sometimes it's hard to tell
Jul. 20th, 2013 02:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitIn today's edition of "Nazi Propaganda or Gay Porn?" I offer this remarkable photograph by Leni Riefenstahl (yes, that Leni Riefenstahl) of, I presume, an athlete who was competing in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
It's called In der Sauna:
Standard but important disclaimers, because homophobes like to equate homosexuality with Nazism: No, the vast majority of Nazis were not gay and there is nothing inherently "gay" about Nazism. The Nazis persecuted gay men, or at least gay "Aryan" men. The fact that a lot of Nazis imagery is profoundly homoerotic is . . . I was about to say ironic, but that's an oversimplification. I'd say more like an at least semi-deliberate exploitation, for purposes of militarism, of the tension in western culture between the value placed on male bonding and the prohibition of overt male/male sexuality. ("Hey, you! The strong young fellow! Want to be with other men and admire them and be admired by them and have manly bonding times? Great! No, you can't kiss them or have sex with them or love them romantically, that's a no-no. But you can turn that frustrated desire into aggression!") Nazism = weaponized gay panic. Obviously that wasn't the only thing going on in the bubbling stew of ugliness that was Nazism, but it was part of the recipe.
It's called In der Sauna:
Standard but important disclaimers, because homophobes like to equate homosexuality with Nazism: No, the vast majority of Nazis were not gay and there is nothing inherently "gay" about Nazism. The Nazis persecuted gay men, or at least gay "Aryan" men. The fact that a lot of Nazis imagery is profoundly homoerotic is . . . I was about to say ironic, but that's an oversimplification. I'd say more like an at least semi-deliberate exploitation, for purposes of militarism, of the tension in western culture between the value placed on male bonding and the prohibition of overt male/male sexuality. ("Hey, you! The strong young fellow! Want to be with other men and admire them and be admired by them and have manly bonding times? Great! No, you can't kiss them or have sex with them or love them romantically, that's a no-no. But you can turn that frustrated desire into aggression!") Nazism = weaponized gay panic. Obviously that wasn't the only thing going on in the bubbling stew of ugliness that was Nazism, but it was part of the recipe.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-22 06:41 pm (UTC)I'd add that the Nazis supported mass sport for men and women. For men it was a preparation for war, for women it was a preparation for motherhood. It's the old "sound mind in a sound body" wishful thinking.
It makes Riefenstahl's work so problematic but holy shit her cinematography was so far ahead of its time. I watched a documentary about her where they showed in minute detail where on the track cameras were positioned: two for start and finish, how one could glide next to the athletes, an overhead view etc.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-24 11:07 pm (UTC)