> The review in the current NLRB devotes about a third of its space
> to a brisk attack on all reviewers who take this tack. The thesis
> of the review is that it is about The Closet, and that it is false
> to see it like R&J, black/white, etc. It is not a social tragedy
> but a psychological tragedy of self-hate.
There was once a white cultural fascination with "tragic mulattos" (cf. <http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/mulatto/>), an object of pity rather than solidarity. The oppressors tend to become luridly interested in "self-hate" (real and imaginary) of the oppressed. Concentrating on that relieves them of thinking too much about the causes of prevailing social structures, the dominant ideology, etc.
To be sure, gay men and lesbians, too, used to write fiction of self- hate. The best example of that genre is probably The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall:
<blockquote>The book tells the story of a girl born to a wealthy English family who is nicknamed Stephen because of her boyish ways. As she grows older, she remains a tomboy and her father, Sir Phillip, becomes so concerned that he reads Karl Ulrichs and Richard von Krafft-Ebing where he discovers that Stephen is an invert. Out of pity for his beloved Stephen, Sir Phillip never tells her the terrible truth. After Sir Phillip's untimely death, Stephen pursues an interest in writing that her father had encouraged and becomes a successful novelist. She falls in love with Mary, a younger woman, and the two live together harmoniously in Paris where they go to the bars and cabarets frequented by male and female inverts. The people they see there lead lives of despair, and find only momentary relief in doses of creme de menthe or cocaine. Stephen loves Mary so much that she feels guilty for leading her lover into the tragic life that is the only possibility for an invert in a hostile, unaccepting society. Ultimately, she resolves to kill herself so that Mary can be freed from her love for Stephen and pursue a more rewarding life as the wife of a mutual friend. The last paragraph of the book ends in Stephen's dying prayer: "... Acknowledge us, oh God, before the whole World. Give us also a right to our existence."
<http://www.gayhistory.com/rev2/factfiles/ff1928.htm></blockquote>
Wow, that's extreme! The Well of Loneliness came out in 1928, and it apparently sold quite well ("The Well sold over 1,000,000 copies during Hall's lifetime and has been translated into at least eleven languages," <http://www.gayhistory.com/rev2/factfiles/ff1928.htm>), though (or perhaps because) it was censored in Britain. The book has elicited a mixed response among queers, just as Brokeback Mountain has here: "Many lesbians in the 1930's, '40s, and '50s encountered their first exposure to other lesbians in the book's pages, and found the book liberating, but some gays and lesbians were offended by the book's apologetic tone and pleas for pity" (at <http:// www.gayhistory.com/rev2/factfiles/ff1928.htm>).
One can see that even a suicidally depressing portrayal of lesbians must have felt to some like it's better than no visibility at all, but even around the time the book came out, real-world queers were building their communities and finding ways to survive and even thrive, against all odds. Yesterday was the birthday of Havelock Ellis, an early sex reformer. He cited his gay American correspondent on "the great prevalence of sexual inversion in American cities":
<blockquote>As regards the prevalence of homosexuality in the United States, I may quote from a well-informed American correspondent:— "The great prevalence of sexual inversion in American cities is shown by the wide knowledge of its existence. Ninety-nine normal men out of a hundred have been accosted on the streets by inverts, or have among their acquaintances men whom they know to be sexually inverted. Everyone has seen inverts and knows what they are. The public attitude toward them is generally a negative one—indifference, amusement, contempt.
"The world of sexual inverts is, indeed, a large one in any American city, and it is a community distinctly organized—words, customs, traditions of its own; and every city has its numerous meeting- places: certain churches whereinverts congregate; certain cafes well known for the inverted character of their patrons; certain streets where, at night, every fifth man is an invert. The inverts have their own ‘clubs,’ with nightly meetings. These ‘clubs’ are, really, dance halls, attached to saloons, and presided over by the proprietor of the saloon, himself almost invariably an invert, as are all the waiters and musicians. The frequenters of these places are male sexual inverts (usually ranging from 17 to 30 years of age); sightseers find no difficulty in gaining entrance; truly, they are welcomed for the drinks they buy for the company—and other reasons. Singing and dancing turns by certain favorite performers are the features of these gatherings, With much gossip and drinking at the small tables ranged along the four walls of the room. The habitues of these places are, generally, inverts of the most pronounced type, i.e., the completely feminine in voice and manners, with the characteristic hip motion in their walk; though I have never seen any approach to feminine dress there, doubtless the desire for it is not wanting and only police regulations relegate it to other occasions and places. You will rightly infer that the police know of these places and endure their existence for a consideration; it is not unusual for the inquiring stranger to be directed there by a policeman." . . .
It is notable that of recent years there has been a fashion for a red tie to be adopted by inverts as their badge. This is especially marked among the “fairies” (as a fellator isthere termed ) in New York. “It is red,” writes an American correspondent, himself inverted, "that has become almost a synonym for sexual inversion, not only in the minds of inverts themselves, but in the popular mind. To wear a red necktie on the street is to invite remarks from newsboys and others—remarks that have the practices of inverts for their theme. A friend told me once that when a group of street-boys caught sight of the red necktie he was wearing they sucked their fingers in imitation of fellatio. Male prostitutes who walk the streets of Philadelphia and New York almost invariably wear red neckties. It is the badge of all their tribe. The rooms of many of my inverted friends have red as the prevailing color in decorations. Among my classmates, at the medical school, few ever had the courage to wear a red tie; those who did never repeated the experiment."
Source: Havelock Ellis, Sexual Inversion, 3d ed. (Philadelphia: F. A. Davis 1915), 350–351.
<http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5114/></blockquote>
The real world that Elliis and his correspondent portray is much livelier and more liberating than the fictional world of The Well of Loneliness, Brokeback Mountain (which is even lonelier than The Well of Loneliness in the sense that there is no queer community at all in it), etc.
Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org>