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| A '''] |
A '''] Icon''' is a larger-than-life ] or public figure with wide-spread ] amongst the non-heterosexual community, especially a glamorous emotionally expressive theatrical woman that gay men feel a very personal almost unexplainable connection to. Most gay icons are not gay themselves, and some are not even pro-gay in their politics, but rather they are they serve as often deified female role models for gay men and in extreme cases gay men dress up to look just like these women. Frequently gay men and straight women choose the same icons. | ||
| == |
==Oprah Winfrey== | ||
| ] | |||
| {{Unreferenced}} | |||
| ]'s popularity with straight women and gay men is so extreme that these groups helped her get elected the Greatest Woman in American History in a nation-wide multi-media election conducted by the ] and ]]. Many gay men are attracted to Winfrey's theatrical touchy-feely personality, her over the top facial expressions, her flamboyant body language, her church-free spirituality, her broadway musical ''The Color Purple'', her enthusiastic support for the Oscars and share her admiration for ], ] and ]. One of the stars of the reality TV show ] was a gay African American man named Kevin who was so obsessed with Winfrey that he would ask "what would Oprah do?" before making any strategic decision. Another gay man included Winfrey on his published list of women worshipped by gay men and asked "what gay man hasn't watched at least 1,000 episodes of ]?"] | |||
| Many critics feel that gay icons are too narrowly focused on entertainment industry celebrities and that other possible role models are ignored. They argue that in maintaining a gay iconography, LGBT men and women ignore substantial areas of history and the people who made it, such as generals, politicians, and scientists. Indeed, a homophobic agenda might very well link such an iconography to outmoded notions of "gay" as emasculation, or of gay men and women being "failed" or "stunted" men and women. Until only very recently, however, gay generals, politicians, and scientists (such as ]) would not have felt comfortable broadcasting their sexuality to doubtful response and could not therefore have attained an iconic status for the gay community. | |||
| While ] pioneered the ] genre, the warmth, intimacy and personal confession Winfrey brought to the format both popularized and revolutionized it. In the scholarly text ], ] sociology professor ] credits the ] genre with providing much needed high impact media visibility for ], ], ], and ] and doing more to make them mainstream and socially acceptable than any other development of the 20th century. In the book's editorial review ] wrote "In the recent past, lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered people had almost no presence on television. With the invention and propagation of ]s such as ], ], ], and ], people outside the sexual mainstream now appear in living rooms across America almost every day of the week.". However not everyone was comfortable with the dramatic changes ]s were making to the culture. Sociologist Vicki Abt criticised ]s for redefining social norms. In her book ], Abt warned that the media revolution that followed Winfrey's success was blurring the lines between normal and deviant behavior. | |||
| One of Winfrey's most taboo-breaking shows occurred in the 1980s where for the entire hour, members of the studio audience stood up one by one, gave their name and announced that they were gay. Also in the 1980s Winfrey took her show to West Virgina to confront a town gripped by AIDS paranoia because a gay man living in the town had HIV. Winfrey interviewed the man who had become a social outcast, the town's mayor who drained the swimming pool because the man had gone swimming, and debated the town's hostile residents. "But I hear this is a God fearing town" Winfrey scolded the homophobic studio audience, "where's all that Christian love and understanding?" During a show on gay marriage in the 1990s, a woman in Winfrey's audience stood up to complain that gays were constantly flaunting their sex lives and she announced that she was tired of it. "You know what I'm tired of," replied Winfrey, "heterosexual males raping and sodomizing young girls. That's what I'm tired of." Her rebuttal inspired a screaming standing ovation from that show's mostly gay studio audience. | |||
