Her Husband was a Woman! by Alison Oram

Author:Alison Oram [Oram, Alison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, Europe, Great Britain, Modern, Social Science, Women's Studies
ISBN: 9781136014468
Google: dhLsyYnj6SIC
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-01-11T01:44:33+00:00

The sting in the tale: morality and the gigolo

How can we account for the appearance of this burst of stories at this particular time, given that the gigolo was already established as a feature of the more disreputable end of upper-class society from the 1920s and that the ‘Sheik’ had already excited popular culture for almost a decade?43 What social or moral concerns were addressed by introducing women’s desire and the attractions of cross-racial sexuality in this sub-cycle of cross-dressing stories? There is plenty of evidence to suggest that these gigolo stories (and probably the French domestic stories discussed earlier) were largely works of fiction, pointing not only to the popularity of these themes but also to a significant cultural function. They were not anchored in reports of particular court cases at named and dated judicial proceedings as passing women stories normally were, but were merely ‘reports of the Paris police’. Unlike the classic British cross-dressing stories, no pictures of the individuals involved were published. While reports of ‘real’ men–women were picked up by other Sunday and daily papers, sometimes with interviews with the different protagonists, these gigolo stories only appeared in the People. No cases of cross-dressing gigolos apparently occurred before 1930 or after 1933, the constrained timeframe perhaps indicating the work of a particular reporter. And the stories repeat and rework not only particular character types – the wealthy English or American woman, the Latin, Arab or upper-class gigolo – but also the very narrow range of plot elements discussed above. The fictional nature of these stories suggests active management of the genre as a controlled way of both sensationalisting and dealing with new sexual anxieties.

Rather than playing out respectable courtship as the British passing women did, the cross-dressing gigolos exploited their patrons – they were sexy but dangerous men. In Cannes, one of the two cross-dressing gigolos got engaged to a young American widow but took the jewels of the intended bride, hence the headline ‘Done by Dunne Girls’.44 The unnamed society women were always thoroughly ‘duped’ by the gigolo – romantically betrayed, financially exploited and sexually and socially humiliated – but were too ashamed to pursue the matter: ‘This girl has refused to prosecute because of her desire to avoid publicity.’45

The gigolos on the other hand are tricksters in every way. The fictionalised format and particular themes of this cycle of stories enables the passing woman to flourish especially powerfully in her activities as boundary-crosser and moralist. The gigolos are swindlers and confidence tricksters in their criminal deceptions. They are cheats and chancers in romance. They cross multiple fixed boundaries in pretending to be someone they are not – class, race, nationality as well as gender – and are much more accomplished than the British gender-crosser who remains in her class of origin. Despite their dubious and criminal activities they disappear or escape censure and turn the tables on their victims. The links made in many stories to theatrical performance also allow them to escape both the consequences of criminal behaviour and imputations of same-sex immorality.

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