In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

398 CODES COLLAPSED
homosexuality has the lightness of a phenomenon that is allowed to exist
as long as it does not require explicit acknowledgment, and that can even
be acknowledged as long as it presents itself as transitory or episodic.
For example, the male admirers of Josephine Baker are not really
shocked to see her closely embraced by beautiful woman in a tuxedo
(Kessler, 456). Anyone can obtain detailed information regarding the
location of lesbian bars and lesbian meeting places in cities like Berlin or
Paris (von Soden and Schmidt, 160ff.). The pictorial elements of their
newspaper advertisements are completely unambiguous [see Bars], and
progressive pedagogical treatises recommend tolerance toward sexual
relationships among young women-as long as these relationships are
merely side paths on the "natural" way toward heterosexuality: "We
should speak openly about the kind of friendship which is so important
among girls of that age. And we should not pretend that it is nothing but
the exchange of harmless secrets. These girls know only too well what
is going on; they just don't know what it means. It is our duty to explain
to them that it is neither a horrible crime nor an interesting vice. It is
nothing but a detour" (Kaus, 361).
Related Entries
Automobiles, Bullfighting, Dancing, Engineers, Gramophones, Murder,
Stars, Authenticity vs. Artificiality, Male vs. Female, Silence vs. Noise,
Sobriety vs. Exuberance, Uncertainty vs. Reality, Present = Past (Eternity)
References
Roberto Arlt, El juguete rabioso (1926). Buenos Aires, 1980.
Bertolt Brecht, Der Lebenslauf des Boxers Samson-Korner (1926). In Brecht,
Gesammelte Werke, vol. 2. Frankfurt, 1967.
Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New
York, 1990.
Meredith Etherington-Smith, The Persistence of Memory: A Biography of Dati.
New York, 1992.
Oskar Fischer, "Elternfehler in der Erziehung der Sexualitiit und Liebe." In
Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag, Almanach fur das Jahr 1926.
Vienna, 1926.