Queer Languages
Willy Clarkson can be used to illuminate several other possible queer languages that I have been exploring in my work.
Clarkson is often pictured wearing rings—something which draws attention to the hands. It may not be coincidental that Wilde and other queer men are similarly depicted in photographs, portraits, sketches and caricatures. Cecil Crofton, a queer man who performed on the amateur and professional stage, ended his career as a ring dealer. Was there a codification of rings and hand gestures that enabled men to signal their sexuality to one another?
Similarly, handheld fans appear repeatedly in images of these men. In a staged photograph of Clarkson, an ostrich-feather fan is placed behind him. It is well-established that fans were used to communicate in the nineteenth century, with the French fan maker Duvelleroy publishing a pamphlet on The Language of the Fan in 1827. It seems likely that this language was extended and adapted by queer people.