Article:
Girls will be boys in German silent cinema

dc.creatorHorak, Laura
dc.date.accessioned2023-07-17T07:14:14Z
dc.date.available2023-07-17T07:14:14Z
dc.date.issued2023
dc.description.abstractThe 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.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/19736
dc.identifier.urihttps://mediarep.org/handle/doc/20948
dc.languageeng
dc.publisherNECS
dc.publisher.placeMarburg
dc.relation.isPartOfissn:2213-0217
dc.relation.ispartofseriesNECSUS_European Journal of Media Studies
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 Generic
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
dc.subjectcross-dressingen
dc.subjectGerman silent cinemaen
dc.subjecttransnational cinemaen
dc.subjectAsta Nielsenen
dc.subject.ddcddc:300
dc.subject.ddcddc:791
dc.titleGirls will be boys in German silent cinemaen
dc.typearticle
dc.type.statuspublishedVersion
dspace.entity.typeArticleen
local.coverpage2023-09-18T16:32:05
local.identifier.firstpublishedhttps://necsus-ejms.org/girls-will-be-boys-in-german-silent-cinema/
local.source.epage256
local.source.issue1
local.source.issueTitle#Ports
local.source.spage231
local.source.volume12

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