Mapping Performances in Gay Spaces

Kipp !1 From Bachelorette Parties to Sex Clubs Mapping Performances in Gay Spaces It was early in 2003 when I first witnessed my first bachelorette party. I was in a massive bar complex in downtown Davenport Iowa. This catered to the gay population of the area with three bar areas, a multi-level dance floor with go-go cages, a rooftop deck, a cabaret space for drag shows and an area for outdoor volleyball. I had just moved to the area and was being shown around by a friend from college, and we had laid claim to a space on the upper balcony of the dance floor for maximum viewing pleasure when they arrived. There was a fair warning as we heard an unusual screech of female voices even before they descended onto the dance floor. The gaggle (Pack? Posse?) was lead by a young woman wearing a party tiara with a hint of a veil attached to it. The energy of the room shifted as their exuberance overtook the dance floor as they started to perform a semblance of dance that had previously not been seen in the club that night. As their sight shifted towards the previous center of attention; namely a young male go-go dancer who was well endowed with a mix of a low carb diet and good genetics; my friend and guide suggested we go to another establishment. This bar, it seemed, was not our own anymore. The club space had been co-opted for another performance that we were not cast in. Where we ended up was just across the street to the other gay bar in the area. This was a more traditional neighborhood bar with a myriad of neon beer signs in the darkened windows and a large U-shaped bar that took up most of the interior. The men tending the bar appeared to be hired to be an equal part of eye candy and expertise. Near the entrance was a pool table that was overcrowding the front half of the bar. The table was being dominated by a small group of women more than likely not there for a bachelorette party but to run the table and school anyone who worked up the courage to challenge them to a game. The back half of the bar was more Kipp !2 dimly lit and filled with groupings of men in twos and threes were attempting conversations over the music. This too was a gay bar but did not attract the bachelorettes that were drawn towards the flashier establishment across the street. The performance they were looking for was not here. More so of the enacted rituals of cis straight womanhood that made up their program for the night would be more challenging to perform in this space. Both their performance and the performance my friend and I were embodying had the same goals -to shape our identity outside of the heteronormative. However, these scenarios were not compatible with each other. What this paper will explore is the spectrum of spaces in which a gay identity is performed from the neighborhood bar to the shadowy spaces of sexuality. This exploration will encompass the performances of self-identity of not only the bodies within these areas but also of the spaces themselves as they attract segments of the population to them. This examination will use Jason Orne’s book Boystown as a base as well as personal recollection and experiences by the author. In doing so, I will show that there is a symbiotic relationship of identity between the performer and the space the performed body inhabits. I come to this paper as a self-identified gay man. I have lived in the neighborhoods that Orne examines for a total of almost nine years. I have also been to several spaces that Orne describes and to all that are mentioned in this paper. My observations, like Orne, are through the lens of a cis male but unlike Orne, I do not self-identify as a queer man but due to my age as a fag. Simply put, due to my age, I predate the concept and construct of queer. I believe that this age difference allows another perspective in observations that mostly align with Orne’s. In Orne’s introduction, he describes a similar scenario to what I described in the mammoth club complex but on a smaller scale. Orne is at a small club in the heart of the Boystown area in Chicago with a friend to see a dancer/go-go boy. His friend identifies as a gay Kipp !3 male and is older than Orne (who also identifies as a gay/queer male) by at least a decade (mid- thirties) and the dancer is only identified by his tattoo on his chest. Orne and his friend both know that the dancer is straight identifying and dances in a gay club to support his wife and child. In response to the friend tip, the dancer acknowledges it by a quick smile and a firm squeeze on the upper arm. Moments later a single presenting woman in the club tips the same dancer. The dancer responds to the tip in a more prolonged and physical manner with the woman. This act of heteronormativity along with the entrance of more presenting females into the space causes Orne and his friend to leave the club. This gay space has turned straight. This scenario illuminates an issue that Orne tangentially addresses. As society moves away from a normative gender binary, can the space be identified within a binary? Even if it self- identifies within the binary of either straight or gay the performances within the space can shift it out of the binary. This, in turn, has created not a binary identity but a spectrum of spacial identity that on which the space, like a performative body, sits. The performative space does not occupy a single point on the spectrum but is positioned over a range within it. It is within this range that the performative space tries to claim its perceived identity. Dr. Viv Cuthill explores this concept of perception of space in the article Consuming Harrogate. While Cuthill examines two spaces within a cultural heritage framework, both of these spaces reside in the performance of the heteronormative and the historical. The tea shops that are examined build their identity on a concept of temporal space that is being created through reenactment. It is this temporal shift that allows a body to perform and travel to another period of time. The other establishment, a vodka bar, allows the performance of travel in space by the consumption of the vodkas from around the world. In both cases, the performative body is Kipp !4 drawn to the space to enact a well-codified scenario. One knows what to expect while embodying the space. They have narrowed the space on the spectrum to create their “brand.” The narrowing of scenarios by a space is examined Peter Adey in the design and use of modern airports. These spaces are well codified with a sharply formed objective for its identity; mainly to manage the movement of bodies within the space to allow them quick access to their destination. There is a duality within this space in such that once at the destination, namely the gate for your aircraft, this efficient movement is replaced by a performance of waiting. The successful design of the space allows both performances to happen congruently by subdividing itself. This multiplicity of subspaces enables the identity of the space in total to remain intact. One is not forced to perform buying an overpriced meal or bottle of water, but the option is there to enhance the performance of getting onto an airplane. Both these articles illuminate the ways that a space can shape the bodied performances within them. These spaces, as well as the bodies within them, occupy the range of the spectrum between heteronormativity and homonormativity. It is when spaces move past either of these constructs in their identity they become more fragile as the more widely known structures of performance are no longer present. In fact, performing this structured normative behavior would cause the space to shift or lose its intended identity. In contrast, it is the homonormative space that has the most resilience in its identity when they are invaded by performed behavior outside of its design. One example of the homonormative bar in Chicago is Big Chicks. This bar is not within the boundaries of the state-sanctioned Boystown neighborhood but is about two miles north a few blocks from Lake Michigan. Unlike the spaces along Halstead that constitute the vast majority of gay-identified spaces in Chicago, this space holds it own existing among Kipp !5 heteronormative spaces. Big Chicks can do this by the nature of its space. The layout of the storefront space is one that is typical of most bars in Chicago. It is a relatively narrow building that is quite deep. The central area takes up about two-thirds of the total with the back third divided again to accommodate restrooms of nominally binary gender and an outdoor patio for smoking. The main bar is a standard old wood style that is almost generic. On the surface, the identity could be mistaken for any number of bars within the city. It is only after studying the bar’s decor that one can determine where on the spectrum this establishment lies. The framed artwork of retro bouffant-haired women only hints at the aesthetic that the space wishes to share with the clientele.

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