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INVERTED IMAGES |
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An investigation of the lesbian identity through visual and cultural representation |
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Conclusion The human race is based upon, and depends upon for survival, heterosexuality with its structure of the nuclear family and emphasis on male/female relationships. Until the late nineteenth century, homosexuality, with its literal meaning of ‘sex with a person of the same sex’ was recognized although not condoned as a male deviance from the heterosexual norm. It was not considered to be a separate gender identity and lesbian women lived together under the euphemism of a ‘romantic friendship’. Yet by the early twentieth century, both homosexuality and lesbianism had been recognized as referring to not only a same-sex relationship but also to a sense of personal and social identity, which threatened the patriarchal society. The publication of Havelock Ellis’s theory of sexual inversion and the consolidation of these theories by Radclyffe Hall had a profound effect on how society perceived lesbian women. The new social construction of lesbianism as a pathological condition had the effect of both stigmatising and ostracising women because they were different. Hall’s unshakable belief that she was a congenital invert was responsible for Hall and her partner adopting polarized masculine and feminine forms of dress. The result of her visible representation as an invert allied to the scandal attached to her book gave prominence to the idea of lesbian women as being damaged psychologically and malformed physically. A body of literature and images emerged in the middle of the twentieth century that was based on the idea of the damaged or, as Goffman put it, the spoiled identity and was heavily weighted towards the idea of the lesbian woman as a predator, a |
WORDS PICTURES |
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threat to the patriarchal society and in need of either punishment or treatment. The ostracism of lesbian women from mainstream society was intensified by the male-driven pulp fiction and film of the era, as Ellis’s sexual invert theory materialized into the visual imagery of butch and femme role playing, seen by many as a pale and perverted aping of heterosexuality and a further indication that the women were suffering from a congenital and pathological condition. The very structure that set lesbian women apart from mainstream society had another, more positive consequence - it also made them visible, gave them a cohesive voice and enabled them to identify each other. Instead of accepting Radclyffe Hall’s apologia for lesbian women or being convinced by Ellis’s theory of sexual inversion, women photographers and artists began exploring the whole concept of identity. They used metaphors such as masks and mirrors to represent the diversity of their personalities, which they considered could not be represented by a consideration of their sexual preferences in isolation. In the latter half of the twentieth century, this exploration of identity per se shifted into a wider consideration of lesbianism as a valid category of identification and a new openness of representation emerged as women produced images which ranged from the subversive to the frankly sexual. Ellis observed a sexual preference in some women that differed from the heterosexual norm and built a theory around it that labelled them as deviant. In the twenty-first century, after a hundred years of working to refute the negative imagery which had evolved partly as a result of Ellis’s publication, lesbian women have inverted the theory and are reclaiming their place as valid members of society. © Jacqui Jay Grafton 2009 |
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