Images: Passing Fashions: Reading Female Masculinities in the 1920s
Image 1: Eine Frau modelt Jeanne Lanvins Version des Garçonne-Looks, 1925.
Image 2: Jane Heap, photographed in Paris by Berenice Abbott, 1927.
Image 3: “Garçonnes,” 1922. Paris, Palais Galliera–musée de la Mode; found on the Van Cleef & Arpels Collection.
Image 1: February 1925: British actress of stage and screen Edna Best (1900 - 1974) as Fay Collen in the play 'Spring Cleaning' at St Martins Theatre in London.
Image 2: Edna Best by Dorothy Wilding, c. 1925.
Image 1 and 2: Le Grand Tailleur, No. 181 and 184; both 1926.
Image 1: Postcard of German film actress Elga Brink, c. mid-to-late 1920s.
Image 2: Cover of Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, No. 46, 13 November 1927; found in Women in the Weimar Republic by Helen Boak, p. 270.
Image 3: Publicity shot of German actress Ruth Landshoff in Das Leben; November 1929.
“Classic Literature is just a bunch of boring old white guys?”
First of all, how dare you! Genuinely HATE this take because it’s not even close to being true.
For Pride Month, I present to you a short list of recommended (by me!) queer classic literature.
1. The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) - Oscar Wilde
You already knew this book was going to be on this list.
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a Gothic novel about a beautiful, young man who remains forever youthful and leads a life of self-indulgence, whereas a portrait of him ages and reflects his sins. The original manuscript of the novel had 500 words deleted by the editor prior to publication including Basil's confession that he felt a "romance of feeling" towards Dorian and had never before loved a woman. So while the novel is not explicitly queer, the intention is definitely there. Also, Oscar Wilde himself was sent to prison for 2 years for "gross indecency with men". So....subtext is everything.
2. Giovanni's Room (1956) - James Baldwin
There's no subtext in Giovanni's Room. James Baldwin was an openly queer man and had relationships with both men and women. The main character in his novel does the same. David is a gay (or bi?) man who struggles with his sexual identity, outright denying it at times. He is engaged to a woman, but spends the majority of the book trying to come to terms with the fact that he is actually in love with Giovanni, a man he is having a sexual affair with. Very poignant novel about homosexuality, repression, and internalized homophobia in mid-century Paris.
3. The Well of Loneliness (1928) - Radclyffe Hall
When a book gets banned, I immediately have to read it. The Well of Loneliness was banned from publication in the UK for being "obscene" and only allowed to be published in the US after years in court. There is nothing sexually explicit in the book, but a novel about a butch lesbian written by a butch lesbian in 1928 is going to cause a little social panic. It's also a beautiful book. The main character, Stephen (a woman) falls in love with a nurse named Mary and though they start a happy relationship, they have to navigate the social rejections of their families, friends, and wider community.
4. Goodbye to Berlin (1934) - Christopher Isherwood
The inspiration to one of the greatest musicals of all time, Cabaret. And also semi-autobiographical as it was based on Isherwood's time in Berlin. Isherwood was a gay, American writer who spent much of his 20s exploring queer spaces in Berlin before the rise of the Nazi party in Germany. One of these spaces is the avant-garde, gender bending Kit Kat Club. Ultimately, Isherwood has to flee Germany when Hitler gains power, and we're left with a sad ambiguity about what happens to all of the friends he made in Germany.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom
Description
In this portrait Hall is portrayed with short, cropped hair, wearing a tailored jacket and trousers, with a cravat and monocle. Believing herself to be a man trapped in a woman’s body, Hall cultivated a sophisticated masculine appearance whilst proclaiming her defiance of convention. At the time this portrait was painted she preferred to be called 'John' and was living with a woman.
Stephen is an ideal child of aristocratic parents—a fencer, a horse rider and a keen scholar. Stephen grows to be a war hero, a bestselling writer and a loyal, protective lover. But Stephen is a woman, and her lovers are women. As her ambitions drive her, and society confines her, Stephen is forced into desperate actions.
The Well of Loneliness was banned for obscenity when published in 1928. It became an international bestseller, and for decades was the single most famous lesbian novel. It has influenced how love between women is understood, for the twentieth century and beyond.
She was handsome but much too large and unyielding both in body and mind, and they liked clinging women. They were oak-trees, preferring the feminine ivy. It might cling rather close, it might finally strangle, it frequently did, and yet they preferred it, and this being so, they resented Stephen, suspecting something of the acorn about her.
This is my visit to Highgate Cemetery this February. Seeing the place where Radclyffe Hall, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf’s family now rest in eternity was one of the most sentimentally literary moments of my life. Besides the literature, it is also one of the first “garden cemeteries” I’ve ever been to. The guide was also such a sweetheart, and very attentive. Anyway, I deeply regret not having enough time before the tour to explore the East Wing on my own (tip for solo travellers: don't trust Citymapper to get you to Highgate Cemetery correctly: it sends you to some other street instead of Swain’s Lane). Apart from the cartographic catastrophe, this was one of the best activities I've ever done. Please don't hesitate to pay the extra pounds for the guided tour! Hoping I can inspire someone to go visit Highgate and give it some love!
