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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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Pulp fiction and the emergence of ‘butch’ and ‘femme’ While the 1950s were a time of intense oppression against individuals with alternative gender and sexual identities, it was also the period that gave birth to the modern gay and lesbian movement. (Abate, 2008, p.171) These years were possibly the lowest point in the representation of lesbian women as they were considered in need of either treatment or correction. In the aftermath of World War II, ‘homosexuality was socially demonised and scientifically pathologised … gay men and lesbians were seen as suffering from a physical disease or at least a psychological disorder’ but, as Michelle Ann Abate goes on to point out, although ‘heterosexual[s] … may not have been comfortable living near or working beside a gay man or a lesbian … they were eager to read about them in the burgeoning new genre of paperback fiction’ (ibid, p. 171). Abate has identified the years following World War II as those in which [a] complex code of personal style, sexual role play and physical and emotional self-presentation, butchness[,] emerged among working-class lesbians in general and those involved in the urban bar scene in particular (ibid, p.176) This sexual role playing – the working-class reincarnation of Ellis’s ‘congenital invert’ and her more submissive partner, the ‘pseudo invert’ – was at the heart of the pulp fiction genre which flourished in the 1950s and 1960s, but now the terminology had changed. The ‘masculine’ half of the partnership was the ‘butch’ and the female half was the ‘femme’ and the clothes and occupations of the women reflected this. Although sexual inversion was no longer spoken of, the model created by Ellis continued to heavily influence the representation of the lesbian characters in pulp fiction. The repressive moral climate of this time meant that the publishers of lesbian pulp fiction had to be very careful how they presented the books to the general public. Katharine V. Forrest points out that ‘[a] considerable number of male writers authored lesbian fiction in the 50s and 60s, either from prurient interest or, more likely, to cash in on a publishing boom; their books outnumbered the women’s perhaps five to one’ (2005, p. xi). With the books initially written by male authors (often using female pseudonyms) and aimed primarily at a male readership, therefore, artists and copywriters were commissioned to produce covers which would not only imply the steamy sex scenes that existed inside the book but would also appear to be acting in the public interest in exposing these perceived perverted practices. Although the books had highly suggestive titles such as Twilight Lovers, Warped Desire and Women’s Barracks, and the lurid covers showed women in sexually suggestive poses, the publicity blurb always carried a moral message as the copywriters placated the censors. Forrest quotes an example of this writing – .... For unless the blight [lesbianism] is understood, it cannot be curbed ... this book should be read by everyone bent on combating the lesbian contagion.(p. xvi). |
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WORDS PICTURES |
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The illustrations almost always show two women who conform to a stereotype whose origins can be traced back to Radclyffe Hall and The Well of Loneliness. A predatory woman, denoted by the fact she is wearing trousers, has short dark hair and is sometimes smoking, casts sexually charged glances at a blonde woman who either has downcast eyes or is signalling her modesty in some way. Favourite props are beds, showers or bathtubs, any setting which justifies one of the women being only partially clothed. The dark woman is a direct descendant of the ‘congenital invert’ with her masculine proclivities while the blonde woman is the ‘pseudo invert’ or the ‘womanly woman’ who is about to be seduced. More than 50 years after Ellis wrote Sexual Inversion, his theories are still evident in the blurb on the cover of Warped Desire (fig. 6, above) which informs us that the novel addresses ‘the problem of the frigid woman, forced by her own desperation into unnatural paths’. The publishers of lesbian pulp fiction had a policy that lesbian characters should never receive any satisfaction from the relationship. Forrest recounts a female author’s memory of the instructions given to her by a publisher – ‘The only restriction he gave me was that it couldn’t have a happy ending … Otherwise the post office might seize it as obscene’ (ibid, p. xiii). In this instance, the story ended in suicide and madness. |
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