Article: Girls will be boys in German silent cinema
| dc.creator | Horak, Laura | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-07-17T07:14:14Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-07-17T07:14:14Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023 | |
| dc.description.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. | en |
| dc.identifier.doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/19736 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://mediarep.org/handle/doc/20948 | |
| dc.language | eng | |
| dc.publisher | NECS | |
| dc.publisher.place | Marburg | |
| dc.relation.isPartOf | issn:2213-0217 | |
| dc.relation.ispartofseries | NECSUS_European Journal of Media Studies | |
| dc.rights | Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 Generic | |
| dc.rights.uri | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 | |
| dc.subject | cross-dressing | en |
| dc.subject | German silent cinema | en |
| dc.subject | transnational cinema | en |
| dc.subject | Asta Nielsen | en |
| dc.subject.ddc | ddc:300 | |
| dc.subject.ddc | ddc:791 | |
| dc.title | Girls will be boys in German silent cinema | en |
| dc.type | article | |
| dc.type.status | publishedVersion | |
| dspace.entity.type | Article | en |
| local.coverpage | 2023-09-18T16:32:05 | |
| local.identifier.firstpublished | https://necsus-ejms.org/girls-will-be-boys-in-german-silent-cinema/ | |
| local.source.epage | 256 | |
| local.source.issue | 1 | |
| local.source.issueTitle | #Ports | |
| local.source.spage | 231 | |
| local.source.volume | 12 |
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