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