Lesbians in Early Modern Spain

7. Looking Like a Lesbian

162 7 Looking Like a Lesbian D espite the assumptions of some scholars that Renaissance writers displayed “an almost active willingness to disbelieve” in lesbian desire (Brown, Immodest, 9), images of same-sex desire between women were readily available in popular entertainment.Neighbors, enemies, and moralists were known to“out” women suspected of same-sex trysts. Lesbians were punished for sexual acts at public events that were meant to warn and dissuade, but which may have also provided lessons on homoerotic desire to curious spectators. The ways in which different observers understood the sight of a woman“hanged with that artifice around her neck with which she had carnally lain with the two women”(as described by eyewitness Francesc Eiximenis) may have varied. One can only speculate today how these scenes influenced the vigilant, homophobic, or merely nosy neighbors who denounced suspicious women. What was it that really provoked the indignation of the bystanders who nicknamed Inés de Santa Cruz and Catalina Ledesma “the little canes”? Surely the prying neighbors who testified against Ana Aler and Mariana López in Aragón and the local observers spreading rumors about Catalina Belunçe and Mariche de Oyarzún in San Sebastián had certain preconceptions about what lesbians might be doing behind closed doors. Whether the images of lesbian relations in early modern Spain were manipulated for legal or medical classifications, sexual titillation, or perhaps gossipy“outings,” these diverse discourses seemed to offer differing guides for how to identify the type of woman who desired other women. While some ecclesiastics were devising tests to determine whether friendships between nuns were carnal or spiritual (such as the 1635 “special friend” test outlined by Father Bernardino de Villegas), other legislators and authors seemed more concerned about the presence or absence of a penis or its substitute (whether real, artificial, imitative, or imagined) in same-sex relations. The Looking Like a Lesbian 163 medical community was likewise interested in how an overgrown clitoris could become a monstrous body part capable of penetrating a woman’s vagina like a male penis. Other genital irregularities, such as intersexuality or sex-changes, were equally troublesome for determining anatomical identity and subsequent sexuality. The hermaphroditic condition claimed by Elena/ Eleno de Céspedes necessitated multiple medical examinations, which involved both sight and touch, while the curious observers who wanted to know the truth about María Muñoz (the manly nun who suddenly grew a penis) included local men, nosy nuns, and eventually a priest: “We saw the male genitalia with our own eyes and we touched it with our hands.” Despite the appearance and tactile confirmation of an anatomical penis, the text privi­ leges sex-at-birth and continues to refer to her as a “she” who is free to find a wife of her own. Early modern medical wisdom would have people believe that masculine women such as Catalina de Erauso and Queen Christina were non­ conformist due to a prenatal sex mutation, explaining that their consequent female masculinity (and the related deviant sexuality) could be confirmed through visual observation:“She is recognized after birth as having a masculine nature, in her speech as well as in all her movements and behavior” (Huarte, 609; emphasis mine).These medical-legal narratives and early print media suggest that to understand lesbians in early modern Spain, seeing (and feeling) is believing. Whether or not speculation about lesbian relations was based on credible evidence, some women participated in their own outings quite willingly. Surely long-term partners Inés de Santa Cruz and Catalina Ledesma would have suspected that their dramatic arguments in public spaces—calling each other sodomites and whores—might draw an unsympathetic crowd. Other women who participated openly in the publicity of their attraction for the same sex appeared confident that other factors would redeem their transgressive desires. In fact, when Catalina de Erauso and Queen Christina made public appearances and agreed to sit for multiple portraits, they provided one answer to the enduring question: what does a lesbian look like? Despite some apparent resistance to her sudden fame, Erauso must have known that the publicity might help her achieve legal consent to live as a man regardless of her confirmed female genitalia. Looking Like a Lesbian Francisco Pacheco’s famous portrait of“Lieutenant Miss Catalina de Erauso,” painted in 1630 (see Figure 2) is an important piece of visual material evidence of early modern lesbianism. While most twentieth-century viewers of [3.135.190.232...