A Scarlet Pansy
4/5
()
About this ebook
First published in 1932, A Scarlet Pansy is an extraordinarily vivid and richly textured depiction of American queer life in the early twentieth century, tracing the coming-of-age of androgynous Fay Etrange. Born in small-town Pennsylvania and struggling with her difference, Fay eventually accepts her gender and sexual
nonconformity and immerses herself in the fairy subculture of New York City. A self-proclaimed “oncer”—never tricking with same man twice—she immerses herself in the nightclubs, theaters, and street life of the city, cavorting with kindred spirits including female impersonators, streetwalkers, and hustlers as well as other fairies and connoisseurs of rough trade. While reveling in these exploits she becomes a successful banker and later attends medical school, where she receives training in obstetrics. There she also develops her life’s ambition to find a cure for gonorrhea, a disease supposedly “fastened on mankind as a penalty for enjoying love.”
A Scarlet Pansy stands apart from similar fiction of its time—as well as that of the ensuing decades—by celebrating rather than pathologizing its effeminate and sexually adventurous protagonist. In this edition, republished for the first time in its original unexpurgated form, Robert J. Corber examines the way in which it flew in the face of other literature of the time in its treatment of gender expression and same-sex desire. He places the novel squarely within its social and cultural context of nearly a century ago while taking into account the book’s checkered publication history as well as the question of the novel’s unknown author.
Much more than cultural artifact, A Scarlet Pansy remains a uniquely delightful and penetrating work of literature, resonating as much with present-day culture as it is illuminating of our understanding of queer history and challenging our notions of what makes a man a woman, and vice-versa.
Related to A Scarlet Pansy
Related ebooks
The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Queer Uncanny: New Perspectives on the Gothic Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Love's Next Meeting: The Forgotten History of Homosexuality and the Left in American Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTrans Liberty Riot Brigade Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJust Queer Folks: Gender and Sexuality in Rural America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pink Triangle Legacies: Coming Out in the Shadow of the Holocaust Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsManly Love: Romantic Friendship in American Fiction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Queer Fantasies of the American Family Sitcom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBetween Certain Death and a Possible Future: Queer Writing on Growing up with the AIDS Crisis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRebent Sinner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Living Queer History: Remembrance and Belonging in a Southern City Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTRANS/gressive: How Transgender Activists Took on Gay Rights, Feminism, the Media & Congress... and Won! Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Harvard's Secret Court: The Savage 1920 Purge of Campus Homosexuals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Philip Sparrow Tells All: Lost Essays by Samuel Steward, Writer, Professor, Tattoo Artist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Last Watch of the Night: Essays Too Personal and Otherwise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gender Failure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Desire for History: Essays in Gay, Community, and Labor History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Audacity of a Kiss: Love, Art, and Liberation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Coming Out to the Streets: LGBTQ Youth Experiencing Homelessness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeing Black in the Ivory: Truth-Telling about Racism in Higher Education Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsQueer Clout: Chicago and the Rise of Gay Politics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIf Love Had a Name Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOut in the Union: A Labor History of Queer America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gears for Queers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Queering the Underworld: Slumming, Literature, and the Undoing of Lesbian and Gay History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Has Always Been a War: The Radicalization of a Working Class Queer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hillbilly Queer: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmash the Church, Smash the State!: The Early Years of Gay Liberation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Gender Studies For You
All About Love: New Visions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrist's Guide Out of the Madness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future---Updated With a New Epilogue Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Communion: The Female Search for Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You're Cute When You're Mad: Simple Steps for Confronting Sexism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The War Against Boys: How Misguided Policies are Harming Our Young Men Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Vagina: A re-education Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn the Next Room (or the vibrator play) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When Women Kill Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tomboy Survival Guide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boys Will Be Boys: Power, Patriarchy and Toxic Masculinity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Letter to a Bigot: Dead But Not Forgotten Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Cunnilinguist: How To Give And Receive Great Oral Sex Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Singled Out: How Singles Are Stereotyped, Stigmatized, and Ignored, and Still Live Happily Ever After Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Man Enough: Undefining My Masculinity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for A Scarlet Pansy
2 ratings0 reviews