Margaret Otis: "A Perversion Not Commonly Noted", June-July 1913

One of the earliest reports of lesbianism within a coercive, institutional setting -- reform school -- is by Margaret Otis and was published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology (Boston) in 1913.

The specific "perversion" to which Otis refers is lesbian relations between young white and black women. Otis's brief comments display a curious mixture of racism and puritanism, along with what in its day must have seemed an unusual, perhaps even radical, toleration. Her anti-lesbian bias is tempered by the observation that "sometimes the love [of one young woman for another] is very real and seems almost ennobling."

Behind the screen of Otis's judgments and fragmentary remarks there can vaguely be discerned the dynamics of a particular historical form of lesbianism, occurring within a racist, antihomosexual, and coercive situation. From a modern, Iiberationist viewpoint, such lesbian relations as Otis describes might be evaluated and interpreted as the expression of a legitimate need for affection among those placed within extremely alienating circumstances.

Although economic class is not mentioned by Otis, the female reform school population of which she speaks is obviously of working class origin, more specifically, what Karl Marx called the lumpen proletariat. Otis's remarks thus provide a rare glimpse into one aspect of proletarian lesbianism in the first quarter of twentieth-century America:

A form of perversion that is well known among workers in reform schools and institutions for delinquent girls, is that of love-making between the white and colored girls. This particular form of the homosexual relation has perhaps not been brought to the attention of scientists. The ordinary form that is found among girls even in high-class boarding-schools is well known, and this feature of school life is one of the many difficulties that presents itself to those in charge of educational affairs. The difference in color, in this case, takes the place of difference in sex, and ardent love-affairs arise between white and colored girls in schools where both races are housed together.

In one institution in particular the difficulty seemed so great and the disadvantage of the intimacy between the girls so apparent that segregation was resorted to. The colored girls were transferred to a separate cottage a short distance from the other buildings. The girls were kept apart both when at work and when at play. The girls were given to understand that it was a serious breach of rules for them to get together, and the white girls were absolutely forbidden to have anything to do with the colored. Yet this separation did not have wholly the desired effect. The motive of "the forbidden fruit" was added. The separation seemed to enhance the value of the loved one, and that she was to a degree inaccessible, added to her charms.

In this particular institution the love of "niggers" seemed to be one of the traditions of the place, many of the girls saying that they had never seen anything of the kind outside; but that on coming here, when they saw the other girls doing it, they started doing the same thing themselves, acting from their suggestion.

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A white girl on arriving would receive a lock of hair and a note from a colored girl asking her to be her love. The girl sending the note would be pointed out, and if her appearance was satisfactory, a note would be sent in reply and the love accepted. Many would enter into such an affair simply for fun and for lack of anything more interesting to take up their attention. With others it proved to be a serious fascination and of intensely sexual nature. This line from one girl's note shows the feeling of true love: "I do not love for the fun of loving, but because my heart makes me love."

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One case is on record of a girl, constantly involved in these love affairs with the colored, who afterwards, on leaving the institution, married a colored man. This, however, is unusual, for the girls rarely have anything to do with the colored race after leaving the school.

Opinions differ as to which one starts the affair. Sometimes the white girls write first, and sometimes the colored. "It might be either way," said one colored girl. One white girl, however, admitted that the colored girl she loved seemed the man, and thought it was so in the case of the others. Another white girl said that when a certain colored girl looked at her, she seemed almost to mesmerize her. "It made her feel crazy."

This habit of "nigger-loving" seems to be confined to a certain set of [white] girls. These would congregate in one part of the dormitory to watch at the window for the 67 colored girls to pass by on their way to work. Notes could be slipped out, kisses thrown and looks exchanged. Each of these [white] girls was known to be a "nigger-lover." When questioned on the subject, some insist that they do it just for fun. One said that the girls would wave to the "niggers" just "to see the coons get excited."

The notes when captured show the expression of a passionate love of low order, many coarse expressions are used and the animal instinct is seen to be paramount. The ideal of loyalty is present. A girl is called fickle if she changes her love too often. "I don't likea deceitful girl," appears in one of the letters.

