LHMP #380i Vermeil 1765 Mémoire pour Anne Grandjean

Il est donc important ici de le faire connoître dans le détail; mais comme cette description peut tomber entre les mains de personnes dont nous craindrions d'alarmer la pudeur, nous croyons par délicatesse devoir nous servir d'une langue moins familiere.

It is thus important here to make it known in detail; but as this description can fall into the hands of people whose modesty we would fear to alarm, we believe by delicacy to have to use a less familiar language.

{HRJ: The narrator is now going to go into more detail, but will preserve the casual reader’s modesty and sensibilities by moving into Latin. This was primarily intended to prevent women, as a class, from reading about sexual matters, as a Latin education was primarily available only to men.}

Intrà pudendi labra suprà meatum urinarium, carnosa quædam moles inspicitur speciem virilis membri præ se ferens, sese arrigens cum delectatione in conspectu feminæ, & firma stans in coïtu; crassitudine digiti cùm arrecta eft & extensa, longitudine quinque transversorum digitorum quantitate: in summitate mentulæ vel membri virilis apparet glans cum præputio, sed non eft glans perforata, ideoque nullum semen per hanc emitti potest. Infrà mentulam & in orificio vulvæ ambo apparent globuli testiculorum ad instar; exiguum autem est vulvæ orficium penè digitum admittens, nec per hanc menstrua fluunt, nec ullâ sensatione jucundâ commovetur, nec semine feminino irrigatur.

Intrà pudendi labra suprà meatum urinarium, carnosa quædam moles inspicitur speciem virilis membri præ se ferens, sese arrigens cum delectatione in conspectu feminæ, & firma stans in coïtu; crassitudine digiti cùm arrecta eft & extensa, longitudine quinque transversorum digitorum quantitate: in summitate mentulæ vel membri virilis apparet glans cum præputio, sed non eft glans perforata, ideoque nullum semen per hanc emitti potest. Infrà mentulam & in orificio vulvæ ambo apparent globuli testiculorum ad instar; exiguum autem est vulvæ orficium penè digitum admittens, nec per hanc menstrua fluunt, nec ullâ sensatione jucundâ commovetur, nec semine feminino irrigatur.

{HRJ: Ready for some Latin sex talk? Here we go. “Between the labia, above the urinary meatus, a certain fleshy mass is seen before it, bearing the appearance of a male member, erecting itself with delight in the presence of a woman and standing firm in coitus;” (Anatomists had “discovered” the clitoris a century earlier and regularly described it in terms of analogy to the penis.) “…it is the thickness of a finger when it is raised and extended, the length of five transverse fingers” (I interpret this as “a handsbreadth in length.” And these dimensions are definitely outside the typical for female anatomy, although not outside the descriptions sometimes found in medical literature.) “on the top of the penis or male member appear a glans with a foreskin, but the glans is not perforated” (i.e., it has no opening) “therefore no semen can be sent through it. Under the penis and at the opening of the vulva both…” (I feel like this is aiming for “on either side of the opening of the vulva?”) “…appear like the balls of the testicles; and the opening of the vulva is small, barely admitting a finger,” (That’s within typical size for someone who is not actively engaging in penetrative sex.) “the menses does not flow through it, nor is it moved by any pleasant sensation…” (Look, buddy, if a bunch of stranger doctors were sticking their fingers up my virginal orifice, I don’t think I’d find it very “moving” either! But this is the first suggestion that Grandjean was amenorrheic. One might think their mother would have noticed.) “…nor is it irrigated with female seed.” (Evidently 18th century sexual theory accepted female ejaculation?)

