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Part Three: The Badass Disabled LGBTQ+ Women History Forgot
If you listen to some people nowadays, to be anything other than heterosexual is a new phenomenon. “Back in the day”, they’ll say “People weren’t gay. They didn’t have same-sex partners, or come out as trans. It’s all just the modern world going mad”.
If you do listen to those people, I bet you’d also believe that all disabled people were abandoned at birth, that we never survived infancy, that we were locked away and spent most of our years in institutions. Well, sadly, that was sometimes the case, but just as there were women who loved women, men who loved men, and members of the trans community all throughout history, so, too, were there successful disabled women.
Sometimes (whisper it), these identities even overlapped. Don’t believe me? Then take a look at the badass queer, trans, and pioneering disabled women the history books forgot.
Edith Cooper (1862–1913)
Edith Cooper was a disabled lesbian writer who co-wrote with her partner, Katharine Bradley, under the pseudonym Michael Field. The two women lived together for over 40 years, and when Edith became severely disabled by rheumatism, Katherine was her main carer.
Writing under one name became their way of declaring their ‘inseparable oneness’, and together they produced over 40 works, made up of poetry collections and a long journal, entitled Works and Days. They were both aesthetes, and had financial independence which enabled them to buy their own home, and live their lives the way they wanted — a rarity for women of the time.
As such, they developed a large circle of literary friends, including Oscar Wilde and Robert Browning, who were both supporters of their work. Browning is often credited with being the one who revealed that Michael Field was, in fact, the disguise for two women. Sadly, this led to a downturn in the popularity of their later works, which were critically well-received when published under their shared pseudonym.
After 40 years together, the two women died within a year of each other, Edith in 1913, and Katharine the following year.
