartlett: Real Alchemy: A Primer of Practical Alchemy

Stanislas Klossowski De Pola: Alchemy: The secret Art

Alexander Roob: Alchemy & Mysticism

Transcript of the fourth and fifth page: Here I start the introduction to alchemy before I get more into detail. Alchemy is an Arabic name, coming from the word al-kimiya and the Greek word khumeia. It's a branch of natural philosophy with parts of chemistry, metallurgy, physics, medicine, astrology, mysticism, spiritualism and art. The idea is not to only purify materials and perfect them but to also cleanse the body, soul and mind. Most commonly alchemy is associated with the search for immortality, a panaceas (cure for all diseases) and to create gold out of base, cheaper metals. The first ever known alchemist was a woman: Mary the Jewess. She had a lot of other names like Maria Hebrea (meaning the same as Jewess), Mariya the Sage (Mariya is the Arabic spelling of Maria) and Miriam the Prophetess. A guy named Zosios of Panapolis wrote abouther in a text called "On Furnuces and Apparatuses". She described different metals like sexes in mammals as female or male. By melting they would eventually receive gold.

Transcript of the sixth and seventh page: Her apparent slogan was "Join the male and the female and you will find what is sought" and she also invented tools for alchemy:

the Tribikos, an alembic with three arms used for destillation, still used today

the Kerotakis, a device to collect vapors and heat substances

Mary's bath, a container that limits maximum temperature.

Arab people also called her "Daughter of Plato", used in alchemic texts to describe white sulfur. Her main goal was to create gold, the process is called Chrysopoeia, trying to get gold out of non-noble metals.

[jthehumanbeing]

Nice counter point to this is the “ideal” alchemical being containing both masculine and feminine attributes so therefore HRT actually creates magic. What’s more, the concept of both trans people and transitioning is ancient and almost always magical. Early Christians conceptualized Adam as what we today would class as intersex or non-binary, and after the fall have been looking for a way back ever since. Looking at the historic evidence, the argument isn’t that the transition took anything away from magic, but rather is the realization of it.

Idk about anyone else but listening to a trans person get to talk about their transition does make me believe in magic again so I could certainly believe it.

sources:

books: Practical Alchemy by Brian Cotnoir (don’t terribly recommend), Alchemy and Mysticism by Alexander Roob, and The Shape of Sex by Leah Devun (highly recommend)

podcasts: Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby! by Liv Albert queer compilation episodes

[luciphe-r]

rules: tag (9) people you want to know better and or catch up with, then answer these questions below!

tagged by @tvhei aaaaa i love doing these ty for tagging me

four ships: (disclaimer: i havent hyperfixated on a lot of things in a WHILE so these are the ships from my last read fics)

din/luke (star wars)

sirius/lupin (trans rights fanon edition absolutely disconnected from anything else istg)

steve/bucky (mcu)

roy mustang /riza hawkeye (fma/b) _THEY_

last song: jackie onassis - sammy rae and the friends (highly rec)

currently reading: leah devun- the shape of sex: nonbinary gender from genesis to reinassance (i dont really read narrative anymore and i wrote a paper on translating nonbinarity in ita so i read like 20 books on nonbinary identities)

last movie: midsommar (im gonna say it, 7.5/10)

craving: hormonal balance for fucking once

tagging: (TBD)

[twinwound]

The Jesus Hermaphrodite: Science and Sex Difference in Premodern Europe by Leah DeVun

[forislynx]

In [art historian Robert] Mills’s view, "transgender" is a strategic anachronism that illuminates the lives of medieval actors, including gender-switching sodomites and saintly cross-dressing monks, even as Mills acknowledges that modern language is necessarily experimental and provisional when it is applied to the distant past.

Leah DeVun, The Shape of Sex: Nonbinary Gender from Genesis to the Renaissance

[haveyoureadthistransbook]

Trans*historicities edited by Leah DeVun and Zeb Tortorici

goodreads

This issue offers a theoretical and methodological imagining of what constitutes trans* before the advent of the terms that scholars generally look to for the formation of modern conceptions of gender, sex, and sexuality. What might we find if we look for trans* before trans*? While some historians have rejected the category of transgender to speak of experiences before the mid-twentieth century, others have laid claim to those living gender-non-conforming lives before our contemporary era. By using the concept of trans*historicity, this volume draws together trans* studies, historical inquiry, and queer temporality while also emphasizing the historical specificity and variability of gendered systems of embodiment in different time periods. Essay topics include a queer analysis of medieval European saints, discussions of a nineteenth-century Russian religious sect, an exploration of a third gender in early modern Japanese art, a reclamation of Ojibwe and Plains Cree Two-Spirit language, and biopolitical genealogies and filmic representations of transsexuality. The issue also features a roundtable discussion on trans*historicities and an interview with the creators of the 2015 film Deseos . Critiquing both progressive teleologies and the idea of sex or gender as a timeless tradition, this issue articulates our own desires for trans history, trans*historicities, and queerly temporal forms of historical narration. Contributors. Kadji Amin, M. W. Bychowski, Fernanda Carvajal, Howard Chiang, Leah DeVun, Julian Gill-Peterson, Jack Halberstam, Asato Ikeda, Jacob Lau, Kathleen P. Long, Maya Mikdashi, Robert Mills, Carlos Motta, Marcia Ochoa, Kai Pyle, C. Riley Snorton, Zeb Tortorici, Jennifer Louise Wilson

Mod opinion: I haven't read this yet, but if I was ever able to get my hands on a copy I would love to read it.

