Keeping a good Wo/man down: Normalizing Deborah Sampson Gannett

Abstract

Deborah Sampson Gannett's 1802 lecture tour has been hailed as an important beginning for feminist public address. Previous critics have approached Sampson Gannett's lecture too narrowly, offering a “celebratory” reading that does not fully address the contradictions raised by her anti‐feminist statements. My analysis illuminates those contradictions through an alternative reading based in theories of gender performance. I conclude that attention to the performative aspects of Sampson Gannett's discourse allows critics to understand the feminist potential of her ultimate disruption of the rigid confines of True Womanhood.