Momism and the Lavender Scare

1. Momism and the Lavender Scare Jennifer Terry, “’Momism’ and the Making of Treasonous Homosexuals,” in Ladd-Taylor and Umansky, ed., Bad Mothers The Politics of Blame in Twentieth-Century America (1998), 169-190. Lillian Faderman, “The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name,” Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers (orig. pub. 1991), 110-122.

2. Warning • Historical examples include defamatory language

3. Discussion Question • In their respective articles, Jennifer Terry and Lillian Faderman allude to the role of American psychiatrists and psychologists in stigmatizing queerness in general, and lesbianism in particular.  How did psychoanalytic discourse contribute to the persecution of lesbians in postwar America?

4. Jennifer Terry ’[M]om’-bashing gained industrial strength during the decade following World War II, as bad mothers became powerful career vehicle for a host of sexist columnists, legislators, movie directors, and, most notably, psychiatrists who heaped upon mothers culpability for everything from juvenile delinquency to totalitarianism. (Terry, 169) Angela Lansbury and Laurence Harvey in The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

5. Cold War Momism and Homophobia • [T]he popularized resurgence of mother-blaming was fueled by a misogynist and homophobic backlash against a perceived erosion of gender distinctions occurring during the war. (Terry, 170)

6. Discussion Question • Terry and Faderman both allude to the Lavender Scare.  How did the anti-Communist hysteria of the Cold War years impact LGBTQ Americans, and lesbians specifically, in the Cold War years?

7. The Lavender Menace • “The so-called ‘sex pervert’ threatened to weaken the nation through his sexual indiscretions and effeminate predilections” (Terry, 171).

8. Role of Psychiatrists • [P]sychoanalytically inclined psychiatrists asserted their authority by stressing psychogenic theories that identified parent-child relationships within the family as the primary cause of gender deviance, homosexuality, and national weakness. (Terry, 172) • Momism -> homosexuality -> treason

9. [T]he marriage of ‘family values’ and Cold War ideology made the suburban split-level home a key staging ground for proper citizenship… According to Cold War family values, mothers and fathers assumed highly differentiated roles, with gender-specific criteria for what counted as loyalty or treason. Deviation from one’s proper gender role suggested anti-Americanism, as effeminacy in men and masculinity in women increasingly came to be seen as threats to domestic and national security. In psychiatric and popular writing of the time, gender and sexual disorder both signified and caused national disorder. (Terry, 175)

10. Moms…prevented their children from maturing by keeping a tight hold on the ‘silver cord,’ the ‘emotional umbilical cord.’ Mom’s sons never matured adequately. Many became feminine and homosexual as a result of their mother’s desire to have a daughter or her untoward affections, which caused sons to take flight from heterosexuality. (Terry, 178) Helen Hayes and Robert Walker as mother and son in My Son John (1952)

11. Discussion Question In her conclusion, Lillian Faderman writes, “The 1950s were perhaps the worst time in history for women to love women” (122). What were some factors that made being a lesbian particularly perilous in the postwar years?

12. Faderman • ”Psychoanalysts and the government [did] … a thorough job in promoting the irrational fear of homosexuality” (113). • ”Homosexuals in all walks of life, not just those who worked for the government, were hunted down” (114).

13. Homosexuals in the State Department “Oust 119 More Sex Perverts in State Dept: House Member Suggests Widened Drive,” Chicago Daily Tribune 26 March 1952, A2.

14. Sexual Politics of the Red Scare • ”[B]y the very nature of their vice they belong to a sinister, mysterious, and efficient international, [and] members of one conspiracy are prone to join another conspiracy” (Human Events newsletter, quoted in Faderman, 114).

15. Certainly the rhetoric that vilified “pinks,” “lavenders,” and “reds” was strategically and opportunistically employed as a weapon with which to stigmatize political opponents. But that rhetoric relied on (and mobilized) real anxieties about both Communism and sexual disorder in American life. K.A. Cuordileone, Manhood and American Political Culture in the Cold War (2012), 39.

