Heteronormative Foundations of Modern Citizenship in Early-twentieth-century Denmark

Abstract

During 1906–1907 the Great Morality Scandal shocked Copenhagen’s general public by disclosing a handful of respectable bourgeois men as secret homosexuals. This article examines how the city’s working-class newspapers attempted to politicize the scandal by questioning the bourgeoisie’s privileged citizen status on the grounds of their supposed homosexuality, and by claiming that the partly disenfranchised working classes were worthy of full citizen status since they were heterosexual members of society. The article draws upon a theoretical framework that includes queer theoretical critiques of heterosexual norms and ideas of citizenship as a series of performative acts. It argues that working-class writings about the Great Morality Scandal constructed access to full Danish citizenship around the embodiment and enactment of heterosexual desire. They thus contributed to the foundations of modern Danish citizenship as distinctly heteronormative.

Keywords:

• Sexuality
• citizenship
• heteronormativity
• performativity
• social class

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Nina J. Koefoed, Karen A. A. Vallgårda and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts of this article.

Notes

1. All translations from Danish into English are by the author.

2. These newspapers were: Aftenbladet, Berlingske Tidende, Dannebrog, Ekstrabladet, Kristeligt Dagblad, Middagsposten, Nationaltidende, Politiken, and Social-Demokraten. For further details, see Søllinge & Thomsen, 1989.

3. No page references are included for quotations from Middagsposten, as this is an archived newspaper.