Women loving Women in 18th-century Paris

• Department of History

PhD defence by Cynthia Sadler

This thesis investigates practices of women loving women in Paris and its environs during the eighteenth century. At the time, Paris offered spaces where women—openly or covertly—acted on their desires and engaged in non-normative intimacies. The project explores two distinct spheres of eighteenth-century Paris—the court at Versailles and the cultural milieu surrounding the Théâtre-Français—to examine whether a historical identity resembling what we today call ‘female homosexuality’ can be discerned. If such an identity emerged, how was it perceived? In what ways were these women regarded as figurations of alterity, and how did these perceptions influence their life trajectories? What social functions and impacts did female same-sex intimacy have in mid-to-late eighteenth-century Paris?

Through case studies—including Marie Joséphine de Savoie, the Comtesse de Provence, and Françoise Raucourt—this work illustrates how social standing and spatial context shaped the expression (or suppression) of female same-sex intimacies. The thesis demonstrates that, through repeated acts of non-normative intimacy, some of these women forged a historical identity.

Engaging actively at the intersection of the history of sexuality, women’s history, and gender history, this thesis places women loving women at its centre. By drawing on a wideranging source corpus—including previously unused archival materials—it contributes to emerging scholarship on non-normative sexualities, which has too often prioritised male homosexuality and rarely focused on the eighteenth century.

Please register to get a seat or to receive the ZOOM link