Before the Production Code came along in 1933 and imposed strict moral policing on all matters, homosexuality was often to be found in movies. The Pre-Code era generally preferred to offer up the ‘pansy’ or ‘sissy’ in a playful, caricature-ish way. Somehow this doesn’t seem now to be patronizing–at least not to me. There’s a gentle-heartedness to the mockery and, as you’ll see in the above clips, a genuinely funny take on the ‘she-male’. (All the above terms, by the way, are authentic period slang for homosexuals). If you’re a Pre-Code fan, none of this is news. But what is news (to me anyway) is that this sort of thing was offered up in cartoons of the period. The above reel gives your four-minutes of very intriguing selects from cartoons of the era that I’ve never run across. Enjoy and check out the comments section–there are some rather witty takes on the whole matter…