I was reading the fascinating GLBTQ (gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender and queer culture) Encyclopedia and in reading various bio’s was struck by how many gay men wanted to be interior designers at some point early in their lives, even if they wound up doing someting else.
What is it about interior design that resonates so strongly with the sensibilities of many gay men, or is that just a stereotype?
I’d guess its not so much “Why are so many gay men interior designers?” as “Why are so many interior designers gay men?”. There is a subtle difference.
Some of it is stereotype, some of it is an awareness of the changes that can be made in one’s surroundings to improve them, and some of it is that interior design is a “safe field” for gay men.
Your clients and co-workers won’t care. (Like floristry or hairdressing, you expect to find gay men there.) Try being the gay guy on the loading dock, or working as a telephone linesman, or football player or cop or fireman. Not so easy.
Having worked in floral and for interior designers, there is a certain amount of “gay ghetto” mentality about these jobs, but there MUST be talent and skill to go with the desire.
Apparently too subtle for me to understand. Please elaborate on this difference if you would. Are you saying that gay men control interior design and there is a sort of apprenticing and/or mentoring going on that encourages and perpetuates this as an occupation for gay men… or what?
I didn’t say anything about apprenticing or mentoring, and you know I didn’t.
I thought it was self explanatory, but here it is spelled out:
“Why are so many gay men interior designers?”
This is proposing that most gay men are interior designers, but most interior designers are not necessarily gay men.
“Why are so many interior desingers gay men?”
This is proposing that most interior designers are gay men, but most gay men are not necessarily interior designers.
Of course the question doesn’t deal with specific figures, and the above is a very general interperatation, but you can see that they represent slightly difference scenarios.
I think a lot of it does come down to interior decorating being a safe field. I know more than a few actors (Ian McKellen comes immediately to mind) have flat out stated that what decided acting for them was that there were supposed to be “a lot of queers” in that field.
Also, gay men have permission to go into such a field. For all we know, just as many straight men may be gifted in interior decorating, but are afraid to express that talent because its not butch enough. Its far too “femme” to talk with the guys about.
There’s a hell of a lot of them in theatre too. Not sure of the reason for that, apart from the excuse to be as flamboyant as you like, and dress up in gaudy costumes.
Priam, to say that gay men go into interior design because a lot of gay men are in interior design is a circular argument. How did so many gay men get there in the first place is really the question.
Personall, not a damn thing. I couldn’t put a table in the right place to save my life.
I think it’s a ‘safety’ issue as much as it is a problem of heterosexual men not being ‘allowed’ to go into the field. A good, very straight, friend of mine has a fantastic sense of style, but as soon as he goes clothes shopping his parents have a ‘family conference’ about his gay behavior.
Trust me, I have been in many a Gay man’s house that looked like crap.
But some guys, like myself, appreciate style. You can have a house filled with stuffed heads of animals you killed, but it can work. Not for me, but hey…it’s a theme.
I am not a professional interior designer, but I have friends who are. The best have one rule of thumb…take one thing - a favorite painting, a favorite art object of any kind.
Now put that in the center of your room.
Everything has to go with it. Colors, style, materials.
Throw out everything that does not fit with that object. Buy only things when you consider that object.
Suddenly the room takes form. Colors begin to match, the style remains within the same decade, materials are from the same ilk.
By the time the room is finished, the art object you picked has become the centerpiece of the room and people wonder how you ever found something that fits so well in the room.
I knew a couple in Germany who had lots of money. Every single thing in their house cost a fortune. They had a Danish Modern coffee table, French silk curtains, Bavarian wood chairs, chrome end tables and Persian carpets. Every object, on its own, was truly beautiful Together it looked like shit. They would go out and buy things simply because it was pretty…without thinking about what they already had.
Watch HGTV or any number of interior decorating tv shows…it has nothing to do with being Gay or not being Gay…it has to do with class and style.
The problem is, Gay or not, some people simply don’t have it.
