Wild Women, Wild West: Queer Women’s Sexuality and Gender Presentations on the Western Frontier
Location
Snydor Performance Hall
Access Type
Campus Access Only
Presentation Type
Oral presentation
Entry Number
2430
Start Date
4-16-2025 10:15 AM
End Date
4-16-2025 10:30 AM
School
School of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Department
History
Abstract
While there has been considerable study regarding the lives of homosexual men in the Wild West and on the American frontier, there has been significantly less scholarship focusing on the lives of queer women. This article argues that, despite the newfound freedom provided by the perceived lessening of gender restrictions in the Wild West, queer women and AFAB people still found themselves condemned by media and the public, as demonstrated in newspaper articles and personal accounts from the nineteenth century. By following the lives of prominent figures that exhibited queer traits, such as dressing masculinely, presenting as men, and entering romantic relationships with women, historians can more acutely understand how possibly queer women and AFAB people conducted themselves in the American West, as well as how the public received these people.
Primary Faculty Mentor(s)
Dr. Lisa Crutchfield Dr. Nicole Sanders
Primary Faculty Mentor(s) Department
History Westover
Additional Faculty Mentor(s)
Dr. Amy Merrill Willis
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Wild Women, Wild West: Queer Women’s Sexuality and Gender Presentations on the Western Frontier
Snydor Performance Hall
While there has been considerable study regarding the lives of homosexual men in the Wild West and on the American frontier, there has been significantly less scholarship focusing on the lives of queer women. This article argues that, despite the newfound freedom provided by the perceived lessening of gender restrictions in the Wild West, queer women and AFAB people still found themselves condemned by media and the public, as demonstrated in newspaper articles and personal accounts from the nineteenth century. By following the lives of prominent figures that exhibited queer traits, such as dressing masculinely, presenting as men, and entering romantic relationships with women, historians can more acutely understand how possibly queer women and AFAB people conducted themselves in the American West, as well as how the public received these people.