Doug PollardWould you like drag with that, continued.
March 4th 2010 09:59
My previous column, about the tired, tawdry and largely out-of-date nature of what passes for gay ‘culture’, drew a predictably venomous response from defenders of the status quo.
I dared to suggest that drag was no longer particularly daring or radical, that ‘professional’ drag was seldom entertaining and frequently insulting and misogynist , and that the best drag performers had no need of a frock.
Drag performers are often described as ‘courageous’ but isn’t it more like cowardice? The minimally-talented performer who dresses as a woman in order to spew filth and hatred, and then evades the consequences by doffing his disguise offstage, can hardly be called ‘courageous’. It is akin to the trick played on us by mild-mannered ventriloquists and their foul-mouthed dolls.
Despite what some chose to read into my remarks, I said nothing about transvestites and transsexuals. Nothing about people who reject the usual binary division and choose to adopt a persona which can be read as either masculine or feminine or both.
I also said nothing about leather queens. I could have, but there wasn’t room in my 400 word limit. And besides, leather queens are not the first port of call for a mainstream media looking for an image and a quote. Drag queens are.
Leather queens are another largely outmoded and tiresome stereotype playing at the other end of the spectrum. Generalising, one could say that drag queens ape stereotypical (and old-fashioned and misogynist) images of femininity, while leather queens trot out equally absurd and outmoded stereotypical images of masculinity.
It was interesting that many of those who violently disagreed with me, characterised the wearing of drag as a form of play. I agree (and the same is true of leather). My question is why we obstinately cling to this infantile need to play dressups.
Like it or not, it presents an image of the (ugh, I hate the phrase) ‘Gay Lifestyle’ which is frankly repellent, not only to the majority of heterosexuals but also to the majority of men who have sex with men.
It may come as a shock to some people, but the vast majority of men who have sex with men never set foot in the gay scene, and refuse the label ‘gay’, and who can blame them?
When I first ventured through the doors of a gay bar, I was assailed by two conflicting emotions. One – hooray, I am not the only one. Two – if this is what being gay is, I don’t think I like it. I developed my gay pride elsewhere, working in community organisations and gay media.
An older queen took me under her wing during my early forays into ‘the scene’ and tutored me in the ways of this new world. When I protested that I didn’t much care for it, he shrugged and replied, ‘Most of us don’t honey, but it’s all there is for the likes of us - so get used to it.’ I can’t say I didn’t try.
Some years later I was being chatted up by an older man. He ascertained that I didn't care for the bar scene much, didn't go to saunas, didn't do beats, and wouldn't have sex on the first date. "You're not really gay, are you?", he said. "Not if that's the definition," I replied.
Small wonder that most people can only tolerate the scenes vacuity and emptiness with the help of copious quantities of drink and/or drugs. It allows you to overlook its essential emptiness. Small wonder many find it meaningless, and seek healthier climates.
One would have thought that by now we would have learned to grow and develop, that there would have been a blossoming into something we could be genuinely proud to call a culture. Instead we are still telling ourselves that this is all there is for people like us, only now we dress it up with glitter and feathers and pretend it’s wonderful.
Why aren’t we working to build something we can be truly proud of? Why is our 'culture' still mired in this immature adolescent phase? Why has nothing changed, in essence, inside the gay scene, in forty years, while the world outside has moved on in leaps and bounds? Why are we scared to step outside?
I have been accused of being a bitter old man. To the last two I plead guilty, quite happily. However, I am happy and contented with my life, not bitter.
Of course I have every sympathy with 20-somethings who allow their hormones and their drug and alcohol intake to overwhelm their good sense. I wish they wouldn’t, but having been one myself I understand. That's how I coped, too.
But when a rich handsome famous and wealthy man, an icon of our community, continues to behave the same way as he approaches 50, then I think the call to ‘grow up’ , to him and the community as a whole, is not only appropriate, but long overdue.
I am not bitter, but angry, firstly, at mainstream society, that continues to see us as little more than drag, arseless chaps and toilet sex. And secondly, at my own community, for living up to that gutter image, and even glorifying it, when we could be so much better.
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