I’m reading the book “before we were trans” and I am FASCINATED by how much trans history we miss by sticking to defining historical figures by modern definitions of gender. I didn’t even realize that “that’s just someone cross dressing for [money/power/rights/opportunities]” is the equivalent of “they were just friends who never married and lived together the rest of their lives:)”. Sure, it’s technically possible, but it’s disingenuous to assume that the default will always be cishet unless explicitly stated and that it’ll fit what’s considered queer nowadays, not to mention how different cultures handle gender.
Anyway, the book brought up that historically there were two kings who, despite being AFAB, ruled and lived as men and were accepted as such. From what I understand, this isn’t common knowledge for trans history because both kingdoms were African, and while the people accepted the rulers as men, most of our records are from colonial powers who assumed they were both women who faked being men to gain more power.
Highly recommend reading this book, because I’m barely halfway through and I’ve already learned about these two kings, well respected “men near indistinguishable from women” who had political power in England, and a nonbinary celebrity whose fame and adoration was partially based off intentionally breaking gender norms very visibly.
