Category: 1930s
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Flamboyance and Fortitude: Butch-Femme Relationships in 2024
Butch-Femme relationships play an important role in lesbian history. What does the Butch-Femme relationship mean today?
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Boston Marriages and the Language of Lesbian Relationships
Maybe it was two women in your history textbook. Maybe it was your unmarried great aunt and her live-in ‘best friend’. We are all familiar with the story: two women are designated close friends by historians, family members and society, despite the pair’s decision to unite and entwine their lives like any marriage between a…
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How Should We Tell the Stories of “Bad” Lesbians from History in a Culture of Us vs. Them?
How do we write on complex, even harmful, lesbians from history in the age of “us vs. them”? How do we present the facts in a way that doesn’t omit the person or the truth? Is writing on a person from history ever objective, considering the historian has their own interests, motives and interpretations, and…
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The Male Gaze and Lesbian Censorship in Film
It’s of little surprise to most sapphic movie buffs that Hollywood doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to positive lesbian representation. From the widespread trope of “bury your gays” to the equally widespread phenomenon of gay-baiting, it can be hard out there for a film loving dyke. Hays Code A lot of…
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A Cellist’s Resistance: the bravery of Frieda Belinfante
The year is 1940. World War II has just begun. The talented Dutch cello player Frieda Belinfante has to give up the fame she has recently obtained as the first female orchestra director in her country… Frieda Belinfante was born in Amsterdam, 1904. Her father Aaron Belinfante was a concert piano player who introduced his…