INVERTED IMAGES

An investigation of the lesbian identity through visual and cultural representation

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In conjunction with this visual image, Bonheur’s description of herself as a ‘husband’ underlined her identification with masculinity and power and is one of the early documented examples we have of role-playing within a same-sex female relationship. It also underlines the recognized existence of an identity separate from the heterosexual norm of the patriarchal society, even though modern literature still defines Bonheur as having a ‘romantic friendship’.

A key factor which enabled Bonheur to live as freely as she did was her great wealth and her position of power. These privileges, along with education, were not shared by working class women and we have little or no information on how they may have coped with sexual impulses that were at odds with the society they lived in. The turn of the twentieth century ‘saw the advancement of the New Woman at the same time as it witnessed the effeminancy of the dandy. Androgyny was mooted as a new aesthetic.’ (Munt, 1998, p. 34) and more women were being recognized as intellectual forces, their visibility increasing in the world outside the home as they began to be able to publish their writing and exhibit their paintings. Although they had more independence than their working class sisters, these ‘New Women’ were still subject to the constrictions of society and had to find acceptable ways to demonstrate their emerging independence.

They did this by dressing ‘fashionably’ in suits of severe cut, the wearing of ties, cropping their hair and smoking, subtly emulating the dress of the people with the real power – men. Friendships of a close nature were forged and some women lived and worked together in an attempt to get recognition for their writing or painting. It can never be known if all of these ‘romantic friendships’ had a sexual basis, but it is certain that a nucleus of women did forge sexual relationships and socialized in clubs and each other’s homes, thus creating their own microcosmic society. These circles ‘flourished in Paris, Florence and Capri … while “sympathetic” groups such as the Bloomsbury circle of writers and artists in London offered support’. (Cooper, op cit, p. 86) Whether fully accepting Ellis’s theory of sexual inversion or not, these high profile women dressed mannishly and lived their lives, both socially and privately, in an idiosyncratic and individual way by society’s standards at that time.

I have chosen images of three women from this period in order to illustrate how the writings of the sexologists had begun to influence both the public’s opinion of lesbian women and the women’s perception of themselves – the artists Romaine Brooks and Hannah Gluckstein and Radclyffe Hall, author of The Well of Loneliness. Like Rosa Bonheur, these three women were all wealthy in their own right and secure enough to defy convention despite the growing censureship of their lifestyles.

Gluckstein (1895-1978) and Brooks (1874-1970) painted women that were ‘depictions of their own interests and of the society in which they lived which included the openly lesbian circles’ (Cooper, ibid, p.97). A study of the self-portraits produced by each woman when in her forties reveals a distinct difference in style but many similarities in the way they represent themselves. Gluckstein (fig. 3, above left) has portrayed herself and her current lover, Nesta Obermer, in profile and looking out of the frame towards a light source which is unidentified. Whilst

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Nesta’s face is upturned to the light, Gluckstein has positioned herself lower in the tightly cropped frame, in shadow and looking pensively downwards. Both women are wearing severely tailored clothes and have cropped hair swept back from their faces. The style of the painting looks back to classic Greek images, suggesting that Gluckstein is elevating herself and Obermer above the viewer and the averted gazes serve to further distance them.

Brook’s self-portrait (fig. 4, above right) is similar to Gluckstein’s in its portrayal of an elegant severity in tailoring and close-cropped hair. She faces the viewer unflinchingly, unlike Gluckstein, but the brim of her hat casts a shadow on her eyes, another way of distancing the viewer. Both paintings suggest that the women are aware they have been categorized as ‘different’ but have chosen to present that ‘difference’ in a positive way, as a validation of the sexual identity that has been imposed upon them.

In these paintings of the early twentieth century, the openly masculine clothing we saw in the photograph of Bonheur has acquired the more androgynous quality cited by Munt, a hybrid of masculinity and femininity, reflecting Ellis’s contention of the female body containing inverted masculine traits. If it is accepted that ‘sexual invert’ equates to ‘lesbian’ at this period in time, then this could be considered to be the beginning of the ‘lesbian identity’.