Arcadia
From Homolexis Glossary
Arcadia was a
rustic district in ancient Greece celebrated by poets for the
simplicity and innocence of its life. Gradually, the name became
detached from a specific reference, to become “a place in the
mind.” As such, Arcadia became the basis for the European tradition
of pastoral poetry. The ideal is evoked in the Forest of Arden of
Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” and in two famous paintings by
Nicolas Poussin bearing the title “Et in Arcadia Ego.” The
relevant trope is Localization.
Some Victorians, including A.J. Symonds, used Arcadia as a coded reference to homosexuality. In this context the word expresses the hope that “somewhere there is a place for us.”
In postwar Europe, French gays created a monthly entitled Arcadie (published from 1954 to 1982), twinning with an organization bearing the same name. The journal sometimes appeared with the subtitle "Mouvement homophile de France." In keeping with the general tone of the “homophile” era, members were enjoined to remain respectable and discrete. The appeal of the word Arcadie, like that of its American counterpart Mattachine, lay partly in the fact that it did not include the word gay. One could always ask someone “Vous est Arcadien?” without giving oneself away. In addition the word probably embodied a vague utopian aspiration for a better life for the community.
Without using the word, the American Radical Faery movement of the closing decades of the twentieth century came close to observing the Arcadian ideal. The Faeries purchased blocks of rural land, which served as sites for their rituals. These “sanctuaries,” as they are called, also provide home sites for those who seek a rural lifestyle untainted by heterosexual norms and expectations.
