Flappers and felons: Rethinking the criminal law and Homosex in interwar Australia, 1920-1939
Abstract
In late 1930, Sydney’s scurrilous Arrow newspaper published an extraordinary exposé on the city’s sexual underworld. At an imposing, old-fashioned and roomy house in the western suburbs, a group of sixty ‘male flappers’ had gathered for one of the city’s premier queer soirées: crowning the ‘Queen of the “Kamp Kult”’. An undercover journalist had infiltrated this reportedly annual event by ‘devious means’ and two days before Christmas his eyewitness account on ‘Organised Male Depravity’ hit the front page.1
And organized it was. The article described in astonishing detail the gendered rituals of contemporary Australian ...
View more >In late 1930, Sydney’s scurrilous Arrow newspaper published an extraordinary exposé on the city’s sexual underworld. At an imposing, old-fashioned and roomy house in the western suburbs, a group of sixty ‘male flappers’ had gathered for one of the city’s premier queer soirées: crowning the ‘Queen of the “Kamp Kult”’. An undercover journalist had infiltrated this reportedly annual event by ‘devious means’ and two days before Christmas his eyewitness account on ‘Organised Male Depravity’ hit the front page.1 And organized it was. The article described in astonishing detail the gendered rituals of contemporary Australian subcultures and the ways that men made meaning of their same-sex lives and lifestyles. Steeped in pageantry and spectacle, this queer coronation brought together ‘royalty’ and spectators from across the nation as vows were taken and hymns sung. An officiating ‘Bishop’ presided over the celebrations, taking his cues from a sacred book embossed with a resplendent letter ‘K’.
View less >
View more >In late 1930, Sydney’s scurrilous Arrow newspaper published an extraordinary exposé on the city’s sexual underworld. At an imposing, old-fashioned and roomy house in the western suburbs, a group of sixty ‘male flappers’ had gathered for one of the city’s premier queer soirées: crowning the ‘Queen of the “Kamp Kult”’. An undercover journalist had infiltrated this reportedly annual event by ‘devious means’ and two days before Christmas his eyewitness account on ‘Organised Male Depravity’ hit the front page.1 And organized it was. The article described in astonishing detail the gendered rituals of contemporary Australian subcultures and the ways that men made meaning of their same-sex lives and lifestyles. Steeped in pageantry and spectacle, this queer coronation brought together ‘royalty’ and spectators from across the nation as vows were taken and hymns sung. An officiating ‘Bishop’ presided over the celebrations, taking his cues from a sacred book embossed with a resplendent letter ‘K’.
View less >
Book Title
From sodomy laws to same-sex marriage: International perspectives since 1789
Publisher URI
Funder(s)
ARC
Grant identifier(s)
DP0771492
Copyright Statement
Self-archiving is not yet supported by this publisher. Please refer to the publisher or contact the author(s) for more information.
Subject
Sexualities
Australian history
Law, gender and sexuality (incl. feminist legal scholarship)
Historical studies