HIST 361 complete list of keywords

sexuality

Michel Foucault: a social construct that regulates and controls bodily pleasures, relationships, and self-image. Like gender, sexuality is established through a series of norms and practices. Also, an identity in relation to sexual object choice; that is the person(s); bodies; or objects to which one is sexually attracted.

heteroessentialism

Jen Manion’s theory of the widespread failure [in this caseby historians] to consider the role that heterosexuality plays in giving meaning and stability to individual subjects as well as to social, political, legal, and economic institutions like the family, the household economy, the market economy, and the state’s needs for able-bodied educated citizens.

sodomy/buggery

anal intercourse (or oral intercourse). Archaic language for these sex acts associated with British common law and some biblical interpretations of the sins ofSodom & Gomorrah. British prohibitions against sodomy (beginning in 1533) are still reflected in some American laws, i.e. "crimes against nature."

gender

Judith Butler: a social construct that is performed by people through actions and words. This definition of gender challenges the idea that gender is a natural or essential quality that is determined by biological sex.

berdache

archaic term used by European colonizers to describe indigenous peoples inhabiting gender identities not easily mappable onto European binary gender convention(i.e. man/woman). A bastardization of an Arabic term referring to male sex workers. This term is used in historical sources for people of multiple sexes and gender expressions. It does not accurately describe them and rather reflects European limitations of understanding.

republicanism

System of core values and ideals that citizens inAmerican republic have, or ought to have. Related to the Revolutionary Era in American History (1770s to 1840s). Virtue system built on intense fear of corruption and greed; emphasis on liberty, freedom, patriotism.

print culture

the social, political, and intellectual impact of printed materials (i.e. books, newspapers, and pamphlets) It includes the people who create, distribute, and consume these materials, as well as the networks they form.

transvestism

dressing in clothes not typical or socially acceptable for one's perceived or assigned gender; colloquially - "cross-dressing." In the modern use, we typically understand this as distinct/separate from the transvested person's gender identity.

transsexual

a person who desires to or who has modified their body to transition from one gender or sex to another through the use of medical technologies such as hormones or surgeries. Sometimes used pejoratively or archaically to refer to transgender persons.

transgender

a transgender person is someone whose gender identity does not reflect that which is typically associated with their assigned sex

Manifest Destiny

the idea that the (white) United States was ordained by God to spread across North America

Indian Removal Act

Federal Act signed by Andrew Johnson in 1830 that allowed for the forcible removal of Native peoples west of theMississippi into the "unsettled" lands west of the river

industrialization

the increasing availability of industrial labor jobs in factories for both men and women increased their ability to work outside of the home and by extension, away from the traditional family structure, enabling increased public instances of diverse gender expressions and sexual lives and the formation of subcultures

westward expansion

Frontier cultures espoused a "live and let live" mentality for white settlers. Non-normative domestic structures, the harshness of settler life, and the cultural tumult of westward expansion created the conditions for diverse gender expressions and sexual practices

slavery

previously overlooked, the sexual dynamics of slavery are increasingly examined as a central part of 19th century queer history.

sexual inversion

theory of homosexuality popular among sexologists in the late 19th and early20th centuries. Centrally about exhibiting traits of a gender other than the one you had been designated at birth. An in born physical (and/or mental) reversal of gender traits.

sexology

scientific study of human sexuality

Havelock Ellis

Founding father of sexology. 1897 work Sexual Inversion was the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality.

degeneracy

pseudoscientific theory of moral, mental, and physical decline from what are considered normal and desirable traits; a racial and economic construct.

fairy

a man and member of an urban subcultural community whose gender and sexual expression are characterized as feminine. Usually seen as a sexual invert

pansy

a man who used feminine gender expression to communicatesexual attraction to other men. [archaic, derogatory]

Roaring Twenties

1920s in America. An era of economic prosperity (and inequality), increased gender and sexual permissiveness, and widespread speculation and economic deregulation

Great Depression

A global economic downturn that began in the United States in 1929, and lasted until 1939. Characterized by widespread unemployment, stock market crashes, bank failures, and poverty

New Deal

series of federal programs enacted by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the 1930s to alleviate the problems of the Great Depression. Included social safety net programs like Social Security, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), etc.

