1934

The Fleet's In!

American, 1904 - 1999

Paul Cadmus based this print—in which sailors’ tight-fitting uniforms dramatically highlight their buttocks, muscles, and bulges—on a painting of his that the US Navy censored for showing sailors on leave cavorting with sex workers. In the ensuing controversy, one newspaper defended Cadmus, arguing that servicemen ought not be "sissies" who spend leisure time alone in libraries or museums, preferring that they pursue women, "drinking, dancing and the rest of the things the he-men do. . . " Ironically, it was likely lost on his defender that Cadmus, who was gay, included coded allusions to gay encounters like the man in suit and tie offering a sailor a cigarette.