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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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in 1970 • •
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