Don't let's ask for the moon - we have a star! Bette Davis as gay icon

Abstract

On June 13, 1934, the infamous ‘General Principles’ of the Production Code acquired the sharp teeth of enforceability when Hollywood's studios agreed to submit all scripts to a central censoring agency, the Production Code Administration, for approval. ‘No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin. Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented…’1 But several silver linings immediately emerged around the darkening clouds of compulsory inhibitions, particularly sexual restrictions. For one thing, screenwriters and directors quickly realized that if they removed the sex from sexual combat they would still be left with the combat, and the subgenre of screwball comedy was born: bickering, bantering couples became a mainstay of US comedy for at least the next two decades.2 On another front, though in a somewhat less chronologically definitive way, an increased level of sexual repression onscreen only served to encourage a particular segment of the mass audience to react in a radical way in terms of identification: certain men crossed genders and adopted a new kind of female star as their own. I am referring to gay men's appropriation of Bette Davis as a screen icon par excellence.3