Hello lovely people and welcome back to my Queer History 101 series.
For those of you who are new here or might have missed a few videos
- hi, hello, please do hit ‘subscribe’!
I’m Jessica and in this series I unpick LGBTQ+ history across the ages,
to share with you some bits you might not have heard of, or discovered! It’s all about making
those history lessons we sat through in school just that little bit more colourful.
Today we’re going to be talking about Pulp Fiction!
- Not that Pulp Fiction
The lesbian version! Which some people (myself included) would argue is much better.
What is pulp fiction I hear you ask? Alright, dictionary definition.
Well, according the Cambridge Dictionary, the definition of said words are “books about
imaginary characters and events, produced in large quantities and intended to be read by many people’
And here’s one I read earlier!
- Little Blue Peter reference for you there, if you’re watching from the UK!
Still sore I never got to be a Blue Peter presenter… I would throw myself into that job,
100% bringing my own sticky back plastic.
So, Lesbian pulp fiction were slim paperback books, released between the 1940’s - 1960s,
that were, funnily enough, pivotal to the representation of gay and bisexual
women during a period where representation didn’t exist
at all… and let’s be honest there wasn’t exactly a lot of representation for straight women either.
- Women were instead expected to cater to their husbands every need, crafting 35 sandwiches a day,
polishing shoes and causally birthing a choir of children when their schedule allowed.
However, like many other things in society, these books weren’t
actually intended for a female audience, but instead as entertainment for men.
- [eyeroll] a tale as old as time!
In the 1940s there was a publishing revolution, which meant printing became cheaper and
easier, thus allowing more of these little paperbacks to be created. They were dropped,
as a first port of call, in the pockets of soldiers returning home from war.
The books offered many racy subgenres to cater for a spectrum of sexual interests, and were
designed to be quickly read and then thrown out rather than, uh, kept, cherished and displayed…
- Imagine poor Uncle Alfred coming over for tea,
casually perusing your bookshelf and then having a heart attack!
The books themselves were so popular that some even sold in the millions,
and many of these most popular ones were of the lesbian variety.
In fact, lesbianism was such a popular theme that one writer in the New York Times in September 1965
penned “you can get two immoral women, for the price of one”
- Or a buy one gay one free! [Drum noise]
On a more serious note though, sadly, a significant portion of the books
were just as homophobic as the artwork on the covers. They were set in prisons,
dorm rooms and boudoirs and, whilst marketed as “true accounts”,
were most were written by men, under female pseudonyms and placed on a shelf as a cheap thrill
for other men to consume. The lives of actual women loving women weren’t really considered.
YET there were around 50 titles written by women, for women. Penned as ‘Pro-lesbian’ by
authors such as Marijane Meaker, Valerie Taylor, Artemis Smith and Ann Bannon.
And with that much fake lesbianism floating around it’s easier to slip under the radar…
The first real lesbian book to join the ranks was ‘Women’s Barracks’. Inspired by
author Tereska Torrès’ experiences of war. The novel tells the story of an affair between a
butch officer and her femme subordinates. It sold approximately 4 million copies
and was the 244th best-selling novel in the United States before 1975,
which I know you might think that’s not particularly high 244
but if you think about how many novels were sold in the US before 1975 it’s high, ok?
It’s high up there!
Obviously it was banned for obscenity in multiple states.
Let’s play a game! I want you to tell me whether or not you would buy any of these
5 books based on just the covers and titles… Do they spark your attention?
Boom test audience!
Lesbian.
We've got nothing we've just got the covers and then we choose.
Right so it's a yay or nay. That’s it.
First one “women's barracks” this one sold almost four million copies. It's got a woman
uh looking very suggestively at another woman changing whilst holding a cigarette.
She's fully clothed and the other one is half naked.
I'm enjoying the fact that this is just a lot of women together.
I'm not giving you any background information. I would buy it. Brilliant sold um
‘The girls in 3b’ yeah this looks like a moody love triangle. Classic.
It's also a gold medal book though.
I don't know about this one ‘the girls in 3b’ doesn't sound like fun it sounds a bit seedy.
No one looks happy.
No it's not a happy threesome so I wouldn't go for that one. No
Oh okay. “this bed we made” “she loved her husband and her girlfriend”
Um I mean look at the husband's come along, he looks like he's just enjoying watching
I mean which one do you think is the wife? I imagine the blonde. The blonde is always the wife
I think this would yeah I mean I think I quite like it. I like the kind of what's that called…
Tetatua?
