What is it about?M
Starting in the 50’s and 60’s, lesbian pulp novels was a new cover for art which showed a colorful hint of a lot of skin and knowing glances. We can still find this sold online for $950 each, which are kept by collectors.
These novels were in a highly affordable form of exciting new popular art. Since it started before the era of feminist and gay liberation movements, the images on each books’ cover was the only way to show a form of resistance and also the only way for women to read about lesbianism.
Women soon began to understand that the pulp cover art on the covers had a type of code – two women in a suggestive pose with the words ‘strange’ or ‘twilight’ in the title indicated that the book had lesbian content.
Gay male pulp fiction was less popular than the lesbian pulp novels, but was enjoyed in a large followings that rose in the early 1950s. Taboo subjects such as prostitution, rape, and interracial romance were addressed in the novels where the covers included colorful covers with “forbidden” titles.
While today pulp novels may seem laughably over-the-top because of the obvious clichés and all, they are very important pop culture representations of gays and lesbians in art.
These novels were in a highly affordable form of exciting new popular art. Since it started before the era of feminist and gay liberation movements, the images on each books’ cover was the only way to show a form of resistance and also the only way for women to read about lesbianism.
Women soon began to understand that the pulp cover art on the covers had a type of code – two women in a suggestive pose with the words ‘strange’ or ‘twilight’ in the title indicated that the book had lesbian content.
Gay male pulp fiction was less popular than the lesbian pulp novels, but was enjoyed in a large followings that rose in the early 1950s. Taboo subjects such as prostitution, rape, and interracial romance were addressed in the novels where the covers included colorful covers with “forbidden” titles.
While today pulp novels may seem laughably over-the-top because of the obvious clichés and all, they are very important pop culture representations of gays and lesbians in art.
My opinion
It’s interesting to know that people saw pulp art as a form of resistance because it shows that they aren’t trying to be aggressive, they just want their rights. What also makes this even more interesting is that it was mostly lesbian pop art. This shows that feminist right movement kind of collided with gay right movement. They created a bigger picture of how not everyone had their freedom to do what they wanted.