Sex, Gender and Pop Culture

Lesbian Pulp Montage from Duke University

Lesbian pulp fiction (most popular in the 1950’s and 1960’s) portayed lesbian women in a variety of unhappy situations (except a few notable exceptions, including Prince of Salt, ). Many of the lesbian charaters in these novels, due to the prohibition of mailing literature that appeared to support a homosexual lifestyle (or to counter the popular idea that homosexuals were not mentally ill individuals), married men. If a woman were to remain a lesbian in these novels, she always met an ill-fated end, hospitalized in an institution or even death.

What I find most interesting about these novels is not the ways in which lesbian women are portrayed. Who were the writers of these lesbian pulp fiction novels? Who was the intended audience? Lesbian pulp novels were written by both men and women. From what I can tell, the women authors are both heterosexual and homosexual, and the male authors appear to be largely heterosexual. Audience-wise, lesbian pulp novels appeared to be widely read by heterosexual and homosexual individuals. According to the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture at Duke University, lesbian pulp novels appealed to lesbian readers who were desparate to find a representation of their indentity within popular culture, while providing a moral lesson about the proper place of lesbians within society.

For heterosexual readers, however, lesbian pulp novels satisfied their curiosity, as well as providing a “scientific” study of lesbian culture for the uninformed. This curiousity in the actions and lives of lesbians is reflected today in American popular culture, seen on MTV dating shows like Next, and Date My Mom. Let’s face it, people are intrigued by lesbians.

What is it about lesbians that people are so interested in? Are the things that lesbians do really that different from the things that heterosexuals do? Supposedly, heterosexual men are interested in lesbians because of what lesbians do in bed (and perhaps the hope that they can join the lesbians in bed?). But, truth be told, not all lesbians look like the lesbians on the L-Word or on the MTV daing shows. Are lesbians inherently different from heterosexuals because of their sexual orientation? Does what we do in bed distinguish us in other aspects of our lives? (I can’t answer these questions, but they are interesting!)

More on lesbian pulp fiction: http://library.duke.edu/specialcollections/bingham/guides/lesbianpulp/