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The Third Sex
For those who are too young to know the GrandmaMoseX of the GLBT community, Artemis Smith, also now known as ArtemisSmith Morpurgo,is a contemporary of Andy Warhol and a still-living Activist Poet, Playwright, Futurist and Digital-media Artist. Besides operating her own successful off-off-Broadway workshop that gave rise to many of today's vintage Film and Television celebrities, in the 1950-60's she was a prominent strategist of the Rainbow and GLBT civil rights movements, and was the first author to tell the Gay Community at pre-Stonewall 1960's ECHO Conferences to look toward the Advertising Industry to change the Gay Image, and to hurry up and "Come out of the Closet" or get left out of the civil rights movement. This author's re-issue of THE THIRD SEX also contains a continuation of her MemoirsM mementos, plus two ground-breaking Information Science papers on Sexology circulated throughout the Gay-underground in the 1960's. This volume is an indispensable addition to every Gay Studies curriculum. Alana L. Collos, THE SAVANT GARDE INSTITUTE
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1959
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January 22, 2025After experimenting with a couple of men, Joan is sure: she only ever really desires women. In a spontaneous action, Joan marries Marc, who is also gay and in a relationship. They both hope for some security but can this work out?
Set (and published) in the 1950s, The Third Sex is a lesbian pulp classic. But while a lot of pulp fiction among other reasons due to censorship had their queer characters either end dead or suddenly straight, The Third Sex belongs to the subset of so-called pro-lesbian pulp which goes against these tropes. There are a lot of rather sweet scenes and this novel is full of queer characters (straight people have only very minor roles). And then there are very political and poignant discussions from how religion is instrumentalized for anti-queer sentiments and politics or why children should learn about the existence of queer people (and how this is not "recruitment"). Unfortunately, both these conversations are still (and at the moment in particular) very timely.
This book could be read through so many lenses and be analysed again and again. So many things are really wonderful, some others need to be critically examined (for example, the way this novel talks about butches and femmes seems steeped in some unexamined classism). But overall it's also just a very fun story to read with many scenes of queer joy and queer community.
I had meant to read this for a long time, but now - due to the tagline "Told with unblushing honesty, here is a penetrating study of society's greatest curse: homosexuality!" - I picked it up for the #QueerYourYear prompt "Very! Silly!". I will say the content, in the end, is much less silly. But yes, there is also silliness, like Joan, the protagonist, telling every women after like two hours that she loves them.
Set (and published) in the 1950s, The Third Sex is a lesbian pulp classic. But while a lot of pulp fiction among other reasons due to censorship had their queer characters either end dead or suddenly straight, The Third Sex belongs to the subset of so-called pro-lesbian pulp which goes against these tropes. There are a lot of rather sweet scenes and this novel is full of queer characters (straight people have only very minor roles). And then there are very political and poignant discussions from how religion is instrumentalized for anti-queer sentiments and politics or why children should learn about the existence of queer people (and how this is not "recruitment"). Unfortunately, both these conversations are still (and at the moment in particular) very timely.
This book could be read through so many lenses and be analysed again and again. So many things are really wonderful, some others need to be critically examined (for example, the way this novel talks about butches and femmes seems steeped in some unexamined classism). But overall it's also just a very fun story to read with many scenes of queer joy and queer community.
I had meant to read this for a long time, but now - due to the tagline "Told with unblushing honesty, here is a penetrating study of society's greatest curse: homosexuality!" - I picked it up for the #QueerYourYear prompt "Very! Silly!". I will say the content, in the end, is much less silly. But yes, there is also silliness, like Joan, the protagonist, telling every women after like two hours that she loves them.
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