Of the three reading assignments, I have actually read two of them before. In Professor Morris's class, we were given Pansies on Parade and I'm The Queen of the Bitches. While the reading about Mae West was earlier on in the class, Pansies on Parade was closer to 3/4th through the class, if not further. They were definitely interesting reads. I personally enjoyed the Mae West one more because she fascinated me and the idea that cross dressing and acting gaily was allowed on stage at one point when homosexuality was still extremely shunned. Perhaps if Mae West didn't create the play revealing the underground life and truth that the actors were in fact gay, or transgender, then there would not have been such an uproar to shut down everyone. The past is the past though, and there's not much to do about that. I still think that the majority of the gay community loved her anyway.
In Professor Morris's class, we talked more about it being a "gay community" thing, but I'm thinking now that it was more reflective on the T in LGBT. The actors were more of drag queens and "cross dressers" (or transsexual individuals). Perhaps this bothered the normative community overall more than the possibility of homosexuality. I'm curious if LG or B members felt that they were "stained" or affiliated with transgender. After the newspapers talked about Mae West's play, people probably assumed that every LGBT person was actually transgender, but called it "gay", and failed to recognize a difference- which perhaps may have been for the better.
As for Pansies on Parade, I found certain parts of it to have interesting information. I liked that some LGBT people could go into the streets late at night and be who they wanted to be. I'm sure there were conservative LGBT members who wished that the "other" LGBT people would stop putting on a show and bringing out the underground life. It's sad that LGBT members weren't allowed to play in Broadway or performances anymore, which I'm sure they thank Mae for. However, as much as society seemed to repent them, they also seemed extremely curious. They were constantly in the media and people constantly came to see the "pansy" life, and not all the comments were negative. People tried to capitalize on this interest though, and that led to many books being published. On one of the pages, we see some of the books or plays. Of particular notice is the play " 'Chained' A Forceful Picture of the Third Sex: The Story of a Male Captive". Sounds like it's about a transgender man that wants to be a woman to me.
I also liked learning about the vogue culture. Society has no clue how much they borrow or take from LGBT culture. The poses in the magazines, the dancing, the entire idea of Vogue itself? Not only is it from the gay community, but it's from the African American community. (Insert double gasp!) Your practical rank in society was based on your vogue abilities and depended on what house you were from. I liked that there was a house "mother". I loved that she acted as a mother than most of the others never had, and that she was such a figurehead. At least they seem to have each other in the dark hours. I don't know if all of the House Mothers went by she, but I would assume.
Now, as for the last reading on "Queer Blues", I liked the mention that African women only had a shot in musical history around when Bessie Smith was alive and then when rap and disco became popular. Nowhere in between did they have recognition or an appearance in media. Also, in the section "Movin' On", I recognized Zora Neale Hurston's name. I've had to read "Their Eyes Were Watching God" twice in high school. I personally didn't like it, especially because it was an assigned reading, and reading black vernacular out loud in a "reading circle" of unenthusiastic potheads was mind numbing, but I can appreciate the author's success. I feel that Literature was the only place that African Americans could have a chance in the media, but even this was a challenge. Fortunately though, there were enough writers that made it into the media, that they were able to write about and represent various economical classes and lifestyles from different regions. Their work was powerful, too. Blues singers had even more ability to express their emotions. They had fewer word to express their pains and feelings with, but they filled those words with meaning. The meaning could be read multiple ways though and it often included LGBTesque topics or themes. The reading talks about how one references to masochism. At least if would give members of the community something to look into at their time.Perhaps because it was written by African Americans, the lyrics weren't looked into as much. Otherwise, people may have noticed the homosexual innuendos and such. But, instead, people figured that the women were writing as perspectives of or narrators of males.
I feel that in the classes that I have taken, Africa American and Caucasian LGBT members were the only races we looked at in history. Maybe they were the only ones recorded in history at the time, but I remember reading Latino or Chicana LGBT works in a class out of UCLA. At my community college, I had a lesbian professor (and she was the coolest person I've met; I have her on my facebook and she has been my favorite professor) and she had us read something by Anzuldua. I know it exists across the spectrum, but I think we ignore some races and perspectives (such as Asian, Middle Eastern, ect).
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