Lady Happy's Sexual Orientation (Season 14.5 Part 2)

Below is the script for Season 14, episode 5 of my Philosophy Fluency podcast. 

You can listen to this episode here.

🎧 

Hello and welcome to Philosophy Fluency Season 14 episode 5. This week has been rather rainy and stormy here in London, UK, so let's settle in and make ourselves comfy on the sofa with our large mugs of warming gingerbread coffees as I continue my research thoughts on the possible sexual orientation of the character of Lady Happy in Margaret Cavendish's play The Convent of Pleasure. 

Last week I covered several possible sexual orientations for Lady Happy: Lesbian; Sapphic; Plurisexual; Pansexual; Omnisexual; Polysexual; Berrisexual (otherwise known as Laurian). 

In this episode, I'll cover various lesser-known sexual orientations that describe a preference for people whose gender is outside the sex binary. 

1) Lady Happy could be specifically attracted to only non-binary people and women. This sexual orientation has been referred to as Neptunic since 2017. This means that someone whose sexuality is Neptunic is attracted to all genders with the exception of cis men and man-aligned or even just highly masculine-aligned non-binary people. 

Why use such an obscure, detailed term? Well, it helps people express and communicate their sexual orientation using language that isn't restricted by binary words, concepts and definitions. So these lesser spotted terms and ever growing list of detailed options helps, everyone, whether cis, genderfluid, non-binary and or trans people to describe how they feel about their sexual and or romantic orientation using a language constructed outside binary linguistic conventions. 

Language matters. Without it it's difficult to express yourself and indeed understand yourself and others. Language grows with the times. If it doesn't it's no longer a spoken, living language. Latin being the obvious example.

Another term that I think predated Neptunic but means more or less the same thing is the sexual orientation termed Nomasexual, which specifies having an attraction to all genders other than binary cis men. When I say all genders, examples listed are: "women, non-binary individuals, masculine aligned non-binary individuals, feminine aligned non-binary individuals, unaligned non-binary individuals, agender individuals, etc.". A lovely alternative term for this description of sexual orientation is Freyic, which was apparently inspired by the Nordic goddess of love, Freyja. So that's a rather romantic name for this orientation. 

Interestingly for the Convent of Pleasure, in which the Princess prays to the god of War, Mars, who falls in love with the goddess of love, Venus, the goddess Freyja not only symbolises love, sex, beauty and fertility, but she's also a strong woman of war, who, I believe, acted as a commander during battles. So I think Freyja is a rather apt goddess for Cavendish scholarship since Cavendish combines references to love and war quite prolifically across her writings. 

(If you are wondering what the opposite of Neptunic is, it's a sexual orientation termed Uranic which describes people who are attracted to non-binary people and men, irrespective of their own gender identity for instance, whether they are otherwise seemingly gay men or heterosexual women or non-binary.) 

Or 2) Lady Happy could be especially or only attracted to non-binary people, irrespective of whether they are classified biologically as male, female or intersex. This sexual orientation is termed Saturnic (a spelling based on the planet Saturn). Hence she could become more attracted to the Princess than any of the other cis lesbians and cis bi+ women in the Convent of Pleasure. 

Or 3) Lady Happy's sexuality could be Androgynosexual, and androgyneromantic, which specifically refers to only having an attraction to people who have a combined masculine and feminine appearance, irrespective of that person's gender identity, although they're usually non-binary. If Lady Happy had this sexual orientation, she may be more attracted to the Prince / Princess precisely because he / she is a wonderful blend of both genders in their somewhat androgynous appearance. This is similar but not entirely identical to transromantic attraction, which is a romantic preference for people who have either an ambiguous or variant gender identity. 

Or lastly, 4) Lady Happy could have a skoliosexual sexual orientation, which means she is specifically and especially (sexually) attracted to non-binary people; intersex people; and genderqueer people. Which could explain why the Prince / Princess and Lady Happy are such a good match and happy together, and why the mediator struggles to understand their attraction from her sexist, binary perspective. 

