The Significance of the ‘Fairy’ for the Cultural Archaeology of Same-Sex Male Desire in Spain,1850-1930

Abstract

This article takes one representation of male homo-sexuality in Spain - the ‘fairy’ (or marica as he was often termed at the time)¹ - in order to assess its importance with respect to framing other expressions of homosexuality and masculinity in general in the years 1850-1930. The argument here, following the work of George Chauncey with respect to New York gay sub-cultures, is that the effeminate form of homosexuality, as discursive representation and actual lived experience, can be viewed by the historian as a kind of benchmark by which many other forms of homosexuality were considered in the major Spanish cities by the 1920s.