I was watching “Strangers on a Train” last night, and was reminded of the large numbers of older American movies I’ve seen featuring a character who was described, by himself or others, as an “eccentric”. Now, I’m familiar with the meaning of the word, but it seems that many of these characters’ eccentric signifiers were along the lines of what we commonly think of as gay signifiers. Things like (pardon any stereotyping) a “theatrical” nature, something of an obsession with art, a somewhat effeminite manner of speaking, and (again, these are gay stereotypes, not necessarily reflecting reality) are often very attached to their mothers or other older females.
So, that said, when a movie from, say, 1940 has a character in it designated an “eccentric”, do they really mean “this character is gay”? Was it the other way around, that many of the people considered “eccentrics” in that era were actually broadcasting gay signifiers? Or am I just drawing a conclusion based on coincidence?
“Eccentric” was definitely used in this sense, just as its synonym, “queer” was. Sorry I can’t provide a link, but I know I’ve come across it in literature: “He’s… …eccentric.” Originally a very nuanced thing, after much usage it became overtly declarative.
You really have to look at the whole picture presented in the moving picture. Eccentric is not a code word for gay because it has so many other meanings. Once something becomes a code word, you have to drop the normal use - see the history of queer and gay, which can no longer be sued to mean odd and happy.
I believe even C.K. Dexter Haven might be described as eccentric in his movie. (But I may be thinking of Cary Grant the dinosaur hunter - in a movie where gay is used as we know it today, and with very clear, visual clues about the meaning intended.) It’s often used for nerds. Bipics of Thomas Edison, for instance, call him eccentric.
Im thje Celluloid Closet and other sources I’ve read, “eccentric” was not only code for gay in some movies(The Hays Code didn’t allow such things, especially blatantly), but it was also a term within the culture in some areas of the country.
I seem to remember Truman Capote and Quentin Crisp also writing about the euphemism, which would mean at least it was seen in England and the South.
j.c., sure, context is important. The OP is asking if there has in past times been a convention to use the word as a euphemism for “homosexual,” not if it that is its unequivocal meaning.
Really? That’s queer, nobody told me.
Does this mean that we’re not allowed to use the word “musical”?
How about “Aesthetic”? “Artistic”? I’m at a loss to think of a word to replace “sensitive.”
What do we call people who favour their left hands now? “Left-handed” is clearly out the door, it had a long run as ‘code’ for ‘homosexual’.
You might want to read a few books which are ethnographic studies of gay men. One of them that I remember reading as a teenager was simply titled: “Homosexuals”. This covered men from their 20s to their 60s. The terms and their stories were markedly different with people using different terms to refer to their lives.
It certainly depends on the context. “Eccentric” was also used to mean “nutty and rich.” See Our Man Godfrey or You Can’t Take it With You, which featured eccentric families that were clearly heterosexual.
In Hitchcock’s “Strangers,” there was also a homosexual subtext that implied Bruno was attracted to Guy (see the tennis audience scene).
Well, duh; no one is saying it didn’t also retain its actual usage.
“Artistic” and "sensitive’ are the euphemisms that always come to mind in this context, but there are definitely instances where “eccentric” was given the same undertone.
Larry Mudd, you’ve quoted people’s reviews or descriptions of films, not the films themselves. I am looking for actual dialogue from films 1934-1966 in which the word “eccentric” is used as a euphemism for homosexual.
Sorry, Walloon, I can’t really provide examples from film dialogue off the top of my head, although I know that they’re out there. Ah well, that’ll give me the incentive to make the pilgrimage to Videomatica, Vancouver’s Mecca of classic films. Maybe someone else can jump in with some examples before then.
One example of this shaded meaning of ‘eccentric’ that does spring to mind, though, is an episode of the radio program Richard Diamond, Private Detective, from the late 1950’s, in which Mr. Diamond’s client, a self-described “eccentric”, needs help because he is being blackmailed for an unspecified indiscretion. I’m ambivalent about this particular episode-- On the one hand, the character is an offensive lampoon-- a lisping, mincing (yes, you can hear him mince), fainting effete, of whom our hardboiled hero is openly contemptuous. On the other hand, when it looks like certain death for Mr. Diamond, the little fellow swoops in like the U.S. Calvalry and plugs his tormenter right between the eyes, earning an invite out for a well-deserved drink. In the wrap-up, Diamond makes some commentary to his gum-chewing secretary about how you can’t judge people based on superficial appearances. On the whole, it feels like the writer (Blake Edwards) was trying to make a point that was undermined quite a bit by the director and the guest star.
Forgive me, that was something of a digression, wasn’t it? When I get home, I’ll dig up the episode and provide actual quotes from the dialogue.
The first time I remember coming across it was in a biography of Evelyn Waugh. (From either his diary or his correspondence, my memory is not clear.) Whenever I heard it used in that context afterwards, I always thought of Evelyn Waugh-- because I had initially assumed it was some bit of personal idiom. It’s still sometimes used that way to a degree today, all though no-doubt with a trace of irony.
