Arnold, Arnoldine, Adine: Transgender in the 1910s.
This article is about Arnold T., a trans woman who lived in Zurich during the 1910s. The analytical focus is on the historically specific construction of a transgender self- identity. Using a unique set of sources, it demonstrates how Arnold T. developed a relationship with herself through a complex engagement with new knowledge of sexuality, state authorities, social norms, and economic pressures. Designed as a social history of subjectivation, the article highlights the contradictions of hetero- normative gender orders. It argues that the force of social relations was neither static nor homogeneous; rather, it involved ambivalent processes that continuously shaped and delegitimized transgender subjects.