GAY NEW YORK | Kirk Reviews

gay new york george chauncey

Gay New York by Gee Chncey, May, 1994, Basic Books edn, Hardver English

Contents:

GAY NEW YORK : GENR, URBAN CULTURE, AND THE MAKGS OF THE GAY MALE WORLD, 1890-1940

GEORGE CHAUNCEY'S GAY NEW YORK: A VIEW FROM 25 YEARS LATER - Volume 18 Issue 1 * gay new york george chauncey *

Tle: Gay New York: Genr, Urban Culture, and the Makg of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940.

GEORGE CHAUNCEY'S GAY NEW YORK: A VIEW FROM 25 YEARS LATER

* gay new york george chauncey *

Gee Chncey unvers a prevly hidn "gay male world" New York Cy before World War II, a world that had been lost through the myths of "isolatn, visibily, and ternalizatn.

" Instead, the world Chncey scrib is a vibrant and surprisgly visible gay culture between 1890-1940.

HONORG GEE CHNCEY, A SCHOLAR OF GAY HISTORY

In this world, the later homosexual/heterosexual bary was not yet force, and men were fed on the basis of their masculy or femy rather than the sex of their sexual partners.

GAY NEW YORK

In this way, workg-class mascule men, particularly sailors and laborers, uld have sex wh effemate "fairi" yet not be nsired "gay" (provid they were the one dog the peratg). In Part II, Chncey scrib how gay men produced the space of an urban "gay world.

Chncey not that, until the 1930s, thori would often take a hands-off approach unls gay men's prence moved beyond the tegory of harmls spectacle.

He also not the tensn between private and public, where gay men were often forced out of the public sphere to engage activi and socializg public areas (although plac such as parks and streets were often dangero).

GAY NEW YORK SUMMARY

Fally, he pots to the velopment of two gay neighborhood enclav: Greenwich Village the 1910s (part of a larger bohemian culture) and Harlem the 1920s and 1930s (which was much more visible and vibrant).

Chncey not that until the 1930s, the spac, particular Harlem, beme a space for highly visible spectacl of gay life - for example, massive drag queen balls which thoands attend and were vered by the prs. The unrme any notns of gay life beg eply the closet until the 1960s. Chncey ends wh a discsn of the cle of this gay world.

GAY NEW YORK

Wh s repeal the state had broar surveillance and regulatory powers which they ed to lim gay public space. This occurs most vividly wh vlent crackdowns on any bars that allowed gay men visibily (leadg to the rise of exclively gay bars).

Chncey's narrative ends wh the gay world beg driven largely unrground durg the 1930s. - Gay world was que visible before 1930s, then went to the closet (anti-Whiggish view of history).

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* GAY NEW YORK GEORGE CHAUNCEY

Gay New York by Gee Chncey | Open Library .

TOP