Editing George Sand (section)

===Gender presentation===
{{More citations needed section|date=February 2023}}

Sand was one of many notable 19th-century women who chose to [[Cross-dressing|wear male attire]] in public. In 1800, the police chief of Paris issued an order requiring women to apply for a permit in order to wear male clothing. Some women applied for health, occupational, or recreational reasons (e.g., horseback riding),<ref>{{cite web |last=Garber |first=Megan |title=It Just Became Legal for Parisian Women to Wear Pants |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/02/it-just-became-legal-for-parisian-women-to-wear-pants/272836/#:~:text=In%201799%2C%20the%20police%20chief,justification%20for%20exposing%20her%20legs. |website=The Atlantic |access-date=23 November 2022 |language=en |date=4 February 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Wills |first=Matthew |title=Rosa Bonheur's Permission to Wear Pants |url=https://daily.jstor.org/rosa-bonheurs-permission-to-wear-pants/ |website=JSTOR Daily |access-date=23 November 2022 |date=28 May 2022}}</ref> although many women chose to wear [[Trousers as women's clothing|trousers]] and other traditional male attire in public without receiving a permit.<ref>{{cite web |title=Paris women finally allowed to wear trousers |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-21329269 |website=BBC News |access-date=23 November 2022 |date=4 February 2013}}</ref> Sand obtained a permit to wear men's clothing in 1831,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Le Parisien |title=Une permission de travestissement pour George Sand |url=https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.leparisien.fr%2Fespace-premium%2Fair-du-temps%2Fune-permission-de-travestissement-pour-george-sand-18-04-2012-1959880.php#federation=archive.wikiwix.com&tab=url |date=18 April 2012}}</ref> justifying it as being less expensive and far sturdier than the typical dress of a noblewoman at the time. In addition to being comfortable, Sand's male attire enabled her to circulate more freely in Paris than most of her female contemporaries and gave her increased access to venues that barred women, even those of her social standing.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Siegfried|first1=Susan L.|last2=Finkelberg|first2=John|date=3 September 2020|title=Fashion in the Life of George Sand|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/1362704X.2020.1794202|journal=Fashion Theory|volume=26 |issue=5 |pages=559–593|doi=10.1080/1362704X.2020.1794202|s2cid=225330185|issn=1362-704X|via=Taylor and Francis Online}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Barry|first=Joseph|title=The Wholeness of George Sand|date=1976|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44627396|journal=Nineteenth-Century French Studies|volume=4|issue=4|pages=469–487|jstor=44627396|issn=0146-7891}}</ref> Also scandalous was Sand's smoking tobacco in public; neither peerage nor gentry had yet sanctioned the free indulgence by women of such a habit, especially in public, although [[Franz Liszt]]'s paramour [[Marie d'Agoult]] affected this as well, smoking large cigars.

While some contemporaries were critical of her comportment, many people accepted her behaviour—until they became shocked with the subversive tone of her novels.<ref name="Thomson 1972" /> Those who found her writing admirable were not bothered by her ambiguous or rebellious public behaviour.

In 1831, at the age of 27, she chose her pseudonym George Sand. "Sand" was derived from the name of her lover and fellow writer Jules Sandeau, as the pair had previously co-authored a novel under the pseudonym J. Sand. She added George to complete the name and distinguish it from Sandeau's, removing the final "s" from the usual French spelling of the name to heighten its ambiguity as a pseudonym.

Victor Hugo commented, "George Sand cannot determine whether she is male or female. I entertain a high regard for all my colleagues, but it is not my place to decide whether she is my sister or my brother."<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Gerson|first1=Noel B.|date=3 October 2021|title=George Sand: A Biography of the First Modern, Liberated Woman|page=13|edition=Kindle |publisher=Sapere Books|asin=B09DYKZQ7F}}</ref>

[[File:Portrait of George Sand by Thomas Sully, 1826.jpg|left|thumb|Portrait of George Sand by [[Thomas Sully]], 1826]]

Gender appears to be likewise ambiguous in Sand's own perspective. Sometimes when writing first person memoirs or essays (including letters and journals), Sand's language "speaks to modern explorations of gender ambiguity" in the consistent use of a first-person "male persona" <ref name="Roberts2020">Roberts, Michele (13 March 2020) "La parole humaine: Writing, gender and the shifting reputation of George Sand." [[The Times Literary Supplement|Times Literary Supplement]] (''TLS''), no. 6102. [http://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A632692903/AONE link.gale.com/apps/doc/A632692903/AONE] - via Gale Academic OneFile.</ref> used to describe Sand's own experiences and identity in masculine terms. However, when writing an autobiography of the author's youth, the person described is a girl/woman whose descriptions aligns with her legal designation as "la demoiselle Aurora."<ref name="SandMaVie">{{Cite book|last1=Sand|first1=George|date=1856|title=Histoire de ma vie.|publisher= Paris, M. Lévy|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007570668}}</ref>

Sand's friends and peers likewise alternate between using masculine or female adjectives and pronouns depending on the situation. For instance, in reviewing the collected letters of Sand's lover [[Chopin]],<ref name="ChopinLetters">Chopin, Frédéric and Henryk Opieński (1931). ''Chopin's Letters''. Translated by E. L. Voynich, A.A. Knopf. Archived at: https://archive.org/details/chopinsletters00chop/mode/2up</ref> one finds her consistently addressed as either "Mme Sand" or more familiarly as "George". Either way, she is referred to with feminine pronouns, and positioned as the "Lady of the House" <ref name="ChopinLetters" />{{rp|202}} when referring to their domestic life together. However, when speaking of Sand as a public rather than a private figure, even those who clearly knew (or even referenced) the writer's sex also tended to apply masculine terms when speaking of their role as an author. For instance [[Jules Janin]] describes Sand as the ''king'' of novellists (ie: "le roi des romanciers modernes")<ref name="Roberts2020" /> rather than as the ''queen''. Likewise, [[Flaubert]] refers to Sand as being a dear master of their shared art (ie: "Chère Maitre"), using a masculine title to denote the masculine professional role, but a grammatically feminine adjective that acknowledges their legal or grammatical sex.<ref name="Roberts2020" />