| Following the success of ]s, early 21st century gays were coming out of the closet younger and younger, gay suicide rates had dropped, and gays were embraced on mainstream shows like ] and ] and films like ]. While having changed with the times from her ] roots, Winfrey continues to empower the gay community by using her show to promote openly gay personalities like her hairdresser, makeup artist, and decorator ] who inspired an outpouring of sympathy from middle America after grieving the loss of his partner in the Tsunami on ]. Winfrey's intimate therapeutic hosting style and the ] genre she popularized has been credited or blamed for leading the media counterculture of the 1980s and 1990s which broke 20th century taboos, led to America's self-help obsession, and created confession culture. The Wall Street Journal coined the term '''''Oprahfication''''' which means public confession as a form of therapy. | |||
| Queer writer and gay film director ] has criticized gay icons, calling ] "counter-revolutionary." He has cited her ] of Marxist revolutionary imagery on the album ], calling it hypocritical of her to use such imagery to sell a product of ] capitalist ideology and culture. ] has consistently acknowledged and embraced her gay following throughout her career and many believe she has contributed to the growth of a more acceptable gay ] in mainstream culture. | |||
| In April 1997, she played the therapist on the sitcom ] to whom the character (and the real life ] in an ironic twist of humor as the actress playing herself on the show) confessed she was a lesbian. In 1998, ] in the ] wrote of Winfrey "Today, no truly epochal moment in the history of the Republic occurs unless it is validated by her presence. When Ellen said, 'Yep! I'm gay,' Winfrey was by her side, guesting on the sitcom as (what else?) the star's therapist. She is, of course, therapist to an entire nation." | |||
| Another criticism of gay icons is that the concept is based on the notion that a person's sexual orientation dictates, or at least influences, a person's cultural and aesthetic preferences. By extension, a person's role models would be dictated by their sexual preferences. This effectively means that the role models afforded to androphile men are narrowed to a few celebrities and would not include innovators like ], ], drag racing legend ], ] or ]. | |||
| == |
==Madonna== | ||
| ]" (1990) recalled the look of 1930s Hollywood films.]] | |||
| Pop singer ''']''' and the ] have had a strong relationship for the entire span of her career as a ] icon. | |||
| Madonna was introduced to the gay community while still a teenager. It was her ] teacher, Christopher Flynn, a ], who first told Madonna that she was beautiful. He also introduced her to the local gay community of ], often taking her to local gay bars. It is Flynn who encouraged Madonna to walk away from her full scholarship to the ] and move to ] to pursue a career as a professional dancer. | |||
| The following people have an iconic status among a well-documented LGBT following. See their individual articles for more information. | |||
| After the launch of her music career and her entry into public consciousness, Madonna began to solidify her reputation as a gay icon. In the ]s, Madonna was one of the first major celebrities to lend her support to ] causes. Many of her friends and inspirations, such as her ballet teacher Christopher Flynn, artist ], and photographer ], are gay males. Some of them have died of ]. The song "In This Life" from her ] album is about the loss of Madonna's friends to ], containing the line, "Have you ever watched your best friend die?" | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| One of Madonna's biggest hits, ]'s "]", is a song in tribute to the underground dance form known as '']'' which first found popularity in gay bars and ]s of ]. "]," a hit from the album Erotica, featured a small reprise of "Vogue," which is suiting, because the song is about a young man's coming out. | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| In 2003 Madonna kissed ] and ] onstage at the ]. According to '']'' Madonna shrugs off the ] and her daughter Lourdes' reaction to it (Lourdes told her mother people call the pop star gay and the girl has gained more consciousness of the gay community). "I kind of assume everything I do is going to appeal to the gay audience. I'm just a big queen....it just means I kissed Britney Spears. I am the mommy pop star and she is the baby pop star. And I am kissing her and passing my energy onto her. Like, kind of a mythological fairy tale." | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| Madonna has been named by ] as the biggest gay icon of all time. To this day, Madonna's gay following is one of the most loyal segments of her audience. While her popularity among certain other communities (the ] and ] communities, for example) has fluctuated over the years, her gay following seems to stay intact. This may also be due to her strong support for ] and marriage. | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| ⚫ | ==Judy Garland== | ||
| * ] | |||
| ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| Garland was a gay icon, for she always had a large base of fans in the ]. Garland was so popular among gays during her lifetime that her concerts were major gay meeting places, and in her later years, she made money singing at gay piano bars. Garland's father, her studio-executive mentor and two of her five husbands were all gay. Garland had so many gay friends that when she went to parties she often joked that she was the only woman present. But Garland's acceptance of gays was only part of her appeal. Her songs describing deep loneliness and delirious love resonated with a lot of gay men. Like a lot of gay men of the 1950s and 1960s, Garland lead a double life being both addicted to performing yet suffering from stage fright. Further, Garland's musical ] about a misunderstood small-town kid experiencing a technocolor adventure of song and dance captured the imagination of gay men who were also inspired by its message of self-empowerment by looking inward.] | |||
| ⚫ | |||
| * ] | |||
| During a press conference in the 1960s, a reporter asked Garland if she was aware of her loyal gay following. "I couldn't care less," she said. "I sing to people."<ref>Braun, Eric, ''Frightening the Horses: Gay Icons of the Cinema'', 2002, Reynolds & Hearn, ISBN 1903111102</ref> | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| On the evening of her funeral, gay men fought back against police during a routine raid at the ], a ] in ], which set off the ]. Since then, ] events during the month of June have commemorated the ]. <ref> '''', National Women's History Project, (accessed ] 2006)</ref> | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| Although Garland's death is often noted as a cause of one of the key events of the modern ] movement, it is more likely a coincidence. Nevertheless, Garland's death, funeral and its links (coincidental or not) to Stonewall have become a part of ] and lore.<ref>Bianco, David, '''', 1995-2006, PlanetOut</ref> | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| Although Garland is less well known among the younger generations of gay men, the term "]"-a reference to ]-used to be a code term among gay men to describe themselves, and the gay and lesbian magazine The Advocate calls Judy Garland "an Elvis for homosexuals." | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| ==Cher== | |||
| * ] | |||
| ].]] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| ] has emerged as something of a gay icon in popular culture, a status perhaps assisted by her openly ] daughter ]. Although not supporting Chastity immediately after she ], Cher eventually became one of her daughter's greatest advocates and supporters. The NBC sitcom '']'' has acknowledged her status by making her the idol of gay character ]. Cher guest-starred as herself twice on the sitcom, in 2001 and 2002 (once even playing ] in a version of ] Jack imagined himself being part of). On October 4, 2005, the Bravo program ''Great Things About Being...'' declared Cher the number-one greatest thing about being gay. Her longevity is the inspiration for the famous quote by gay impressionist Jimmy James: "After a nuclear holocaust, all that will be left are cockroaches and Cher".<ref>Michael Musto. . Village Voice. 3 June 1998. Retrieved 6 April 2006.</ref> | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| ==External links== | ==External links== | ||
Revision as of 09:09, 3 July 2006
A Gay Icon is a larger-than-life celebrity or public figure with wide-spread fans amongst the non-heterosexual community, especially a glamorous emotionally expressive theatrical woman that gay men feel a very personal almost unexplainable connection to. Most gay icons are not gay themselves, and some are not even pro-gay in their politics, but rather they are they serve as often deified female role models for gay men and in extreme cases gay men dress up to look just like these women. Frequently gay men and straight women choose the same icons.
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey's popularity with straight women and gay men is so extreme that these groups helped her get elected the Greatest Woman in American History in a nation-wide multi-media election conducted by the Discovery Channel and AOL]. Many gay men are attracted to Winfrey's theatrical touchy-feely personality, her over the top facial expressions, her flamboyant body language, her church-free spirituality, her broadway musical The Color Purple, her enthusiastic support for the Oscars and share her admiration for Mary Tyler Moore, Barbra Streisand and Meryl Streep. One of the stars of the reality TV show The Benefactor was a gay African American man named Kevin who was so obsessed with Winfrey that he would ask "what would Oprah do?" before making any strategic decision. Another gay man included Winfrey on his published list of women worshipped by gay men and asked "what gay man hasn't watched at least 1,000 episodes of The Oprah Winfrey Show?"]
