Indecent Advances, James Polchin
Indecent Advances, James Polchin
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Indecent Advances
A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall

Author: James Polchin

Narrator: Michael Crouch

Unabridged: 9 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/04/2019

Synopsis

A skillful hybrid of true crime and social history that examines the relationship between the media and popular culture in the portrayal of crimes against gay men in the decades before Stonewall. Stories of murder have never been just about killers and victims. Instead, crime stories take the shape of their times and reflect cultural notions and prejudices. In Indecent Advances, James Polchin recovers and recounts queer stories from the crime pages―often lurid and euphemistic―that reveal the hidden history of violence against gay men. What was left unsaid in the crime pages provides insight into the figure of the queer man as both criminal and victim, offering readers tales of vice and violence that aligned gender and sexual deviance with tragic, gruesome endings. Victims were often reported as having made "indecent advances," forcing the accused's hands in self-defense and reducing murder charges to manslaughter. Published in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising on June 28, 1969, Indecent Advances investigates how queer men navigated a society that criminalized them and displayed little compassion for the violence they endured. Polchin shows, with masterful insight, how this discrimination was ultimately transformed by activists to help shape the burgeoning gay rights movement in the years leading up to Stonewall.

About James Polchin

JAMES POLCHIN, PhD, has taught at the Princeton Writing Program, the Parsons School of Design, the New School for Public Engagement, and the Creative Nonfiction Foundation. A clinical professor at New York University, he lives in New York City with his husband, the photographer Greg Salvatori. Indecent Advances is his first book.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Alok on August 30, 2021

In the early 20th century homophobia rose to a fever pitch in the US. Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso argued that homosexuals were a class of “moral criminals who should be committed to insane asylums” (10). Newspapers fanned the flames of this trope of the ‘gay criminal’ with sensationalist s......more

Goodreads review by Robert on September 12, 2019

Covering the fifty years from the end of World War I to the Stonewall protests in 1969, this is a history of how the media, the medical profession (psychiatry specifically), and the legal system handled cases of violence against queer men. It's a hugely important topic, given the rise in recent year......more

Goodreads review by Carley on June 06, 2019

A must read for lovers of American history, teachers, print scholars, and anyone who is queer or cares about queer people! Polchin uncovers a lost archive through a close-reading of newspaper accounts of violence against queer men in pre-Stonewall New York. The results are fascinating and disturbing.......more

Goodreads review by Fishface on February 27, 2021

This was an interesting read, packed with case after case of killers trying to get away with their crimes -- sometimes successfully! -- using the "homosexual panic" defense. The author did the opposite of what I expected here. Instead of starting out with a statement about what he believes and using......more

Goodreads review by Bob on August 18, 2019

A remarkable and disturbing look at the oppression of homosexuals from WWI through the 60s. James Polchin did an amazing job gathering together the psychiatry, journalism, entertainment and true crime stories from the era. He shows how they reinforced the rigid stereotypes, fears and hatred that con......more

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