Ménage à trois!
Tetatua!
[laughs]
You know the dilemma of” oh my husband
but also my girlfriend. I think that's always an interesting story.
Yes well you say that but then we stopped watching You Me Her.
I know it was because we were like ‘oh she's probably going to stay
with her husband isn't she’. In this book we would be turning the pages to find out
and hope that she did not. True. Sorry, is she cutting her hair?
This one's a bit more to the point: the strange “her choice: normal marriage or lesbian love”
wow that just yeah right in there
bit leading, “normal marriage or lesbian love”
I don't think that's the way you're meant to say that
[gleefully] “Normal marriage”
[omnious] “Lesbian love”
Also again I'm assuming the blonde is the wife and uh
and the lesbian is the one inexplicably cutting her hair.
I mean I'd go for this one. I think it sounds quite interesting. This one
looks far more exciting than the one where they're in bed.
I mean I imagine at some point there's gonna be like a car chase on a cliff.
She also looks more… she's like wearing a nice kind of dress,
like a nice shirt and trousers. It's not like provocative like the other one was.
I see I see. There might be more story, like it might actually be more of a love story.
yeah yeah.
I'd go for that one
all right it was like
you know now that i've seen this one I’d probably drop the other one
okay well i i'm going to purchase this one as well
“to fool the world” [laughs] that's like reading someone's prophecy
“to fool the world they married. For joan loved women… and marc preferred men”
It’s by Artemis Smith again.
‘Told with unblushing honesty’
Why are we reading in unison??
‘Told with unblushing honesty here is a penetrating study of society's greatest curse:
homosexuality’
I don't think iId buy that one.
No, I feel a bit put off. “the penetrating study of society's greatest curse”
Also the word penetrating… no not really. Thanks for joining me to be told we're a curse.
I didn't say such things! You showed me the books, you're the one telling me.
I thought you meant that I came along and told you and i was like y'all when he showed me that!
[laughs]
Love you!
Yeah… they’re not winning any awards for sensitive or accurate portrayals of
sexual minorities. Or creativity actually.
Now, in the 1950s, as we all know or can imagine,
homosexuality wasn’t percieved very well in the public opinion and these books are very trashy…
but these books gave a genuine lifeline to a lot of women who
were unable to see a true representation of themselves in the world. Although they
were never intended to fall into the ‘impressionable hands’ of young women-
- Impressionable! If we take that metric, then I probably shouldn't read Winnie the Pooh to Rupert,
for fear that he might grow up to be a giant yellow bear with an aversion to wearing trousers.
These books instead became a staple way of understanding what it meant to be a lesbian,
when there were no visible role models to look up to or follow.
Kaherine V.Forrest (who compiled the 2005 anthology Lesbian Pulp Fiction’
described the books as ‘water in the desert’ to the women who could see themselves nowhere else.
A lesbian watering hole, now imagine that.
Even though these pulps were created before my time, this is something I really connect to. I
remember that special feeling of going to the one bookstore in my city that had lesbian books- yes,
CITY, I lived in Bristol, which is the 10th largest city in the UK but there was still
only one freaking bookstore with LGBTQ+ books- and staring at the shelf of books for teenagers
and feeling a special kind of way when I found one that included lesbian teenagers.
Yes, you can connect to a character who shares some of your personality traits
or your interests or your dreams for the future but- then they always get a freaking boyfriend!
And that’s fine. Each to their own. But I have to deal with heterosexuality every single day, it’s
all around me, it’s nice to just have a place I can relax, a book that makes me feel comfortable.
Even if I don’t have that much in common with the main character personality-wise,
even if it’s really poorly written, even if it’s set in a time period that makes NO SENSE.
- is it just me? I feel like a lot of the time when I’m reading LGBTQ+ books
I’m spending a lot of time trying to work out when it’s set because they’re either
too okay with the gay or way not okay enough and then the historical details don’t align:
“How do you have cars but you talk like you should be riding horses?!”
I’ve suddenly realised that pulp books were the precursor of fan-fiction.
Point is, I’m gay all day, every day. I have a wife and a baby and I live in the
gayest city in the UK (it actually calls itself that). There is no one I’m not
‘out’ to. But even I feel sometimes that watching lesbian media is like taking off my shoes.
