Language is a fundamental aspect of gender identity, in particular how identity is communicated to others. For someone living in the twenty-first century, pronouns such as \"he,\" \"she,\" or \"they\" are often the most obvious way in which one uses language to communicate one's gender identity. The language of gender is not limited to grammar, however, but rather includes physical and behavioral markers of gender. These markers are then read by others to assign bodies into categories of gender, most often \"male\" or \"female.\" I refer to this network of gendered language as \"body language\" and the assignments of individuals' bodies to gendered categories as \"translations,\" terms that represent the centrality of the (trans)gender body in this work. I ground my understanding of body language in the context of individuals living in early modern French communities (c. 1550–1700) to analyze what body language looked like in this time, how authorities read this body language, and what these readings of body language reveal about our understandings of gender both then and now. I argue that in this period, authorities' understanding of body language revealed the instability of the two-gendered system, as individuals could cross between categories or contain within themselves and their bodies both masculine and feminine body languages. Physical and behavioral markers of gender in this period included not only genitalia, but also sexuality, speech, clothing, and so forth. When early modern authors attempted to co-opt body language to portray a figure in a negative light, they simultaneously acknowledged the existence of expansive body language and the possibility of alternative systems to the fallacious male/female gender binary. The instability of this binary forced authorities to regulate the body language of individuals, occasionally in ways that directly countered the interests of the individual in question and the body language that the authorities observed. Finally, I note that twenty-first century scholars, in their attempt to avoid anachronisms by reserving transgender terminology for later figures, reinforce how body language can be mis-translated into a label that may not encapsulate the experience expressed by an individual; thus, it is important to read an individual's body language in accordance with their desires to prevent inaccurate translations.
"},{"label":"Degree","value":["Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors"]},{"label":"Author-supplied Keywords","value":["Trans history","Early modern","France"]},{"label":"Administrative Note","value":"Drupal Node ID: 33858