Week Three: The Colonial Experience
I really enjoyed the readings this week, in particular I found Catalina de Erauso’s diary particularly engaging and surprising with it reading like a soap opera at times!
What struck me most about Catalina’s story was that she received no punishment when her identity was revealed but instead was honoured by both the Pope and the King. I found this so surprising as even in Europe today queer people are not always accepted by the Catholic Church – in Italy gay marriage is not legal due to the Catholic Church’s controversial influence over the country’s politics. The fact that she was so readily accepted would perhaps suggest that the Church and the King were not aware of her sexuality but only saw her as a woman who had dressed as a man for the sole purpose of serving her country and not as a way of expressing her own gender identity.
Furthermore, I was surprised that the highest powers at the time, the State and the Church, both recognised that a woman was capable of doing a “man’s” job to a high level. I had believed that the wide spread notion of women being capable of “men’s” work only came into fruition during World War One when women were forced to step into these types of jobs so it was interesting to see how in the patriarchal society of the time Catalina wasn’t criticised for her actions but praised for them.
The Casta Paintings also intrigued me as I would have presumed they would have written down this social hierarchy as a numbered list and not in the form of a painting. However, I can see how a painting may be more effective in portraying the nuances of this hierarchy with each category being dressed in different clothes and with a different background. In one notable example those with “purer” blood were depicted as closer to God.
I also noticed that some of the paintings differed on a “definition” for each of the groups with some paintings showing very different images for the same group. This would perhaps suggest that this was not a ‘clear-cut’ matter and that the lines between groups were very blurred, especially given that many people at the time managed to pass as another group.
Discussion questions
Can you think of any historical figures like Catalina that defied the gender norms of the time?
Do governments use a figurative Casta Painting to categorize citizens into a hierarchy today?
I definitely agree that Catalina de Erauso's memoir definitely read like an intriguing novel. Of course, I was surprised that she did receive permission from the Pope to continue living in men's clothing. I personally first thought that Catalina decided to dress as a man so that her identity would not be revealed, as she was trying to escape the convent. Of course, once she mentions her encounters with other women, then it's clear that she is possibly attracted to women. And since the king of Spain did read her diary, it is interesting to wonder why she did not face punishment.
ReplyDeleteThanks for an engaging post.
Hi Serena,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comment that the acknowledgment that a woman can do a "mans job" to such a high degree was shocking. I believe that even though this was something that the State and Church felt after seeing all the work Catalina had done, it only became well known in World War One, because it was at a much higher volume. I think the reason why it actually took so long for women to be seen as capable of doing a "mans job" was because Catalina was just one woman, versus the sheer number of women who began working in factories during WW1. I think it would've been easier for people at the time to just see her as a one-off, since gender norms were so engrained in society. Looking at your question about other women, similar to Catalina, I thought of Mary Seacole, who served in the Crimean war. Despite being told that since she was a woman, she couldn't be admitted to the war, she set up the "British Hotel" behind lines to care for sick, wounded soldiers. She was later bestowed a couple honours including, in 2004, being voted the greatest Black Briton.