[noneedforbloodpressure]

Do folks who use Christianity to be transphobic, enbyphobic, perisexist, or mysoginistic realize there is a single quote in which Jesus himself reminds people this is all bullshit?

[bookpdf]

the intriguing table of contents in the book im reading tonight ('The Shape of Sex: Nonbinary Gender from Genesis to the Renaissance' by Leah DeVun)

[arcane-offerings]

Leah DeVun, Prophecy, Alchemy, and the End of Time: John of Rupescissa in the Late Middle Ages (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014). 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/254312283952

[banji-effect]

The open letter is republished in full below:

We stand in solidarity with the New Museum Union.

We are troubled by New Museum leadership’s decision to hire an anti-union firm to sow fear and hostility and to misinform both management and staff about the role of unions in the workplace. Intimidation and misinformation do not constitute open engagement with the Museum employees. Moreover, such behavior goes against everything that the Museum has historically stood for—that is, equity, diversity, and a commitment to institutional responsibility.

We implore New Museum leadership to do the right thing and allow their employees to form a union without interference. We also urge leadership to bargain with the New Museum Union in good faith for a fair contract. Your coworkers are not simply union supporters but devoted colleagues who deeply love and believe in the institution and are fully committed to its future.

Signed:

Julie Ault, Artist

Andy Bichlbaum, the Yes Men

Claire Bishop, Professor, PhD Program in Art History, CUNY Graduate Center

Hannah Black, Artist

Nayland Blake, Artist, Chair ICP-Bard MFA

Jennifer Bolande, Professor, New Genres, UCLA Dept. of Art

Justin Vivian Bond, Transgenre Artist

Gregg Bordowitz, Artist

A.K. Burns, Artist

Paul Chan, Artist

Howie Chen, Curator

Liz Collins, Artist

Leah DeVun, Associate Professor, Rutgers University (Member, AAUP-AFT Local 06323)

Kimberly Drew, Writer and Independent Curator

Andrea Fraser, Professor and Chair, UCLA Department of Art

Malik Gaines, Artist

Liam Gillick, Artist

The Guerrilla Girls, Artists

Miguel Gutierrez, Artist

House of Ladosha

Sharon Hayes, Artist

Katherine Hubbard, Artist

Juliana Huxtable, Artist

David Joselit, Distinguished Professor, PhD Program in Art History, CUNY Graduate Center

Alhena Katsof, Curator

Jibade-Khalil Huffman, Artist and Writer

Nicole Killian, Artist and Assistant Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University

Devin Kenny, Artist

Kate Kraczon, Curator

Molly Larkey, Artist

Simon Leung, Artist and Professor of Art, UC Irvine

Monica Majoli, Artist and Professor, UC Irvine

Yong Soon Min, Professor Emerita, UC Irvine

Fred Moten, Professor, New York University

Carlos Motta, Artist

Gala Porras-Kim, Artist

R.H. Quaytman, Artist

Halsey Rodman, Artist; Co-Chair of Sculpture, Bard MFA; Critic, Yale School of Art, Painting and Printmaking

Martha Rosler, Artist

Alexandro Segade, Artist

Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Artist; Visiting Artist Faculty, California Institute for the Arts and

Bard Summer MFA

Gregory Sholette, PhD, Professor, Queens College Art Dept, CUNY

Patrick Staff, Artist

Eric A. Stanley, Assistant Professor, Gender and Women’s Studies, UC Berkeley

A.L. Steiner, Artist

Eric Golo Stone, Writer, Artist, and Curator

Lincoln Tobier, Artist, Otis College of Art and Design / SEIU Local 721

Mariana Valencia, Artist

Chris E. Vargas, Artist

Anton Vidokle, Artist and Founder of e-flux

Matt Wolf, Filmmaker

Yellow Jackets Collective

[surfacezine]

Left: Radical History Review Queering Archives: Historical Unravellings eds. Daniel Marshall, Kevin P. Murphy, and Zeb Tortorici  (Fall 2014 issue)

Right: Radical History Review Queering Archives: Intimate Tracings eds. Daniel Marshall, Kevin P. Murphy, and Zeb Tortorici  (May 2015 issue)

[Image description: Pictures of two magazines. The first cover is an artwork by Leah DeVun called Archive Study (2012). It shows a floral background, in the centre a naked figure sits on a wooden chair with their legs crossed. They are holding a newspaper in front of her face and torso. 

The second cover is an artwork by Mundo Meza, title unknown from “Silver Lake Terrace Drawings’ sketchbook (1979). It shows an image scanned from a notebook. There is a spiral binding along the top of the image, the background is brown. In the centre are four drawn figures in purple standing over a snake.]