Hello lovely people!
If you’re new here, hi, I’m Jessica, I make a range of videos about LGBTQ+ things,
disability things, vintage fashion things… and profiles of historical people who are
disabled or gay or both! … or a Tudor. Because I have lots of feelings about the Tudors.
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Today’s historical profile is very exciting because I’m profiling Anne Lister:
the first ever lesbian!
Okay, she wasn’t. But she WAS probably the one who talked about it the most.
During her life, Anne wrote a four-million-word diary and she dedicated about 700,000 words
to her lesbianism!
Born in 1791, Anne was an openly butch English landowner, diarist, mountaineer, and traveller
from Yorkshire. She’s often called the "the first modern lesbian" for her clear self-knowledge
and openly lesbian lifestyle. Despite suffering harassment for her sexuality she was called
"Gentleman Jack" by local residents.
Now a new BBC/HBO series about her has been made telling her true story and it’s a series
the creator doesn’t think could have been made at any other time. The pitch was shot
down in 2002 because…
Because: Gay.
- Available in my shop again from today, check the merch link in the description.
But the times they are a changing and if we’ve learnt anything from Killing Eve it’s that
the internet loves to gif some girl love. Of course there are always some people...
[cough] fools
who think they’re allowed to have some kind of a say in two
consenting adults who are happily in love.
But for this video we’re going to ignore them and just enjoy clips of Suranne Jones
as Anne Lister being awesome while I treat you to some fun history.
- do note that Gentleman Jack premiered on 22nd April on HBO in America and will be out
on BBC One on the 19th May in the UK so you may already be able to watch it, I’ve seen
the first episode and I’m not kidding, she really is awesome.
Also Anne’s endless optimism in the face of adversity was one of her defining character
traits and let’s be honest, ‘relentless optimism’ is my brand so I’m very clearly
already on board.
Anne was the second child and eldest daughter of Jeremy Lister who in 1775 served with the
British Army in the American War of Independence. Ten years later he married Rebecca Battle
and their first child, John, was born in 1789 but died the same year. Anne was born two
years later and was followed by another four children. Although the Listers had six children
only Anne and her younger sister Marian survived past 20 years old.
Anne was first educated at home then sent away to school at the age of seven. At the
age of 13 she was sent to the Manor House School in York… and that’s when things
start to get interesting!
It was there she met her first love, Eliza Raine, who was the incredibly rich daughter
of a surgeon in the East India Company and had only just been brought back to England
after his death. The girls shared a room and… well, let’s just say that Anne was asked
to leave and wasn’t allowed back until Eliza had left!
Poor Eliza really got the short end of the stick however as she expected to live with
Anne as an adult and that they would be together forever. Sadly, in her absence, Anne began
affairs with two other girls, Isabella Norcliffe and Mariana Belcombe- whose father ran an
asylum that Eliza was then sent to in the pit of her lesbian depression.
To be fair though, women were treated pretty badly at the time so it may have been just
generalised depression
Anne had an unfortunate habit of sending her lady lovers to Dr Belcombe’s
asylum! And there were MANY lady lovers.
Many…
One thing Eliza did have going for her was that she inspired Anne’s love of writing
prolific diaries. As I told you earlier, during her life Anne wrote a four-million-word diary.
It had begun in 1806 as scraps of paper in secret code parcels sent to and from Eliza
Raine but went on to become the 26 Quarto volumes, ending at her death in 1840.
About a sixth of the words in the diary-
- mainly those concerning the intimate details of her romantic and sexual relationships-
were written in code because-
1800s.
The code she and Eliza developed was derived from a combination of algebra, zodiac, puctuation
and Ancient Greek. Anne also had really bad handwritting so that probably helped(!)
She wrote about the women she had crushes on, the women she fell in love with, her feelings
about gender and gender presentation and… lots and lots of sex.
Good sex, bad sex, what,
when, where, how… why?
And of course, her seduction tips
It was pretty darn gay.
Although the diaries do also contain her thoughts on the weather, social events, national events,
and her business interests so it’s an interesting social history of the time as well.
At the age of 35 she took over management of her aunt’s property, Shibden Hall, and
inherited it ten years later. She drew a good income from the property and lands, along
with a varied financial portfolio she had built that included properties in town, shares
in the canal and railway industries, mining, and stone quarries.
Alright, are you gonna sit there huh?
Okay...
Her wealth allowed her a measure of freedom to live as she pleased. See, they say money
doesn’t buy happiness… but guess it gives you a better shot at it!
Her two great passions were European travel and developing Shibden Hall which, again:
money. It’s nice.
By far the most important thing to her that she talks often about in her diaries was the
ability to live as she pleased and be who she really wanted to be. Locals referred to
her as “Gentleman Jack” and she loved it. She was described as having a “masculine
appearance” to the extent that one of her lovers, Marianna Lawton (née Belcombe)- the
daughter of the asylum guy who collected Anne’s conquests- was noted as being initially ashamed
to be seen in public with her. She dressed entirely in black and took part in many activities
that were not the ‘norm’ for gentlewomen, such as…
To be fair, anything other than looking pretty, keeping her mouth shut and having lots and
lots of babies.
Clearly Marianna didn’t mind that much though as she called Anne “Fred” and the two
of them were lovers for several years,
Exit dog.
including after Marianna got married. But that was with
the permission of her husband who obviously didn’t think that being with a woman was
cheating which… I’m annoyed about for obvious reasons.
[harp music] After all: if lesbianism doesn’t mean anything…
am I still an unmarried virgin…?
