Femininity Issues
in Gay Communities
A Hatred of Feminine
Men?
Part 1 - Part
2 - Part 3
|
The
extent that lying by appearance - via muscular development - exists in
gay communities is unknown, but some gay males believe what Scott Thompson
of "Kid in the Hall" fame noted in a Salon Magazine interview: "...the
sissy is the truth. The muscle queen is not. That is a false construct
held up by wires, strings, steroids and the gym. It's not real. And if
gay men aren't going to accept the sissy, then they're doomed" (Morgan,
1998).
"One
would have anticipated that gay liberation and the commercialization of
the lives of gay men in inner-city neighborhoods like the Castro and Christopher
Street would have significantly changed the way that our culture views
effeminacy, providing a new protective environment in which to experiment
with unconventionally masculine forms of behavior. A central paradox of
the birth of the subculture, however, is that in resisting the effeminate
stereotypes and gestural paradigms that have tyrannized gay men of the
past, we have created a new Frankenstein - the "good gay," masculine, assimilated,
forceful, deliberate, his body no longer a boneless frenzy of threshing
arms and legs but a militarized automation patrolling his beat at a brisk
goosestep" (Harris, 1991: 76).
"In
liberating themselves from effeminacy, homosexuals have taken on yet another
albatross, accepted more, not less rigid notions of how they should express
their homosexuality, and essentially invented - to borrow a stereotype
ridicules in the black community - the gay oreo, effeminate on the inside,
masculine without. In the final analysis, liberation has liberated homosexuals
into a new totalitarian attitude towards their mannerisms, a new contempt
for effeminacy, and above all a new body language, the masculine majority's
depersonalizing Esperanto of frigid gestures and flinty smiles" (Harris,
1991: 76).
"...rather
than endorsing effeminacy, gay liberation has led to the institutionalization
of its ridicule" (Harris, 1991: 78).
For
a discussion of femininity in gay and bisexual males, the over-representation
of femininity in these males, anti-femininity attitudes in and outside
gay communities, and related negative consequences (such as incidences
of attempting suicide for the most feminine gay/bisexual male youth compared
to their most masculine counterparts: 48% vs. 11%) see the section on femininity
by Tremblay (2000).
Harris,
Daniel (1991). Effeminacy. Michigan Quarterly Review, 30(2).
Morgan,
Fiona (1998). An audience with the Queen (Interview with Scott Thompson).
Salon Magazine, July 23. Internet Page: http://www.salon.com/ent/int/1998/07/23int.html
.
