"Girl-Man" : Cora Anderson and the Wisconsin "Eugenic" Marriage Law

Abstract

For 13 years in the early 1900s, Cora Anderson, a Potawatomie-Cherokee and African-American female from Kendallville, Indiana, intermittently, yet effectively, passed as Ralph Kerwinieo, a South American man ten years her junior. While residing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Anderson obtained a male's certificate of health, as required by a 1913 Wisconsin law, in order to marry her second wife, Dorothy Kleinowski. The 1913 Marriage Law, ostensibly designed to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, was inspired by the eugenics movement and later became a model for similar laws throughout the U.S. Although Anderson's case has been examined in sexuality and gender studies, this aspect of her case--as well as her intermittent "passing"--has remained largely unexplored. This thesis fills in apparent gaps in literature on Anderson's complex case, exploring the timeline and the complex motivations for Anderson's intermittent passing as well as the intersections of Anderson's case with the 1913 Wisconsin "eugenic" marriage law.