Some people may find it mystifying that there were so many very subtley-shaded euphemisms for homosexual. In times and places where practically all homosexuals were of necessity “closeted”, it was vitally important to have “stealth” signifiers which could be used within the subculture – signifiers that would mean something else entirely to those outside the group. This way, you can make declarations or inquiries in the presence of people you’re unsure of, with minimal risk. Eg; you could tentatively ask a fellow in your club or fraternal lodge something along the lines of “Are you musical?” If the answer is “yes” then the fellow would likely be aware of the dual-meaning, and the conversation could proceed along less-guarded lines. If the answer is “no,” then the fellow would simply perceive the literal meaning of the question, and say something like “I play the piano a little.” This is much less likely to earn the asker a black eye from an unsympathetic soul.
The important thing about these “codes” is that they signify something else, something singularly unremarkable, to the people outside the suppressed subculture. Naturally, they have a limited shelf-life, because eventually people pick up on the shaded meanings, and the “codes” enter the popular lexicon and cease to be “codes.” This is what happened to “gay.”
If you’ll allow me another long digression, compare the way users of opiates used to communicate amongst themselves in the early twentieth century. Anything even remotely connected to China stood as code for opiates. Users could therefore make subtle inquiries, once they pick up on the idiom of “jive.” People outside the subculture would never pick up on the meaning of Cab Calloway’s Minnie the Moocher– “He took her down to Chinatown, and showed her how to kick the gong around.” Combined with other ambiguous phrases and associations, you have a stealth song about heroin-- “He took her to see the Deacon of Down, he preached to her that she ought to slow down.” “He gave her a townhouse and racing horses, each meal she ate was a dozen courses. Had a million dollars in nickels and dimes, she sat around and counted 'em a million times.” When you are in on the “code” it’s easier to understand why “They took her where they keep the crazies-- now poor Minnie’s kickin’ up them daisies.”
Cab Calloway did more than anyone else to “out” the code, (although it was still obscure enough that “Minnie the Moocher” was used for a Betty Boop cartoon!) He was almost explicit in some other songs-- “They sent a hundred thousand hoppies / over to China picking poppies / They’re gonna put them all in one bouquet / For Minnie the Moocher’s wedding day!”
Kickin’ the Gong Around contains a line which sounds explicit to our ears: “He was sweatin’, cold and pale, He was lookin’ for his frail, He was broke and all his junk ran out…” It sounds unequivocal, because “junk” has gone through the same transformation that “gay” has – from an oblique code, to a universally acknowledged definition. (People tend to assume that heroin is called ‘junk’ as a synonym for ‘rubbish’, but when they hipsters used it, they were referring to its earlier definition– “a high-sterned, flat-bottomed boat of Chinese origin, driven by square sails.”
What I am trying to emphasize here is that, contrary to the objections that have been raised that “eccentric” can not serve as code for “homosexual” because it has a common meaning totally unrelated to sexuality, it was useful as a code because it would generally be taken mean something else entirely. If it was unambiguous, it wouldn’t serve as a “code” at all.
Stoner McTavish is a much beloved and out lesbian travel agent / amateur detective who lives with her Aunt Hermione who is a chrome loving medium - eccentric in the nutter sense. Gwen is Stoner’s lover.
From the funniest movie ever made, Withnail & I (1986, but set in 1969 London):
[The thespians Withnail and Marwood at Montague Withnail’s (the corpulent uncle of the young Withnail) London house. The uncle ushers them to the over-the-top campily appointed drawing room, and sets about to serve them sherry.]
Montague Withnail (the uncle): Do you like vegetables? [pause] I’ve always been fond of root crops, but I only started to grow last summer. [Rather salaciously] I happen to think the cauliflower more beautiful than the rose…
Withnail (the nephew): [While raising glass of sherry] Chin, chin!
MW: [To Peter] Do you grow…?
Withnail: [Rescuing his friend] Geraniums!
MW: Uf! The little traitors… I think the carrot infinitely more fascinating than the geranium. [sips sherry] Umm! The carrot has mystery; flowers are essentially tarts, prostitutes for the bees. [Picks up a carrot in a silver planter & carries it to the lads.] There is, you’ll agree, a certain je nais ca quoi, um, so very special, about a firm, young carrot. Mm! Excuse me… [Calling out while leaving the room] Do help yourselves to another drink!
[Withnail, his nephew, frenziedly grabs the bottle of sherry and starts chugging directly from the bottle.]
Peter Marwood (“I”): [Leaning closer to his friend, and whispering conspiratorially] The man’s mad!
Withnail (the nephew): [In similar stage whispering] Eccentric!
PM: [sotto voce] Not eccentric; insane! Not only that, he’s a raving homosexual!
[Withnail finishes chugging the sherry, and hastily puts it back on the serving table, as the uncle’s cat, who has just been kicked in an adjacent room, shrieks and scrambles to a hiding spot in the drawing room. The uncle shortly follows…]
You’ll have to take my word for it, that the scene continues to build, becoming still funnier, what with desperate Withnail bullshitting his wealthy uncle about their prospects for landing some acting jobs, and Uncle Monty growing sentimental over his Oxford salad days of youth, and breaking into some extemp Hamlet, but I’m too tired and lazy to continue with this transcription.
