Real Men

What would you sacrifice for your career? Many people lose relationships, invest fortunes, time with their families… but few people lose their entire identity. The question I grapple with is whether James Barry was a symptom of the strict victorian society or possibly the most accomplished trans man in History.

I enjoyed researching and putting together this episode. It seems to have touched a few people, trans and cis alike. I would love to hear your opinions in the comments below.

Notes like this make podcasting worth it

I was very lucky to interview Jeremy Dronfield for Making History on Radio 4. His book “A Woman Ahead of Her Time” is terrific and in my reading, it does come down more on the side that James was indeed a cross dressing woman rather than a transman. Although. as I explain in this episode, trying to place modern labels on people in the past is like trying to label a river with a post it notes.

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