Boys Beware!

Some of you have asked me about where I found the “Boys Beware” video, the 1960s instructional movie warning boys about the supposed dangers of predatory homosexuals. Boys Beware is archived at the Internet Archive in the Prelinger Collection. It’s available in multiple downloading formats, or you can watch on the website. Also look for “Girls Beware!” and “What About School Spirit?” (filmed at Lawrence High in the 1950s). I posted a version of the Monday’s video material on youtube:

Here’s the description: This video offers snapshots of three sexual regimes in US history pertaining to male-male intimacy and gay identity. The first two clips show a stereotype of men who have sex with other men as "pansies" and "fairies," but it's not necessarily a demeaning one. The crowd is laughing with them as much as they're laughing at them. The fairies' performance receives giant applause from the hip Greenwich Village crowd. Jay (Tony Jowitt) and Nasa (the irrepressible Clara Bow) enter the night club because they're fascinated by the edgy scene, not because they hate gays (in fact, "gay" is not a commonly used term to describe men who have sex with other men at this point in history). As George Chauncey explains in Gay New York (1994), the public fascination with "gay" men (the so-called "pansy craze") turned to hostility during the 1930s. The second clip represents the solidification of anti-gay hostility after World War II, including the medicalization of same-sex desire, the conflation of pederasty and homosexuality, and other closet-constructing public opinions. The final clip represents the post-Stonewall celebration of gay pride. Chauncey's research suggests that the first and last clips have more in common despite their historical distance. The history of gay liberation in the US is not a linear one, and this history shows that fascination and public acceptance can turn to intolerance and hostility if we're not careful.
-- Brian