Everything from the Nanny is camp, especially Yetta. I wouldn’t call her a “gay icon”, per se, but I’m not surprised that you saw an impersonator.
That’s another subject I’ve been wondering about. What exactly and precisely is camp? And why does camp seem to be so popular with the stereotypical gay man?
You don’t ask easy questions, Doc. Camp is kind of nebulous, but the basic thing is that it’s over-the-top, played straight (sometimes winkingly straight). The Jewish stereotypes in the Nanny were over-the-top, but they played them off as if they were absolutely normal. John Waters films are camp. Almost the epitome of camp, really. Everything is ridiculously over-the-top but it’s all played off as absolutely normal. Films like Psycho Beach Party or Die, Mommy, Die! by Charles Busch are camp, because ridiculously over-the-top things happen but it’s played off as normal (although Busch’s camp tends to be more arch).
As to why…I can’t say with any authority. I suspect because camp is a kind of secret code. If you can’t recognize camp sensibility, you’re going to just think a show or movie or play is ridiculous and not twig to the extra layers. There’s not a lot that the 20th-century gay subculture liked more than a secret code or some bit of secret knowledge that “the straights” mostly didn’t get.
Theatricality is a big part of it: while Tina Turner has a large gay following I’d put her with Dolly in being a “general” icon, but she’s not really that theatrical. She had the wild hair and the great legs, but you don’t think of her as having a splashy act.
Cher, otoh, like Gaga and a few others (including to a lesser degree Lauper) take a page out of Liberace and Elton’s book: glitz and costume and spectacle and sexy without “vagina in your face” sexuality like Madonna at her worst. (I don’t see Miley becoming a gay icon for this reason.)
Speaking of Cyndi Lauper, she has an openly gay sister who was bullied when they were kids and so she’s been a legitimate advocate for gay rights and anti-discrimination since the '80s, which also helped her following. (Madonna has a gay brother, but Madonna’s primary passion is of course Madonna, which is why she isn’t more of a gay icon [not to imply she doesn’t have a big gay following].)
So, the list of qualities that gay icons tend to possess several of (though not necessarily all of):
-Great talent
-Unique style
-Flamboyance
-Underdog story
-Fragility
-Mother issues
-Gay friendly/accepting
Thank you Sampiro, that all makes a lot of sense.
Thinking of some local ones, I think having “invented a persona” may also be a factor - it isn’t always, but it often is. Let’s see if I can explain this right: you know how one of the reasons many people have for using chemical relaxants (alcohol and pot being the most popular) is that it lets them do things they normally want to but don’t dare to? There are performers for whom their public persona is what lets them do that. When she was advertising for this record, María Jiménez said that “the best thing about being a singer is that you can wear stuff you’d never be able to wear at the supermarket”; she bought the cloth on the sleeves without knowing what she’d do with it (it was just a small leftover), but knowing that by God she was going to do something with it, it was just too beautiful to leave it. For many who are shyer than she is, another great part about being a singer or an actor is that you get to do things Chris Doe never would. And for many gay people, accepting their identity involves a sort of reinvention; they need to push boundaries which other people are perfectly happy with and may not even notice, boundaries which those artists have also pushed, broken and sometimes shattered. They need to do things that they want to but have been told they shouldn’t dare to.
(The younger woman in the video is on the shy side. Promise. Really. You’d never believe it from watching her at work though. And the older one was a sex symbol already for my grandfathers’ generation; a village girl who made it to Hollywood)
What about Alanis Morrissette: gay icon, lesbian icon, both or neither?
Wasn’t she more of a Female Empowerment icon?
Nava mentioning local gay icons made me wonder who the British ones are. Diana? The Queen? Ian McKellen? George Michael?
If fictional characters count, I know Edina and (especially) Patsy from AB FAB are huge icons. One of the few sweeping generalizations you can make of all gay men is they can all perfectly mimic Patsy Stone and Carol Channing when they’re drunk.
This isn’t an absolute requirement, but a female entertainer with at least one masculine facial feature (Barbra’s nose, Bette’s jawline, Liza’s profile and eyebrows, Madonna’s chin) makes it easier–and therefore likelier–for drag queens to portray her, a very big step towards gay iconography.
Strange that Martha Stewart’s penis hasn’t proven more compelling.
Diana. Oh yeah!
And the Queen Mum or whatever they called her. And the famous - (paraphrased) I don’t know what you queens are doing down there, but his Old Queen needs a gin and tonic.
I wonder also if the “over-the-top” aspect lends itself to performance and imitation. I don’t know a single line from a Joan Crawford movie, but I do know where “Bring me the AXE!” comes from.
Camp pokes fun at social norms. Being gay defies social norms.
Hehe…we actually use that whenever someone we know starts going over-the-top with anger or frustration. “TINA! BRING. ME. THE AXE.” It usually short-circuits the crazy loop because the person who was going ballistic starts laughing so hard they can’t keep the dudgeon up.
Also, I very strongly suggest you watch “The Women”. You’ll remember lines from a Joan Crawford movie then…
Thanks for the recommendation!
This is probably completely incorrect. If so, mods feel free to wipe this off the board. But every time I see this thread, I am reminded of the old saw seen on the bathroom wall.
“My mother made me a homosexual.”
Written just below in a different color ink…“If I gave her the wool, would she make me one?”
So…“My mother made me a gay icon.” Sorry.
No problem! It’s an absolute classic and the recent remake doesn’t hold a candle to the original. They don’t write 'em like that anymore.
Who?
ETA: And having gone to look them up, I have to say I’ve never heard of them before. Obviously, that’s probably a UK vs. US thing, but still…they aren’t, to my knowledge, gay icons here in the US.