Race and Ethnicity in the U S 10 28 Gay Male World Gay New York George Chauncey 1995 Not isolated not invisible He argues that gay people do not live in hiding also that there has always been and always will be homosexual people Heterosexual was not necessarily one of the things that men had to be in 1890 1930s a very visible gay male culture very mainstream Saloons small social clubs large fancy dress balls Gay people are not only Progressive Era America accepted but expected Working class and immigrant neighborhoods because the people here are generally poorer and can not work to keep the gay people Waway Higher class people consider gay people crude and vulgar and work to keep them out of their lives and neighborhoods Mixed spaces bars and such are not only gay maybe only advertised for gay people one night of the week Inverts and Fairies Man who preferred to have sex with other men Inverts often accused of men who wanted to be women Also often adopted female or effeminate mannerisms and dress Social Markers o A red bow tie is something you would wear to a gay event to signal that you are an invert or a fairy o A green suit is another one of these items Usually not thought of as homosexual instead bisexual Inverts and fairies began to reappropriate these words into compliments instead of a derragoraty term It is not offensive to people that these people are having sex with others of the same sex but it is the fact that they are not acting manly enough The Rocky Twins Norwegian brothers that toured all across Europe and the U S They had a principle club show in NYC They sometimes dressed as men and sometimes as men They commonly called themselves fairies Known as The Fairy Brothers Large Bachelor Culture Most men spent their free time with other men It was not socially appropriate to hang out or socialize with women Women are divided into two groups either pure or not often fairies Limited availability of women lumped with the or not group o Or not groups often consisted or prostitutes or women that could freely have sex with men Sex was something men did to someone not with someone Husbands Wolves Jocks and Punks Terms often used interchangeably Abided by conventions of masculinity preferred sex with men o These are the men that prefer sex with men but are not feminine These people blamed fairies for all the problems associated with having sex with men Changes over Time Sexuality much more fluid in 1890s 1920s By 1920s 1940s sexuality becomes more rigid a person is either hetero or homosexual Why and how does this change happen The Beginning of the word Queer Men who had sex with other men but maintained a manly gender persona More middle class and upper class men Constituted the majority of hay men in NYC Did not want to be associated with fairies or inverts Middle Class Animosities than working class men Worries over weakness Middle class men were more anxious and hostile towards homosexuality o They are afraid that having sex with another man portrays you as weak Middle class men began to tie heterosexuality to ideals of manhood Working and Middle Class Working Class as long as they played the mans part penetrative role than it was okay to have sex with other men Middle Class purposefully organized men into either hetero or homosexual How did the Middle Class do this Scrutinized male male friendships Doctors medicine psychology sociology anthropology all divided men into this binary of gay or straight Rhetoric that real men were heterosexual anything else was aberrant By this time it was not the way you acted manly v girly it is strictly about whom you are having sex with Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers A book by Lillian Faderman 1991 20th century middle class Seeks to document lesbian life or female female relationships in the early Love between young women was considered very normal even by the Romantic Friends 1880s to 1920s Better education different opportunities o Homo social atmosphere all women s sphere o Female professors Seen in some ways to embrace gender norms o Affection as natural for women After women left college many struggled to know how to lead their lives Did not perceive themselves as lesbians The Development of Lesbian Inverts saw women as wanting to be men o They are not acting feminine enough They could have sex with either a man or a woman Acted and dressed man like Again it is not the sex choice but the inversion of gender expectation that earns someone the titled of lesbian Again anxieties over gender expectations Doctors began to argue that inverts lesbians were abnormal Believed lesbians might recruit other women to join them Believed lesbians to be a threat to gender expectations therefore must be eliminated Romantic friendships get cast as dangerous and suspect by the 1940s Florida State College For Women 1905 1947 FSCW 1905 Buckman Act o Applied to the 3 main universities in Florida o Said that schools needed to be gender divided UF men FSCW women FAMU African Americans By 1933 it is the 3rd largest women s college in US WWII and GI Bill o When people enlisted to fight in the war the GI bill promised them a college education o During the 1930s and 1940s there are so many men that want to come back from the war and go to college that is more than UF can handle That is why FSU was created FSCW All women s college Social sphere for women Their interactions with men are closely monitored curfews etc Stringent interactions with men therefore easiest and most available interactions with female classmates Freshman Junior Wedding Juniors dress as men and take the vows of a man The freshman take the role of a women This social pairing is not legally binding just a fun thing to do the mans role In the absence of men some of these women begin to opt and prefer to play Jack and Robert in the 1920s take on the full time role as men They go to class dressed like men act like men etc o When Jack graduates from college he she stops this goes back to dressing and acting like a woman o When Robert graduates he she pretty much acts this way for the rest of her life Cotillion Club 1922 Dancing club these women take the role of men when dancing
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