Gay Subcultural Histories and Practices / by B. Fergus Foley

SIGNIFICANT OTHLRS: GAY SUBCULTURAL HISTORIES AND PRACTICES B. Fergus Foley B.A., Simon Fraser University 1987 THESIS SUBMITTCO IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of Communication @B. Fergus Foley 1992 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY August, 1992 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL NAME: B. Fergus Foley DEGREE: Master of Arts (Communication) TITLE OF THESIS: Gay Subcultural Histories and Practices EXAMINING COMMIT I kt: CHAIR: Dr. Pat Howard, Assistant Professor - I - Dr. Martin ~\ba Associate Professob Senior Supervisor Dr. Alison Beale Assistant Professor F~uzannede castell Professor Faculty of Education DATE APPROVED: 199 2. PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENSE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesis, project or extended essay (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or othcr educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copy~ngof this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Title of Thesis/Project/Extended Essay Author: (signature) (name) iii ABSTRACT Contemporary gay cultural practices affirm the identities of individual men and their communities which have evolved over the past twenty-five years in various metropolitan centres. Cultural critics and theorists, however, have not acknowledged, addressed or perhaps even recognized gay cultural activities of resistance and opposition. The failure to perceive this subculture limits contemporary criticism of film and music, for example, and perpetuates hegemonic oppression of gay men. This thesis attempts to explain what is missing from the work of cultural studies and theory. The absence of analyses of gay cultural productions in cultural theory is first identified, the consequences of which are then suggested, and a framework for introducing discussion and analyses of gay cultural productions is drafted. This framework, of necessity, demands an historical overview of Western reli- gious, medical and legal systems because, unlike other youth and subcultural groupings which are discussed in contemporary cultural studies, homosexual oppression and resistance is perhaps systemic. After this theoretical analysis, the thesis then examines cultural productions in film and popular music, suggesting ways in which an understanding of gay subcultural practices enhances cultural theory in general and textual analysis of both film and music in par- ticular. Acknowledgenlents I would especially 1 ike to thank Bette Bourne, Allahn McRae, Lavinia Co-op, and the Notting Hill Gay Liberation Front--the "gay freaks" of West London--for dressing up, coming out and sitting in; Dublin's Gays And Lesbians Against Repression for bravery in the face of Ireland's wrath; Martin Laba and Lynne Hissey of SFU's Communications Department for encouragement; Craig Tapping for spiritual and practical support, and for helping to bring it all home; and Sparky, our cat, for helping to redefine "family values". Table of Contents Chapter One ............................................ An Other History: Hegemonic Constructions and Gay Resistance Notes ............................................ Chapter Two ............................................ Straight Shooting: Gay Images on Hollywood Screens Notes ............................................ Chapter Three ............................................ Gay Film: Representation. Theory and Practice Notes ............................................ Chapter Four .......................................... From Dharma Bums to Karma Chameleons: The Appropriation of Gay Subculture by Youth Cultures Notes ........................................... Chapter Five .......................................... Joining the Party: Revolutionary Potential in Con- temporary Gay Music Notes .............................................. Chapter Six ........................................... Concluding Remarks Notes .............................................. Bibliography ............................................ Chapter One An Other History: Hegemonic Constructions and Gay Resistance Introduction References to homosexual ity, the emergence and construct ion of a gay identity, and to gay cultural practices appear with irregular fre- quency in academic texts on postmodernism and sub/cultural theory, but -\ , / I ,,. , ,,< ,,< ; there are few if any clarifications of just what it is that gay \ : ,I- _ \ cultural practice does in and to contemporary cultural theory. It is *2 A . ? " I ,si' assumed in all such citations that, like other subaltern groups, gay artists resist, critique, and subvert dominant culture. Despite this assumption, however, no theorist has adequately explained just which activities operate as this counter-cultural production, or oppose the hegemony of mainstream, non-gay culture. Linda Hutcheon, for example, cites "women, ethnics, gays, blacks, postcolonials"--and even "the working class" as instances of "ex-centric" cultural production--at least nine times throughout A Poetics of Postmodernism, without ever examining any one specifically gay artist or artifact in her analysis of late twentieth century culture. l We read that these heterogeneous and peripheral cultures "con- stitute a multiplicity of responses to a commonly-perceived situation of marginality and ex-centricity"' and that cultural productions by these groups "respond, critically and creatively, to the still predominantly white, heterosexual, male culture in which they find themselves."" Hutcheon is able to inscribe and illuminate much that is done by her large group of subversives: feminism, African-American studies, and postcolonial discourse have opened mainstreatn cultural theory to many formerly ignored or excluded cultural practices and productions. But we never read what it is that gays do that is subversive or "ex-centric". This, however, is not to fault Hutcheon or her work: she is one of the few cultural theorists who actually men- tions gays in her work. This thesis attempts to explain what is missing from Hutcheon's work and that of other theorists, whose work wi 11 be reviewed immediately below. In this chapter, the absence of analyses of gay cultural ,productions in cultural theory is first identified, the consequences of which are then suggested, and a framework for introducing discussion and analyses of gay cultural productions is drafted. This framework, of necessity, demands an historic overview of Western re1 i - gious, medical and legal systems because, unlike other youth and subcultural groupings which are discussed in contemporary cultural studies, homosexual oppression and resistance is perhaps systemic (homosexual oppression and resistance ca~~naibe as accurately his- toricised as call, for example, the rise of the Mods or Rockers). After charting an historical overview, this chapter then explains the above-ground emergence of an identifiable gay subculture in the late twentieth century. There follows a brief summary of how that subculture has articulated its difference from the mainstream and affirmed its cultural identity. Subcultural Theory Dick Hebdige, one of the most notable analysts of subculture, and its main theoretician, states in his Subculture: The Meaninq of Style that "a vast literature has grown up around subculture. 11 4 None of that literature in the mainstream of cultural studies deals with \\ gays, however. Hebdige allows, in a chapter on rock music, that "at the more sophisticated end of the glitter spectrum, the subversive emphasis was shifted away from class and youth onto sexuality and gender typing. I1 5 But there is no exploration of what exactly the emphasis on subversive sexual i ty or gender typing means in terms of resistance or opposition, symbolic or otherwise, to the dominant order. And again there is no mention of where gays or the influence of gay subculture fit into this scenario. This seems particularly strange since Hebdige opens his book on style as subcultural resistance with an excerpt from The Thief's Journal, by Jean Genet-- one of literature's most outspoken and radical homosexuals and one of the gay subculture's most celebrated filmmakers (whose works are discussed in Chapter Three)--of whom Hebdige writes ..."he more than most has explored in both his life and his art the subversive implications of style. "" Later, Hebdige writes that "Genet systematically con- travenes civic, sexual and moral law ...11 7 But again, there is no discussion of the place of homosexual ity in contemporary subcultural theory in this book which leans so heavily on the inspiration of Genet, a fact that needs to be addressed in the mainstream of cultural studies. Angela McRobbie has noted too, under a subheading Homages to Masculinity, that although Hebdige "does fleetingly mention sexual ambiguity in relation to style"s, his emphasis is on the plundering of traditional male styles only. And considering the machismo of the various male subcultures, McRobbie claims that "...subcultural forma- tions and the influence of their various 'movements'

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