Monday 11 March 2013

Women's History Month 2013 - Day 11

Throughout history, folklore, fiction and mythology there have always been stories of women disguising themselves as boys and men to change their fortunes and challenge the status quo. Obviously this connotes the very real, practical implications that, until recently on the grand scheme of things, women had fewer opportunities to excel than boys, were not allowed to do many things and the only way to make it in a man’s world was to effectively ‘change gender’. Even the notion of a woman wearing trousers or going without a corset, was a shocking notion until the early part of last century!

A more modern eye, and one that reviews from a point in history where people are able to change gender and express their gender as they wish (even if it does not match up to the gender they were born into), could also attribute these stories to being about early transgendered men who changed their lives accordingly in the only way they could. With that in mind I am going to focus on a French botanist and explorer from the 18th and 19th Century who dressed as a man in order to become the first woman to circumnavigate the world.

Now I do not know, as my research has not turned anything up, if Jeanne (Jean) Baré was transgendered, or simply a women who realised that her sex at that time would hinder her ache for adventure and so dressed as a boy as a way to fulfill her dreams. Either way, hers is a story that should be told...

 
Jeanne Bare 1740-1807

Little is known of Jeanne Bare’s early life, except records tell us that she was born 1740, in the village of La Comelle in the Burgundy region of France; and interestingly her father was Jean Baret and her mother was called Jeanne. At this time this region of France was very rustic and poor and her family were probably labourers with little education. Jeanne presented herself as an orphan when she set out on her adventures, but this story was never confirmed. Neither was it confirmed how a girl with such humbled beginnings had educated herself so well.

Jeanne left her village and became a housekeeper to the naturalist Philbert Commerson. His wife died shortly after giving birth to a son, and it was thought that Jeanne took over the running of the house, as well as forming a less than domestic relationship with Commerson, which seemed to result in an illegitimate child (who was put up for adoption and died young).

Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville, was a French Admiral and explorer. A contemporary of James Cook, he went on expeditions to settle the Falkland Islands and voyaged into the Pacific. In 1765, Commerson was invited to join Bougainville's expedition. His appointment allowed him one payroll servant – Jeanne was the obvious choice, but women were completely prohibited on French navy ships at this time. Jeanne had a cunning plan though...

No one noticed anything untoward for more than a month.

Jean Baré, was simply a 26-year-old valet, who had signed up to take part in one of the greatest voyages of exploration – Louis de Bougainville’s 1766 circumnavigation of the globe. Jean seemed to be an expert botanist and dedicated valet to his master. After a month at sea, some of the crew began to spread gossip and rumours about Jean and Philippe. Jean confronted the rumours head on. He told the ship’s surgeon that he slept in the same cabin on account of Commerson’s ill health, so he could help him better.

Jeanne’s voyage, however, was not going to be plain sailing. In March 1767, the ship landed at Tahiti, and Jean and Commerson was among the landing party, who were all eager to explore the island paradise. There was soon trouble though when the party happened upon some locals, who rushed to the beach and surrounded Jean and started touching him and shouting that he was a woman in disguise, they made it clear that they intended to rape her. The crew came to Jean’s rescue, but now there were serious questions to be answered – the ship’s surgeon asserted that Baré was indeed a woman in disguise.

Jeanne had to think fast. She first told Bougainville and his fellow officers that she was not a woman, but a eunuch, but Bougainville demanded further proof. To avoid further humiliation and degradation she eventually told the truth. Jeanne was now in fear of two things, punishment for her deception and sexual abuses from the crew. To protect herself from the latter she slept low down in the ships with two pistols to hand at all time. She did however escape punishment from Bougainville, perhaps because she and Commerson had found, and named, the spectacular flower Bougainvillea. Indeed, when the voyage landed back in France she actually she found herself celebrated as the first woman ever to circumnavigate the globe. ‘I admire her determination all the more,’ wrote Bougainville, ‘because she has always behaved with the most scrupulous correctness.

Jeanne Baré lived a long life, enjoying the fame she attracted for her adventures, and after Commerson’s death, she married a blacksmith and settled back into provincial life. Regarded as ‘an extraordinary woman’, she was eventually given a substantial royal pension in celebration of her achievement.

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