Professor Jen Manion (right) engaged their audience while speaking about queer history
As part of the “Why History Matters” speaker series, Jen Manion — Professor of History and Political Economy and Department Chair of Sexuality, Women’s and Gender Studies at Amherst College — visited Andover to talk about the history of queerness in Early America on October 8.
Throughout their talk, Manion explored gender nonconformity and its evolution throughout early American history. They began by introducing definitions in queer theory, emphasizing the scope of queer identity beyond simple classification. They explained how certain historical records can provide valuable insight into sexuality and gender in modern history.
“Queerness is a space of possibility that’s resisting simple categorization,” said Manion. “These definitions are so important for my work today. When we try to say and answer the question, ‘Where are queer and trans people in early America?’, these are the definitions that I’m building and that I’m inviting you to sit with. These are expansive, broad concepts. I promise you, if you work with 18th century records as opposed to 19th century records, you are never going to get the answer to the question of how someone identifies,” said Manion.
Elliot Chai ’28, an attendee, appreciated Manion’s use of numerous stories and terms in queer history to supplement her message. He explained how they helped him further understand the history of the LGBTQ+ community and its present-day implications.
“I understood more about specific cases and stories about [LGBTQ] individuals in the U.S. and different experiences they had,” said Chai. “[The term] ‘female husbands’ stood out to me because it was mentioned a lot in the talk and the main focus was mostly females who transitioned to male. We’re at a stage where there are a lot more LGBTQ rights. History can help inform us on future policies and how we should treat those policies moving forward.”
The talk was followed by a Q&A panel for students to ask questions to Manion. Isabelle Welenc ’28, who asked a question about the coexistence of Indigenous perspectives, made a connection between Manion’s answer and her own understanding of Native American history.
“I asked about Indigenous perspectives and how they coexist with this society that we’re talking about. They mentioned that a lot of these female sailors and ‘female husbands’ came from Eastern Europe, which I thought was really interesting. But they mentioned that [in] what we did know about Native Americans, gender was very misconstrued because a lot of the reports were by colonizers during a period of fighting. I thought that was interesting because you have to take that into account, and if you don’t, it can really affect what you know,” said Welenc.
Welenc continued, recognizing the importance of acknowledging the history of queerness and its role in larger histories. She highlighted the talk’s role in bringing attention to queer perspectives in history.
“It is good to know that queer people have existed for a really long time. A lot of people I know, especially people who take the stance of, ‘Oh, it’s a sin’, and [are] very focused on that ideology, don’t take that into account the fact that this has existed for a really long time. Now we just have more words to describe the experience. It’s just good to know this is an important part of history that affected society and culture, and I don’t think anyone talks about it,” said Welenc.
Satabisha Sarkar ’27, another attendee, elaborated on how the history of LBGTQ+ people can help contextualize modern concepts of identity. She noted her takeaways from the talk, including the importance of understanding the context behind sources used for historical analysis.
“There’s so many affinity spaces on campus for us as students to explore our identities and find the community and an aspect of finding our identity is knowing that people like us have existed before. Not only is it creating a space in the present and in the future for queer and trans people, it’s acknowledging that they have existed before us,” said Sarkar. “I really liked the approach that Dr. Manion had in making sure we all know how our information is framed. We’re not just getting diary entries. We’re getting legal documents from the perspective of someone who already has a bias.”
