Women Together/Women Apart: Portraits of Lesbian Paris

by Tirza True Latimer

What does it mean to look like a lesbian? Though it remains impossible to conjure a definitive image that captures the breadth of this highly nuanced term, today at least we are able to consider an array of visual representations that have been put into circulation by lesbians themselves over the last six or seven decades. In the early twentieth century, though, no notion of lesbianism as a coherent social or cultural identity yet existed. In Women Together/Women Apart , Tirza True Latimer explores the revolutionary period between World War I and World War II when lesbian artists working in Paris began to shape the first visual models that gave lesbians a collective sense of identity and allowed them to recognize each other. Flocking to Paris from around the world, artists and performers such as Romaine Brooks, Claude Cahun, Marcel Moore, and Suzy Solidor used portraiture to theorize and visualize a "new breed" of feminine subject. The book focuses on problems of feminine and lesbian self-representation at a time and place where the rights of women to political, professional, economic, domestic, and sexual autonomy had yet to be acknowledged by the law. Under such circumstances, same-sex solidarity and relative independence from men held important political implications. Combining gender theory with visual, cultural, and historical analysis, Latimer draws a vivid picture of the impact of sexual politics on the cultural life of Paris during this key period. The book also illuminates the far-reaching consequences of lesbian portraiture on contemporary constructions of lesbian identity.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, LGBT, Feminism, Art History, France

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Jade Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find these kinds of academic texts hard to rate. I'm not invested in them in the same way obviously. For the most part really interesting and full of great information/ observations, just a little dense for me :)

[Robyn Deane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely informative and enticing. If you enjoy writers who ask questions throughout the book, you'll really like this. Really enjoyed Latimer's slight obsession with Brooks! nice to see Brooks more appreciated as they are definitely one of the forgotten genius' of this time in comparison to more known figures such as Barney and Stein.

[valplanta]

"Representational choices, I found, have the power to open multiple possible futures. Whether any of the futures that Paris lesbians of the interwar era envisioned ever came to pass, or if only partially or in unimagined ways, seems less pertinent to me than the example that these visions set for the exercise of agency and choice in the here and now."

nunca sé como calificar los libros de este estilo porque son fomes PERO llenos de cosas que no sabías. me parece fascinante la pregunta de "cómo luce una lesbiana" y las teorías a partir de esta. cómo las disidencias concebían la corporalidad -sea propia o incluso el de las sirenas (mascarón) en los barcos, es super completo en ese sentido- de forma completamente diferente al canon de la época, y la concepción del cuerpo como una manera de expresarse política e ideológicamente más fuerte que en una manifestación.

ahora entré a un curso sobre la corporalidad y estas cosas guay de las que siempre quiero hablar pero nunca tengo argumento juju. en fin, let's go lesbians let's go, los seres más vios que la tierra ha visto, period.

also, qué onda yo leyendo teoría sobre lesbianas, the l word debería tenerme como nuevo personaje JUST SAYING sería un personaje bacanoso y muy acuariano.

[Madelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

"What is more, the question of how lesbians looked to, at, and
for each other—how they envisioned and represented themselves in 1920s
and 1930s Paris—achieves broader significance to the extent that lesbians
effected critical embodiments of twentieth-century womanhood. Becoming
“modern women,” they acted out the tensions and contradictions that
animated Western modernity as a whole. The history of lesbians, in other
words, is not just the history of lesbians—any more than “women’s history”
pertains exclusively to women. These histories relate inextricably to
the systems that shaped them, which they in turn impact. The same can
be said of the art produced by women and lesbians."

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was fabulous! Very well written, very informative, and really introduced a side to history that is not shown enough. Whether you are interested in sapphic history, art history, or Parisian history, it gives you something in which to find interest and will keep you until the very end. My only critique would be that the chapters are long and moderately disorganized inside themselves, but it is not an issue unless you are intending to use this research for a paper or schoolwork.