In Architecture school, there weren’t many openly gay students. Well, none really. Some still in the closet, but none openly gay. But the male interior design students were all gay. In fact, Architecture is very male dominated. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that interior design (being that it is related to Architecture) holds a certain fascination with gay men. Maybe it’s a part of the MALE in them that likes to create and build what is NOT there and the FEMALE in them that likes to improve what IS there. Interior design allows them to satisfy both types of these creative needs (IF they are truly licensed interior designers and not less skilled unlicensed interior decorators. Decorators generally don’t tear down or build walls.)
One of my best friends has an interior design degree and he is very straight, so don’t think that just because the guy is an interior designer that he is gay. Of course he does want to be an Architect.
Same as most “gay dense” occupations.
John is queer, Billy is straight. Billy and Bobby both like dancing ballet. Billy is getting a lot of shit about dancing ballet, getting called a fag, getting beat up on, etc. So is John. Billy reasons, “wtf, dancing isn’t worth the amount of shit I am getting, I am giving this up”. John is also getting shit, John however knows that he will keep getting shit whether he dances or not, so he might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.
Same as most “gay dense” occupations.
John is queer, Billy is straight. Billy and Bobby both like dancing ballet. Billy is getting a lot of shit about dancing ballet, getting called a fag, getting beat up on, etc. So is John. Billy reasons, “wtf, dancing isn’t worth the amount of shit I am getting, I am giving this up”. John is also getting shit, John however knows that he will keep getting shit whether he dances or not, so he might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.
Grossly simplified, but there it is. Straight guys being forced away from an area of interest leaves predominantly gay guys, which then causes said area of interest to be earmarked for the lads. This is why you see this to a much, much lesser extent with gay women. About the only area where it is comparative is perhaps with sports, but even that I think would be “looking too hard for it”.
My relatives keep asking me for advice on fashion, interior decorating, landscape design, choice of art work, appraisal of antiques, etc. They think that just because I’m gay that my opinions are more valid than theirs, that I have some sort of innate knowledge of these subjects. I try to explain to them that I know enough to make my own choices, but I don’t know/care enough to make their decisions for them. They really won’t take no for an answer, so I pretend to know what I’m talking about, and it makes them happy. I’m convinced all they want is advice they don’t have to pay for.
This hardly seems scientific. A similar poll of the early lives of young straight men would probably favor baseball players, astronauts, firemen, and Presidents of the United States. How early are we talking, here? Age eight? Twelve? Sixteen?
FISH
I was not aware that there were MALE and FEMALE components to gay men. Or does this just apply to gay interior decorators?
Bob
Iteki,
The argument you raise is still circular. What happened BEFORE you had to be a woman to be an interior designer not get ridiculed. (Keep in mind that many heroic and famous Architects like Frank Lloyd Wright and Tadao Ando were/are straight men and did/do the interiors for their buildings so interior design wasn’t always thought to be a “wimpy” profession.) How about this for an example. John and Billy (Who’s Bobby?) both try to become, oh let’s say, veterinarians, today a completely gender neutral occupation, like interior design once was. Being that it’s gender neutral, Billy would NOT get any ridicule for pursuing vet training but John would get ridicule anywhere. Who’s more likely to stay in vet school then? But if a lot of gay men started to go to vet school and more and more gay men started to become vets, then maybe the idea about veterinarians being a gender neutral occupation would end. The question is, would the gay men care enough about the profession to become gay vets? Maybe. My point is that there is a reason that gay men ORIGINALLY chose to become interior designers and it doesn’t have anything to do with it being a “safe” profession because it wasn’t always so.
Remember in the Simpsons when Homer took Bart to a steel mill to show him a “butch” place and all the men there were gay? Homer remembered it being a straight occupation but the guy in the mill said it all changed. Another great example.
panache45,
While it’s true NOW that most think that you have to be gay to have good design sensibilities, it wasn’t always so. So the question is still, how did it all begin?
urban1z,
Is my gay-ignorance showing through? Good. No offense intended. But don’t gay men appreciate the female point of view? Don’t they relate to Women more than straight Men? Gay men ARE still Men so isn’t it still possible for them to have certain “male” desires, like building. Is it also possible that also having feminine sensibilities they will be drawn to “decorating.” Maybe I’m generalizing too much by breaking it down into “male” and “female” but in general I speak the truth. Men like to build. Women like to improve upon what the Men build.