While Phil Donahue pioneered the tabloid talk show genre, the warmth, intimacy and personal confession Winfrey brought to the format both popularized and revolutionized it. In the scholarly text Freaks Talk Back, Yale sociology professor Joshua Gamson credits the tabloid talk show genre with providing much needed high impact media visibility for gays, bisexuals, transsexuals, and transgender people and doing more to make them mainstream and socially acceptable than any other development of the 20th century. In the book's editorial review Michael Bronski wrote "In the recent past, lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered people had almost no presence on television. With the invention and propagation of tabloid talk shows such as Jerry Springer, Jenny Jones, Oprah, and Geraldo, people outside the sexual mainstream now appear in living rooms across America almost every day of the week.". However not everyone was comfortable with the dramatic changes tabloid talk shows were making to the culture. Sociologist Vicki Abt criticised tabloid talk shows for redefining social norms. In her book Coming After Oprah: Cultural Fallout in the Age of the TV talk show, Abt warned that the media revolution that followed Winfrey's success was blurring the lines between normal and deviant behavior.
One of Winfrey's most taboo-breaking shows occurred in the 1980s where for the entire hour, members of the studio audience stood up one by one, gave their name and announced that they were gay. Also in the 1980s Winfrey took her show to West Virgina to confront a town gripped by AIDS paranoia because a gay man living in the town had HIV. Winfrey interviewed the man who had become a social outcast, the town's mayor who drained the swimming pool because the man had gone swimming, and debated the town's hostile residents. "But I hear this is a God fearing town" Winfrey scolded the homophobic studio audience, "where's all that Christian love and understanding?" During a show on gay marriage in the 1990s, a woman in Winfrey's audience stood up to complain that gays were constantly flaunting their sex lives and she announced that she was tired of it. "You know what I'm tired of," replied Winfrey, "heterosexual males raping and sodomizing young girls. That's what I'm tired of." Her rebuttal inspired a screaming standing ovation from that show's mostly gay studio audience.
Following the success of tabloid talk shows, early 21st century gays were coming out of the closet younger and younger, gay suicide rates had dropped, and gays were embraced on mainstream shows like Will & Grace and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and films like Brokeback Mountain. While having changed with the times from her tabloid talk show roots, Winfrey continues to empower the gay community by using her show to promote openly gay personalities like her hairdresser, makeup artist, and decorator Nate Berkus who inspired an outpouring of sympathy from middle America after grieving the loss of his partner in the Tsunami on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Winfrey's intimate therapeutic hosting style and the tabloid talk show genre she popularized has been credited or blamed for leading the media counterculture of the 1980s and 1990s which broke 20th century taboos, led to America's self-help obsession, and created confession culture. The Wall Street Journal coined the term Oprahfication which means public confession as a form of therapy.
In April 1997, she played the therapist on the sitcom Ellen to whom the character (and the real life Ellen DeGeneres in an ironic twist of humor as the actress playing herself on the show) confessed she was a lesbian. In 1998, Mark Steyn in the National Review wrote of Winfrey "Today, no truly epochal moment in the history of the Republic occurs unless it is validated by her presence. When Ellen said, 'Yep! I'm gay,' Winfrey was by her side, guesting on the sitcom as (what else?) the star's therapist. She is, of course, therapist to an entire nation."
Madonna
Pop singer Madonna and the gay community have had a strong relationship for the entire span of her career as a pop culture icon.
Madonna was introduced to the gay community while still a teenager. It was her ballet teacher, Christopher Flynn, a gay man, who first told Madonna that she was beautiful. He also introduced her to the local gay community of Bay City, Michigan, often taking her to local gay bars. It is Flynn who encouraged Madonna to walk away from her full scholarship to the University of Michigan and move to Manhattan to pursue a career as a professional dancer.
After the launch of her music career and her entry into public consciousness, Madonna began to solidify her reputation as a gay icon. In the 1980s, Madonna was one of the first major celebrities to lend her support to AIDS causes. Many of her friends and inspirations, such as her ballet teacher Christopher Flynn, artist Keith Haring, and photographer Herb Ritts, are gay males. Some of them have died of AIDS. The song "In This Life" from her Erotica album is about the loss of Madonna's friends to AIDS, containing the line, "Have you ever watched your best friend die?"
One of Madonna's biggest hits, 1990's "Vogue", is a song in tribute to the underground dance form known as vogueing which first found popularity in gay bars and discos of New York City. "Deeper and Deeper," a hit from the album Erotica, featured a small reprise of "Vogue," which is suiting, because the song is about a young man's coming out.
