Garçonne (magazine)

''Garçonne'' was a Weimar-era German magazine for lesbians. It was published from 1926 to 1930 under the title ''Frauenliebe'' (''Woman Love'') and from 1930 to 1932 as ''Garçonne''.

Title

The magazine was named after Victor Margueritte's 1922 novel '' La Garçonne''—whose title was translated for English readers as ''The Bachelor Girl''—which was a critique of tomboys and flappers.

The word ''garçonne'' is derived from the French word for "boy" (''garçon'') with the addition of a feminine suffix; its closest English translation is "tomboy". After the publication of Margueritte's novel, the term came into popular use as a descriptor for flappers, women who wore masculine clothing, and lesbians. According to Marsha Meskimmon, the relaunch of ''Frauenliebe'' as ''Garçonne'', "the more modish title", provided the magazine with a more marketable title that functioned as "a common currency as a lesbian type".

History

''Frauenliebe''

''Frauenliebe'' was established in Berlin in 1926 and its first issue was published on 9 June 1926. It was advertised with the description "Weekly for friendship, love and sexual enlightenment". At the time, it was one of three lesbian periodicals published in Berlin, alongside ''Die Freundin'' and Selli Engler's '' Die BIF – Blätter Idealer Frauenfreundschaften''. Its target audience included lesbians and heterosexual male transvestites. ''Frauenliebe'' and ''Garçonne'', as the competing ''Freundin'' have been published, often edited and even partly written by men, as they were part of the male dominated homosexual movement of the 1920s and 1930s, who saw lesbian women as a possible supportive force in their fight. The only independent magazine, where only women were in charge, was the short-lived ''Die BIF''. Writer Ruth Margarete Roellig started working as a journalist at ''Frauenliebe'' in 1927.

''Frauenliebe'' was shut down for a time in 1928 by legal authorities, who were unable to name homosexual content as offensive under a law that prohibited , but deemed that the "literary portion of the issues is worthless" and the advertisements that "facilitate sexual relationships aveto be seen as obscene in the sense of the law". In 1930, the magazine's editors changed the name from ''Frauenliebe'' to ''Garçonne'' to avoid legal troubles.

''Garçonne''

The first issue of the magazine printed under the new title of ''Garçonne'' was published on 15 October 1930. In addition to works of fiction and short stories, the magazine published lesbian-related news and opinion pieces from Germany and neighbouring countries; a 1931 article about the lack of lesbian organisations and publications in Switzerland led to the formation of the Swiss lesbian group Amicitia. Its issues contained ongoing debate about the nature of lesbianism and echoed the popular views of sexologists at the time that homosexuality was a form of natural biological variation. Although it was printed and distributed in Berlin, and focused mainly on Berlin's lesbian scene, it was accessible by subscription in regional areas of Germany where there was no local lesbian subculture. One reader from Görlitz submitted a letter to ''Garçonne'' in 1931 declaring that "this paper means everything to me", while another from Karlsruhe reported that "I cannot any longer do without this magazine".

''Garçonne'' ceased publication in 1932.

References

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garconne (magazine)
1926 establishments in Germany
1932 disestablishments in Germany
German-language magazines
Defunct magazines published in Germany
LGBT-related magazines published in Germany
1930s LGBT-related mass media
1920s LGBT-related mass media
Women's magazines published in Germany
Lesbian culture in Germany
Lesbian-related magazines
Magazines established in 1926
Magazines disestablished in 1932
Magazines published in Berlin
First homosexual movement
Flappers