Google's main page has a gender pioneer today!

[Astrid]

If have have a chance, check out Google's tribute today (Oct. 25)  to an early 20th century gender pioneer, long before today's labels had been thought of.  Genderqueer/genderfluid/non-binary -- Claude Cahun is someone we can learn about and from.  

 

This is Google's link to more information:

 

https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=AOaemvL5pL_AF8CpCF6523cBvwToDg6sxQ:1635182499524&q=Claude+Cahun&oi=ddle&ct=174788370&hl=en&si=AHuW2sTKkcygiABA_QY_APML0LA-zLeY72p7cWUnG9AtyAalP-cucwUZtoVBPmSjJSje9kxgVCAixz3s4ljQuaEUONkDQJrH8tC6IA0MF4UQjMoD2DU4Mf0%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiltZnAiebzAhVsHLkGHWGvBCYQPQgE&biw=2048&bih=961&dpr=1.88

 

Cheers,

 

Astrid

[Vidanjali]

This is so cool!! Thanks for bringing attention to this @Astrid . I'm now interested to learn more about Claude Cahun. 

[Lexi C]

cool TY Astrid,

Hope all is well

[Susan R]

Thanks for sharing this @Astrid! ? It’s always nice to read something positive like this on the web regarding someone from our community.

[Vidanjali]

I just watched this beautiful film about Claude Cahun and their partner, Marcel Moore.

"Love/Other" 2006 by Barbara Hammer
https://youtu.be/GuPLIlqCnsA

 

 

The film highlights Cahun's and Moore's art and their resistance during WW2. Interestingly, Cahun's relation to gender is only mentioned rather superficially in passing, whereas their sexuality, which is noted in the film as lesbian, is much more the focus. In particular, I noticed that the actor who plays Cahun in scenes depicting dialog wears eye makeup, earrings, and a dress.

So far, all of the short articles I've read about Cahun emphasize their expression of gender as (naturally) inextricable to their art and life. As an example, the Britannica article below reports:

"In taking the gender-neutral forename Claude and by shaving her head, as she did often in the late 1910s, Cahun actively and outwardly rejected social constructions of gender and sexual identity. To Cahun, identity was mutable, or unstable. In her self-portraits, she presented herself sometimes as a man, sometimes as a woman, sometimes thoroughly androgynous, and sometimes so heavily made-up and costumed that it was impossible to determine her persona’s gender."

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Claude-Cahun

And, the Wikipedia page on Cahun tells us:

"In Disavowals, she writes: "Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me.""

Who knows what pronouns Cahun would have selected if they were alive today, or if they had considered the question of their relationship to this part of speech in their own time. As a personal note, I refer in this post to Cahun as "their" in an attempt to correspond to their identifying as "Neuter".

 

I am intrigued by this photo of Cahun as a theatrical body builder. See the caption on their shirt, "I am in training - Don't kiss me".