In 2003 Madonna kissed Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera onstage at the MTV Video Music Awards. According to Out Madonna shrugs off the attention the act garnered and her daughter Lourdes' reaction to it (Lourdes told her mother people call the pop star gay and the girl has gained more consciousness of the gay community). "I kind of assume everything I do is going to appeal to the gay audience. I'm just a big queen....it just means I kissed Britney Spears. I am the mommy pop star and she is the baby pop star. And I am kissing her and passing my energy onto her. Like, kind of a mythological fairy tale."
Madonna has been named by The Advocate as the biggest gay icon of all time. To this day, Madonna's gay following is one of the most loyal segments of her audience. While her popularity among certain other communities (the African American and Hispanic communities, for example) has fluctuated over the years, her gay following seems to stay intact. This may also be due to her strong support for gay rights and marriage.
Judy Garland
1947. By the late 1940s, Judy Garland had become one of MGM's biggest stars.
Garland was a gay icon, for she always had a large base of fans in the gay community. Garland was so popular among gays during her lifetime that her concerts were major gay meeting places, and in her later years, she made money singing at gay piano bars. Garland's father, her studio-executive mentor and two of her five husbands were all gay. Garland had so many gay friends that when she went to parties she often joked that she was the only woman present. But Garland's acceptance of gays was only part of her appeal. Her songs describing deep loneliness and delirious love resonated with a lot of gay men. Like a lot of gay men of the 1950s and 1960s, Garland lead a double life being both addicted to performing yet suffering from stage fright. Further, Garland's musical The Wizard of OZ about a misunderstood small-town kid experiencing a technocolor adventure of song and dance captured the imagination of gay men who were also inspired by its message of self-empowerment by looking inward.]
During a press conference in the 1960s, a reporter asked Garland if she was aware of her loyal gay following. "I couldn't care less," she said. "I sing to people."
On the evening of her funeral, gay men fought back against police during a routine raid at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village, which set off the gay liberation movement. Since then, Gay Pride events during the month of June have commemorated the Stonewall riots.
Although Garland's death is often noted as a cause of one of the key events of the modern gay rights movement, it is more likely a coincidence. Nevertheless, Garland's death, funeral and its links (coincidental or not) to Stonewall have become a part of LGBT history and lore.
Although Garland is less well known among the younger generations of gay men, the term "Friend of Dorothy"-a reference to The Wizard of Oz-used to be a code term among gay men to describe themselves, and the gay and lesbian magazine The Advocate calls Judy Garland "an Elvis for homosexuals."
Cher
Cher has emerged as something of a gay icon in popular culture, a status perhaps assisted by her openly lesbian daughter Chastity Bono. Although not supporting Chastity immediately after she came out, Cher eventually became one of her daughter's greatest advocates and supporters. The NBC sitcom Will & Grace has acknowledged her status by making her the idol of gay character Jack McFarland. Cher guest-starred as herself twice on the sitcom, in 2001 and 2002 (once even playing God in a version of Heaven Jack imagined himself being part of). On October 4, 2005, the Bravo program Great Things About Being... declared Cher the number-one greatest thing about being gay. Her longevity is the inspiration for the famous quote by gay impressionist Jimmy James: "After a nuclear holocaust, all that will be left are cockroaches and Cher".
External links
- Lesbian and Gay Icons website, Internet History Sourcebook
References
- Frightening the Horses: Gay Icons of the Cinema, Eric Braun (2002). ISBN 1903111102
- 20th Century Icons-Gay, Graham Norton (2001). ISBN 1899791779
- Gay histories and cultures, George E. Haggerty (2000). ISBN 0815318804
- The Culture of Queers, Richard Dyer (2002). ISBN 0415223768
- Braun, Eric, Frightening the Horses: Gay Icons of the Cinema, 2002, Reynolds & Hearn, ISBN 1903111102
- History of Gay and Lesbian Pride Month, National Women's History Project, (accessed June 13th 2006)
- Bianco, David, Stonewall Riots, 1995-2006, PlanetOut
- Michael Musto. La Dolce Musto. Village Voice. 3 June 1998. Retrieved 6 April 2006.