"No Flies on Bill": The Story of an Uncontrollable old Woman, My Grandmother, Ethel "Billie" Gammon

The family farm, once the mainstay of the state's economy, wasalready in decline in 1916 when Edith "Billie" Wilson was bornin south-central Maine to a family of Nova Scotian immigrants.Her father, a struggling farmer, encouraged his energetic teenagedaughter to strike out on her own: "There may be flies on Maand Pa, but there ain't no flies     

How to Queer the Past Without Sex: Queer Theory, Feminisms and the Archaeology of Identity

A queer archaeology is often equated to looking for ancient homosexuality. As a challenge to heteronormative practice, queer theory, instead, provides a framework for engaging with all aspects of identity formation and the processes and behaviors that mediate it. This article examines two primary points: (1) queer theory’s relationship to feminist practice and archaeology and (2) its application to the construction and production of difference among ancient Maya commoners. Through this analysis, I explore how investigations of identity and status can and should be part of a queer analysis. Work at the Northeast Group, part of the site of Chan, Belize illustrates how focus on internal class composition, specifically change through time, “queers” traditional models of ancient Maya class formation.     

The Gendered Identities of the ‘Lieutenant Nun’: Rethinking the Story of a Female Warrior in Early Modern Spain

This article analyses the story of Catalina de Erauso, a Spanish nun, who escaped from a convent at the beginning of the seventeenth century to begin a new life as a military warrior serving under the King of Spain in colonial Latin America. Her story reveals that notions of sex and gender at the time were surprisingly elastic and flexible, and often more associated with acts and behaviour than with physical bodies. By examining how the personage of the Lieutenant Nun has been treated in Spain and in Britain in the nineteenth century, this article also evaluates the extent to which certain pre‐modern ideas about sex and gender continued to survive two centuries later.     

Women Students and the London Medical Schools, 1914–39: The Anatomy of a Masculine Culture

During the First World War in Britain, women were exhorted to rally to the nation's need and to train as doctors. A number of the London medical schools opened their doors to female students for the first time. After the war, several of these schools reverted to their former status as exclusively male institutions. This article looks at these events in some detail, focusing on the controversies over co-education in medicine and attempting to unravel some of the issues and politics involved. It is suggested that the gender politics which characterise these debates illuminate our understanding of the social history of work cultures and masculinity in the period.     

Charlotte Sophia Burne: Shropshire Folklorist,First Woman President of the Folklore Society,and First Woman Editor of Folklore. Part 1: A Life and Appreciation

Charlotte Burne (1850–1923) served the Folklore Society (FLS) for forty years. She was editor of the massive Shropshire Folklore (1883–6), and the second revised edition of the FLS's only official guide, The Handbook of Folklore (1914). She authored over seventy folklore papers, notes and reviews in Folklore and its predecessors, as well as several articles in newspapers and magazines; she was the first woman editor of this journal (1900–08) and the first woman President of the FLS (1909–10). This appreciation is the first part of a two-part study of her life and works. The second part will be a provisional bibliography of her published works.     

Faith-based Queer Space in Washington,DC: The Metropolitan Community Church-DC and Mount Vernon Square

Religion and spirituality are important in queer place-making processes. More than a private part of life relegated beneath sexual identity, religious affiliation and spirituality motivate queers to interpret, experience, and shape space in distinct ways. Just as studies of queer residential spaces have neglected religion and spirituality, so have studies of queer religiosity and spirituality ignored less morally charged arenas of life such as residential choices and gentrification. Considering the material impact of spirituality and religion and understanding competing visions for the future of space in queer residential communities contributes to a clearer view of queer residential strategies. In Washington, DC, Christian queers are working with others to shape a distinct residential space called Mount Vernon Square. This ethnographic study offers a broader framework for understanding how some queers integrate sexuality and spirituality in their residential choices.