‘Knickers into Nackers’

This chapter explores the gender politics in Nina Hamnett's autobiographies, focusing on her experimental transitions of gender identity. It examines how Hamnett (1890–1956) – artist, writer, model, and bohemian – expressed interest in ‘Changing sexes’ and ‘Women turning into men’ throughout her work. Building on previous scholarship on Hamnett's first autobiography Laughing Torso (1932), it analyses her second volume, Is She a Lady? A Problem in Autobiography (1955), which bears witness to a life dedicated to troubling gender binaries. The chapter considers the radical gender politics of Hamnett's performances in Soho bars and draws on Eve Kosovsky Sedgwick's insights to explore the queer poetics of her experimental autobiographies. It argues that Hamnett's writing demonstrates a compelling interest in gender fluidity and transness, challenging heteronormative expectations through her cross-dressing adventures and artistic collaborations. Through analysis of her relationship with sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and her role as model for his famous marble sculpture Torso (1914), it reveals how Hamnett's work embodies a radical vision of gender that has been neglected in patriarchal ‘modernist’ criticism.