Prisioner
Well, I am gay and I don’t relate to women more than straight men; about equal maybe. As far as ‘appreciating the female point of view’, I might if I knew what that was.
Of course other gay men might have a different point of view, but I don’t see that there is a necessary FEMALE component to gay men, nor, a necessary MALE component to gay women.
And as far as generallizing, i think the statement ‘Men like to build. Women like to improve upon what the Men build’ is a pretty general, and I’m sure is not true in all (most?) cases.
Bob.
The argument is not circular. Regardless of the amount of gay men involved in interior decorating, it is still viewed as a feminine field. The house has always traditionally been viewed as the “feminine” domain. For example, great lords did not run their own castles and households, rather that fell to their wives to organize servants and so forth. This continued forward until quite recent times (only in the last 50ish years at best have you seen shifting). Thus, you have a field which is considered, stupidly IMO, “woman’s work”. Very few straight men and less obviously gay men were (I think this is becoming less of a problem over time) going to mess up their reputation by going into such a profession no matter how much they actually enjoyed it.
However, if you were already viewed as “less than a man” for being flaming (not quite the same as actually homosexual), as Iteki points out very well indeed, what the heck reputation do you have to lose? No one’s going to view you as some hyper-butch construction worker anyway, so why not do something you really enjoy instead?
Do I sense some defensiveness? I did say “no offense intended,” right? No need to get defensive. I’m not judging anyone.
Urban1z**,
Straight men wouldn’t be caught dead without their girlfriends or wives walking around looking at the wares in Pier One, and yet they are kids in a candy store at Home Depot. Women don’t quite understand our joy at Home Depot, but they feel the same way about Pier One. Sure, it’s a little sterotypical, but it’s based on fact.
Priam**,
The circular part isn’t about the viewpoints now but the viewpoints when interior design was in it’s infancy. Who were the first Interior DESIGNERS straight Men, Women, or gay Men? The answer is straight men, because they were usually also Architects. Women at the early history of interior design did not involve themselves in the construction process. Maybe a Woman picked the paint colors, stone, brick color, floor covering, etc. but that’s only half of the responsibilities of the Designer*. If someone was doing interior design then he was probably the Architect. And Architects back then were not gay or at least not openly gay. Openly gay men at one time had to break into the field. I believe the reason they continue to work in the field is that they enjoy it, not necessarily that it is a safe field. They enjoy the field because it allows them to excercize all of their creative muscles.
*Also, maybe I should explain the distinction between interior design and interior decorating. The OP is about interior design, not decorating. There is a very strict LEGAL difference. Anyone can call themselves an interior decorator, but one must be licensed to call themselves an interior designer. To get licensed as an Interior Designer (depending on state, but usually) you have to have a 4 year degree from an accredited university, the classes usually being in the college of Architecture. In fact several of the classes one must take are shared with the Architecture students. Then you have to take an internship and take a test. Interior Designers do more than pick paint colors, furniture, and curtains. They have more intimate knowledge about construction, light, HVAC (Heating,ventilation,Air,Conditioning), accoustics, and especially spacial relationships, circulation, and space planning. Many of these things usually require a specialist but Interior Designers have to have the basic knowledge. A Designer has the knowledge to pick a wall covering that has accoustical properties appropriate for a conference room. As I said, decorators generally don’t move walls. But that is one of the main tools in a Designer’s arsenal. Well, that isn’t to say a decorator couldn’t have the knowledge, but decorators don’t have the education. Nothing to say they can’t learn it on their own, but they can’t practice Interior Design without a license and they can’t get a license unless they have an Interior Design degree.
Now as to why there are so many gay interior decorators. Well I don’t understand that at all.