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Harrisgavin 1999.Pdf THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY Copyright and use of this thesis This thesis must be used in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. Reproduction of material protected by copyright may be an infringement of copyright and copyright owners may be entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. Section 51 (2) of the Copyright Act permits an authorized officer of a university library or archives to provide a copy (by communication or otherwise) of an unpublished thesis kept in the library or archives, to a person who satisfies the authorized officer that he or she requires the reproduction for the purposes of research or study. The Copyright Act grants the creator of a work a number of moral rights, specifically the right of attribution, the right against false attribution and the right of integrity. You may infringe the author’s moral rights if you: - fail to acknowledge the author of this thesis if you quote sections from the work - attribute this thesis to another author -subject this thesis to derogatory treatment which may prejudice the author’s reputation For further information contact the University’s Copyright Service. sydney.edu.au/copyright HETERONORMATIVITY & ITS DISCONTENTS: TOWARDS A CULTURAL HISTORY OF METROPOLITAN GENDER & SEXUAL DISSIDENCE by Gavin Harris PART A A thesis submitted to fulfil the requirements of the degree Doctor of Philosophy Department of Fine Arts University of Sydney November 1999 (c) Harris, G 1999 CONTENTS PART A SECTION I Introduction Chapter 1 Homosexuality: A Defile For The Problematic Of Modern Life 14 Chapter 2 Sex, Love & Intimacy In An Age Of Reflexivity 37 SECTION II Introduction Chapter 3 "At Least We Could Dance Together...": London, Berlin & Paris (1890-1945) 62 Chapter 4 Fairies, Queers & Gays: Sexual Dissidence In The USA (1890-1980) 77 Chapter 5 Secret Dotted Lines: Some Characteristic Arts Of Resistance 104 SECTION III Introduction Chapter 6 "But We Never Discussed It": Sydney's Perverts & Sissies (1890-1945) 134 Chapter 7 "Camp As A Row Of Tents": Sydney's Closet Economy (1940s-1970) 162 Chapter 8 "It's OK To Be A Man & Be Gay": Sydney's Liberation Economy (1970-1980) 191 Chapter 9 Modelling The Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras (1978-1998) 211 CONCLUSION 224 PART B Appendix A The NSW LawsAgainst Men's Same Sex Activity 227 Appendix B The Events Of 1978 229 References Manuscripts, Videos, Newspapers and Magazines, Books & Articles 244 Endnotes 298 The Figures 427 ABSTRACT This text explores a complex, neglected but important face of 20th century cultural history. Taking a particularist approach, it tracks down the various forms of sexual and gender dissidence which have emerged in the largest European and American cities before turning to Sydney, where it locates several sediments of dissident lifestyle and the high and popular cultures which they have cultivated. Drawing on Henning Bech's, Michel Foucault's, Anthony Giddens's, Don Handelman's and James Scott's theorisations , this text argues that heternormativity, homophobia and the resisting gender and sexual dissidences have inflected many aspects of 20th century Western culture. Glossing art, dance, design, film, literature, theatre and popular culture, it is a preliminary study of the ways in which heteronormativity and homophobia have shaped high art and popular culture, of the ways individuals and enclaves have understood and practised their dissidence and of the ways in which they have inflected Western culture. Heteronormativity & Ils Discontents Gavin Harris 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS With thanks to David Abello, Jonathan Bollen, Ken Davis, Geoff Friend, David Harris, Jo Holder, Jacqui Isles, Cathy Joseph, Craig Judd, Christian Kressig, Kim Mi-Hee, San San Lin, Fabian Lo Schiavo, Barbara Luby, Barry Mackay, Keith McMenomy, Ian MacNeill, Nicos Souleles, Megan Treharne, David Urquhart, Simon White and John Witte. And in loving memory of Ernest George Harris (1911-1999). Heteronormativity & Its Discontents Gavin Harris 5 INTRODUCTION Homosexuality is a sexual preference, gayness is a subversively political way of life. Jeffrey Weeks 1985 p 198 Heteronormativity & Its Discontents Gavin Harris 6 This dissertation takes a genealogical approach to gender non-conformity, non-normative sexual practices and homosocial compearance. Following Michel Foucault's strategy, it avoids notions of causality and imbuing "gayness" with such metaphysical notions of totality, identity, beginning, development and end. It scours primary and secondary sources for detail and draws on a vast accumulation of source material. And although it falls far short of Foucault's ideal, it unearths the discourses on various gender and sexual dissidences, as well as