Welcome to my latest queer history blog post! This article begins my new Queer Words In History series, in which I examine the queer language of the past. If you enjoy this post, then you’ll love my Historical Fiction novels! Find out more about my projects here, and sign up for my newsletter here to stay in touch!
Content Warning: this post contains discussion of homophobia
A common perspective in queer historical circles is the view that modern descriptions of various sexualities and identities were only developed in the last 150 years. In a strict sense, this argument is factually accurate: the modern words “homosexual” and “heterosexual”, for example, descend from late-Victorian psychological studies – particularly the work of Hungarian doctor Karl-Maria Kertbeny in the 1860s and later German physician Magnus Hirschfeld.[1] But language used to describe such identities (as we would know them today) is in evidence significantly earlier – even if that language often carried negative implications in different time periods. The sapphic descriptor tribade is prominent in this category and the broader history of lesbianism.
Etymology
So, what exactly was a tribade, or tribadism, and how did the phrases come to be connected with lesbian women? Linguistically, the story begins in the classical period. The phrase tribas comes from both the Latin and Greek ancient languages, and itself descends from an earlier phrase tribein. The latter roughly means “to rub, to rub down, or to wear in.”[2]
In its original Indo-European usage, the phrase might have described the typical agricultural tasks of preparing grain cereals for threshing by removing husks and waste products – requiring boring or vigorous massaging of the freshly harvested plants. The root word “tere” used in tribade during this period of history also formed the roots of tribulation, thrash and trauma among many other words.
The phrase “tribade” may have descended from agricultural terminology
This brief linguistic history gives us a general idea of how the word came to be associated with lesbianism, or rather, specific sexual acts among women. But it was not until the Renaissance era that the phrase “tribade” in French (and by extension, in English) came to mean a woman who enjoyed the physical acts of tribadism with other women.[3]
In that period, these acts were understood as women mutually pleasuring each other by rubbing their genitals together in a variety of sexual positions. Scholars argue, however, that later in the 17th century “tribade” might have referred to a particular type of lesbian woman who took a “dominant” role in such sexual acts. The (prejudiced) medical science of the era argued that an enlarged clitoris might be found on “unnatural” women with “hermaphroditic tendencies who took on a masculine role” both socially and in physical acts of love.[4] In this sense, tribades represented a challenge to the accepted heteronormative male role in sexual agency.
Eventually, “tribade” came to have a range of associations with
women who loved other women in various ways, not just sexual ones
Over time, a tribade came to be colloquially understood as any woman sexually or romantically attracted to another woman regardless of the physical consummation of love (or lack thereof). The terminology may not have been exclusive to the Western context, either; Leila Rupp, for example, argues that “tribade” and its related phrases are both transhistorical and transcultural. She notes that many languages and cultures have words which describe such sex acts among women that provide a direct translation of the English noun.[5] In this sense, “tribadism” as a categorical description is theoretically as old as time and perhaps as wide-ranging.
(In)Famous Tribades
“Tribade” along with “sapphic” was thus a common shorthand for what we would now refer to as “lesbian” until the 1870s when the latter phrase (taken from the home island of Sappho of Lesbos) entered the Western lexicon. But “tribade”, however, was not a neutral word. It usually carried with it severe negative connotations, typical of the early modern era in Europe, which were (at least officially) associated with homosexual acts.
Hundreds of years ago, the “tribade” descriptor could be leveraged as what we might call a slur in our modern parlance. Unfortunately, it was not an uncommon one and was often hurled at women of heightened social status accused of supposed “unnatural behaviors” with other women. In some instances, the suspicion associated with the phrase amounted to little more scurrilous whispers; in others, it fueled lethal outrage.
The life and tragic demise of Queen Marie Antoinette is an example how negative views of “tribadism” had violent consequences. Marie Antoinette was married to the hapless future King Louis XVI of France in her mid-teens. By the time of the French Revolution, however, Marie Antoinette was routinely slandered as a promiscuous spendthrift pushing the nation toward ruin. Prominent in the list of accusations against her was her supposed lesbian proclivities – which lewd pamphlets of the era depicted with exceptional imagination.[6] The Queen’s tendency to sequester herself in her private palaces further fueled these rumors, leading to an infamous moniker “The Tribade of Trianon” in reference to one of Her Majesty’s royal retreats.[7]
Her supposed sapphic paramours included the notoriously beautiful Princess de Lamballe and the Duchesse de Polignac. Countless novels, plays, and films have considered the question of Marie Antoinette’s lesbian desires, but historians argue that these suggestions remain based on little more than conjecture. What matters, however, is that in her own (homophobic) era, the rumors were believed to be true and bolstered a feverish public hatred of the supposedly morally bankrupt queen. After a sham trial, Marie Antoinette was executed during the “Reign of Terror” in October 1793.[8]
But in other instances, the accusation of tribadism was far less dangerous – or the intended target just far more powerful. Indeed, numerous high-ranking ladies (whose stories are thus better preserved) throughout the early modern to Victorian periods were accused or suspected of lesbian behaviors and became linked with the “tribade” descriptor.
