Clare Sears Electric Brilliancy: Cross-Dressing

In Clare Sears “Electric Brilliancy: Cross-Dressing Law and Freak Show Displays in Nineteenth Century San Francisco” She explains the cross-dressing laws that were placed in San Francisco in 1863. It was mid-way through the civil war that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a local law against cross-dressing that prohibited people from dressing like the opposite sex. From 1861 to 1900, twenty one states passed the cross-dressing law. The penalties placed for committing cross-dressing was originally five hundred dollar fine but after 10 or so years it increased to a thousand dollars fine or six months in jail or even in some cases both. Those arrested faced police harassment, six months in jail, and even institutionalized. If you were
The dime museums would exploit those who were hermaphrodites as well as those who had STD’S. The museums featured rooms where they displayed diseased sexual organs damaged by syphilis and gonorrhea. The exploitation of those with sexual diseases is ridiculous given that in the 1800’s 353 out of 1,000 had an STD. It was not uncommon. Sears talks about a man named Milton Matson who was arrested for obtaining money under false pretenses and placed in jail. Two weeks later the jailer received a telegraph addressed to Luisa Matson, the jailer then realized that Milton was a women. Matson’s charges were dropped but his public image was tarnished. He was then approached by a man who ran a freak show and was offered a job to be a performer. That soon started the popularity of cross-dressers being regularly seen in the dime museums. This essay/ article demonstrated the unjust gender regulations in the nineteenth century cities, and really brought forth issues that are never shared in academic textbooks or taught as history. I really enjoyed reading this because Sears touched on the social psychology aspect of those who were fascinated with the "freaks" or the