For as long as humanity has been a spec in the universe’s eye, gender and sexual expression have been fluid, said Brieanna Garbin, though you wouldn’t know it by the lack of research involving transgender and non-conforming identities today. 

A master’s student of English with a concentration in gender studies at the Wayne State University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Garbin will present her research project ‘Beyond the Binary: Kink, Queer Relationships, and Gender Non-Conformity in the Middle Ages’ at the 2025 Graduate Research Symposium on February 26, 2025, at the Wayne State University Student Center. 

Garbin draws on queer theory and modern transgender studies to demonstrate how historical figures challenge the traditional narratives about sexuality and desire. Figures such as Eleanor Rykener, a transgender woman and sex worker of the Middle Ages, who was not only out, but supported by members of her community, Garbin said.  

Rykener is one of a number of figures who take on a central role in a research essay Garbin is currently writing on the intersection of kink, sexual freedom, and gender expression in the Middle Ages. The essay will highlight how societal attitudes toward non-normative sexualities, particularly those that transgressed rigid gender binaries, were both policed and tolerated within specific historical contexts. 

“When we think of kink now, we think of completely different things than what they thought in the Middle Ages,” Garbin said. “It was a sin to enjoy pleasure, to want it without having children. The idea of Eleanor having sex not just for work, but her own individual pleasure was rare for the time. As a queer, gender non-conforming person myself, I wanted to show through research that trans people have always existed, and that they have been able to exist in joy, and pleasure, and love.”

Garbin said many published works refer to Rykener as a ‘cross-dressing prostitute.’ Many of these articles are published by men. 

“I wanted to prove that she was human, and so much more than that.” 

Garbin’s hope is to contribute to the historically limited but ongoing dialogue between the past and present in the fields of sexuality studies and gender theory.

“What history can tell us is that queer and trans people have always been here, they have always persevered and fought for their existence, and as much as many try to erase history, their strength and stories will always be told.”