Queen Christina of Sweden, who ruled that country’s growing empire until her abdication in 1654, was a prominent example in the 17th century. Her passionate relationship with one of her ladies-in-waiting, Ebba Sparre or “Belle”, combined with Christina’s preference for masculine dress and mannerisms fueled the lifelong speculation about her sexuality. Queen Anne of England was in a similar situation in the early 18th century, dogged by whispers of romance between herself and her prominent noblewomen servants, notably Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough.
In both cases, these monarchs were largely unaffected by the rumors swirling around their behavior, and their suspected lesbian affairs had limited impact on their reigns or the broader political environment. But the tribade descriptor could have been linked to a vast range of women in varying social classes, particularly those who lived and appeared to love outside the strict gender binaries which predominated the European early modern period. In these instances, associations with tribadism could (and likely did) have implications for their safety, social standing and privilege (if they enjoyed such privilege at all).
Goodbye Tribades, Hello Lesbians?
“Tribade” and its affiliated phrases fell out of common usage in the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly as the modern understanding of human sexuality began to take clearer shape in the emerging field of psychology. “Lesbian”, as used to describe a wide range of women loving women, grew throughout the late Victorian period and first appeared as a noun in 1925.[9] A host of other phrases to describe what were in the past “tribades”, however, also became more widespread in the 20th century. Some of these were derogatory in nature and remain recognized as slurs in all or some contexts today, while others have been reclaimed (or are being reclaimed) by sapphics, lesbians and other members of the queer community.
As the phrase “lesbian” became popularized in the late Victorian period, the “tribades” of earlier periods gave way to a more expansive view of sapphic love and desires
But if “tribade” as a descriptor has been largely relegated to history, why does it matter for the queer community today? That question could be answered from a variety of historical, social and cultural perspectives, but in my view the answer is fairly straightforward (pardoning the pun!): fundamentally, words matter. Words tell us a great deal about the generations which preceded us, how they viewed their world and each other.
Although “tribade” was often a negative descriptor in its contemporary usage, its historical prevalence reiterates what should be (but is unfortunately not) an obvious point: that queer persons of all stripes have always lived and even thrived regardless of the broader cultural context around them. Queerness has always existed, often forcing wider, heteronormative structures to recognize it – albeit unwillingly or with considerable prejudice. The tribades of the past are thus a window into a constantly evolving story of queer liberation that continues even today.
[1] Magnus Hirshfeld, Sappho und Sokrates, pg. 6 (translated and shared via https://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/98639-indirect-mentions-of-asexuality-in-magnus-hirschfelds-books/)
[2] “Tribadism”, Douglas Harper, https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=tribadism&ref=searchbar_searchhint.
[3] Martha Vicinus, “They Wonder to Which Sex I Belong”: ‘the Historical Roots of the Modern Lesbian Identity’, Feminist Studies, vol. 18, no. 3, fall 1992, page 477.
[4]Sally O’Driscoll. “The Pirate’s Breasts: Criminal Women and the Meanings of the Body.” The Eighteenth Century 53, no. 3 (2012): pg. 370, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23365017.
[5] Leila J. Rupp, “Thinking About ‘Lesbian History,’” Feminist Studies 39, no. 2 (2013), pg. 358, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23719048.
[6] Elizabeth Colwell, “Pass as a Woman, Act like a Man: Marie-Antoinette as Tribade in the Pornography of the French Revolution”, Homosexuality in Modern France, Studies in the History of Sexuality (New York, 1996; online edn, Oxford Academic, 3 Oct. 2011), https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195093032.003.0004, accessed August 12, 2023.
[7] Jill H Casid. “Queer(y)Ing Georgic: Utility, Pleasure, and Marie-Antoinette’s Ornamented Farm.” Eighteenth-Century Studies 30, no. 3 (1997), pg. 306. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30054251.
[8] Harrison Mark, “Trial and Execution of Marie Antoinette,” World History Encyclopedia, November 7, 2022, https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2099/trial-and-execution-of-marie-antoinette/.
[9] Online Etymology Dictionary, “lesbian (adj.)”, https://www.etymonline.com/word/lesbian#etymonline_v_6698.