Editing Christina, Queen of Sweden (section)

=== Gender ambiguity and sexuality ===
[[File:Ebba Sparre.jpg|thumb|[[Ebba Sparre]] married in 1652 a brother of [[Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie]]. Painting by Sébastien Bourdon]]

The question of Christina's sexuality has been debated, even as a number of modern biographers generally consider her to have been a [[lesbian]], and her relationships with women were noted during her lifetime;<ref name="crompton">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TfBYd9xVaXcC&pg=PA357 |first=Louis |last=Crompton |title=Homosexuality and Civilization |year=2009 |publisher=Harvard University Press |pages=357–60|isbn=9780674030060 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Saunders |first=Amy |date=2019-12-13 |title=The Afterlife of Christina of Sweden: Gender and Sexuality in Heritage and Fiction |journal=Royal Studies Journal |volume=6 |issue=2 |page=204 |doi=10.21039/rsj.199 |issn=2057-6730|doi-access=free }}</ref> Christina seems to have written passionate letters to [[Ebba Sparre]], and Guilliet suggested a relationship between Christina and [[Gabrielle de Rochechouart de Mortemart]], Rachel, a niece of Diego Teixeira,<ref name="Quilliet">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JNZ9B1JWaT4C&pg=PT52|title=Christine de Suède|first=Bernard|last=Quilliet|date=4 June 2003|publisher=Fayard|access-date=10 July 2017|via=Google Books|isbn=9782213649474}}</ref> and the singer Angelina Giorgino.<ref name="ReferenceC"/> Some historians assert she maintained [[heterosexual]],<ref name="books.google.com"/> [[Asexuality|non-sexual]],<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TO1a4F_EDBsC&pg=PT70|title=Alle Wege führen nach Rom: Die ewige Stadt und ihre Besucher|first=Roberto|last=Zapperi|date=12 February 2013|publisher=C.H.Beck|access-date=10 July 2017|via=Google Books|isbn=9783406644528}}</ref> [[lesbian]],<ref>Sarah Waters (1994) ''A Girton Girl on a Throne: Queen Christina and Versions of Lesbianism, 1906-1933''
In: Feminist Review. No. 46, Sexualities: Challenge & Change (Spring, 1994), pp. 41–60 [https://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1395418?uid=3738736&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=56119066103]</ref> or [[bisexual]] relationships during the course of her life <!--or perhaps was [[Asexuality|asexual]]--> depending on which source is consulted.<ref name="Popp 2010"/><ref>Egherman, Mara (2009)[https://central-iowa.academia.edu/MaraEgherman/Talks/47638/Kristina_of_Sweden_and_the_History_of_Reading_in_Europe_Crossing_Religious_and_Other_Borders'' Kristina of Sweden and the History of Reading in Europe: Crossing Religious and Other Borders''](University of Iowa, Graduate School of Library and Information Science)</ref> According to [[Veronica Buckley]], Christina was a "dabbler" who was "painted a [[lesbian]], a [[prostitute]], a [[hermaphrodite]], and an [[atheist]]" by her contemporaries, though "in that tumultuous age, it is hard to determine which was the most damning label".<ref name=Buckley/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/apr/10/featuresreviews.guardianreview20|title=Review: Christina, Queen of Sweden by Veronica Buckley|newspaper=The Guardian|date=2004-04-10|last1=Wilson|first1=Frances}}</ref> Christina wrote near the end of her life that she was "neither Male nor Hermaphrodite, as some People in the World have pass'd me for".<ref name=Buckley/>

Bargrave recounted that Christina's relationship with Azzolino was both "familiar" ([[Intimate relationship#Intimacy|intimate]]) and "amorous" and that Azzolino had been sent (by the Pope) to Romania as punishment for maintaining it.<ref name=bargrave/> Buckley, on the other hand, believed there was "in Christina a curious squeamishness with regard to sex" and that "a sexual relationship between herself and Azzolino, or any other man, seems unlikely".<ref name=Buckley/> Based on historical accounts of Christina's physicality, some scholars believe that she may have been an [[intersex]] individual.<ref name=Buckley/><ref>{{Cite book |title=Queen Christina of Sweden: documents and studies |publisher=Nationalmuseum |year=1966 |first=Magnus von|last=Platen |page=154}}</ref><ref name="auto"/>

In 1965, these conflicting accounts led to an investigation of Christina's remains. [[Physical anthropologist]] and anatomist [[Carl-Herman Hjortsjö]], who undertook the investigation, explained: "Our imperfect knowledge concerning the effect of intersex on the skeletal formation ... makes it impossible to decide which positive skeletal findings should be demanded upon which to base the diagnosis [of an [[intersex]] condition]." Nevertheless, Hjortsjö speculated that Christina had reasonably typical female genitalia because it is recorded by her physicians Bourdelot and Macchiati that she menstruated.<ref>Hjortsjö, Carl-Herman (1966/7) [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ibs_QwAACAAJ "Queen Christina of Sweden: A Medical/Anthropological Investigation of Her Remains in Rome"]{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} pp. 15–16</ref> Hjortsjö's [[osteology|osteological]] analysis of Christina's [[skeleton]] led him to state that they were of a "typically female" structure.<ref name="González 2006 page 211">{{cite book |title=Cuba And the Tempest: Literature & Cinema in the Time of Diaspora |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A8YfMoPifnMC&pg=PP1 |page=211 |last=González |first=Eduardo |publisher=The University of North Carolina Press |year=2006 |access-date=3 August 2012|isbn = 9780807856833}}</ref>

Some of the symptoms could be due to [[polycystic ovary syndrome]], a complex multi-[[endocrine disorder]] including [[hirsutism]] (male pattern/type hair growth) due to increased androgen hormone levels, and abdominal obesity due to the hormone insulin receptor defects. Buckley suggested that her low comprehension of the need for most social norms, little desire to act, dress, or do other social norms, and her preference to wear, act, and do only that which she deemed logically practical, point to her having a [[pervasive developmental disorder]], such as [[autism]].<ref name=Buckley/>