Rouse, Wendy L.

OUR SYNOPSIS: Wendy L. Rouse makes clear that “The reality is that the women’s suffrage movement was very queer, and queer suffragists were central features in the movement.” (1) Covering the late nineteenth century through roughly 1920, she shows how “By strategically embracing selective aspects of respectability politics, queer suffragists created innovative strategies to allow them to remain active in the movement while preserving and protecting their most intimate relationships from public scrutiny.” (13-14) She stresses the need to work against the active silencing of these histories by reading between the lines and trying to understand the power dynamics involved. Queer suffragists contended with other suffragists trying to maintain a cisheteronormative image while at the same time anti-suffragists attempted to portray the whole movement as non-feminine. Deviations from the white, middle-class, cisheteronormative suffrage narrative were attacked both internally and externally. One way that queer suffragists resisted this was through non-normative living arrangements. Some built chosen families and other forms of emotionally close community relationships that served as vital support networks. These personal connections crossed national boundaries and extended into queer public spaces. Overall, Rouse demonstrates that “Queer suffragists adopted unconventional tactics in the fight for the vote that mirrored their unconventional lives.” Every challenge to convention through queer self-expression was empowering for these individual people, the people they cherished, and their own version of the suffrage cause.