#edythe eyde

[overnighttosunflowers]

Anyone who has 15 minutes and any interest at all in LGBT history should check out this podcast episode. I listened to it ages ago when I was starting I Prefer Girls and there’s a ton my inspiration for Laudna in it. But also I just listened to it again and I’m big in my feelings about it generally. Make sure to stay for the song after the credits. I wish I could’ve met her.

[owlsounds]

Meet the 1940s secretary who used office time to produce the first lesbian magazine

Published this month by NBC

[mental-mona]

Who Was 'Lisa Ben,' the Woman Behind the U.S.'s First Lesbian Magazine?

Edythe Eyde published nine issues of "Vice Versa" between June 1947 and February 1948. She later adopted a pen name that doubled as an anagr

[yourdailyqueer]

Lisa Ben (Edythe Eyde) (deceased)

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Lesbian

DOB: 7 November 1921

RIP: 22 December 2015

Ethnicity: White

Occupation: Editor, journalist, writer, singer, songwriter, musician

Note: Created the first known lesbian publication in the world, Vice Versa. Eyde has been recognized as a pioneer in the LGBT movement.

[gatheringbones]

Lisa Ben, “America’s Gayest Magazine”: The First U.S. Lesbian Periodical, from Happy Endings: Lesbian Writers Talk About Their Lives And Work, by Kate Brandt, The Naiad Press, 1993:

["Vice Versa was created in 1947 by a Los Angeles secretary who wrote under the pseudonym of Lisa Ben (an anagram, of course, of "lesbian"). With the resourcefulness common to those who must be secretive, Ben produced Vice Versa at the office where she worked.

"I would type it out during working hours," she recalls. "I never had enough work; I was a very fast typist. And my boss would say, 'Well, I don't care what you do if your work is done. But I don't want you to sit there and knit or read a magazine; I want you to look busy.

"So I said, 'Aye, aye, sir; I'll try to look busy.' So that's how I put together Vice Versa. I used the office stapling machine [and] the manila folders, and I didn't feel a bit guilty about it! I should have, but I didn't."

Producing a publication of any sort entailed physical as well as creative labor in those days before word processing and desktop publishing. But Ben says of the process, "I had an awful lot of fun putting it together. I hand-typed it on a manual typewriter," she recalls. "I would use carbon paper, because in those days we didn't have such things as [photocopiers] or even a ditto machine. I would put in the original and then seven copies; that's all the typewriter would take legibly. I did eight copies at a time. I'd run it through twice, that made sixteen copies, and that's not very much.

"And after I was through, and put it all together, I would give it to my friends. I never sold it. I just gave it away to my friends, because I felt that it was a labor of the heart, and I shouldn't get any money for it. And so I said, 'Now, when you're through with it, please pass it on to another lesbian. Don't just throw it in the wastepaper basket, because these things are not dated— they don't have anything in them of news, or anything that would be passé, just fiction and poetry and book reviews and whatnot. So pass it along."]

[darthfoil]

Edythe Eyde, a.k.a. Lisa Ben wrote and published “Vice Versa: America’s Gayest Magazine.” in the 1940s. She was also a well known singer at gay clubs in the 1950s where she sang parodies of popular songs.

“Her boss told her she should look busy, but not knit and not read. So what do you do? You write a newsletter for lesbians in 1947 and give them out to your friends.”

Listen to an interview with her here and read more about her story.

[curlyevanbuckley]

in celebration of today (march 8th) being International Women’s Day, here’s a couple of pictures of one of my favorite women, Edythe Eyde aka Lisa Ben (an anagram for lesbian), the creator of one of the first magazines for lesbians, “Vice Versa”. She also wrote and performed several songs about and for women who loved women, if you’d like to hear her sing and talk a little bit then you can listen to episode three of the podcast Making Gay History on spotify or on their website. She’s lovely to listen to, so I’d definitely recommend it :)

Excerpt from Volume one of Vice Versa, 1974:

Whether the unsympathetic majority approves or not, it looks as though the third sex is here to stay.  With the advancement of psychiatry and related subjects, the world is becoming more and more aware that there are those in our midst who feel no attraction for the opposite sex.  It is not an uncommon sight to observe mannishly attired women or even those dressed in more feminine garb strolling along the street hand-in-hand or even arm-in-arm, in an attitude which certainly would seem to indicate far more than mere friendliness.

Homosexuality is becoming a less and less taboo subject, and although still considered by the general public as contemptible, or treated with derision, I venture to predict that there will be a time in the future when gay folk will be accepted as part of regular society.

Just as certain subjects, once considered unfit for discussion now are used as themes in many of our motion pictures, I believe that the time will come when, say, Stephen Gordon, will step unrestrained from the pages of Radclyffe Hall’s admirable novel, Well of Loneliness, onto the silver screen and once precedent has been broken by one such motion picture others will be sure to follow.

Perhaps even “Vice Versa” might be the forerunner of better magazines dedicated to the third sex, which in some future time might take their rightful place on the newsstands beside other publications to be available openly and without restriction to those who wish to read them.In these days of frozen foods, motion picture palaces, compact apartments, modern innovations and female independence, there is no reason why a woman would have to look to a man for food and shelter in return for raising his children and keeping his house in order unless she really wants to.Never before have circumstances and conditions been so suitable for those of lesbian tendencies.

[biandlesbianliterature]

The fascinating story of the first lesbian magazine in North America, plus where to read it

The magazine, called "Vice Versa," and published by Edythe Eyde (aka Lisa Ben) could only be passed out by hand due to the anti-gay laws of the time.