Gender Brown Bag wrapped up its fall semester Nov. 14 with a deep look into “Cahiers Bleus” and how the life of Liane de Pougy, French writer and former courtesan, was reshaped by the published memoirs.
Courtney Sullivan, professor of modern languages, led the session and walked the audience through the ways Pougy’s original diaries were rewritten, edited and selectively published by a Dominican priest, ultimately changing how her story is known today.
Sullivan shared Pougy’s story from her early years as a courtesan to her later life as a novelist, princess and eventually a tertiary nun. She explained how Pougy’s handwritten notebooks documented her trauma, grief, spirituality and efforts to reclaim her own narrative after years of public attention.
“This is [the] real-life experience of people who lived in different areas,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan pointed out how the 34-volume manuscript was heavily altered before it ever reached readers. Large passages were removed or minimized, creating a published version that looked very different from what Pougy originally wrote.
“Everything in the red brackets is published, but everything outside of it — and there’s quite a lot of it — did not make it in,” Sullivan said.
Those omissions, she explained, took away key pieces of Pougy’s reflections on faith, loss and her attempts to reshape her life.
“Her story, her truth and her posterity have been sacrificed for [a] gossipy, sensationalistic, fast-sale recounting of her life,” Sullivan said.
This meeting closed out the Fall 2025 Gender Brown Bag series, which throughout the semester included presentations on topics such as purity culture, domestic violence and gender in media. The series brings together students, faculty and staff from across campus to explore different perspectives on gender-related issues.
“It’s been exciting just to see how we’ve transitioned from faculty presentation to student presentation and to the final one right now, which is also like a faculty presentation,” said Adebanke Adebayo, coordinator of the series.
As planning begins for spring 2026, Adebayo said she hopes to see more students and faculty join the lineup, especially as the spring typically draws larger groups and more classroom participation.
“Look forward to the call for presenters in the spring and come share your project with us, your ideas with us and just send me an email,” Adebayo said.
Gender Brown Bag will return in spring 2026 with a new set of presentations, continuing its focus on campus conversations about gender, identity and lived experience.
Edited by Anson Appelhanz and Bidhya Sapkota
