This article uses case studies from Byzantium to demonstrate a new trans framework for gendered historical analysis that recognizes identity as both fluid and painful. Instead of placing the emphasis on whether or not we can call an individual trans, it explores the forces that produced cisness, and the cis and trans lives people carved out amidst them. We find ableism and transmisogyny at the heart of three important pieces of trans history from the middle Byzantine period: a description by Michael Psellos of a child whose femininity is framed in terms of disability, Nikephoros Basilakes’ Confirmation and Refutation of the story of Atalanta, and Psellos’ own expressions of gendered identity in their epistolography. Focusing on the collusion of cisness and able-bodiedness produces a complex image of how some Byzantines could incorporate gender transgression into a cis life, while others negotiated life outside the boundaries of acceptability. More broadly, this framework reveals the entanglements of transness and cisness, which demand that historical analysis does not stop at the borders of inner states.

中文翻译：

---

跨性别者、体能歧视和强迫性顺从：来自拜占庭的案例研究


本文使用拜占庭的案例研究来展示一种用于性别历史分析的新跨性别框架，该框架承认身份既不稳定又痛苦。它没有把重点放在我们是否可以称之为跨性别者身上，而是探讨了产生顺性的力量，以及人们在其中创造的顺式和跨式生活。我们发现，拜占庭中期跨性别历史的三个重要部分都以体能歧视和跨性别者为核心：迈克尔·普塞洛斯（Michael Psellos）对一个以残疾为特征的女性气质的孩子的描述，尼基弗鲁斯·巴西拉克斯（Nikephoros Basilakes）对亚特兰大故事的确认和反驳，以及普塞洛斯自己在书信中对性别身份的表达。关注顺从和健全的共谋产生了一个复杂的形象，即一些拜占庭人如何将性别越轨纳入顺式生活，而另一些人则在可接受的范围之外协商生活。更广泛地说，这个框架揭示了跨性与顺性的纠缠，这要求历史分析不能停留在内部国家的边界​​。