Presse, mondanité et saphisme décoratif

La Vie parisienne, illustrated society journal, reflects the dominant social discourse and therefore constitutes a stimulating observation point to analyse the common representations of female homosexuality in the late nineteenth century. However, the journal also uses the figure of the female homosexual as the basis for its reading contract and builds an analogy between bawdy press and female homosexuality. La Vie parisienne draws itself as a young and attractive woman, seems to address exclusively a female readership, and dedicates its short stories and articles solely to the female intimacy, to an obsessive "glorification of woman" (Jules Lemaître). By doing so, la Vie parisienne invents a new kind of journal, built on a participative fiction. In this fiction, the journal, its writers, male and female readers join in a fête galante where they all dress up as decorative lesbians.SCOPUS: re.j