Fact-Checking the 'First French Femboy': How Modern Internet Slang Rewrote the Story of Chevalier D'éon
By Maya Lin-Takahashi
On May 21, 1810, d'Éon died in London at age 81. For the previous fifteen years, d'Éon shared a home with an English widow, Mary Cole, who had known d'Éon only as a woman. Following d'Éon's death, British surgeon Thomas Copeland performed a formal post-mortem examination witnessed by several local dignitaries.
Copeland's published autopsy confirmed that d'Éon had typical male anatomical characteristics, along with rounded hips and unusually developed breast tissue. For London society, the finding settled four decades of financial wagers. For the history of gender identity, it marked the beginning of a profound medical and historical debate.
A century later, British sexologist Havelock Ellis introduced the diagnostic term "Eonism" to describe individuals who derived psychological fulfillment from wearing clothing of and living as the other sex without experiencing same-sex attraction. Ellis's terminology became a crucial foundational brick for 20th-century medicine's eventual distinction between sexual orientation and gender identity.
Maya is a hardware enthusiast who tests and reviews smart home devices, smartphones, wearables, and audio gear. She focuses on practical consumer value and build quality.
