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Gendered Pasts: Historical Essays in Femininity and Masculinity in Canada
Gendered Pasts brings together innovative new work in the fast-emerging field of Canadian gender history. Covering two centuries of life in urban and rural Canada, it examines such themes as the gendered nature of work, crime and moral regulation, religion, and the family.
303 pages, Paperback
First published August 19, 1999
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October 24, 2023
Gendered Pasts is a collection of essays addressing issues of gender for students of Canadian history.
“Little work on the similar hysteria developed during this period and that the mainstream media and law enforcement officials often conflated the categories of the child molester and the male homosexual.” 159
“In the decade after World War II, at least four weekly tabloids were published in Toronto and distributed across Canada. The oldest and most popular of these was Hush Free Press, which was founded in 1920 as a ‘market tip sheet’ for investors and had a circulation of 48,000 by 1951.” 160
“Surprisingly, the male homosexual was never implicated or referred to in such articles, even in those cases involving the molestation of boys. In contrast to the conflation of the child molester and male homosexual described by American historians as common in the mainstream media at this time, Hush made no such links. Instead, gay men were subjected to a very different representation in the form of the ‘swish’.” 161
“At different times they included “Toronto Breeze Around”, “Montreal Street Scene”, “Winnipeg Whispers”,”Vancouver Patter”, and “Bytown Babble”, titles that reflect not only the geographical scope of the columns but also their flavour and content. As was true of the articles, the frequency with which gay appeared in the gossip columns increased over the period. In 1946, only a few ‘items’ appeared, but by 1955 there were over 50 such references.” 162
“In Hush, the gay man’s transgression of masculine norms was commonly signified by the adoption of elements of female dress, such as jewellery and cosmetics.” 163
“In the pages of Hush, male homosexuals did not suffer from their abnormality in solitude; nor did they, in most cases, hide their true nature from the world by marrying and suffering in silence. Instead, gay men were clearly shown to constitute a community. Here the gossip columns played an important part. Charged with capturing the variety of everyday urban life in Canada, columnists made local gay men and their activities a feature of their reports. Through such treatment it was established that gay men socialized together, worked together, lived together, and even vacationed together. They shared the same tastes, talents and attitudes. In addition, they were organized on the local level and maintained links with other communities.” 165
“The coverage of trials of men charged with gross indecency meant that Hush writers also had to deal with gay men in a context that was primarily and explicitly sexual. While the tone of most of these articles was generally more subdued, Hush’s writers grouped these men together with the effeminate swishes as well.” 169
“The writers of Hush expressed a complex variety of attitudes towards gay men. In general, gay men were tolerated, if only because of the potential for humorous ridicule their continued presence represented. From time to time they were bullied and harassed, while on other occasions they were defended. In all cases, the tone of any particular article depended very much on the circumstances surrounding the gay men in question.” 170
“Tim O’Rourke, the man responsible for the Toronto gossip column, often turned to ridiculing gay men. A favourite topic was their preponderance at Simpson’s ‘didja know that every time we mention the ‘swish’ colony employed in the display department, ten per cent of the department get so annoyed they could punch our head in, and the ninety percent get so furious that they could slap our wrist. Whoops dearie.” 171
“The tabloid’s ‘policy’ on gays was further clarified several months later, in the editor’s reply to a letter. “An American” had informed the editor that, according to Dr.Kinsey, homosexuality was the result of ‘natural impulses’ and therefore could not be ‘termed a crime’, as he felt it had been in the article noted above. The editor replaced that the paper had never ‘determine[d] homosexuality as a crime’. Rather, the point of the article had been that ‘encouragement of them [gays] to congregate in publish place because [the] monetary desire [of the management leads them to allow gay men] to carry on in their fashion, and yet invite the other public to also frequent the same establishment where the latter may be subject to embarrassment and insults, is far from proper. Here Hush appeared to feel that gay men did have a right to congregate and ‘carry on’, but not in the presence of innocent, unsuspecting heterosexuals who might be upset.” 173
