In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

MALE = FEMALE (GENDER TROUBLE) 391
vs. Artificiality, Silence vs. Noise] The same binary logic of substitution
is apparent in the description of the ambassador's lover (a young
bullfighter, of course), who is characterized through a number of items
that police agents find in his home: "A packet of letters. Two photoportraits
with dedications. A walking stick with a gold handle and
monogram. A cigarette case with a monogram and a coronet. A necklace,
two bracelets. A wig with blond ringlets, otherwise dark. A makeup
case. Some silk underwear, with bows" (69). Another feature of the
discussion on homosexuality is the narrative restriction according to
which only one member of a couple can appear as "truly" homosexual,
while the other is seen as pursuing a nonsexual interest through their
relationship. Not only is the "originally" heterosexual partner assumed
to derive considerable economic advantage from his consent; he also
regularly uses homosexuality's illegality and social disrepute to blackmail
his lover. When the young bullfighter tells the Spanish ambassador about
the police raid on his house which produced evidence of their relationship,
the diplomat immediately assumes that his lover wishes to extort
more money from him: "My dear Francis, you're a scoundrel! All this is
a trick of yours to get money out of me-you're tormenting me." "Little
Isabel, do you see this crucifix? I swear by all that is most sacred: I'm
telling the truth." The baron, filled with fear and distrust, repeats,
"You're a scoundrel!" (219).
Novelists and legal systems alike base their accounts of male homosexuality
on the premise that multiple asymmetries exist between partners.
In the trial of the mass murderer Friedrich Haarmann, the judges
simply cannot imagine that Haarmann freely gave the clothes of his
victims to his friend Hans Grans, and that Grans in no way pressured
him with direct or indirect threats. [see Murder] In Bertolt Brecht's
Lebenslauf des Boxers Samson-Korner (Life of the Boxer Samson
Korner), the homosexual cook Jeremiah Brown forces a stowaway on an
ocean liner to pay for silence and complicity with daily sexual favors.
[see Ocean Liners] Even in those rare cases where homosexual relationships
appear as (at least temporarily) based on mutual affection, there is
always a dramatic turning point when one of the partners discovers-or
admits-his "true" heterosexual orientation. In Egon Erwin Kisch's play
Die Hetzjagd (The Hunt), Alfred Redl, the director of the Austro­
Hungarian intelligence service, leaves town for an extended period, during
which his lover Stefan Hromadka forms the project of marrying a