There’s nothing like a uniform to switch genders. It’s the very symbol of masculinity, sublimated in the virility of a warrior. Since the 18^th century, men in the same troop have worn a uniform, a source of identity (belonging to the group), a source of pride and a source of dignity (the uniform is also a façade).

There’s nothing like a uniform to switch genders. It’s the very symbol of masculinity, sublimated in the virility of a warrior. Since the 18^th century, men in the same troop have worn a uniform, a source of identity (belonging to the group), a source of pride and a source of dignity (the uniform is also a façade).

However, the female fighters of the 19^th century were not only fictious. Women veritably participated in revolutionary battles that punctuated the century. Louise Michel (1830-1905), the Communard, is the most famous. Women also engaged in military combat, notably during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, like Madame Imbert.

Louise Michel, icon of a revolutionary battle

This photograph of Louise Michel (1830-1905) is a rare visual and contemporary testimony of her involvement in the Paris Commune. She is dressed here in a uniform.

Louise Michel did indeed fight, arms in hand. After the proclamation of the Commune the 28^th of March 1871, she fought intrepidly for two months until the end. The former school teacher confessed in her memoires:

“Yes, being the barbarian that I am, I like canons, the odour of gunpowder, shrapnel in the air, but I am especially fond of revolutions.”

During that bloody week, hundreds of insurgents were killed. Against the liberation of her mother who was taken hostage, Louise Michel handed herself in on the 24^th of May. At her trial, veiled in black, she pleaded guilty and demanded her “share of lead”. She would be sentenced to deportation in New Caledonia. A short decade passed before she returned to metropolitan France in 1880 thanks to a general amnesty, making her an allegory of rebellion. She is remembered thanks to the numerous photographs, the most widely distributed was taken by Eugène Appert in the prison of Versailles. Paintings, sculptures, engravings and caricatures also commemorate her.

Certain like to point out the androgyny of the “la vierge rouge”, the “red virgin”, others on the contrary, see a vulgar, virile woman. In her old age, she was portrayed as unattractive and from time to time, as a legend without any physical consistence. This photograph of Louise Michel in federate attire stands in stark contrast with all this iconography. Before a photographer and friend, she is in control of the image that is going to be created of her. Her face is serious, the posture is carefully considered, the dignity of military attire (men’s uniform, well-buttoned), the resolve to take action (hand on her leather belt).

This was not her first time in the opposite sex’s clothes. She dressed as a man during the protest that accompanied Victor Noir’s funeral (“I was dressed as man in order not to bother or be bothered”, La Commune, histoire et souvenirs). In her memoires, she also tells of how as a child,

“seeing over the years, the superiority of the classes that comprise the education of provincial girls even to this day, it took me many years to realise the difference in interests and results between the two systems. One was for ladies, the other for the stronger sex! I went as a man and convinced myself that I was not mistaken”.

Thank you to Véronique Fau-Vincenti who carried out this research.

Fictional female warriors

The impossible soldier or the armed corps of Fernigh in 1792

This “battalion of female citizens” is reminiscent of a utopian ideal, presented unsuccessfully in the form of a petition to the 1792 Convention. The recruits swearing to surrender to the seductions of war until victory was achieved, they could therefore “disfigure themselves” with a helmet, hair cut to shoulder length, shorter at the front, and Portuguese-style breeches, similar to the modern dress-culottes. They would break the taboo for a short fictional while.

The Vésuviennes of Beaumont in 1848

The revolution of 1848 was accompanied by an ongoing satire of “feminists”, in the fictitious form of the “Vésuviennes”, volcanically rebellious women depicted in illustrations, stories, songs, testimonies… Hideous, they appeared for the first time in Le Charivari thanks to the illustrator Cham. The Beaumont series began in the same newspaper on the 1^st of May and ran until the 20^th of June. In contrast, his Vésuviennes were attractive and sexualised in the manner of Gavarni’s lorettes (a particular type of prostitute in the 19^th century).

