The Western, the Warlock and the Wertham

In 1954, the psychologist Fredric Wertham published Seduction of the Innocent, his infamous diatribe about the incipient dangers of allowing young children to read comic books.

Seduction of the Innocent has gone down in history as a reactionary screed that predicts doom and despair if we do not act to ban comic books immediately, or at least strip them of the insidious subtext that was so objectionable to the Fredric Werthams of the world.

The character of Batman was singled out by Dr. Wertham for especial outrage, mostly because (he felt) the character was dripping with gay messaging that would turn young boys into raging homosexuals. This is only one aspect of Dr. Wertham's book, but it's the one that tends to get the most attention in hindsight.

His warnings were taken very seriously, both by the general public and by the US government, and the comic book industry was ultimately regulated and sanitised, exactly the way he wanted. And then society went on to decriminalise homosexuality and legalise gay marriage, so I guess Dr. Wertham was completely wrong when he blamed all of it on Batman.

Wertham's feelings about Batman were... passionate, and his "explanation" of the homo-erotic subtext in Batman stories remains the most frequently quoted portion of his entire book. Just to prove my point, I'm going to quote it for you right now:

Sometimes Batman ends up in bed injured and young Robin is shown sitting next to him. At home they lead an idyllic life. They are Bruce Wayne and "Dick" Grayson. Bruce Wayne is described as a "socialite" and the official relationship is that Dick is Bruce's ward. They live in sumptuous quarters, with beautiful flowers in large vases, and have a butler, Alfred. Batman is sometimes shown in a dressing gown. As they sit by the fireplace the young boy sometimes worries about his partner: "Something's wrong with Bruce. He hasn't been himself these past few days." It is like a wish dream of two homosexuals living together. Sometimes they are shown on a couch, Bruce reclining and Dick sitting next to him, jacket off, collar open, and his hand on his friend's arm. Like the girls in other stories, Robin is sometimes held captive by the villains and Batman has to give in or "Robin gets killed."
[…]
The atmosphere is homosexual and anti-feminine. If the girl is good-looking she is undoubtedly the villainess. If she is after Bruce Wayne, she will have no chance against Dick. For instance, Bruce and Dick go out one evening in dinner clothes, dressed exactly alike. The attractive girl makes up to Bruce while in successive pictures young Dick looks on smiling, sure of Bruce. Violence is not lacking in these stories.

Wertham goes on to prove his interpretation of Batman and Robin by citing the testimony of teenage homosexuals who had been sent to him for "treatment".

One young homosexual during psychotherapy brought us a copy of Detective Comics, with a Batman story. He pointed out a picture of "The Home of Bruce and Dick" a house beautifully landscaped, warmly lighted and showing the devoted pair side by side, looking out a picture window. When he was eight this boy had realized from fantasies about comic book pictures that he was aroused by men. At the age of ten or eleven, "I found my liking, my sexual desires, in comic books. I think I put myself in the position of Robin. I did want to have relations with Batman. The only suggestion of homosexuality may be that they seem to be so close to each other. I remember the first time I came across the page mentioning the 'secret bat cave.' The thought of Batman and Robin living together and possibly having sex relations came to my mind. You can almost connect yourself with the people. I was put in the position of the rescued rather than the rescuer. I felt I'd like to be loved by someone like Batman or Superman."

Wertham uses his young patient's account to reinforce his point, and to encourage responsible parents everywhere to set fire to their sons' Batman comics before a whole generation of American boys start swapping their baseball gloves for Judy Garland LPs. But Wertham actually had his reading of the situation exactly backward.

Batman wasn't turning kids gay. It was the other way round.

The British academic Andy Medhurst expressed it very succinctly in his 1991 essay about Wertham:

Denied even the remotest possibility of supportive images of homosexuality within the dominant heterosexual culture, gay people have had to fashion what we could out of the imageries of dominance, to snatch illicit meanings from the fabric of normality, to undertake a corrupt decoding for the purposes of satisfying marginalised desires. […] Wertham's patient evokes in me an admiration, that in a period of American history even more homophobic than most, there he was, raiding the citadels of masculinity, weaving fantasies of oppositional desire. What effect the dread Wertham had on him is hard to predict, but I profoundly hope he wasn't 'cured.'

While I share Mr. Medhurst's concern about the ultimate fate of Dr. Wertham's anonymous patient, I would also respectfully point out that popular culture of the 1950s was not quite as devoid of "images of homosexuality" as he suggests. Even the most unyielding "citadels of masculinity" of the era were vulnerable to the odd lavender throw-pillow of homoeroticism, or even the occasional chintz curtain of innuendo.

Lovely curtains... they're actually a plot point.

What exactly is a "citadel of masculinity" after all, if not a great big man-camp? Or vice versa?

To Boldly Go Where No Western Has Gone Before

As a mainstream cinematic genre, the Hollywood Western is probably about as macho as they come, and Warlock positively drips with its fair share of testosterone.

It tells the story of the town of Warlock (nothing to do with Witchcraft) a small, unincorporated community that is being terrorised by a gang of increasingly out-of-control and sadistic cowboys. The law has been powerless to stop the violence, so the townsfolk take the controversial decision to hire their own private Marshal. The situation gets out of control very quickly.

There is a reason why I am including Warlock in a series entitled Genre Fluid.

The basic plot of Warlock may recall any number of classic "Western" tropes (it re-works many elements of the "O.K. Corral" story) but, as will become increasingly apparent as you watch it, the film isn't actually about that. There is another story, hiding behind the first story; one that reveals itself only gradually.

Andy Medhurst talked about "undertaking a corrupt decoding for the purposes of satisfying marginalised desires" (I bet he says that to all the guys) but the "marginalised desires" in Warlock don't need to be decoded; they are right out in the open, for everyone to see.

The "Citadels of Masculinity" (and thank you, Andy Medhurst, for that singular metaphor!) have been lovingly redecorated with fresh curtains and some darling new furniture (that's not saucy innuendo, by the way; it's literally a plot point).

When Fredric Wertham's "patient" spoke about imagining a Batman/Robin private life he was engaging in what is now referred to as "Slash Fiction" (as in Kirk-slash-Spock; Holmes-slash-Watson etc).

Warlock is its own Slash Fiction. There is no need to read against the grain here, because the film does it for you.

Sorry... spoilers...

Not all Westerns are about the same things.

I don't know whether Fredric Wertham's patient ever had a chance to see Warlock when it was released in 1959, but I'd like to imagine that he did see it. I think he would have enjoyed it.

We will screen Warlock at 7.30 on Thursday, the 26th of September at the Victoria Park Baptist Church.