Hobo

member of a subculture of traveling, day laborers, almost entirely male

Rural Repressive Hypothesis

idea that rural spaces are more repressive than non-rural spaces. Builds on the Foucauldian refutation of the "repression hypothesis," the Western society universally repressed sexuality from 17th to 20th century

Alternative Modernity

the idea of "alternative modernities" holds that modernity always unfolds within specific cultures or civilizations and that different starting points of the transition to modernity lead to different outcomes

Rent Party

a social occasion where tenants throw a party to raise money to pay their rent, originating in Harlem during the 1920s

Society for Human Rights (SHR)

the first US gay rights organization, founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago 1924

Bronzeville

one of Chicago's most prominent African-American neighborhoods. Site of open and accepted queer subculture from the 1990s-1940s

The Hayes Code

a set of guidelines that restricted the content of movies released in the United States from 1934 to 1968. The code was named after William H. Hays, the president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA)

Alfred Kinsey

American sexologist and professor of biology and zoology who published two groundbreaking reports of popular science Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953). Findings revealed that a substantial portion (37%) of US males had engaged in some same-sex sexual conduct.

domesticity

home or family life

camp

a way of being in the world, a strategy of everyday performance and humor available to gay men (and trans women) as they navigate strictures of gender and sexuality. Camp humor and its emphasis on gender play was (is) central to what we might call "gay culture."

Committee For The Study of Sex Variants

founded in 1935 by Robert Latou Dickinson

Anarchism

a political philosophy that advocates for the replacement of the state with stateless societies and voluntary free associations. Peaked in the United States in the early 1900s.

Libertarianism

a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. By the mid-20th century in the United States, the term "libertarian" became used by growing numbers of people to advocate laissez-faire capitalism and strong private property rights such as land, infrastructure and natural resources.

The Marine Cooks and Stewards Union

a small pro-gay union of cooks and stewards serving abroad luxury liners. It was a member of the Congress of Industrial Organizations until being expelled in the 1950s for being communist-dominated.

Christine Jorgensen

Ex-GI in the U.S. Army who achieved international fame in 1952 for her sex reassignment. Typically understood as the first out transgender celebrity in the U.S.

Lorraine Hansberry

born in Chicago, 1930, author of A Raisin in the Sun, married Robert Nemiroff in 1953 then divorced in 1962, died from cancer in 1965

James Baldwin

born in Harlem, 1924, writer and civil-rights advocate, author of If Beale Street Could Talk, The Fire Next Time, and Giovanni's Room, etc., Baldwin spent much of his adult life in France, especially after 1965

Bayard Rustin

born in Pennsylvania, 1912, organized the 1963 March on Washington, pushed out of public leadership of the civil rights movement due to his 1953 arrest for "sex perversion" after he was discovered in a parked car with two other men

Pauli Murray

born in Baltimore, 1910, raised by her maternal aunt in Durham, NC, civil and women's rights activist, first African-American woman ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1973

The Homophile Movement

between the 1950 and the late 1960s, homophile organizations challenged political and cultural stigma and advocated for the full inclusion of gay men and lesbians into American society; only rarely touched on concepts such as transsexuality and bisexuality; generally were not radical in ideas about gender binaries, employed respectability politics, and were primarily white, middle class

Virginia Prince

born in L.A., 1912, founder of the first long-running transgender periodical in the U.S. (Transvestia), fed gov. attempted to shut it down in 1962 but Prince won, she was charged with distributing obscenity through the mail as a part of an attempt to restrict circulation of the magazine

Lisa Ben

Edythe Eyde (known by pen name Lisa Ben) born in C.A., 1921, produced the first known lesbian magazine in US history (Vice Versa) in 1947, she published 9 issues of the magazine; later joined the Daughters of Bilitis

Harry Hay

born in UK, 1912, moves to the U.S. very young, joins the Communist Party, formed the Mattachine Society in L.A. in 1950; later helped to found the Radical Faeries in the 1970s

The Mattachine Society

1950, group of six white gay men who had been involved in progressive political organizing; heavily influenced by American Communist Party structure and secrecy; manifesto posited that homosexuals were a distinct and oppressed cultural group; early radical and communist leadership was forced out by the middle 1950s by anticommunist libertarians

One Inc./Magazine/Institute

formed in 1952 by some of the founders of Mattachine L.A., specifically formed to produce a publication on gay life, ONE Magazine; eventually became today's ONE institute, the longest running LGBTQ organization in the nation

Knights of the Clock

founded in 1950 by a Black gay man, Merton L. Bird, and his white lover, Dorr Legg (who later became the publisher of ONE); formed as a social group of interracial gay couples, began to also work to deal with housing and employment discrimination against Black Angelenos and against gay couples; social events drew up to 200 gay men

