Mae West: Gender Confusion

Many great minds have contemplated MAE WEST — — but great minds don’t think alike. Academic and author Chase Dimock has written an interesting article on Mae as a playwright. This is Part 4.
• • Why Don’t You Come Up Sometime and Queer Me? • •
• • Reclaiming Mae West as Author and Sexual Philosopher • •
• • “The Drag” and the “pansy craze” • •
• • Chase Dimock wrote:  Instead “The Drag” sought to cash in on what contemporary scholars have called “The Pansy Craze,” a period in the 1920s when female impersonators appeared in mainstream stage shows and the Jazz age youth went slumming at gay bars and drag balls. The “pansy,” often known as the “fairy,” was a figure that created gender confusion; a male that interwove signifiers of masculinity and femininity on his body. He paraded feminine mannerisms, walked in high heels with a swish, and even used feminine pronouns, but he was not a trans-woman.
• • Chase Dimock wrote:  The fairy became the dominant image of what was termed the “invert,” before “gay” hit wide usage two decades later; a biological male with the soul of a woman on the inside.
• • Homosexual, gay, invert, pansy • •  . . . 
• • His article will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: As It Ought to Be
• • Chase Dimock, who teaches Literature and Composition at College of the Canyons, is Managing Editor of As It Ought to Be.
• • On Sunday, 6 September 1942 • •
• • A photo of Mae West, costumed as Diamond Lil, appeared in the American Weekly supplement of the Los Angeles Examiner (on page 7) on Sunday, 6 September 1942.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •

• • Darryl F. Zanuck did work with Mae when he produced "Myra Breckinridge" in 1970.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: “If I asked for a cup of coffee, someone would be searching for the double meaning.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article about a new TV show mentioned Mae West.
• • TV Guide wrote: Mae West, now 66, will soon star in a five-a-week, late night, quarter hour show locally, and then has plans for a film series, "Klondike Lou"  . ...
• • Source:  "Upcoming News Briefs" by TV Guide staff; published on Saturday, 13 September 1958
• • The evolution of 2 Mae West plays that keep her memory alive • • 
• • A discussion with Mae West playwright LindaAnn LoSchiavo — — 
• • http://lideamagazine.com/renaissance-woman-new-york-city-interview-lindaann-loschiavo/

• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 14th anniversary • •  

• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past fourteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,000 blog posts. Wow!  

• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fourteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4038th blog post. Unlike many blogs, which draw upon reprinted content from a newspaper or a magazine and/ or summaries, links, or photos, the mainstay of this blog is its fresh material focused on the life and career of Mae West, herself an American original.

• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in 1970 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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Mae West: A Queer Theorist

Many great minds have contemplated MAE WEST — — but great minds don’t think alike. Academic and author Chase Dimock has written an interesting article on Mae as a playwright. This is Part 3.
• • Why Don’t You Come Up Sometime and Queer Me? • •
• • Reclaiming Mae West as Author and Sexual Philosopher • •
• • Mae West’s appeal to a gay audience • •
• • Chase Dimock wrote:  While Mae West marketed herself as an object of heterosexual desire, she not only understood her appeal to a gay audience, but she also engaged with the newly emerging gay community in her plays.
• • Mae West as a queer theorist • •
• • Chase Dimock wrote:  Thus, I want to also think about Mae West as queer theorist — as an interpreter of queer sexuality who saw the newly visible figure of the homosexual in society as a product of power relations — a figure determined by the interplay of institutional powers, medicine and the law, and his own creative power to define himself. For this, I turn to her 1927 play, “The Drag,” a text centered on the question of the male homosexual’s position in society.
• • Chase Dimock wrote: Unlike her previous play, “Sex” — — which launched her into notoriety and stardom on Broadway — — “The Drag” was not a vehicle for self-promotion as an actress. Mae West did not write a role for herself.
• • “The Drag” and the “pansy craze” • •    . . .     
• • His article will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: As It Ought to Be
• • Chase Dimock, who teaches Literature and Composition at College of the Canyons, is Managing Editor of As It Ought to Be.
• • On Friday, 5 September 1952 in Colorado • •
• • On Friday, 5 September 1952 in Denver, Adlai Stevenson gave a speech that included a piece of wisdom — — "it is not the years in your life, but the life in your years" — — and this statement has been mis-attributed to both Abraham Lincoln and Mae West.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •

• • Happy Birthday to Raquel Welch, whose career was not boosted by "Myra Breckinridge" [1970]. The former pin-up model was born on Thursday, 5 September 1940. She is 78.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "There was something about a handsome brute crushing other brutes in a ring I couldn't resist."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article about Google mentioned Mae West.
• • Kelly Fiveash wrote: A story in which any number of Mae West quotations can be applied: "I speak two languages, Body and English Google." Or, "Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly." Or, "Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before." ....   [Alas, aside from this a-Mae-zing opening, the article itself was not sufficiently sprightly to repost.]
• • Source: Article: "Larry Page sees 'tragic' future for Google" written by Kelly Fiveash for The Register; published on 28 September 2011
• • The evolution of 2 Mae West plays that keep her memory alive • • 
• • A discussion with Mae West playwright LindaAnn LoSchiavo — — 
• • http://lideamagazine.com/renaissance-woman-new-york-city-interview-lindaann-loschiavo/

• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 14th anniversary • •  

• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past fourteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,000 blog posts. Wow!  

• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fourteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4037th blog post. Unlike many blogs, which draw upon reprinted content from a newspaper or a magazine and/ or summaries, links, or photos, the mainstay of this blog is its fresh material focused on the life and career of Mae West, herself an American original.

• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source: https://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml   
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in 1970 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC  Mae West