the swedish author Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1942) in her twenties. not only one of the most famous lesbians in swedish history, but also apperntly, really early with that gay gender studies proffesors hair cut sported by half of the famous lesbian and bisexual academics of sweden.
goals tbh.
also, this is the type of hair cut off which she write to her girlfriend sofie elkan, that she managed to “seduce ALL the women at the party with, because they just found me so HOT” (this were before they were togheter, and selma sends very long letters filled this type of… somewhat… human disaster flirting).
Sorry for majorly hijacking this post but I’m freaking the fuck out….Selma has a major legacy in Sweden and is widely beloved and we read about her in early grade school and when they tell us her stories when we’re kids, they tell us to be proud that we had such a wonderful writer be Swedish and write stories encompassing our landscapes…..until very recently she was the face on our 20 crown bill, for fucks sake, she was the first woman to win the Nobel price in literature, and that was before women could even vote….and I had no fucking idea she was even rumored to be a lesbian until I saw this post (my heart fucking stopped)
So obviously I looked into it and for sure…..she never married and shared intense love letters with women….that her family and the general public say are “just intense feelings between friends and we can’t know for sure”
OH MY DAY JUST GOT TEN TIMES BETTER im diving headfirst into the swedish archives right now bye
you are not at all hijacking my post! it pleases me very much that a new person learned about this :D
And yes, in sweden her being a lesbian has been hushed down in the public narratitve. but! well….. she was the most MASSIVE LESBIAN EVER!!!
i wrote a long post explaning the entire history of denying her lesbianism etc etc, but then tumblr ate it :(
but! i rec reading, and reading about, her letters to her 2 major girlfriends in life, Sophie Elkan and Valborg. there is so much!
go go go go to that archive!
ps. i am gender studies grad student. i can, with the backing of my entire gender studies deperemnet, tell the word that Selma Lagerlöf was a massive lesbian, without ANY doubt. all who claim otherwise, are frankly furthering along a homophobic history revisionist narrative invented during Selmas life - time as a smear campaign against her. one selma could not defend herself aganinst, being that being a lesbian was illegal in sweden during her life - time.
BUT SELMA WAS A LESBIAN, HEEEEEELL YEAAAAH *head bangs*
ps. another reasons this was previously “not known” in sweden, was that she had on porpuse ordered that her personal letters could not be opened before a certain amount of decades had passed after her death.
well, in the 1990 (or 1980s i don’t recall) her letters was opened, and we all found out, without any doubt, that she was a lesbian! and ever sense then, lgbtq swedish academics have been laughing in joy, thinking fondly of this fact.
hah! the lgbtq academics (and swedish lgbtq people in general) laughed last in these century long debate about the sexuality of selma. she was a lesbian, as we had always said. WE WON *strikes a pose*