Don We Now Our Gay Apparel': Gay Men's Dress in the 20th Century PDF
Preview Don We Now Our Gay Apparel': Gay Men's Dress in the 20th Century
‘Don We Now Our Gay Apparel’ Dress, Body, Culture Series Editor Joanne B. Eicher, Regents’ Professor, University of Minnesota Advisory Board: Ruth Barnes,Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford Helen Callaway,CCCRW, University of Oxford James Hall,University of Illinois at Chicago Beatrice Medicine,California State University, Northridge Ted Polhemus,Curator, “Street Style” Exhibition, Victoria & Albert Museum Griselda Pollock,University of Leeds Valerie Steele,The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology Lou Taylor,University of Brighton John Wright,University of Minnesota Books in this provocative series seek to articulate the connections between culture and dress which is defined here in its broadest possible sense as any modification or supplement to the body. Interdisciplinary in approach, the series highlights the dialogue between identity and dress, cosmetics, coiffure, and body alterations as manifested in practices as varied as plastic surgery, tattooing, and ritual scarification. The series aims, in particular, to analyze the meaning of dress in relation to popular culture and gender issues and will include works grounded in anthropology, sociology, history, art history, literature, and folklore. ISSN: 1360-466X Previously published titles in the Series Helen Bradley Foster,“New Raiments of Self”: African American Clothing in the Antebellum South Claudine Griggs,S/he: Changing Sex and Changing Clothes Michaele Thurgood Haynes,Dressing Up Debutantes: Pageantry and Glitz in Texas Anne Brydon and Sandra Niesson,Consuming Fashion: Adorning the Transnational Body Dani Cavallaro and Alexandra Warwick,Fashioning the Frame: Boundaries, Dress and the Body Judith Perani and Norma H. Wolff,Cloth, Dress and Art Patronage in Africa Linda B. Arthur,Religion, Dress and the Body Paul Jobling,Fashion Spreads: Word and Image in Fashion Photography Fadwa El-Guindi,Veil: Modesty, Privacy and Resistance Thomas S. Abler,Hinterland Warriors and Military Dress: European Empires and Exotic Uniforms Linda Welters,Folk Dress in Europe and Anatolia: Beliefs about Protection and Fertility Kim K.P. Johnson and Sharron J. Lennon,Appearance and Power Barbara Burman,The Culture of Sewing Annette Lynch,Dress, Gender and Cultural Change Antonia Young,Women Who Become Men David Muggleton, Inside Subculture: The Postmodern Meaning of Style Brian J. McVeigh,Wearing Ideology: The Uniformity of Self-Presentation in Japan DRESS, BODY, CULTURE ‘Don We Now Our Gay Apparel’ Gay Men’s Dress in the Twentieth Century Shaun Cole Oxford•New York First published in 2000 by Berg Editorial offices: 150 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JJ, UK 838 Broadway, Third Floor, New York, NY 10003-4812, USA © Shaun Cole 2000 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of Berg. Berg is an imprint of Oxford International Publishers Ltd. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 1859734154(Cloth) 1859734200(Paper) Typeset by JS Typesetting, Wellingborough, Northants. Printed in the United Kingdom by Biddles Ltd, Guildford and King’s Lynn. For Andrew Falala Lalala La La La This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgements ix Preface xi Introduction 1 11111 Homosexuality, Class and Dress 15 22222 Fairies and Queens: The Role of Effeminate Stereotypes 31 33333 You’re Born Naked and the Rest is Drag! 45 44444 Invisible Men? 59 55555 Tight Trousers: Italian Styling in the 1960s 71 66666 Counterculture and Liberation: Gay Men, Beats and Hippies 83 77777 ‘Macho Man’: Clones and the Development of a Masculine Stereotype 93 88888 Hell for Leather: Bikers, S&M and Fetishisation 107 99999 Body Talk 119 1111100000 Down to Basics: Swimwear and Underwear 131 1111111111 Trash, Glamour, Punk 141 1111122222 Express Yourself: Clubbing at the Blitz, the Batcave, and Beyond 157 1111133333 Hard Boys: Masculine Appropriations in the 1980s 169 1111144444 Are You a Fag? ’Cos You Look Like a Fag! 183 Bibliography 193 Index 205 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgements I would firstly like to thank all the men that I interviewed (and this includes those who may not have been aware that I was gleaning information from them as we chatted). Without their time and memories this book could never have been written. Even where I have not directly quoted from our conver- sations I am grateful for the thoughts, ideas and further leads that they offered. Particular thanks go to John Hardy, Jonathan Jackson, Joe Pop and Ray Weller. I am also grateful to those who have allowed me to publish their photographs. I am indebted to the staff of the libraries that hold archives that I have used in the course of my research: the National Art Library, the New York Public Library, San Francisco Public Library, the Hall Carpenter Archive, the Mass-Observation Archive, The Gay and Lesbian Historical Society of Northern California Archive (especially Willie Walker), The Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center, the National Archive of Lesbian and Gay History in New York (Rich Wandell), the National Sound Archive (Rob Perks) and the BBC Sound Archive. Quotations from the Mass-Observation archive are reproduced with the permission of Curtis Brown Ltd, London, Copyright the Trustees of the Mass- Observation Archive at the University of Sussex. The Tom of Finland drawing is reproduced with the permission of the Tom of Finland Foundation, Los Angeles. I would like to acknowledge the work others before me have done into the recording of gay history, particularly George Chauncey and the Brighton Ourstory Project, whose research and publications have been of great importance and guidance to me and I’m sure to many others working in this field. I am extremely grateful to Amy de la Haye and Andrew Tomlin for taking the time to read drafts of this book in its various forms. Their comments, thoughts and suggestions were invaluable. I would like to thank all my friends (especially John), family and colleagues (notably Cath and Katie) who have supported me through this project, listening and offering encouragement and advice, tea and cake when they were needed. ix
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