Episode 37 - Chevalière d’Éon

<p>In Episode 37, Dead Ladies Show co-founder Katy Derbyshire introduces French spy, diplomat, and enigma, the Chevalière d’Éon.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p> <p>Born Charles Geneviève Louise Auguste André Timothée d'Éon de Beaumont, the Chevalière d’Éon lived for 49 years as a man and spent the last 33 years of her life as a woman.<span class= "Apple-converted-space"> </span></p> <p>She claimed to have been assigned female at birth in 1728 Burgundy and raised as a boy, but her elderly roommate got quite a shock when she found that the dead body had male genitalia.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p> <p>Having served as a spy to the French king, the Chevalière went into the military and then diplomacy, continuing her espionage for Louis XV from London. When the king died, d’Éon negotiated a return to France and legal recognition as a woman, then reluctantly assumed women’s clothing, made for her by Marie Antoinette’s personal dressmaker.<span class= "Apple-converted-space"> </span></p> <p>She earned a meagre living after the French Revolution by performing in English fencing tournaments, wrote an unreliable autobiography, developed her own theology of virtuous womanhood (Mary Wollstonecraft was a fan of hers) and died at the impressive age of 82.</p> <p>Our other DLS-co-founder Florian Duijsens joins host/producer Susan Stone to discuss how and if we should apply contemporary thinking about gender to people from the past.<span class= "Apple-converted-space"> </span></p> <p>To learn more, visit our episode page here:<span class= "Apple-converted-space">  <a href= "https://deadladiesshow.com/2020/11/12/podcast-37-chevaliere-deon/" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">https://deadladiesshow.com/2020/11/12/podcast-37-chevaliere-deon/</a></span></p> <p>Our theme music is “<a href= "https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tri-Tachyon/Little_Lily_Swing/Tri-Tachyon_-_01_-_Little_Lily_Swing">Little Lily Swing</a>” by <a href= "https://soundcloud.com/tri-tachyon/albums">Tri-Tachyon</a>.</p> <p>Thanks fo