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In the fifteenth century, Margery Kempe laments "Than was sche glad, for sche had leve to kyssyn the seke women" (I. 74. 4190).1 Critics have long associated queerness with Margery Kempe not just concerning her sexuality but her general performance in the community and her role as female mystic. In analyzing the quote above through a queer lens, Jonathan Hsy states, "I would like to pursue the possibility that Margery elicits (unspecified) erotic desires in the leper in this moment, and further posit that this woman's unarticulated desire - like leprosy - might be conceived as contagious."2 Hsy is not just interested in Margery's queerness but how, through her unorthodox desire, she often "inflame[s] unexpected desires in others - including readers of the Book itself."3
Using Margery's frequently discussed relationship to the Godhead, this paper proposes a queer reading of Margery Kempe as demonstrating gender fluidity alongside the Godhead and Christ. Tracing the term "queer" in the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest interpretations of the word meant "strange or peculiar" around the 14th and 15th century. Around the turn of the 20th century "queer" became derogatory, referring to anyone who identified as homosexual. However, the current interpretation means "denoting or relating to a sexual or gender identity that does not correspond to established ideas of sexuality and gender, especially heterosexual norms."4 Queer identity classifies sexual orientation and gender identity as fluid. Outside of sexuality and gender, queer can also simply mean a theory of advocating a breakdown of binary thinking. By establishing oneself as queer, one is using a term that already alters the standard and original definition of the term defined by a heteronormative society - to represent oneself as "queer" is to reclaim language and create space in a community that otherwise did not exist.
Carolyn Dinshaw remarks in her reading that Margery is "queer" in "relation to religious ideals as well as to behaviors, habits, and expectations of her earthly community. One does not need to impose an anachronistic concept of normativity in order to come to this conclusion; it can be heard in her own milieu."5 A physical representation of Kempe's disruption and queemess in the community is the white dress she wears, ordained by Christ himself. As Dinshaw remarks, "Margery...