And if it doesn’t:
why are conservative politicians so mad about it…?
But I’m also firmly in the ‘yay’ camp for historical lesbianism!
Most of the women Anne seduced she considered to be ‘straight’ but clearly they were
very happy to jump into bed with her! Her diaries detail going to visit other families
in the country for long weekends… and then seducing all of the women in the house.
She was a rake.
Or, in more modern terms: an ‘f-boy’
[bell sfx]
Anne wrote in her diaries about how uncomfortable she was with women’s clothing, choosing
to wear all black men’s clothes instead, and about how even the thought of menstruation
was too much for her. She says she didn’t want to be considered “too much a woman”
by her lovers and there has been speculation about whether or not Lister was transgender.
But-
I normally say when we’re studying historical gay figures that we can’t know for sure
whether they were truly gay because it’s not a firsthand account…
But this is. Gentleman Jack is entirely Anne’s own words. These are her raw feelings, her
honest point of view- it isn’t just speculation.
Yet, can we wade into a debate on whether Anne was a very butch lesbian or a transman
when she didn’t have the language or awareness of gender studies herself to decide?
There’s no real way to decipher and thus we must take Lister for the person she presented
to her diary:
A rake.
[bell sfx]
In 1832 Anne met wealthy heiress Ann Walker-
Yes, they have the same first name, yes this is about to get confusing.
On Easter Sunday 1834 in Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, York, Anne and Ann took communion
together and thereafter considered themselves married! The church is even recognised with
a blue plaque-
- That’s how we mark the special old buildings from the regular old buildings in England.
Trust me, our concept of ‘old’ is a bit screwy according to Americans- I was brought
up in a house built in the 1700s and that’s not particularly novel.
The church is now considered an icon as the site of what is interpreted to be the first
lesbian marriage to be held in Britain.
… and we’re totally going to skate over the fact Anne had already had a marriage ceremony
with Mariana in 1821so…
New Ann was the important one, okay?!
Their relationship was one of local repute as ‘Ann without the ‘e’’’s fortune
was used to improve Shibden Hall and the property's waterfall and lake. In 1838 Original Anne
added a Gothic tower to the main house, to serve as her private Beauty and the Beast
style library. And let’s be honest, we all want one of those! She also had a tunnel dug
under the building which allowed the staff to move about without disturbing her or…
seeing any sapphic excitement they weren’t supposed to.
‘Ann without the ‘e’’ also used her fortune for the couple’s grand travel plans
and expeditions. Like all good lesbian stereotypes they enjoyed a good hike
- is that a stereotype or is it true?
I personally love hikes, I just can’t walk more than
100 meters without pain, but I still ruddy love a little hike!
In 1830, while travelling in France and Spain, Lister was the first woman to ascend Monte
Perdido in the Aragonese Pyrenees in Spain.
Anne and Ann were together for eight years until Gentleman Jack’s death…
At which point her devastated lover checked herself into…
Dr Belcombe’s asylum!
Anne’s diaries had been hidden behind a panel at Shibden Hall and weren’t discovered
until almost a hundred years after her death by the last inhabitant of Shibden Hall, John
Lister. John and a friend of his, Arthur Burrell, set to decoding the secret passages of the
diary and were more than a little shocked at the lady-loving they found! Burrell advised
his friend to ‘burn them all to hell’
But John didn’t take his advice, instead choosing to just stuff them back behind the
panel. This may have been because, as rumoured, John was also gay and recognised an important
part of his LGBTQ+ history when he saw one!
Whilst Anne had been quite open about the way she lived her life- shockingly so even-
the details of her diary were…
More than a little erotic than the Victorians...
They were just not prepared...
The code wasn’t fully cracked until the 1930s and efforts to decode more entries are
still ongoing today-
I told you she wrote a lot of words!
- in part thanks to the new production of Gentleman Jack.
The plot of the show is taken directly from Anne’s diaries and so there were portions
being translated even throughout filming. It’s amazing really- there were pieces of
information being delivered to set that had never been seen before.
It’s also amazing to think that this is a programme that creator Sally Wainwright
has been wanting to make for 20 years and it was even rejected in 2002.
2002!
Wainwright told Collider that has it been made then “It would've been a very, very niche product.
It would've been hidden away on the schedule of BBC Two, rather than what it's got now,
which is a massive primetime slot and a massive American company on board"
Which is really pretty amazing when you come to think about it!
We’re so much more open now to discussions of gender and sexuality and really what could
possibly be better?!
In 2011 Anne’s diaries were added to the register of the UNESCO Memory of the World
Programme. The register notes that while the diaries are a valuable account of the times
they are more importantly a "comprehensive and painfully honest account of lesbian life
and reflections on her nature, however, which have made these diaries unique. They have
shaped and continue to shape the direction of UK Gender Studies and Women's History."
Anne Lister is held up as a hero and was in many ways deeply impressive but, like all
historical figures, she was also very complex. After inheriting Shibden Hall from her aunt,
she over-taxed her tenants to fund her love of travelling to see women and making her
house look fancy to impress women.
She also bought and ran a coal mine that even her contemporaries
felt had some pretty questionable labour practices.
That didn’t seem to trouble her soul too much, despite being a devout Anglican. She
also never experienced any difficulty in reconciling her sexuality with her Christianity. See wrote
often about her faith in her diaries and her firm belief was that as God had endowed her
with her sexual nature, it would be wrong to act against it.
Well, as Anne once wrote: “great step towards being happy is the determination to be so”
I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s video, please remember to subscribe if you’re new and
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I’ll see you in my next video.