Cold War Femme: Lesbianism, National Identity, and Hollywood Cinema

by Robert J. Corber

In his bestselling book The A Report on the Secret World of the Lesbian (1965), Jess Stearn announced that, contrary to the assumptions of many Americans, most lesbians appeared indistinguishable from other women. They could mingle “congenially in conventional society.” Some were popular sex symbols; some were married to unsuspecting husbands. Robert J. Corber contends that The Grapevine exemplified a homophobic Cold War discourse that portrayed the femme as an invisible threat to the nation. Underlying this panic was the widespread fear that college-educated women would reject marriage and motherhood as aspirations, weakening the American family and compromising the nation’s ability to defeat totalitarianism. Corber argues that Cold War homophobia transformed ideas about lesbianism in the United States. In the early twentieth century, homophobic discourse had focused on gender the lesbian was a masculine woman. During the Cold War, the lesbian was reconceived as a woman attracted to other women. Corber develops his argument by analyzing representations of lesbianism in Hollywood movies of the 1950s and 1960s, and in the careers of some of the era’s biggest female stars. He examines treatments of the femme in All About Eve , The Children’s Hour , and Marnie , and he explores the impact of Cold War homophobia on the careers of Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, and Doris Day.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Feminism, LGBT, Film, Lesbian, Queer

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 4, 2011

Reviews

[Vicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and intriguing read

Captivating read...even though I was reading for an academic project, I couldn't put it down. New perspective on the very familiar

[Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid and interesting piece of film history. Makes me want to rewatch All About Eve.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty white--especially early in the book where the author wasn't yet analyzing films and just setting the stage by describing the conditions for women during the Cold War, it generalizes the experience of white middle class women as the norm.

Apart from that it was a very interesting read. I'd never given any thought to the sexual politics of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" before.

[University of Chicago Magazine]

Robert J. Corber, AM’81, PhD’87
Author

From our pages (May–June/11): "In the 1950s and ’60s, popular views toward lesbianism in the United States were characterized by paranoia. Corber argues that while early 20th-century homophobia portrayed lesbians as masculinized women, the Cold War transformed the discourse into a fear of an invisible threat to American values. Corber examines Hollywood films that feature main characters with lesbian undertones (All About Eve, The Children’s Hour) and the effects of Cold War homophobia on the careers of actresses Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, and Doris Day."