This may sound all very contemporary rather than 17th century, and oh goodness me, do we really need all these different words to describe people's attraction to others? Well, yes we do. It's not that we've suddenly invented all these different attractions. They've existed all the time we just haven't had the vocabulary to describe it all. Language runs behind what already exists in the world. And that's the purpose of language: to help us to understand experience more precisely and be able to express it and describe it verbally. It helps people to understand themselves and others and it furthers knowledge about gender and sexual attraction, both of which is rather fundamental to people's identity and sense of self, which in turn is part of wellness. 

Only Fascists, and others with an extremist ideology, seem to have a problem with gender and sexuality outside heterosexual, cisgender binary concepts, as we saw in Hitler's Germany, when Nazis destroyed the Institute for Sexual Research in Berlin, which didn't just focus on their pioneering work on understanding the spectrum of transpeople, but also fought against heterocentricism and mistaken notions that it's abnormal to be bisexual or gay and lesbian. 

It's unbelievable that Hirschfeld's arguments and scientific studies were more advanced than we are now and that we're letting illogical far-right ideology to drag us back to an horrific bygone era despite us now having sufficient education and social awareness to know better and not repeat the mistakes of the past. 

Do join me next week for more Philosophy Fluency. Meanwhile, have a good weekend, spreading joy and love. 

References/Bibliography:

Cavendish, Margaret 'The Convent of Pleasure', 1668, available at: 

https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/newcastle/convent/convent.html 

What Is Lady Happy's Sexual Orientation? (Season 14.4, Part 1)

Below is the script for Season 14, episode 4 of my Philosophy Fluency podcast. 

You can listen to this episode here.

🎧 

Hello and welcome to Philosophy Fluency, Season 14, episode 4. Let's sip our pumpkin spiced lattes as we continue this season and slip into more autumnal weather. 

In this episode, I shall further the lesbian topic in last week's episode by exploring and discussing the sexuality of the character of Lady Happy in Margaret Cavendish's play published in 1668, titled: The Convent of Pleasure. 

1) Was Lady Happy a lesbian? If so, what type of lesbian? 

The relevance being, that this analysis helps us to respond to criticisms along the lines of whether the Princess ‘tricked’ the lesbian Lady Happy into a heterosexual relationship because the Princess must have mislead her into thinking she's a biological woman wanting a typical lesbian relationship with her. 

Let's unpick this type of criticism. 

Firstly, this assumes that Lady Happy is a Gold Star Lesbian (in other words, has no sexual or romantic attraction to biological men) and that she's also the type of Gold Star who is only attracted to biological women who identify as cis. However, this may not be the case. There are other options. 

For instance, Lady Happy could be what I call an Inclusive Lesbian, in other words, she's attracted to women of all genders, such as various types of non-binary women; trans women; and intersex women. This is quite common in the lesbian community and can include gold star lesbians. An example of a lesbian couple in which one of the lesbians is intersex, is the athlete Caster Semenya. She is what people in Cavendish's early modern era would refer to as a hermaphrodite because she has both male and female biological characteristics although these days we no longer use that term and the medical profession now classifies her as intersex, although she herself doesn't wish to be called intersex. 

Assigned female at birth, Caster was brought up as a girl and calls herself just 'a different woman' and identifies as a lesbian. She's in a very happy and affectionate lesbian marriage to her wife Violet Raseboya, since their traditional African wedding and civil wedding, and they have two young children together. 

An example of a non-binary lesbian couple, I believe, is the trans non-binary potter AJ Simpson who uses the pronouns they/them and their partner they're engaged to, Celda, a jewellery designer and maker who flies the rainbow flag (but not the trans flag for herself) on Instagram and uses both she and they pronouns, which probably tells us that Celda is perhaps a Demi-cis non-binary woman. 

Exclusionary lesbians who claim the meaning of lesbian is a cis biological woman being only attracted to fellow cis biological women are actually very rare in the lesbian community, despite what TERFS claim.  

