The Masculine Woman in Weimar Germany [Paperback]

Throughout the Weimar period the so-called masculinization of woman was much more than merely an outsider or subcultural phenomenon; it was central to representations of the changing female ideal, and fed into wider debates concerning the health and fertility of the German race following the rupture of war. Drawing on recent developments within the history of sexuality, this book sheds new light on representations and discussions of the masculine woman within the Weimar print media from 19181933. It traces the connotations and controversies surrounding this figure from her rise to media prominence in the early 1920s until the beginning of the Nazi period, considering questions of race, class, sexuality, and geography. By focusing on styles, bodies and identities that did not conform to societal norms of binary gender or heterosexuality, this book contributes to our understanding of gendered lives and experiences at this pivotal juncture in German history.

&a valuable contribution both to studies in cultural history and to the history of gender and sexuality in Weimar Germany, which will be of interest to scholars and students alike. Sutton's clearly written prose renders the book very accessible. By shifting the focus onto a previously largely neglected area, the study invites further examination of queer genders, both female and male, in pre-Nazi Germany, which, one hopes, will appear before long.? ??Seminar. Journal of Germanic Studies

Sutton has written an eloquent and theoretically sophisticated book documenting convincingly the ubiquity of the masculine woman in Weimar-era print media. By systematically combining analysis of mainstream media commentary with an examination of discussions within the female homosexual subculture, she adds an important new facet to the historiography on the New Woman.? ??Womens History Review

?&the author has produced a fine work tlƒM