16. Sex and Culture in the Postwar Era • Alfred Kinsey, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, 1948 • Sexual Behavior of the Human Female, 1953 • 92% of males and 62% of females engaged in masturbaton • 68% of males and 50% of females had engaged in premarital sex • 37% of males and 13% of females had instances of at least one homosexual experience that resulted in orgasm

17. The Postwar “Lesbian Threat”: • Lesbians as symbols for: • Female sexual desire • Female sexual excess • Uncontained female sexuality • Importance that such symbols assumed in the national Cold War context: • Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (1988)

18. Faderman on Lesbian Pulp Fiction • That pulp novels with lesbian subject matter should have been permitted to proliferate during this period is not as surprising as it may seem at first glance, since they were generally cautionary tales: ‘moral’ literature that warned females that lesbianism was sick or evil and that if a woman dared to love another woman she would end up lonely and suicidal. On the surface, at least, they seemed to confirm social prejudices about homosexuality. But despite that, many lesbians read those novels avidly. (Faderman, 115)

19. Words like Shadow, Twilight, Strange, Odd, and Twisted commonly appeared on book covers:

21. Michele Aina Barale, "When Jack Blinks: Si(gh)ting Gay Desire in Ann Bannon's Beebo Brinker," (1992) • Lesbian narratives: • Refocus their perspective from dominant cultural figures to those of the subculture • Appropriate the dominant culture’s own understandings of gender and sexuality • Do so in order to subvert those understandings for their own subcultural purposes (Barale, p. 533)

22. Lesbian narratives cast doubt on presumed “naturalness” of gender and sexuality • Challenge the obviousness of binary oppositions between: • Masculinity and femininity • Heterosexuality and homosexuality • Lesbian narratives also pry gender apart from sexuality

23. More conventions of lesbian pulp novels • [L]esbian characters rarely fared well in these novels, their potential for happiness ruined by censure typical of the period: a woman engaged in illicit pleasures of one kind or another had to suffer a downfall to balance out the licentiousness of her actions. This "moral lesson" redeemed lesbian pulps from the ranks of mere pornography under the pretense of providing a public service. In addition, these stories sent a not-so-subtle message to lesbians about their place in society. "Frank" (code for "sexually explicit") stories warned readers about: the predatory older lesbian; the dangers of a poor father-daughter relationship; the susceptibility of orphans; the perils of the big city; the "immaturity" of lesbian sex; and the general misery of a lesbian existence. “Lesbian Pulp Fiction Collection: Introduction,” Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, Duke University

24. Authorship • Many lesbian pulp novels were written by men • Yet some of the most popular were written by lesbian authors • Ann Bannon • Vin Packer (Marjine Meeker) and Claire Morgan(Patricia Highsmith) Kathy Belge, A Look into Our Past: A History of the Lesbian Pulp Novel, Lesbian Life

25. Audience • With their camp cover art and lurid prose, many of these books appealed to readers across lines of gender and sexuality, desires and tastes; although the narratives undoubtedly satisfied the prurient interests of many straight readers, they also catered to an entire generation of lesbian readers, who were anxious to find a reflection-albeit distorted and often cruel-of their own lives in a work of fiction. • The pulps gave some women a glimpse into a world that wasn't easy to access outside of large cities. The popularity of the pulps made them available to women across the country, providing some sense of comfort and inclusion. “Lesbian Pulp Fiction Collection: Introduction,” Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, Duke University

26. The subcultural uses of lesbian narratives: • Such narratives shift perspective from dominant cultural figures to those of the subculture • They appropriate the dominant culture’s own understandings of gender and sexuality • in order to subvert those understandings for their own subcultural purposes (Barale, p. 533)

27. Discussion Question • Terry and Faderman both allude to the Lavender Scare.  How did the anti-Communist hysteria of the Cold War years impact LGBTQ Americans, and lesbians specifically, in the Cold War years?

28. More Book Covers