“Parsons in Petticoats” – transmisogyny and the theology of moral panics (original) (raw)

Society for the Study of Theology Annual Conference, 2023

Abstract

Much has been written on the association between Ritualism (and Anglo-Catholicism more generally) and homosexuality. In this paper, I want to follow the lead of Simon Joyce’s founding observation in his LGBT Victorians (2022) that, in that period, ‘gender expression and sexual orientation were intimately linked’ and use this to emphasise elements of what we might call transfeminine gender transgression within the ritualist movement. The paper will begin by examining anti-ritualist material, particularly appearing in the periodical Punch. In these cartoons and articles, ‘High Church’ or ‘Ritualist’ clergy are often presented as both effeminate and a predatory threat to women. I argue that the obviously homophobic intent of this material is also similar in structure and content to Julia Serano’s description of transmisogyny. The paper makes no claims to completeness. It aims to re-read ritualist practices by focussing on their gender transgression for two reasons. First to open up imaginative space for considering how individuals might have inhabited this world, and also to seek materials with which to build a counter-theology to those which underlie the so-called ‘anti-gender’ movement prevalent today.

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