Donatello, da Vinci, and Michelangelo to behaviors of modern queerness and sodomy
Shakespeare, Dickinson, etc.
βNo single chapter can do justice to the range, diversity, and depth of queer art. We can only provide a sampling, highlights, of LGBTQ artistic production.β
focus on end of the 19th century onwards
Whitman influence
Winslow Homer: masculinity and camraderie
Eakins: Whitman ideology and imagery
Hockney: references to Whitman
βinvertβ influence and non-heteronormative presentation
Frances Benjamin Johnston: openly lesbian photographer: 1896 self-portrait of an independent New Woman
Charles Demuth: βPrecisionistβ; gay subculture and modernism
Frida Kahlo
Kahlo and Demuth, bright colors and depiction of homosexual intimacy
Claude Cahun: Surrealist photography, staging
transvestic, lesbianism, transgression
Kahlo and Cahun: self-portraits
19th century expatriates in European centers
restoration of classical homoeroticism and art
artistic proto-lesbian community
Charlotte Cushman, Matilda Hays, Harriet Hosmer, Emma Stebbins, Edmonia Lewis, Mary Lloyd, Adelaide Kemble Sartoris, etc.
visited by painters aandd aauthors: Romaine Brooks, Radclyffe Hall, Janet Flanner, Djuna Barnes, Tamara de Lempicka
art deco
African American emigration
France was more accepting of attraction vs. U.S.
Josephine Baker
James Baldwin: Giovanniβs Room
βphysique magazinesβ: nude magazines co-opted for the male homosexual audience
originally part of the βmuscular Christianβ movement
late 19th centuryβWWII conception in a culture of officework and reduced domestic life
bodybuilding and beefcake boom
inversion of gender roles; lead to a gay-oriented physique magazine, Physique Pictorial in 1951
passed censorship
later included stylized sexual illustrations (Tom of Finland) that contrasted sexology
focus on a white gay audience, no racial diversity
highly political U.S. LGBTQ art
βlesbian artβ opposing patriarchal culture
Ann Meredith, Bettye Lane, Joan Biren, Kate Millett, Louise Fishman, Tee Corinnee, Maree Azzopardi, Fiona Lawry, Jane Becker
photography, paper mache, stylized painting
evocative art: genitalia, pop art
AIDS epidemic
Warhol, Cleve Jones, Keith Haring, Robert Mapplethorpe
public political queer art on buses, billboards, newspapers
Adejoke Tugbiyele 3d work, intersectionality + Nayland Blake
backlash by right-wing and conservatives
pathos and subjective judgements against provocative works
Jesse Helms
backlash also by liberal and left-leaning critics disturbed by works
βThe desire to protect the public from offensive material and the move to protect minorities from discrimination become conflated in censoring transgressive art.β
comparing American vs. European environments of theatre
large censorship of indecency
Padlock Law, Walker: padlocking doors and arresting performers for homosexual, pre-marital sex media
The Normal Heart, Angels in America, Rent in the late 20th century onward, esp. Rent
large absence of lesbians in media
modern: Fun Home, based on Bechdelβs memoir
Patience and Sarah opera, among many other operas; Harvey Milk, As One, Fellow Travelers, The Stonewall Operas
thinking about it (Wickedβs homosexual themes in its book and intersectionality being erased on theatre and likely musical movieβ¦)
using LGBTQ art to challenge consumerist ideology
queer social networking
enhanced by the Internet and its increase in population/popularity since the mid-1990s
βthe idea that the internet provides interaction and information on a global scale and in an unequivocally egalitarian way is problematic; it does not consider issues such as nationality, social class, and general access to resourcesβreliable electricity, for instanceβneeded to use the internet. It also does not account for the fact that some governments prohibit access to specific sites and information or for the fact that, in the United States, access can be limited for people whose primary internet usage occurs in schools or libraries.β
βFor those with access, the internet, with its multiple venues for textually complex and visually rich expression, offers LGBTQ people some opportunity to articulate their concerns, interests, and desires. Given the highly interactive nature of the internet, users can not only represent themselves but also exchange ideas, form a variety of communities, and meet others from around the world.β
βstrength in numbersβ as much as it can harm through false information and hoaxing
increase in information/spread of information
large spheres of internet activism
βkeyboard activismβ vs. real-life grassroots work
physical vs online communities and discussions; why not transform real-life physical areas as well as the online sphere to increase acceptance and encouragement of queer communities
expression of identity and larger awareness of diversity and intersectionality
increase in ways to encounter homophobia due to crossover of slurs reclaimed or reused by different groups
public awareness of information β public discrimination and homophobia even years after
public outing enhanced by social media: wikis, blogs, organized sites, etc.
easier access to erotic and pornographic media, sex positivity
also increased pedophilia and predation
curated apps and websites for certain kinks, communities, etc.
censorship
China wrt pornographic sites
Iranian Queer Organization and censorship in Iran
should online queer activism for other countries be based on a Western or U.S. model? non-universal, non-centric
βglobal gayβ vs. transnationality
ISP censorship carries over to many areas, including U.S. and Western servers
capitalist censorship by larger corporations: Facebook, Youtube, Craigslist
marketing and targeting specific consumers of specific communities
βLGBTQ people are the subjects of marketing, so the price we pay for virtual queer space is the price we pay for the services and equipment needed to access that space and for the products sold by those who underwrite itβ
βThe technologies themselves might be politically βneutral,β but the uses to which they are put never areβ