Article:
Girls will be boys in German silent cinema

Author(s): Horak, Laura

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.

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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},
}
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