Summary
New Generation Thinker Tom Smith's Essay argues that the East German army had a reputation for unbending masculinity so it's surprising how central queerness was to the enterprise. Recorded with an audience at the York Festival of Ideas.
Brutality along the Berlin Wall, monumental Soviet-style parades, rows of saluting soldiers: these are the familiar images of the East German military. Army training promoted toughness, endurance and self-control and forced its soldiers into itchy, shapeless uniforms. Delve deeper, though, and you find countless examples of the army’s fascination with homosexuality. Even more unexpectedly, gay and bisexual soldiers found ways of expressing desires and intimacy. LGBT people have long faced discrimination and violence in arenas aimed at the promotion of traditional masculinity, but look closely and we discover that queerness has not always been as marginalised as we’d think. What can East Germany teach us about masculinity in the twenty-first century?
Tom Smith is Lecturer in German at the University of St Andrews researching gender and sexuality in German culture and a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker on the scheme which selects 10 academics each year to turn their research into radio. He has published on sexuality and masculinity in literature, film and television since the 1960s. His book on masculinity in the East German army is out in 2020. His current project explores the emotional worlds of Berlin’s music scene today.
Meet the 2019 New Generation Thinkers including Tom Smith https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0004dsv
Producer: Jacqueline Smith
Transcript
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| 1:28.6 | subscribe to this classical life. Welcome to New Generation Thinkers, To Be a Man, a series of |
| 1:38.4 | the essay recorded for BBC Radio 3 before an audience at the York Festival of Ideas 2019. Tom Smith of the University of St. Andrews |
| 1:47.9 | researches gender and sexuality in German culture. But Tom is a son of North Yorkshire, |
| 1:53.4 | so this is a proper homecoming for him. His new book, which comes out next year, is the source of |
| 1:58.8 | today's talk. With the story of comrades in arms, |
| 2:02.2 | please welcome Tom Smith. In spring 1988 at the militarised border between East and West |
| 2:14.5 | Germany, things were getting pretty difficult for the East German border guards. |
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