There's Something About Mary....
Mary, you in danger girl.
Mary, you in danger girl.
Let me tell you a story about Miss Mary. Miss Mary, in 1848 New York City, darling.
Miss Mary Jones, specifically.
She was a beautiful girl, always wearing the tightest corsets and perfectly polished mary jane’s around town.
Almond shaped eyes.
Just a bit of rouge on her lip.
But there’s a secret about Mary that only men had discovered: Mary was a pre-op transgender woman in the 1800s.
The concubine to Manhattan’s elite, men would throw back their absinthe with both awe and fear- afraid of one day being exposed for having had relations with such an intriguing creature.
You see, Mary was a slick escort darling.
She’d bat her eyelashes, swivel her bustle down the walk way, mesmerizing enamored men into her apartment.
“Cash Upfront”, she’d say, and men just simply couldn’t resist.
Urban legend has it amongst trans woman that she invented herself a removable vagina.
Fashioned from cow skin, legend has it that she wore it as one would a “strap on”. This allowed her to code switch through the world, able to earn a living from the pocketbooks of drunk men in speakeasy’s and taverns in town.
But whether that notion is urban legend or not, Mary was also known for sticky fingers.
“Who is going to check me, darling?!?!?!”, she’d say as she gently lifted wallets and pocket watches and slide them into her bosom.
Except, this day, she messed with the wrong one.
You see all the other johns were too afraid of what the police would say- questioning why they were with her in the first place.
But not this one. He was infuriated.
From what we know, it wasn’t her trans status that he was offended by, as he did have relations with her.
It was her petty theft that incensed him. A police report filing later, Mary was arrested.
*****************
Chileee, the streets were GAGGING.
How could this beautiful woman walk amongst us, and we not know that underneath the lace and petticoat was a MAN MONSTER.
Not, “Mary had a little lamb under there”!!
-_-
Arrested, Mary would await trial.
The courtroom was packed- the curious, the intrigued, sat studying her intensely. The media of the day, was mesmerized.
How could this be?
How on earth does someone like this exist?
The court of public opinion was set, forcing her to deny her identity as a trans woman.
The courts and law enforcement would make an example of her, so that this would never happen again.
Mary, became known as “Peter Sewally” in the media, having gone viral throughout the Mid-Atlantic and New England region; New York City had in fact, discovered and exposed a trans woman.
She was front page of the New York Times and the New York Herald.
She probably had no idea, that one day her life would change, by simply doing what she had already been doing for years before.
Except this time, over 175 years later- we’re still hearing that there is just something about Mary.
To learn and gleam more on Mary Jones, and her court trial in 1848- please read the NY Archives Journal here.
Aria’s Musings on LGBT Pride Month
My Lush Life darlings, Happy LGBT Pride Month!
We often reference Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Rivera or Storme Daniels in our discourse of LGBT Pride Month, but I’m always intrigued by the accidental icons- the trans folks in the 1600’s- 1800’s, the Black trans women during the era of Slavery in the United States.
They are my icons, these women who probably never anticipated being known for their transness, yet had it weaponized against them. Imagine being your most authentic self in a timeline and an era where the language didn’t exist?!
I often think of the trans men and trans women who were committed to mental asylums against their will pre 1960’s.
While visibility hasn’t saved us and from data- hasn’t improved our lives in any way of significance than before visibility, whether people like it or not, they can no longer hide the lived experiences of trans people from public view.
This will ruffle feathers, but in a strange and interesting way, Trump has increased the visibility of trans lives tenfold from when I transitioned in high school, at a time when no one knew what the word “transgender” meant.
I imagine the more he and his right wing colleagues use anti- trans rhetoric and subjugation to maintain support from their constituents, so then are those constituents also forced to contend and accept that we breathe.
I think of Lucy Hicks Anderson, Sir Lady Java, Pauli Murray and their struggle with accepting their trans-ness in a time where they could be ostracized from community.
I also think of my queer heroes- Alice Walker or James Baldwin or Bayard Rustin.
I think of how in history, blackness and queerness leads revolutions- but because of homophobia and transphobia, those parts of ourselves are often sanitized and erased from the history books.
Malcom X and his transsexual girlfriend.
And countless voices and lives and stories of becoming we don’t know about.
Imagine an entire population hiding, in plain sight for fear of persecution.
That’s it for now.
Until next time,
Aria
