Another elephant in the room*

Dietrich - the sexiest genderqueer ever!

Patsy Kelly - very out

In this post you will find pictures of beautiful talented women from the Golden Age of Hollywood, women at their peak in the 30's, 40's,50's, an era that we laud in the Vintage scene.

Garbo

These women are the ones known to be women who love(d) women, there are many more, some like Agnes Morehead never really admitted it or some, like Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck or even Hattie McDaniel  were only rumoured, we will never know, they are long dead. Louise Brooks openly admitted sleeping with many women, but she claimed  curiosity, and did not believe she was bisexual.

Brooks - enjoyed women but only in bed

 But they were like I am a woman who loves women, I identify as bisexual because I love men too.  As a person who has spent so much time in the LGBT accepting Poly/Geek/Kink communities, I think I have forgotten what it is like to seem exotic and weird in other scenes, especially one I closely identify with as a part of my nature, never in my life have I ever felt attached to the era I live in, my imaginary life has been filtered through an historical aesthetic, forever!!

Bankhead - fabulously wild....

DaCosta

However I have been made aware that the vintage scene may not be entirely comfortable with my sexuality and that worries me, not only for my need to be completely open in this scene, but also just because it almost invalidates the lives and experiences these amazing women had

All B's- Baker, Black, bisexual, burlesque and beautiful....

Eva Le Gallienne

. It makes them invisible again, by pretending that the past was entirely heterosexual (and white, middle class and Christians) 

Lilyan Tashman - Jewish and Gay

I never really expected to be some sort of sexuality trailblazer in any scene, it was a pain enough to feel like some sort of token ethnic in reenactment, I don't want to be a token, I just want to be me, in the same way that people who have majority privilege get to be themselves without having to worry that people will turn their nose up at them or not befriend them.

Bessie Smith

Since the past equally belongs to us, well so does the Vintage communities that celebrate it.





*I wrote another Elephant in the room post in a Poly blog