{On the face of it, this description very solidly falls in one type of intersex category. The literature on “hermaphrodites” cited by the narrator would have included both descriptions and illustrations of people with similar anatomy. As I noted in my commentary, several of the descriptions are in line with typical female anatomy. And it seems a bit implausible that a panel of surgeons in Lyon could have examined someone with this appearance and concluded that Grandjean’s “predominant sex was that of a woman.” But perhaps so. The case of Thomas/ina Hall in Virginia a century earlier details the confusion of the legal system when faced with someone who had a small penis, but one not capable of penetrative sex, and (probably) a very small vaginal opening, but not one capable of receiving penetrative sex. But it seems suspiciously convenient that Grandjean’s anatomy only comes into the question when their lawyer is trying to find arguments that Grandjean could reasonably enter into a valid marriage with a woman. Grandjean did not go to their confessor and say, “Um…I think maybe I have a penis?” I don’t think we can entirely reject the possibility that Grandjean was intersex, perhaps one of the conditions such as XY-androgen insensitivity, in which masculinized anatomy develops later in life. But I keep coming back to the point that the turning point for Grandjean's life was sexual desire, not anatomy or gender dysphoria.}

Quoique d'après ce détail l'hermaphrodite dont il s'agit ici soit constitué de manière à être indifférent pour les hommes, & que tous ses desirs, ainsi que ses facultés, le portent du côté de la femme, cette faculté néanmoins est imparfaite, & la nature, dans l'un & l'autre sexe, lui a refusé le pouvoir de se reproduire.

Although, according to this detail, the hermaphrodite in question is constituted in such a way as to be indifferent to men, and that all his desires, as well as his faculties, lead him to the side of the woman, this faculty is nevertheless imperfect, and nature, in both sexes, has denied him the power to reproduce.

{HRJ: The narrator, like Grandjean’s confessor, takes “indifference to men” and “desire for women” as a clear indication of masculine identity. And this, I feel, is the key element in the entire story. The idea of a woman desiring a woman is so far outside what they are willing to accept, that they need for Grandjean to be a man in order to erase that spectre. Now maybe Grandjean was intersex. Maybe Grandjean was trans. But that’s not what’s motivating these men with power over their life--what motivates them is complete repudiation of the idea of female same-sex desire.}

Ajoutons que tout son ensemble paroît être un mêlange de deux sexes dans la même imperfection. L'accusé n'a point de barbe, mais il a les jambes velues, & plusieurs autres parties du corps, qui ne sont point telles ordinairement chez les femmes.

Let us add that his whole body seems to be a mixture of two sexes in the same imperfection. The accused has no beard, but he has hairy legs and several other parts of his body that are not usually found on women.

Il a de la gorge plus qu'un homme n'en a communément; mais elle n'est point délicate & sensible aux coups, comme celle des femmes: il en a fait l'expérience devant nous.

He has more throat than a man usually has; but it is not delicate and sensitive to blows, like that of women: he experienced this before us.

Ses mammelons, si l'on consulte leur grosseur, appartiennent au sexe féminin; mais on n'y voit point ce cercle d'un rouge obscur au milieu duquel ils se trouvent placés chez les femmes.

Zir mammaries, if one consults their size, belong to the female sex; but one does not see there this circle of an obscure red in the middle of which they are placed in the women.

Sa voix n'est, à proprement parler, ni celle d'une femme, ni celle d'un homme; c'est celle d'un enfant mâle qui arrive à l'adolescence, & qui dans une espece d'enrouement rend des sons tantôt graves, tantôt aígus.

Zir voice is, strictly speaking, neither that of a woman nor that of a man; it is that of a male child who is reaching adolescence, and who in a kind of hoarseness makes sounds sometimes low, sometimes high.

{HRJ: All of the above is focused on the degree to which Grandjean conforms to a stereotypical idealized femininity. The deficiencies of feminiity—hairy legs and the ability to stand blows—are presented as more relevant that the absence of a beard, the presence of breasts (which could co-occur with XY-androgen insensitivity, but male-pattern hair growth does not), and a higher voice.}

Tel est l'hermaprhodite, qu'il étoit d'abord important de faire connoître, pour mieux assurer sa justification.

Such is the hermaphrodite, which it was first important to make known, to better ensure zir justification.

{HRJ: At this point, I should remind the reader I have something of a personal predisposition to view Grandjean as a woman who desires women, trapped in a world that doesn’t want to recognize that identity. This is my own bias, and much of the interest in Grandjean’s situation is entirely separate from the question of whether my view is true or not. Or whether it’s even meaningful within the context of Grandjean’s life. So let us proceed, operating on the presumption that the question is unresolved.}