Daughter of Bilitis

Lesbian group founded in 1955 in San Francisco; founders included Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon; influenced by the Mattachine Society — encouraged its members to “assimilate," published The Ladder

Donald Webster Cory

pseudonym of Edward Sagarin, professor of sociology and criminology; wrote The Homosexual in America (1951) -- used by the homophile movement to argue for the rights of gays and lesbians, it asserted that homosexuals deserved civil rights; Cory/Sagarin lived a double life, Sagarin described homosexuals as deviants to be studied while Cory advocated for their political and civil liberation

Frank Kameny

founder of the Mattachine Society of D.C., widely considered the "father of gay liberation," chafed against homophile respectability tactics and secrecy (although employed respectability himself in early pickets); organized first picket of the White House for gay rights in 1965.

Stonewall Riots

anti-police riots by queer, trans, and gender-nonconforming bar patrons and unhoused people in New York City's Greenwich Village on June 28 of 1969

Gay Liberation Front

short-lived organization formed in New York City in 1969 in the aftermath of the Stonewall Riots

Gay Liberation Era

1969-1980, period of radical gay activism typified by critical analysis of American society, especially homophobia, family life, racism, capitalism, and misogyny

lesbian-feminism

a strand of second-wave feminism that explicitly connected lesbian and feminist political issues. Began in 1970 with the formation of several "Radicalesbians" groups and "The Woman-Identified Woman" broadside

National Organization for Women

founded in 1966 by Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm, Muriel Fox, and Pauli Murray

Radicalesbians

several groups of lesbian-feminists formed in response to homophobia in the women's movement and misogyny within gay liberation

Lavender Menace

phrase first coined by NOW leader Betty Friedan and repurposed by lesbian activists

genderf*ck

a term used to describe a conscious effort to subvert traditional notions of gender identity and gender roles, often through the mixing and blending of traditionally masculineand feminine characteristics.

Feminary

literary journal which began as a newsletter in Chapel Hill in 1969. Became a lesbian feminist journal emphasizing the South in 1978, and ran until 1982.

Sinister Wisdom

long-running lesbian literary journal in the United States. Began publishing in Charlotte, NC in 1976

Lesbian Print Movement

significant cultural and political phenomenon in the late 20th century, particularly in the South, which fostered a network of lesbian feminist writers, publishers, bookstores, and readers, empower women to publish and share their work

AIDS

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), is an ongoing, also called chronic, condition. It's caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, also called HIV. HIV damages the immune system so that the body is less able to fight infection and disease. If HIV isn't treated, it can take years before it weakens the immune system enough to become AIDS.

ACT UP

ACT UP was formed in 1987 and it adopted the pink triangle that Nazis used to brand LGBTQ people, emblazoned it with the words "SILENCE=DEATH" and launched a massive campaign against the Reagan Administration, the pharmaceutical industry, Wall Street, the CDC, and the NIH.

NC LGHP

started by Gay Liberation Radicals, Carl Wittman, David Jolly, Aida Wakil, and Timmer McBride. Focused on healthcare for queer people. Tended to only serve white people. Began to professionalize and became a grant-seeking organization as the AIDS crisis deepened throughout the 1980s, wasn't originally focused on AIDS.

Jesse Helms

Jesse Alexander Helms Jr. (October 18, 1921 - July 4, 2008) was an American politician. A leader in the conservative movement, he served as a senator from North Carolina from 1973 to 2003. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1995 to 2001, he had a major voice in foreign policy. Helms helped organize and fund the conservative resurgence in the 1970s, focusing on Ronald Reagan's quest for the White House as well as helping many local and regional candidates.

On domestic social issues, Helms opposed civil rights, disability rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, affirmative action, access to abortions, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He brought an "aggressiveness" to his conservatism, as in his rhetoric against homosexuality. The Almanac of American Politics wrote that "no American politician is more controversial, beloved in some quarters and hated in others, than Jesse Helms".

New Queer Cinema

a movement in queer-themed independent filmmaking in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It is also referred to as the "queer new wave." Coined by film studies scholar B. Ruby Rich in The Village Voice in 1992 to describe a wave of queer-themed movies screening at the Sundance Film Festival in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

DIVA TV

a gay and lesbian video activist collective founded in New York City in 1989. The name was an acronym for "Damned Interfering Video Activist Television". DIVA TV was founded in 1989 as a video-documenting affinity group with ACT UP. DIVA TV documented public testimony, the media, and community activism to motivate the fight against AIDS

B. Ruby Rich

American queer and feminist film scholar, famous for coining "New Queer Cinema" in 1992.