Maria Johansdotter

Last updated

Maria Johansdotter, or Maja Jansdotter, also known as Magnus Johansson (fl. 1706), was a Swedish spelman (a player of Swedish folk music) and parish clerk. [1] She was the first woman parish clerk in Sweden. She was put on trial for homosexuality and for having posed as a man in 1705.

Contents

Life

Maria Johansdotter arrived in Stockholm from Åland with her stepfather during the Great Northern War. She later stated, that in her home parish she often dressed in trousers and performed both male and female tasks. In Stockholm, she performed tasks normally given to men on farms outside of the capital. She also became a well known musician in the capital, when she played the harp as a spelman on the taverns of Gamla stan. Although she wore trousers, she still used her female name. One evening, she was given a passport under the male name Magnus Johansson by a guest at a tavern. After this, she dressed completely in male clothing and stated to her employer that she was a hermaphrodite and would henceforth live as a man. She later moved to another part of the city's surroundings where she was unknown as a woman.

Partially, this was caused by the fact that the professions open to men were better paid. As a man, she supported herself as a male farmhand and started to train as a shoe maker. She was a good singer, and was employed in Lovö as a parish clerk, thus becoming the first female parish clerk in her country. In her private life, she became entangled in a string of love affairs with maids to an extent that she was given a bad reputation for being a promiscuous man. She was eventually revealed because : "The maids begun to care for her too much". After several love affairs, she fell genuinely in love with the maid Maria Andersdotter. Andersdotter was warned by her mother that there were rumors that Johansdotter was a woman, but Andersdotter stated that she did not care and accepted Johansdotter's proposal of marriage. Johansdotter promised Andersdotter that she would reveal the truth as soon as she had completed her education as a shoe maker. Maria Johansdotter then received a letter from the vicar in a parish where she was known as a woman. The couple decided to commit suicide together, but when they were discovered by the employer of Johansdotter, Maria Johansdotter contacted the vicar and reported herself.

Trial

Maria Johansdotter was put on trial at Svartö in 1705. The vicar of Åkers socken, Johan Acrelius, testified that she had often been dressed as a man during her employment at Tuna manor. Johansdotter stated that it was more common on Åland for women to perform male tasks. She said she often performed both male and female tasks when she grew up and liked the male better, and that when she took a male name, she had decided to love only beautiful girls in the future. Maria Johansdotter represents a unique case among the women put on trial for having posed as men, as she freely stated that she was guilty of all charges without any display of remorse or fear for the court. She admitted that she had love affairs with her own gender, but stated that she had only danced and kissed the women for fun and that she had not harmed them, that is to say impregnated them. Maria Johansdotter was sentenced by Svea Hovrätt in 1706 to eight days prison on water and bread and Uppenbar kyrkoplikt for having dressed in male attire.

To pose as the opposite sex was a serious crime who could at the time result in a death sentence in accordance to the law inspired by the Bible. Several cases are known in Sweden, and it was a known phenomenon in the public conscience. Normally it was about women serving as soldiers, but Maria Johansdotter was not unique for having posed as a man to gain access to civilian professions. In Säby in 1571, a shoe maker apprentice was discovered to be a pregnant woman, and Karin Johansdotter from Kangasala in Finland served as a male servant in 1723-1726 because the salary was better for a man. The usher Petter Cederlöf, was discovered to be a female after his death in 1780, then engaged to a woman, and Gustafva Juliana Cederström (1746-1801) became widely known for having performed several different male professions reserved for men by posing as a man.

Legacy

The story of Maria Johansdotter have been made into a play by the musician Anders Peev and Johan Theodorsson from the Musikteater Unna (Unna Music Theater). The play was first shown at the Stockholm Pride 2012, and has been played at the International Story Festival in Rome 2013. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Jonas Love Almqvist</span> Swedish author (1793–1866)

Carl Jonas Love Ludvig Almqvist was a Swedish author, romantic poet, romantic critic of political economy, realist, composer and social critic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wartime cross-dressers</span>

Many people have engaged in cross-dressing during wartime under various circumstances and for various motives. This has been especially true of women, whether while serving as a soldier in otherwise all-male armies, while protecting themselves or disguising their identity in dangerous circumstances, or for other purposes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cross-dressing in film and television</span>

Cross-dressing and drag in film and television has followed a long history of cross-dressing and drag on the English stage, and made its appearance in the early days of the silent films. Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel brought the tradition from the English music halls when they came to the United States with Fred Karno's comedy troupe in 1910. Both Chaplin and Laurel occasionally dressed as women in their films. Even the beefy American actor Wallace Beery appeared in a series of silent films as a Swedish woman. The Three Stooges, especially Curly, sometimes appeared in drag in their short films. The tradition has continued for many years, usually played for laughs. Only in recent decades have there been dramatic films which included cross-dressing, possibly because of strict censorship of American films until the mid-1960s. One early exception was Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Murder!, where the murderer is a transvestite who wears particularly frilly dresses and petticoats. Cross-gender acting, on the other hand, refers to actors or actresses portraying a character of the opposite gender.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uniform fetishism</span> Sexual fetishism relating to uniforms

Uniform fetishism is a particular type of clothing fetishism in which an individual is sexually aroused by uniforms. It is a form of sexual fetishism. Uniform fetishism has been associated with a variety of different uniforms, including schoolgirl and cheerleader uniforms, French maid uniforms, and uniforms associated with police or military organisations.

