Is she a lesbian? Gay-rights activist? Played a gay character?
Judy Garland ties in with the musicals and showtunes angle, although that certainly doesn’t explain it.
It’s just one of those things that have no explanation.
Previous thread on the subject:
I’ve gotten the impression that a combination of Judy’s teen characters, played with unusual sensitivity and angst for the time, and her difficult-verging-on-tragic adult life, struck a chord in gay men of the time, living a stressful, closeted, somewhat alienated life themselves.
That brings up another question: why is a liking for musicals and showtunes considered a sign of homosexuality?
Showtunes were massively popular with all segments of the American public up until the 60s. I grew up listening to them, and I’m not gay. And though there are a goodly number of gays in the Broadway audience, most of it is made up of heterosexual men and women. Heck, the demographics seem to be moving toward straight woment, with something like Wicked being considered something of a “chick flick” (another term that’s silly, BTW).
I love musicals, and the songwriting – and especially the lyrics – are head and shoulders above most other music. Not that I don’t like other forms (I usually listen to rock, like everyone else), but I know it’s not as accomplished lyrically.
Sure, gay people have a reputation of liking musicals, but plenty of straight people like them, too. So why?
Possibly around that time, the public gradually became aware that many of people writing and performing in these shows were gay, while before the subject simply wasn’t discussed.
Personally, I think Day and Night is a great song, though I didn’t much care for the anachronistic screwing-with it got in De-Lovely.
And here are two more:
No, it’s nothing as literal as that. Here’s an old post of mine on the subject:
[QUOTE=lissener]
Read Susan Sontag’s Notes on Camp, or Wayne Koestenbaum’s The Queen’s Throat.
. . . . .
I don’t think the age of female gay icons is past. The age of Judy is past, yes; and let’s hope the age of Barbra is passing. But Madonna is just as much a gay icon as either of them. True, she’s an icon who reflects her era, but she’s a descendent of Judy and Barbra in the gay pantheon nonetheless. Judy and Barbra were themselves descended from the great opera divas that came before them.
As far as why gay men feel this need to celebrate exaggerated notions of “femininity,” everyone knows why but no one can really explain it. That’s why Sontag, who set out to write a book on camp, finally gave up and just published a collection of notes: it was impossible to come to any conclusions. Koestenbaum’s book, an examination of gay men and their diva icons, has a similar structure: a series of disparate anecdotes peppered with poetic flights of Freudianesque theory, but again no real thesis and no conclusion.
Surely it’s due to a constellation of quasi reasons:
[ul][li]Gay men, wanting to be loved by another man, have only women as models for this relationship in the culture at large. Maybe this will change as true gay role models grow in cultural prominence.[/li][li]Once we’ve identified with a woman as the object of a man’s love, perhaps we conflate our “oppression” (for lack of a better word) with theirs. We see an image of a strong woman, breaking through the obstacle of the male dominance myth, and we celebrate with them, and like them.[/li][li]We recognize them as fellow oppressed (we with our sexuality closeted, they with their strength disguised) and share a common secret. Consider Samantha Stevens as a gay icon: she has a power, a strength, that society frowns upon. Her husband is willing to love her if she keeps it closeted. Her flamboyant mother (now there’s a drag queen!) and relatives urge her to celebrate her power, to show her true self to the world, but she conforms to the strictures placed upon her by prying neighbors in order keep her husband’s love (not to mention his job). (I don’t mean to suggest that Bewitched was a gay allegory; only that gay men find in it much subtext to identify with. I think it was less a touchstone for women because Samantha chose the low road: Bewitched can be seen to be regressive, in re the feminist movement. But for gay men, Samantha’s situation reflected their reality, and the frustrations of the closeted life. Buffy is something of a gay icon as well, though less so: she’s more clearly gynocentric and less malleable to gay iconography. Let’s hope she’s an indication of gay icons to come: she has a power, a secret from society at large, but she’s “out” to her friends, and together they’re stronger than she’d be alone.)[/li][li]Gay men have traditionally been forced to express themselves in allegory. Even if this is less the case now, for most of us who grew up knowing we were gay as kids, we know what it’s like to be afraid to reveal our true self. We instinctively understand the allegory of the singer or performer: the beautiful and intangible (the self) coming forth from within the body (the concrete projection we construct for the world). If you love someone, you want to “shout it from the rooftops.” Even now, today, to literally do this can be dangerous for a gay man to do; at any rate that’s the learned fear we must overcome. But allegorically we can accomplish this in song.[/ul]So somehow, nonsequentially, nonmathematically, and perhaps even illogically, the diva is where all these fragments of the gay psyche come together.[/li][/QUOTE]
(“Night and Day.”)
Wow, that was an interesting thread (good posts lissener) until “Mr. I’m so gay but I can’t let anyone suspect so I’ll act all MACHO and threaten to beat up faggots” killed the thread.
I hope he came out before he caused any damage to anyone.
Well, it goes both ways.
All true… but even so Judy Garland’s fan base was heavily gay from the beginning and this was well known. I recall that that in one biography of a New York luminary (years ago & forget which one) set in th e 50’s-60’s that there was the nasty joke that straight men were afraid to go to the men’s bathroom in the theatre when a show starring Judy Garland was playing because of the overwhelming number of gay men in the audience.
I was a huge fan of Judy, Barbra, Bette*, Marilyn and Cher long before coming out, and certainly long before I knew they were gay icons. And the same with show tunes. And none of them are primarily known as lesbians or gay-rights activists or having played a gay character. You’re making it into something a lot more conscious (or superficial) than it really is.
*Davis. I’m not a big fan of Bette Midler (and no, I’m not giving back my toaster).
Cher played gay in Silkwood, but you’re right that she was not primarily known for it.
Could it have something to do with the fact that her husband was gayer than a picnic basket?
And her father, and just about every man in her life. But no, that has nothing to do with it.
Might have been posted before, but here’s the Onion’s spin on gay icons.
Cart/horse.