Casa Susanna : the story of the first trans network in the United States, 1959-1968 / Isabelle Bonnet & Sophie Hackett.

Format:

Book

Conference/Event

Author/Creator:

Bonnet, Isabelle, author.

Hackett, Sophie, 1971- author.

Contributor:

Stryker, Susan, writer of introduction.

Art Gallery of Ontario, issuing body, host institution.

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Conference Name:

Arles, rencontres de la photographie (54th : 2023 : Arles, France)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Trans women--New York (State)--Portraits--Exhibitions.

Trans women.

Cross-dressers--New York (State)--Portraits--Exhibitions.

Cross-dressers.

Portrait photography--Exhibitions.

Portrait photography.

Genre:

exhibition catalogs.

Exhibition catalogs.

Physical Description:

478 pages : illustrations (some color), portraits, facsimilies ; 26cm

Other Title:

Story of the first trans network in the United States, 1959-1968

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Thames & Hudson ; Toronto, Ontario, AGO, 2023.

Summary:

In 2004, two antique dealers discovered 340 photographs from the 1950s-1960s at a flea market in New York City. What made these images singular was that they depicted men dressed as women, whose feminine identity was that of the "respectable" housewife, the girl next door, or the kind matron. Here we find neither the feathers nor the extravagant make-up of cabaret, just perfect housewives in the privacy of their homes. Behind the photographs lay a vast, hidden network of crossdressers. They were married, loving fathers of the American white middle class. They were engineers, pilots, and civil servants. They embodied the American dream, and its nightmare, in a time of racial, sexual, and political segregation in a Cold War America that censored, repressed, excluded, and hunted down those who violated the gender norms of the time, from crossdressers to homosexuals.

Susanna, Virginia, Doris, Fiona, Gail, Felicity, Gloria, and their friends, created a unique collective identity. Despite the risks, they corresponded with each other, got together, organized, and managed to alleviate their isolation through an underground magazine: Transvestia. Their haven was the home of Susanna and her wife Marie, tucked away in the Catskill Mountains, a few hours away from New York City. There they were able to live freely "en femme". Photography was essential to their identity as crossdressers; in a quasi-sacred ritual, photographs circulated widely within their community. Despite their now outdated female identities, the Casa Susanna crossdressers broke with the gender prescriptions of their time and defiantly refused to submit to an archaic cult of masculinity. Defiant and determined, they organized the first known trans network in the United States. In their day, the crossdressers of Casa Susanna called themselves "transvestites" or "TVs" for short. This term is today deemed pejorative, and we have avoided it wherever possible. In French, however, the only available term is "travesti". We have used it here both for historical accuracy, and because most of the members of the Casa Susanna network made a clear distinction between their identities as crossdressers and other trans identities... As historians, we have tried to strike a balance between historical facts, the ways the individuals in the Casa Susanna circle self-identified, and our contemporary awareness of a spectrum of gender identities. Thus, in our view, this community stands as the first known trans network in the United States. -- Isabelle Bonnet and Sophie Hackett, Curators' statement [https://www.rencontres-arles.com/en/expositions/view/1488/casa-susanna].

Contents:

Introduction / Susan Stryker

The story of the first trans network in the United States, 1959-1968 / Isabelle Bonnet

Performing authenticity: Casa Susanna's crossdressers and photography / Sophie Hackett.

Notes:

Original edition: Edition Textuel, Paris, 2023.

"Published on the occassion of the exhibition Casa Susanna presented at Recontres d'Arles from July 3 to September 24, 2023 and at Art Gallery of Ontario from December 23, 2023 to April 14, 2023"--Colophon.

Includes bibliographical references.

Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards. 2023 Photography Catalogue of the Year Shortlist.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

ISBN:

0500297908

9780500297902

OCLC:

1389339561

Publisher Number:

99996515202