I just feel comfy and relaxed!
So I can only imagine how incredible it must have felt
to see themselves in print for these lesbians in the 1950s and 60s.
Surprisingly, lesbian pulps were readily available to purchase in most American drug stores,
bookshops and airport newstands, displayed side by side with stories of alien invasion
and comic books, allowing many women the easy access to purchase.
- “why yes, the comic book is for my daughter, the alien invasion story is for my son
and the lesbian novel is for my… husband.” “Of course, madam.”
This must have been quite a freeing feeling for repressed folks at the time!
Especially in a society that already had the vision of gay people as immoral and ‘cureable’
- Probably a good time to point you in the direction of my other Queer History
video where I explore conversion therapy, which you should definitely check out if
you’d like to know more on the topic. Content warning. Obviously. Click the
card in the top left of the screen or the link in the description to watch.
And although not all of the pulps were radical and life-changing,
within their pages lay proof that these women weren’t alone in the world.
Probably the most interesting extract is from Artmeis Smith’s
1959 novel Odd Girl which came out ten years before Stonewall. It shows
a confrontation between the main character Anne and her father:
“No daughter of mine is going to be a—a lesbian!” He said the word with intense hate.
“I’m afraid you have nothing to say about that,” Anne said quietly. “I am what I am.”
“You’re a victim of this—this awful woman,” her father sputtered. “She has you hypnotized!”
“No, Dad,” Anne continued, quietly, “I have always been this way. I won’t be changed by you or
anyone else. This is the first time my life has really felt right and happy.”
“You are breaking the laws of nature—” her father said.
“The law I’m breaking is against nature,” Anne returned, strongly.
“The law will have to be changed.” We like Anne. Anne was a badass.
These lesbian pulp fictions books, which were written by women definitely changed the narrative,
but it has to be said that even in these more radical tales, authors like Smith were still at
the mercy of their publishers who forced them to induce sad endings like throwing themselves
off high cliffs, renouncing their sexuality or being paralysed by grief from abandoment by their
lovers. Their argument being that the readers wouldn’t want to see these women fulfilled by
their lesbain desires and relationships. - Can’t a gay girl catch a break?
Although these lesbian pulp fictions did in most part appeal to and benefit women,
it can’t be overlooked that if the men had not bought so many copies, causing them to
be so widely available and popular. It could be argued that they wouldn’t have fallen into the
hands of those who needed them the most. - A real conundrum there, let me know
what you think in the comments below! All of this has got me thinking though,
about the value of representation in the media, normalising relationships between
women and the progression to seeing the happy ending these folks craved back in the 50s.
We’ve got some great programmes out there that deal with themes of relationships between two
women, Gentleman Jack, Feel Good, Derry girls, Killing Eve, OITNB to name just a handful.
On the surface some could argue that these shows do cater towards a “male gaze” (ie.
the sexualisation of women), offering men the chance to view intimate scenes between women,
broadcast on primetime television and on demand platforms whenever they fancy. However,
they also offer the rest of us the opportunity to gaze on as well...
And the real question (much like with the Lesbian pulps) lies behind the intention of
the storytelling. Who are these writers writing for, and what is the wider story? Some of the
lesbian pulps WERE written by women FOR women, they merely used the element of male titlation
in order to get published and get out to their intended audience.
I think we’re getting better at seeing a range of different stories being told in
many people’s truths, but there is always room for more.
Just like the Lesbian Pulps were vitally important for those women in the 1950s,
we need to make sure our stories are continually being told for the
next generation, adapting, changing but most importantly being heard.
Leave the name of your favorite woman loving woman
fictional relationship below and we’ll see who comes out on top.
The battle of the femme couples!
Remember, if you need a dose of lesbian wholesomeness,
you can always check out the instagram page I share with my wife Claudia, @jessieandclaud,
where we post our everyday adventures, home and life with little Rupert. And the dogs, obviously!
If you’ve been eying up my pin throughout this video then you’ll be pleased to know that the
Baby’s First Pride pin is indeed coming back to my merch store for this year’s Pride Month in a new
limited edition color way, I’ll be announcing more on the community tab so keep your eyes peeled…
And if you’d like to see more of my jaunts into history then click the card in the top
left hand corner of the screen and let’s have some fun together.
Thank you so much for watching, remember to subscribe if you
haven’t already and I’ll see you in my next video!
[kiss]