![]() Many of the characteristics described in our narratives of these monks describe their masculine bodies according to the medical knowledge at the time and with the language it knew to describe the masculinization of a body assigned female at birth. ![]() The sixth-century medical manual by the physician Aetios of Amida describes a certain type of "manly women" who has masculine features, including a deep voice, a hairy body, and a "dark complexion." These women, Aetios also states, menstruated infrequently. The potent transformations of the body as well cannot be disregarded, as these stories sought eloquently to describe how the saints' secondary sex characteristics changed throughout their lives, detailing (as described above) the withering of breasts, the ceasing of menstruation, and the darkening of skin.īeyond metaphor, this language echoes the descriptions found in medical texts to describe so-called masculine features in certain women. How should she know her since her flesh had withered through mortification and the beauty of her body had altered, and her appearance, she being naught but skin and bone? Besides all this she was wearing a man's garb."ĭespite extensive late antique prohibitions against women dressing as men, such as in the canons of the Council of Gangra in 345, in the Council of Trullo in 692, or even in Deutoronomy 22:5, these saints were venerated with due respect, demonstrating that even legal or Old Testament prohibitions did not impede the space for their worship and praise. The blessed Hilaria, when she saw her lay sister, knew her: but the lay sister knew not her sister, the monk. Above all, she was shrunken with ascetic practices and even her menstrual period had stopped because of the deprivation. For her breasts, too, they were not as those of all women. "After nine years, they saw that the young girl was beardless and they called her 'Hilarion the Eunuch' since there were many such wearing the habit. Describing Hilarion with female pronouns and alternating between his gendered names, the author writes: The narrator's words are strikingly poignant, as the text details the girl's encounter with the person she once knew as her sister. In the closing passages of the life of Hilarion, after many trials and tribulations, the holy man is visited by his long-estranged sister after nine year of living in isolation. But their narratives tell a very different story from that of the early Christian martyr who saw herself fully and truly male in a dream. From the sadistic attempts to limit trans people's access to healthcare to the so-called trans military ban, the Trump administration has pursued anti-trans policies with an obsessive intent.Ĭenturies after the words of the Gospel of Thomas and Perpetua, saints like Hilarion, Marinos, Smaragdos, and Athanasios (to name but a few) became a central part of compilations of saints' lives, icons, and illuminated manuscripts. But, Rowling is not alone in a widespread anti-trans movement, which has deeply manifested itself across U.S. Rowling has now become a vocal advocate of anti-trans literature. Once known as the author of the popular Harry Potter series, which depicted ideals of unity and equality against a totalitarian and eugenicist villain, J.K. In Rowling's latest novel, there is even the inclusion of a serial killer who dresses in women's clothing, deploying a deeply toxic trope of transmisogynistic writing that imagines trans women as "disguised" men with nefarious intentions. Her actions have been in line with what is known as Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs), who promote a vision of feminism that actively denies the rights of transgender individuals. ![]() Rowling has come under heavy criticism for her promotion of anti-trans rhetoric, particularly targeting trans women in her attack. ![]()
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