Blackmailed by Sex: Tennessee Williams and the Economics of Desire

Abstract

STEVEN BRUHM In 1951, Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer published a book entitled Washington Confidential. One of its chapters, called "A Garden of Pansies," had a dire warning for patriotic Americans: "With more than 6,000 fairies in government offices, you may be concerned about the security of the country. Fairies are no more disloyal than the normal. But homosexuals are vulnerable, they can be blackmailed or influenced by sex more deeply than conventional citizens; they are far more intense about their love-life." Now, Lait and Mortimer have two problems here which, while not particular to McCarthy's America, are epitomized by it. The first is one of anonymity: 6,000 in office, they say, and "One cannot snoop at every desk and count people who appear queer. Some are deceptive to the uninitiated." And this anonymity poses the larger threat of potential blackmail: because homosexuals have a secret, they are willing to hide it at any cost. What's worse, they may be willing to sell the goods on someone else, if the price is right. Because that price is national security, the homosexual poses a threat to 1950S cold-war America that is unmatched in that country's history.