2) Was Lady Happy Sapphic? Women who identify as a woman or who are woman-aligned in their gender identity may describe their attraction to another woman or woman-aligned person as sapphic. Unlike the term lesbian, sapphic is a very broad umbrella term that incorporates lesbians, bisexuals, pansexuals, and other sexualities. 

The term Sapphic can also be used by non-binary people who are sexually and romantically attracted to women. 

3) Or, Lady Happy need not be a lesbian or sapphic, simply because she is not attracted to men, especially cis men and perhaps also male-aligned non-binary people. 

The unscientific binary ideology confuses people into thinking that just because someone is not attracted to cis men, it follows they are monosexual, in other words, only attracted to one sex or gender. This is not so. 

People can be plurisexual without being attracted to the so-called opposite sex because there's a mirad of non-binary gender shades that exist outside of the binary sex ideology that influence sexual attraction.

The most well-known examples today of sexualities that encompass people and attraction outside the binary are pansexual (attraction to all genders irrespective of the gender); then a few lesser known sexualities such as polysexual (attraction to many but not all genders, and involving feeling a specific attraction to those genders, not irrespective of the person's gender identity and expression). And so on.

So 4) it's not out of the question that Lady Happy is plurisexual, for instance, pansexual, hence her attraction to the Princess transcends gender so she's no less attracted to the Princess after the gender reveal than before and still wants to have a wedding, whether society labels them a prince or a princess. Lady Happy could therefore be attracted to the person not the gender. Perhaps Lady Happy is the original pansexual! 

Or 5) Lady Happy could be omnisexual, meaning that she is actively attracted to all genders, not irrespective of the gender, as is the case with pansexuals. Perhaps she simply doesn't want to marry a man because heterosexual marriage is a patriarchal institution, and being a woman in a heterosexual marriage would seriously disadvantage her and severely restrict her in a patriarchal society. 

We still live in this oppressive patriarchal, heteronormative society. A very up to date example is the appalling response to Cherry Vann, a lesbian who just this year has become the new Archbishop of Wales, making her the first woman and first LGBTQ+ cleric to become an archbishop in Britain and she's the first lesbian to be an archbishop on the international stage. However, despite this seeming inclusiveness and progress, suddenly, the bishops in Britain stop the debate concerning the blessing same sex couples. 

Or 6) Lady Happy could be polysexual, so she could be attracted to many genders, just not cis men. Then she wouldn't mind whether the Prince/Princess is a woman, a trans woman, an intersex person, non-binary or even masculine-aligned person, so long as they're not a cis man. Thus, as long as the Princess is not a cis man, then she is still attracted to the Princess / Prince. 

Or 7) Lady Happy could be what's now known as Berrisexual or Laurian. This specifies that although the person has an attraction to all genders, as pansexuals and omnisexuals do, the difference is that their attraction levels are not equally strong across all these genders. They find they are very rarely attracted to cis men and masculine-aligned people (who are usually mildly trans or masculine leaning non-binary women). 

There's a lot of definitions to balance this week so I'll leave you to think about all the various ways of understanding who Lady Happy is and how this shines a light on the play and Cavendish's complex portrayal of the central character. After all, it's Lady Happy that starts the Convent in the first place for women who wanted to be outside the patriarchal system. So she's not someone who buys into the gender binary and the misogyny that comes with it as exemplified in the mediator who puts a 'spanner in the works' driving the plot from start to finish.

Do join me next week for more Philosophy Fluency. Meanwhile, have a good week spreading empathy and love.

*A further strong possibility I have explored shortly after this podcast episode is whether Lady Happy's sexuality fits the description of Finsexual, which refers to an attraction to femininity, regardless of the feminine person's biological sex or gender identity. Hence, this spans an attraction to cis women; trans women; non-binary people whose gender expression is feminine; effeminate men. 

References/Bibliography:

Cavendish, Margaret 'The Convent of Pleasure', 1668, available at: 

https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/newcastle/convent/convent.html