Gay Macho: The Life and Death of the Homosexual Clone

“ I n the sence, Gay Macho captures a moment in time, an exuberant period when gay men had thrown off the opprobrium of social stigma as failed men and widely, ecstatically, and somewhat recklessly articulated a new kind of gay masculinity. No more were gay men the “pitful effeminates” that Magnus Hirschfeld has called them, the inverts, men trapped in woman’s bodies. Gay men were real men , and their sense of themselves as gay was shaped by the same forces by which the experience themselves as men: traditional masculinity. ”

Pg. 1 Gay Macho, “Martin P Levine”- “ Raining Men”, The Sociology of Gay Masculinity “The straight world has told us that if we are not masculine we are homosexual, that to be homosexual means not to be masculine… One of the things we must do is refine ourselves as homosexuals. ” – Tony Diaman (1970) Pg. 10 Gay Macho, “Martin P Levine”- The Clone as a man “All men in American culture, regardless of the future sexual orientation, learn the male gender role and sexual script, mainly because or culture lacks a anticipatory socialization for adult homosexuality.

Regarding same- sex love as a loathsome aberration, the agents of socialization prepare all youths for heterosexual masculinity” – Dank (1971) Pg. 11 “Camp: a behavioral style entailing the adoption of feminine dress, speech, and demeanor. ” Pg. 21 Gay Macho, “Martin P Levine”- The Birth of Gay Macho “ Gay activists formulated radically different images of the postcloset homosexual (Marotta 1981, chaps. 5-6). Some gay liberationists viewed this man as a politicized hippie who eschewed traditional manliness, conventional aspirations, and established institutions.

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He avoided the quick sex associated with the sexual marketplace and formed instead lasting relationships. And he wore “gender fuck” attire that mixed masculine and feminine (beards and dresses). (Marotta – 1981, 144. ) Pg. 28 “The image heralded the masculinization of gay culture. Gay men now regarded themselves as masculine. The adopted manly attire and demeanor as a means of expressing their new sense of self. They also adopted this look to enhance their physical attractiveness and express improved self-esteem. “ Pg. 28 Since American culture devalued male effeminacy, they adopted manly demeanor and attire as a means of expressing a more valued identity. ” Pg. 28 -My question is, is what makes a man? How many times when you think of the idea of a man do you not get caught up my the idea that has been put in front of you because of the culture that we live in. As young boys are given a dress code, G-I Joe’s and swords, and taught to be knights, doctors, and hero’s. What happens when one child doesn’t follow those rules, do we call him a rebel, weird, do we make up an excuse for his behavior, call him queer?

The idea of a man is in us all man or woman and the expectations to live up to the idea sometimes are not as easy for some. -BUT YOU JUST WANT TO FIT IN -IS ONE SEX HOLDING BACK? J. Craik, 1994, The Face of Fashion London: Routledge pp 176-203 Fashioning Masculinity – Dressed for comfort or style: fashionless men “Men’s bodies have never simply stood for sex; consequently, their clothes never have either. Pitty the poor man who wants to look attractive and well dressed, but who feel that by doing so he runs the risk of looking unmanly. ” (Steele 1989b: 61) Pg. 177 Men’s appearance has been calculated to enhance their active roles (especially occupation and social status). ” Pg. 177 “The post -1960s reassertion of male fashion and male bodies. ” Pg. 178 “ Male fashion has been confined to particular groups and subcultures’, such as ‘gentlemen’, gays, popular entertainers, ethnic groups, and popular subcultural groups (Almond 1988;consgrove 1989; Kohn 1989; D. Lloyd 1988). Pg. 179 “Perversely, normatively homophobic sportsmen have engages in blatantly homoerotic activities (touching, embracing, kissing, cuddling) which elsewhere they would denounce.

In other words, sports have been ‘the privileged space of the legitimate gaze of male upon male (Miller 1990, pg. 82). ” “ Out of the sporting arena, however, the men have continued to eschew signs of masculinity and sexuality. Insofar as clothes articulate masculinity, they display attributes of strength and power rather then male sexual desire and homoeroticism. ” Pg. 192 “Not only have men been reluctant to wear clothes the exude sexuality but they have also been loathe to indulge in other behavior associated with sexual display, including shopping (Pumphrey 1989: 97). Pg. 192 “Scheuring (1989) has explained the way in which the humble pair of jeans was transformed from practical, rural and blue collar work-clothes into a fashion garment synonymous with youth. ” Pg. 194 “ The break came in the early 1950’s when middleclass, white rock singers and film stars (such as Elvis Presely, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Marlon Brando and James Dean) adopted the Levi Strauss 501 style (with button flies) and black leather jackets to convey a ‘tough, rugged, youth-rebel appearance (Ibid. :227). ” Pg. 194 The new man is a contradictory composite: one who is becoming more self-conscious of what it is to be a man, and one who sees through the farce of masculinity and all the entrappings that accompany it’ (Gentle 1988: 98). ”

Pg. 197 “Male models, too, make eye contact with the viewer, adopt sultry expressions, display their best masculine features, and allow their bodies to be dissected by the camera. Garber has shown that dress code have established the boundries of self through rules concerning status and gender, and the ‘anxieties’ associated with them (Garber 1992: 32). Pg. 203 “Changing conventions of men’s fashion have entailed re-worked attributes of masculinity that have transformed male bodies into objects of gaze, of display and decoration. This radically undercuts the Victorian and post-Victorian idea of masculinity as the display of restraint in a disciplined body. Finkelstein (1991: 134)” Pg. 203 “ At the more extreme end of high fashion, Gaultier has, fro example, used ‘feminine’ fabrics like lace and silk, sexualized leather garments, and experimented with men’s skirts (Gentle 1988: 99). Pg. 200 “Gaultier’s collections have created controversy because they question and undermine definition of masculinity by creating clothes that are effeminate. (Tredre 1992a: 8). ” Pg. 200 A. Bennett, “Fashion”, 2005, culture and everyday Life, London, Sage pp95-116 Fashion and Masculinity- “Men’s appearance has been calculated to enhance their active roles’ (Ibid: 176). ” Fashion and ethnic identity- “Fashion also plays significant role in the articulation of ethnic identity in contemporary everyday settings.

As back notes, ethnic identity, as with other forms of social identity, can no longer be regarded as “real” or “ essential” but is rather a ‘multi-faceted phenomenon which may vary through time and place’ (1993: 128). ” Pg. 113 * most of the time people with other ideas for the norm are not liked by others. * Masculinity stereotypes * Stereotype: a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing : the stereotype of the woman as the carer | sexual and racial stereotypes.

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