Mae West: French Grandfather

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 12.
• • Why Don’t You Come Up Sometime and Queer Me? • •
• • Reclaiming Mae West as Author and Sexual Philosopher • •
• • Is there a biological origin for homosexuality? • •
• • Chase Dimock wrote:  Not only did the question of a biological origin for homosexuality have immediate impact on the legal questions of homosexual conduct, but I would argue that its very study and discovery was influenced by the law, both positively and negatively.
• • The French grandfather of forensic science, Ambroise Tardieu • •
• • Chase Dimock wrote:  The French grandfather of forensic science, Ambroise Tardieu produced a guide for authorities to identify homosexuals based on their body characteristics, including, dubiously their “funnel shaped anuses”. The German sexologists, on the other hand, used the medical discourse of homosexuality to campaign for the repeal of Paragraph 175, the law Hitler would later use to deport homosexuals to concentration camps.

• • Chase Dimock wrote:  Mae West’s drama "The Drag" is aware of this juridico-medical history of the construction of homosexuality as it begins with the Doctor’s sister delivering to him an “Ulrich” book and declaring, “I have never heard of such outlandish diseases in my life.”
• • an Ulrich or an Urning • •   . . .
• • 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 Thursday, 18 September 1980 • •
• • It was September when Mae West was in the hospital and she was, alas, not doing well.  On Thursday, 18 September 1980, the Hollywood icon suffered a second stroke, and this left her right side paralyzed.  Dreadful!
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • “Mae West shattered every tradition of the screen as well as the box office, and has contradicted every theory of stardom by her unconventionality, her ribaldry, her boisterous philosophy.”
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: “You better learn to respect writers.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article about an actress mentioned Mae West.
• • Jim Mueller wrote:  Over time, Mamie Van Doren effectively wrote the instruction manual on being a sex kitten — —  though, when recently asked about that image, she insisted: "I don't think you make a sex kitten. Magic on screen either oozes out or it doesn't. Man or woman, it's like there's an aura, a light behind the sex kitten. It's a magnetism you're born with. Marilyn Monroe, Jean Harlow and Marlene Dietrich had it; and so did Mae West." . . .
• • Source: Article in Chicago Tribune; published on Tuesday, 23 March 1999
• • 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 4045th 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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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • an arrest after "The Drag" in 1927 • •
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