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That a girl should be true to her love is required by their peculiar moral code. "Fussing" with other girls is condemned. From one of the letters: "This morning when you were going to the nursery you threw a kiss to Mary Smith. If you care for her more than you do for me, why, don't hesitate to tell me. I don't love you because you said you loved me. I could have kept my love concealed if I cared to. I certainly will regret the day I ever wrote or sent my love to you if this downright deceitfulness does not stop."

The penalty for a girl who is fickle or who ceases to care for her lover seems to be a curse from the abandoned forlorn one. "It was not long ago that one of your friends sent me a message saying that you didn't love me, but you didn't want me to know that you didn't, for fear I would curse you. Well, you need have no fear. I never curse anyone. I have been so careful over here of every little thing I did, for fear some one might carry something back to you, that I had been deceitful. No, indeed! I am not deceitful."

There is often a reaction from this emotional type of love. Girls formerly lovers abandon each other and hate takes the place of love. The mood will change and not even friendship remains. It is at this moment that the girl may be approached more easily in the way of influencing her to abandon her excessive emotional attitude. At this moment she may be brought to realize that such love is not lasting and does her harm rather than good.

Sometimes the love is very real and seems almost ennobling. On one occasion a girl, hearing that danger threatened her love in another cottage, was inconsolable, quite lost her head and called out: "Oh, my baby! my baby! What will become of my baby!" Her distress was so great that all fear of discovery was lost. She even called her name. The intense emotion dispelled all fear and anxiety for her love alone occupied the field of consciousness.

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Later, after suffering punishment for her fault, she wrote to a friend: "You can see by this that I am always thinking of you. Oh, sister dear, now this is between you and I. Lucy Jones asks me to give Baby up, for she tries to tell me that Baby does not love me. Don't you see what she is trying to do? To get my love back. Ah! sister darling, I might say I will give my Baby up, but ah, in my heart I love her and always shall." Again: "Ah! I shall never throw Baby down; I don't care what happens, for trouble does not change my mind one bit, and I hope it's not changing yours."

An interesting feature of these love episodes is found in the many superstitious practices, especially among the colored when they wish to win the love of a white girl. Curious love charms are made of locks of hair of their inamoratas. One practice is for a colored girl to bury a lock of hair of the white girl she fancies and this is sure to bring her love. These practices, some of so coarse a nature that they cannot be written down, seem to be part of the system, for system it must be called, so thoroughly ingrained it is in the school life.

When taken to task for their silliness, the girls say: "Well, we girls haven't much else to think about." True enough, they haven't much of the emotional nature that they crave, and it seems they must have the sensational and emotional in some form. One girl says: "When you have been in the habit of having a girl love, and she goes away, you have to get another; you just can't get along without thinking of one girl more than another." Sometimes, of course, the relation is a perfectly innocent girlish friendship, but even here jealousy enters in.

Some interested in this phase of the schoolliie have asked: "Isn't it true that it is the defective girls who indulge in this low emotional love more than the others?" This is not found to be the case. Many sins are laid at the door of defectiveness, but mental defect does not explain everything. The reverse might rather be said to be the truth. Some of the [white] girls indulging in this love for the colored have, perhaps, the most highly developed intellectual ability of any girls of the school.

One may ask how this phase of indulging the sexual nature is regarded by the girls themselves. The answer will be found in the fact that there are several distinct strata of moral standards in the school. There are some girls who consider themselves a little above the rest. Among these self-considered high-class girls the "nigger-lovers" are despised and condemned. They are held as not good enough to associate with. That water seeks its own level is true even among the delinquent girls themselves. Certain sets and cliques appear, and those who are "high up" scorn the "common kind."

Bibliography

Freedman, Estelle. The Prison Lesbian: Race, Class, and the Construction of the Aggressive Female Homosexual, 1915-1965," Feminist Studies, vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer 1996, pages 297-393.

Terry, Jennifer. An American Obsession: Science, Medicine, and Homosexuality in Modern Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Cloth ISBN: 9780226793665. December 1999. Paper ISBN: 9780226793672. December 1999. E-book ISBN: 9780226793689. December 2010

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