the sites of normativity's power and the dissidents' arts of resistance. Searching out those who have refused the normativity which assumed that their gender identity, sex roles, sexual object choice and sexual identity covary in straightforward ways, it identifies a series of discursively fashioned, demonised, outlawed and pathologised types as well as the experts and ideologies which have opposed, constructed and resisted them. Primarily focusing on men's cultures, it investigates these people's social and sexual activities and spaces and concludes that, while these peoples may have had some "family resemblances" they do not have a single, common meaning or sense (Wittgenstein 1958). For although each of these types may have something in common with at least one other, we cannot conflate them with the specificities of today's gay male and lesbian identities. Indeed, as we will see, we cannot suppose that gender dissidence signifies sexual dissidence or that gender dissidence signifies sexual dissidence. Exploring some moments in dissident behaviour and sociability over the last 100 years, this text finds such gender dissidents as the inverts, effeminates, sissies, pansies and transsexuals and such sexual dissidents as perverts, homosexuals, gays and lesbians. It concludes, almost incidentally, that today's gay and lesbian identities emerged in the largest American cities before the Second World War and have subsequently evolved in other centres. Arguing after Henning Bech (1997) that the modern city's closenesses and distances, freedoms and dangers, crowds and gazes, possibilities and anonymities have all generated non-normative genders and sexualities, I have ordered this text into three sections. Section 1 explores various forms of gender and sexual dissidence and their arts of resistance. Distinguishing between secret, hidden, off-stage and public transcripts, the first chapter defines some of the principal formations of Western dissidence. It traces the emergence of the heterosexual/homosexual dyad and discusses the political economy of the effeminates, the libertines, the homosexuals and our contemporary gay, lesbian and queer identities. It also analyses their cultural meanings and introduces the politics of visibility, homophobia and communitarianism. Chapter 2 investigates how, when, where and why Westerners have come to place so much store on sex, love and intimacy. Sketching Herbert Marcuse's, Michel Foucault's and Anthony Giddens's theories of sexuality and intimacy and drawing on such "disciples" as David Halperin, Kenneth Plummer and Jeffrey Weeks, it identifies many of the detraditionalising forces which have shaped our notions of (gendered and sexualised) personhood. Heteronormativity & Its Discontents Gavin Harris 7 Section II argues that Euro-American metropolitan life has cultivated gender and sexually dissident people s intimacies and sexual bonds. It shows how various dissident formations have lived at odds with their culture's values. It also shows how some people have sought unconventional sex, love and intimacies and created cultural affinities; have exploited the city's physical density and moral anonymity to shatter traditional ways and have formed and expressed new needs and desires. Exploring these people's arts of resistance, it traces their discreet bars, clubs, dance events and liminal districts and public spaces. It identifies several types who, in some times and places, developed enclaves, resorts and rituals and seven inflected their parent culture. It also finds some of them developing the de-traditionalised public, cosmopolitan lifestyles which let them form associations, cultivate their interests and conceptualise themselves as a (quasi-)ethnicity. More specifically, Chapter 3 sketches a gender and sexually dissident cultural history of London, Paris and Berlin. It focuses on the dissidents' spaces, their dance events, their organisations, their apologists, their enemies and the surveillance technologies which kept them (more or less) in line. This investigation serves two purposes. It unpacks the size and nature of these cities' enclaves in their own right and it contextualises the slow and fitful rise of Sydney's dissident cultures. But, because space precludes a detailed analysis, I have not detailed the forces which have enabled these European trends to come into being. Chapter 4 describes some American scenes and the evolution of their minoritarian, liberationist and communitarian discourses. Mainly focusing on New York and San Francisco, it identifies their type, size and degree of visibility, their spaces, the waves of (police) harassment and the drift from (masked and unmasked) gender nonconformity to the paradigms which disassociated gender and sexual identity and which spoke of a gay minority, a gay nation and
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