Gay Macho: The Life and Death of the Homosexual Clone

I n the sence, unfearing Macho captures a here and now in time, an exuberant period when gay manpower had thrown off the opprobrium of social scrape as failed men and widely, ecstatically, and somewhat recklessly articulated a new kind of gay maleness. No more were gay men the pitful effeminates that Magnus Hirschfeld has called them, the inverts, men trapped in womans bodies. Gay men were genuine men , and their sense of themselves as gay was shaped by the same forces by which the start out themselves as men handed-down masculinity. Pg. 1 Gay Macho, Martin P Levine- Raining hands, The Sociology of Gay masculinity The straight world has told us that if we are non masculine we are homo versed, that to be homosexual gist 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 horticulture, unheeding of the future sexual orientation, learn the male gender role and sexual script, mainly because or culture lacks a anticipatory enculturation 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 air entailing the adoption of feminine dress, speech, and deportment. Pg. 21 Gay Macho, Martin P Levine- The Birth of Gay Macho Gay activists hypothesise 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.He avoided the quick sex associated with the sexual market start and formed instead persistent relationships. And he wore gender fuck attire that mixed masculine and feminine (beards and dresses). (Marotta 1981, 144. ) Pg. 28 The image herald the masculinization of gay culture. Gay men now regarded themselves as masculine. The adopted mannish attire and demeanor as a means of expressing their new sense of self. They also adopted this look to enhance their physiological 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 oppugn 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 snappy in. As teen boys are given a dress code, G-I Joes and swords, and taught to be knights, doctors, and heros. What happens when one child doesnt follow those rules, do we call him a rebel, weird, do we make up an excuse for his behavior, call him fuck up?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 stop 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 Mens bodies control never barely stood for sex consequently, their clothes never have either. Pitty the poor man who wants to look attractive and well dressed, scarce who feel that by doing so he runs the risk of looking unmanly. (Steele 1989b 61) Pg. 177 Mens appearance has been cypher to enhance their active roles (especially occupation and social perspective). Pg. 177 The post -1960s reassertion of male fashion and male bodies. Pg. 178 mannish fashion has been confined to busy groups and subcultures, such as gentlemen, gays, popular entertainers, ethnic groups, and popular subcultural groups (Almond 1988consgrove 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, s ports have been the privileged space of the authentic 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 boast 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-clothing into a fashion garment synonymous with youth. Pg. 194 The break came in the early 1950s when middleclass, white waver 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 lash 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 companion it (Gentle 1988 98). Pg. 197 Male models, too, make eye contact with the viewer, adopt sultry expressions, display their best masculine features, and deed over 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 mens 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 train 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 mens skirts (Gentle 1988 99). Pg. 200 Gaultiers 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 maleness- Mens appearance has been calculated to enhance their active roles (Ibid 176). Fashion and ethnic identity- Fashion also plays world-shaking role in the articulation of ethnic identity in contemporary everyday settings.As patronise 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 othe rs. * 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.