Maria Johansdotter

Maria Johansdotter, or Maja Jansdotter, also known as Magnus Johansson (born 1683), was a Swedish spelman (a player of Swedish folk music) and parish clerk. She was the first woman parish clerk in Sweden. She was put on trial for homosexuality and for having posed as a man in 1705.

Life

Maria Johansdotter arrived in Stockholm from Åland with her stepfather during the Great Northern War. She later stated, that in her home parish she often dressed in trousers and performed both male and female tasks. In Stockholm, she performed tasks normally given to men on farms outside of the capital. She also became a well known musician in the capital, when she played the harp as a spelman on the taverns of Gamla stan. Although she wore trousers, she still used her female name. One evening, she was given identity papers under the male name Magnus Johansson by a guest at a tavern. After this, she dressed completely in male clothing and stated to her employer that she was a hermaphrodite and would henceforth live as a man. She later moved to another part of the city's surroundings where she was unknown as a woman.

Partially, this was caused by the fact that the professions open to men were better paid. As a man, she supported herself as a male farmhand and started to train as a shoe maker. Normally it was about women serving as soldiers, but Maria Johansdotter was not unique for having posed as a man to gain access to civilian professions. In Säby in 1571, a shoe maker apprentice was discovered to be a pregnant woman, and Karin Johansdotter from Kangasala in Finland served as a male servant in 1723-1726 because the salary was better for a man. The usher Petter Cederlöf, was discovered to be a female after his death in 1780, then engaged to a woman, and Gustafva Juliana Cederström (1746–1801) became widely known for having performed several different male professions reserved for men by posing as a man.

Legacy The story of Maria Johansdotter have been made into a play by the musician Anders Peev and Johan Theodorsson from the Musikteater Unna (Unna Music Theater). The play was first shown at the Stockholm Pride 2012, and has been played at the International Story Festival in Rome 2013.