Beautiful and rebellious, they highlight the enduring link between fighting women and debauched women (attracted by a military clientele).  One of the reasons for the series’ success were the breeches worn by the Vésuviennes. In a particular episode, they demand the abolition of the crinoline and attack the “Women’s club”, led by the feminist Eugénie Niboyet, accused of failing to achieve female emancipation.

The volunteer in 1870

Short hair blowing in the wind, uniform, high boots (but with heals), in the very midst of explosions, this anonymous volunteer braves the enemy, her gaze hypnotised by the battle, her posture exuding pride. Her allure contrasts with the placidity of the solider behind her, spectator of a scene that is barely believable

Women were in effect volunteers in the battles that took place during the Franco-Prussian war, certain like Jane Dieulafoy, in uniform, but with a group of irregular soldiers. Yet in this design, imagination takes precedence over historicity. The perspective is philogynous (in the context of war, female patriotism was solicited and saluted, even if it disturbed gender codes), but the anomaly of a woman dressed as a man to fight, an anomaly reinforced by her status as an officer, is underlined by the soldier’s astonished, doubtful look and perhaps also by the flash of madness in the woman’s eyes.

Women in the barracks

One of the consequences of France’s defeat in 1870 was the introduction of miliary service under the laws of 1872, 1889 but especially by the law of 1905 which made it personal and mandatory. Though presented as “universal”, it was reserved for men and for whom it constituted a civic duty. Service lasted two years from 1905, but nationalist opinion demanded that it be extended (and this was granted in 1913). The process of extending military obligations spared women who had a role to play in national defence as mothers, giving birth to and raising future soldiers.

Would military service for women be the undesirable outcome of gender equality? That is what this large, full-paged drawing suggests. In 1908, the antimilitarist L’Assiette au beurre, depicted disgruntled women enlisted in the army, putting on the trousers emblematic of equality under the watchful eye of a “dress captain”, the only man to penetrate this prison harem. The illustrator, Grandjouan, who imagined this scene was at the service of antifeminist discourse. The illustration was commissioned for a special number entirely produced by him and entitled “When women will vote”.

The bare-breasted female officer

In a humorous collection, this postcard from the Belle Époque instrumentalises sexual suggestiveness to the benefit of misogyny. It bears witness to its time, marked by the rise of women workers and the marginal but notable demand for women to carry out military service and women’s access to the army and the police.

Political fiction: women were allowed to become soldiers and even officers. Masculinised, they wore the famous “pantalon garance” (madder-coloured trousers) but moulded to their generous curves and bottoms. Their opulent breasts also undermine the authenticity of their cross- dressing endeavours. Their belted waists form the figure "8" expected of the female body. Whether they are artillery women or female officers, they are dressed more for the brothel than for combat. In fact, the number 69, which hangs around the creature’s neck, leaves no room for ambiguity.

Real female fighters

“THIS WOMAN DRESSED AS A MAN FOR THIRTY-SEVEN YEARS”.

From Toulon to the Petit Journal, Le Matin, 27 March 1908, BMD.

“The Toulon examination magistrate summoned Mrs Widow Imbert, a tobacconist at La Verrerie, to his chambers to give evidence in a theft case, and he was very surprised to see a man correctly dressed in a frock coat and overcoat.

- I am Mrs Imbert, the widow, said the witness, enjoying his amazement.

- And Mrs Imbert explained, with supporting evidence, that she had been wearing men’s clothing for 37 years.

Mrs Nory, a widow to the late Imbert, was born in Le Mans in 1844 and served as an emissary in Metz in 1870. She gave evidence at the Bazaine trial and was allowed to keep the male costume she had been forced to wear during the war as a courier.

Mrs Imbert has numerous documents showing the fine role she played in often perilous circumstances. Since then, she has retained her masculine habits, smokes and wears her hair short.”