Article: Girls will be boys in German silent cinema
Abstract
The popularity and availability of Ernst Lubitsch’s cross-dressing comedy Ich möchte kein Mann sein (1918) sometimes creates the impression that it is a unique example of female-to-male cross-dressing in silent cinema. Likewise, attention to the gender and sexual play of Weimar-era (1918-1933) German cinema often eclipses cinema of the Wilhelmine era (1895-1918). This article asks: how does Ich möchte kein Mann sein fit into the wider ecology of German films featuring cross-dressed women, during both the Wilhelmine and Weimar eras? How are the cross-dressed women of German silent cinema similar to and different from silent films in other countries? After examining more than 47 German silent films featuring cross-dressed women, I argue that German films adapted transnational cross-dressing performance traditions to fit local contexts, offering audiences deliberately contradictory experiences of female masculinity and same-sex desire. Though scholars have focused on Weimar cinema as offering new possibilities for gender and sexuality, Wilhelmine cinema also offered varied visions of female masculinity – especially in Danish actress Asta Nielsen’s creative takes on cross-dressing traditions. Weimar films continued these traditions while making more explicit reference to real life lesbian and gay subcultures. Attending to the complexities of female-to-male cross-dressing allows us to see how popular culture envisions alternative gender and sexual scenarios while maintaining its popularity and, for the most part, dodging the censors’ scissors.
Preferred Citation
BibTex
Horak, Laura: Girls will be boys in German silent cinema. In: NECSUS_European Journal of Media Studies, Jg. 12 (2023), Nr. 1, S. 231-256. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/19736.
@ARTICLE{Horak2023,
author = {Horak, Laura},
title = {Girls will be boys in German silent cinema},
year = 2023,
doi = "\url{http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/19736}",
volume = 12,
address = {Marburg},
journal = {NECSUS_European Journal of Media Studies},
number = 1,
pages = {231--256},
}
author = {Horak, Laura},
title = {Girls will be boys in German silent cinema},
year = 2023,
doi = "\url{http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/19736}",
volume = 12,
address = {Marburg},
journal = {NECSUS_European Journal of Media Studies},
number = 1,
pages = {231--256},
}
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