Women have contributed to military activities including as combatants. The following list describes women known to have participated in military actions in the 18th century. For women in warfare in the United States at this time, please see Timeline of women in war in the United States, pre-1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lasse-Maja</span> Swedish thief and memoirist

Lars Larsson Molin, alias Lasse-Maja, was a Swedish thief and memoirist. He was famous in history for disguising himself as a woman during his tours as a thief. His disguise gave him the nickname Lasse-Maja, a combination of the male name Lars and the female name Maja. He wrote his own memoirs, which became very popular in 19th-century Sweden.

Ulrika Eleonora Stålhammar, was a Swedish corporal and crossdresser who served in the Great Northern War. She was put on trial for having served in the military posing as a man and for marrying a woman. She has been the object of plays, literature, research and exhibitions.

Margareta Elisabeth Roos or Anna Stina Roos (1696–1772) was a Swedish woman and a crossdresser who served as a soldier in the Swedish army of Charles XII of Sweden during the Great Northern War.

Carin or Karin (Catharina) Du Rietz (1766–1788) was a Swedish woman who became a soldier at the Royal guard in the guise of a man. She was the first woman in the Swedish royal guard. Her story was a well known and discussed event in her time, and later regarded to exemplify the vivacious Gustavian age.

Elisabeth "Lisbetha" Olsdotter was a Swedish woman, who was executed on a number of different charges after having dressed as a man, served as a soldier and married a woman. On 24 October 1679 Svea Hovrätt in Stockholm brought the charges, earlier raised in the court of Långhundra Häradsting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brita Hagberg</span>

Brita Christina Hagberg, née Nilsdotter, alias Petter Hagberg, was a woman who served as a soldier in the Swedish army during the Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790). She is one of two confirmed women to have been decorated for bravery in battle in Sweden before women were allowed into the military in the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lovisa Åhrberg</span> First recognised female doctor in Sweden

Maria Lovisa Åhrberg or Årberg was a Swedish surgeon and doctor. She was lawfully practicing surgeon long before it became formally permitted for women to study medicine at a university in 1870. Lovisa Åhrberg could be regarded as the first female physician in Sweden with formal permit from the authorities to practice medicine: however, she had no formal training, and the first woman physician with a university degree was to be Karolina Widerström.

Maria Ersdotter was a Swedish woman executed for incest after having a child with her former stepson.

Margareta i Kumla also known as the Sibyl of Kumla, or Kumlapigan, , was a Swedish visionary, who claimed to be possessed. She became the target of pilgrimages when claiming to be the channel of the words of the angels.

Maria Romberg was a Swedish convicted murderer, the central person in a murder story well known in her time. She was convicted along with her three accomplices, among them her lover, for the death of her husband.

Anna Eleonora Ekelöf, was a Swedish serial impostor. She committed fraud with a series of false identities, posing as mamsell, noblewoman, officer, Count and the Crown Prince of Sweden before her arrest in 1765.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in Sweden</span>

The status and rights of Women in Sweden has changed several times throughout the history of Sweden. These changes have been affected by the culture, religion and laws of Sweden, as well as social discourses like the strong feminist movement.

Anna Jöransdotter, was a finlandssvenskar soldier. She served in the army of Charles XII of Sweden for two years during the Great Northern War, and married a woman. Her case is the perhaps most researched Swedish case of the phenomena of females impersonating males to serve in the military during the modern age. Her actions were the cause of a suggestion to introduce a law regarding homosexuality in Sweden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andreas Bruce</span> Swedish writer (1808–1885)

Ferdinand "Andreas" Edvard Bruce, born as Christina "Therese" Isabelle Jeanette Louise Bruce (1808–1885), was a Swedish memoir writer. His story was the first memoir written by a transsexual person in Sweden and is regarded as unique in many aspects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katarina witch trials</span>

The Katarina witch trials took place in the Katarina Parish in the capital of Stockholm in Sweden in 1676. It was a part of the big witch hunt known as the Great noise, which took place in Sweden between the years 1668 and 1676, and it also illustrated the end of it.

References

  1. Péneau, Corinne (2022-03-30). Histoire de Stockholm (in French). Fayard. ISBN   978-2-213-72314-3.
  2. "Maria Johansdotter | Stockholm, Sverige | QX QueerMap".

Further reading