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The Gay Revolution and the Pink Flamingos Bachelor’S Diploma Thesis

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The Gay Revolution and the Pink Flamingos Bachelor’S Diploma Thesis Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Jiří Vrbas The Gay Revolution and the Pink Flamingos Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: doc. Michael Matthew Kaylor, PhD. 2016 1 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. ………………………………………………. 2 “I thank God I was raised Catholic, so sex will always be dirty.” (John Waters) Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor doc. Michael Matthew Kaylor, PhD, for his help and for making me believe in this topic. I would also like to thank him and Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, BA, alike for their Gay Studies course. Knowledge acquired in their class provided the necessary background for this analysis. 3 Table of Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 5 I. Being Gay in the Past .................................................................................................. 7 I.1. 18th Century Europe ................................................................................................ 7 I.2. The Early 20th Century USA .................................................................................. 9 I.3. The 1950s USA .................................................................................................... 14 II. Early Gay Rights Activism ..................................................................................... 18 II.1. The Mattachine Society (1951-1969) .................................................................. 20 II.2. Radicalisation (mid-1960s) ................................................................................. 23 III. The Gay Revolution (1969 onwards) .................................................................... 27 III.1. The Setting ......................................................................................................... 27 III.2. The Stonewall Inn .............................................................................................. 28 III.3. The Stonewall Riots ........................................................................................... 29 IV. Homosexuality in Hollywood ................................................................................. 35 IV.1. The Sissy ............................................................................................................ 35 IV.2. The Criminal and the Freak ............................................................................... 36 V. John Waters .............................................................................................................. 38 V.1. Mondo Trasho (1969) ......................................................................................... 39 V.2. Multiple Maniacs (1970) ..................................................................................... 44 V.3. Pink Flamingos (1972) ....................................................................................... 50 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 60 Works Cited ................................................................................................................... 65 4 Introduction John Waters’ work is generally associated with poor acting, exaggerated displays of overt perversion and being mostly distasteful and revolting. For these qualities, his films have achieved a cult status among minority audiences who enjoy their novelty and boldness, taking pride in labels as exercises in bad taste and promoting John Waters to their Pope of Trash. When one attempts to research John Waters and his films, they will most likely discover articles describing controversy. Except for their shock value, however, there is one aspect of John Waters’ films that goes unnoticed. Waters’ early films were made at the turn of the 1970s, which was a time when a nationwide movement advocating gay rights surged in the USA. Inspired by the Stonewall Riots, the generation of the 1970s was the first one in history that advocated gay rights loudly, took pride in their identity and refused to conform to externally imposed moral standards. John Waters is a member of this generation. This thesis will argue that characters and motifs in his films developed together with the spirit of the militant Gay Power movement and that the new generation’s attitudes resonate in Waters’ work. In order to fully understand the dynamics of the Stonewall Riots, their significance and the force with which the defiant attitude spread subsequently, it is necessary to be familiar with the challenges which the homosexual minority was facing in the past, to realize how deeply the society’s hatred was rooted and how homosexuals internalised the hatred towards themselves. Firstly, this thesis will analyse what it meant to be homosexual from the 18th to the mid-20th century in Europe and the USA respectively. It will capture how homosexuals were misunderstood by both the general public and by themselves, how 5 homosexuality was ridiculed and attacked and how these attitudes resonated in public discourse, literature and media. Secondly, this study will outline how homosexual population remained shattered and lacking a sense of community. It will describe early gay rights activism and the challenges it was facing both from the outside and the inside. It will explain why homosexuals never revolted before the Stonewall Riots. The paper will also capture the radicalization of the gay rights movement, explain the dynamics of the riots and familiarize the reader with the zeitgeist of the 1970s. Thirdly, this work will describe how homosexuality was depicted in Hollywood films and provide a close analysis of John Waters’ Mondo Trasho, Multiple Maniacs and Pink Flamingos as his early works shot during the crucial period of the early 1970s. It will describe how the characters and the films’ level of expressiveness developed together with the Gay Power movement and prove that the reality of the time manifested itself in Waters’ work. 6 I. Being Gay in the Past I.1. 18th Century Europe Prior to the 20th century, in the Western society, homosexuality was perceived mainly in legal terms as an activity punishable by the law. It was a taboo and a phenomenon universally rejected by the general public. The gravity of the crime and the subsequent punishment were changing with philosophical and political influences of the respective period, but remained hostile towards gays. In the 18th century France and Britain, homosexuality was a crime punishable by death and executions were common practice (Crompton, Civilization 450-451). The persecution affected all social classes including the aristocracy and the powerful. For example, under the regent rule of Philippe d’Orléans — gay himself (339) — homosexuality was widely practiced at the French court (445). Still, the social attitude towards it was so hostile that even the favourable attitude of the ruler was of little help to exposed homosexual members of the aristocracy. They were usually not executed, but were “exiled to their country estates and deprived of royal favour” (444). The situation was even more challenging to the common man. With the help of an army of spies, the French police were actively persecuting homosexuals. They were forming special patrouilles de pédérastie in order to patrol known cruising1 areas and arrest homosexuals. They were blackmailing male prostitutes, forcing them to act as agents provocateurs and lure others into police traps (Civilization 445). Except for facing legal harassment, homosexuals had no hope that their situation would change. The idea of advocating gay rights was unimaginable at that time and attempts at changing the situation were systematically repressed. 1 Searching partners for anonymous sex in public, especially in parks and public bathrooms. 7 Even as early as in the 18th century, the authorities were well aware of the fact that oppression was necessary to prevent emancipation of the homosexual population. They knew that had the homosexuals not been oppressed, they would “organise leagues and societies, which [would] be disastrous, with respectable people in the lead” (Civilization 447). This notion of forming a community advocating change will prove a vital presupposition later, in 1969. The vocabulary used to describe homosexual acts at this time is also worth of attention. It was not differentiated between homosexual acts in consenting adults and any other deviation from heterosexual vaginal intercourse. Each such deviation was simply called sodomie and pédérastie and held in the same regard as paedophilia or zoophilia (Civilization 446). The police reports then illustrated the taboo and disdain connected to homosexuality, when the authorities described homosexuals only vaguely as men engaging in “infamous acts” and “committing crimes” (449). This illustrates the complete misunderstanding of the very nature of homosexuality and the authorities’ ignorance about it. While the Revolution of 1789 brought a relative relief in France (Civilization 450), in Britain, influenced by the Puritan movement (454), executions of homosexuals were not abolished until 1835 (456) and the public discourse rhetoric remained extremely hostile. Public figures were nourishing hatred by claims such as that hanging was not severe enough a punishment (451) and that
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