A Worm in the Bud: The Early Sexologists and Love Between Women

Lillian Faderman's article was by far my favorite we have read. Her focus was not only on LGBT but women's rights as well. I was outraged at the definitions and theories the sexologists had about women, and  Faderman brought up an excellent point about how sexologists were generally men with middle class backgrounds. She talks about how these doctors thought that lesbians or "sexual inverts" were found in prisons and insane asylums, or were born poor, lower class families. Also they thought if a female showed any signs of masculinity there was a good chance she was involved in same-sex love. In addition, Fadderman states "But as the late nineteenth-century feminist movement grew in strength and in its potential to overthrow the old sex roles, it was not too long before feminism itself was also equated with sexual inversion and many women of the middle class came to be suspected of that anomaly, since as feminists they acted in ways inappropriate" (60). Were these insane ideas about women created because men feared that females were getting too powerful and independent, since women activist groups were growing during the time? Were they created to scare females from having any ambition in life? Were they created to keep women in their "rightful place"? I think so and Faderman did too when she states "Frequently their goal also seemed to be to discredit both the women's movement and love between women by equating them with masculine drives thus freakishness" (61).

In response to the sexologists labeling females that possessed aspiration as "defective" because they were not following their sex role, women took drastic measures to have the same equality that men had during the time. They cut their hair, put on men's clothing and got jobs that were only available to men. Faderman says "A transvestite woman who could actually pass as a man had male privileges and could do all manner of things other women could not: open a bank account, write checks, own property, go anywhere unaccompanied, vote in elections. The appeal was obvious" (60). Until females gained the equal rights as men, this was their only option to literally survive since "women jobs" did not pay nearly as well.

Perhaps an even more radical idea was produced from a European sexologists named Havelock Ellis. He actually believed homosexuality was hereditary! Along with Ellis, William Lee Howard thought lesbians were products of poor mating and their mother's must have been feminists as well. These sexologists strongly believed in maintaing sex roles and related the women's movement to masculinity and abnormality. I'm sure if these sexologists were around today they would be in for a big surprise. Their deranged theories about women have been proven wrong.