“The author went on to editorialize on gay men in general. ‘Gay guys’, he wrote, are ‘as a rule good citizens and hard workers’, and ‘few of them are criminals at heart.’ He quoted the opinion of a ‘correspondent’, who, because he or she worked in a department store with “quite a few gay people,” seems to have been considered an expert on the subject.” 177
“Little work on the similar hysteria developed during this period and that the mainstream media and law enforcement officials often conflated the categories of the child molester and the male homosexual.” 159
“In the decade after World War II, at least four weekly tabloids were published in Toronto and distributed across Canada. The oldest and most popular of these was Hush Free Press, which was founded in 1920 as a ‘market tip sheet’ for investors and had a circulation of 48,000 by 1951.” 160
“Surprisingly, the male homosexual was never implicated or referred to in such articles, even in those cases involving the molestation of boys. In contrast to the conflation of the child molester and male homosexual described by American historians as common in the mainstream media at this time, Hush made no such links. Instead, gay men were subjected to a very different representation in the form of the ‘swish’.” 161
“At different times they included “Toronto Breeze Around”, “Montreal Street Scene”, “Winnipeg Whispers”,”Vancouver Patter”, and “Bytown Babble”, titles that reflect not only the geographical scope of the columns but also their flavour and content. As was true of the articles, the frequency with which gay appeared in the gossip columns increased over the period. In 1946, only a few ‘items’ appeared, but by 1955 there were over 50 such references.” 162
“In Hush, the gay man’s transgression of masculine norms was commonly signified by the adoption of elements of female dress, such as jewellery and cosmetics.” 163
“In the pages of Hush, male homosexuals did not suffer from their abnormality in solitude; nor did they, in most cases, hide their true nature from the world by marrying and suffering in silence. Instead, gay men were clearly shown to constitute a community. Here the gossip columns played an important part. Charged with capturing the variety of everyday urban life in Canada, columnists made local gay men and their activities a feature of their reports. Through such treatment it was established that gay men socialized together, worked together, lived together, and even vacationed together. They shared the same tastes, talents and attitudes. In addition, they were organized on the local level and maintained links with other communities.” 165
“The coverage of trials of men charged with gross indecency meant that Hush writers also had to deal with gay men in a context that was primarily and explicitly sexual. While the tone of most of these articles was generally more subdued, Hush’s writers grouped these men together with the effeminate swishes as well.” 169
“The writers of Hush expressed a complex variety of attitudes towards gay men. In general, gay men were tolerated, if only because of the potential for humorous ridicule their continued presence represented. From time to time they were bullied and harassed, while on other occasions they were defended. In all cases, the tone of any particular article depended very much on the circumstances surrounding the gay men in question.” 170
“Tim O’Rourke, the man responsible for the Toronto gossip column, often turned to ridiculing gay men. A favourite topic was their preponderance at Simpson’s ‘didja know that every time we mention the ‘swish’ colony employed in the display department, ten per cent of the department get so annoyed they could punch our head in, and the ninety percent get so furious that they could slap our wrist. Whoops dearie.” 171
“The tabloid’s ‘policy’ on gays was further clarified several months later, in the editor’s reply to a letter. “An American” had informed the editor that, according to Dr.Kinsey, homosexuality was the result of ‘natural impulses’ and therefore could not be ‘termed a crime’, as he felt it had been in the article noted above. The editor replaced that the paper had never ‘determine[d] homosexuality as a crime’. Rather, the point of the article had been that ‘encouragement of them [gays] to congregate in publish place because [the] monetary desire [of the management leads them to allow gay men] to carry on in their fashion, and yet invite the other public to also frequent the same establishment where the latter may be subject to embarrassment and insults, is far from proper. Here Hush appeared to feel that gay men did have a right to congregate and ‘carry on’, but not in the presence of innocent, unsuspecting heterosexuals who might be upset.” 173
“The author went on to editorialize on gay men in general. ‘Gay guys’, he wrote, are ‘as a rule good citizens and hard workers’, and ‘few of them are criminals at heart.’ He quoted the opinion of a ‘correspondent’, who, because he or she worked in a department store with “quite a few gay people,” seems to have been considered an expert on the subject.” 177
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