Gay and Lesbian Review March-April 2018
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LINGUA FRANCA The Gay& Lesbian Review WORLDWIDE March–April 2018 $5.95 USA and Canada ÉDOUARD LOUIS On the Complexity of Violence JOSEPH ROSE Arthur Rimbaud: Poet from the Mouth of Shadow ROY LUNA Guess Who Hosted Voltaire in Paris JOAN E. HOWARD Marguerite Yourcenar in Maine RAJAT D. SINGH How Genet Destabilizes Queer Theory ANDREW HOLLERAN Is Call Me by Your Name a ‘Gay Moment’? FROM THE EDITOR Le Printemps: “Lingua Franca” WHOLE ISSUE devoted to France! It came about as an Fast forward to the late 19th century and the Symbolist poet accident but seems justified if only by France’s central- Arthur Rimbaud, who felt at liberty to include explicitly homo- Aity to Western civilization; but also, I think France holds erotic passages in his work—Whitman or Wilde would blush— a special place in the hearts of many LGBT people for whatever and to conduct an open affair with poet Paul Verlaine. Rimbaud, reason. This is certainly true for gay intellectuals, but surely the too, provides a gay window into an era, though, as Joseph Rose attraction to things French is still more general. Who tended to suggests here, he was such an original, and possibly a madman, choose French over German in high school, couldn’t wait to visit that it’s risky to extrapolate. Paris, played French café music at parties? The flipside of this In the 20th century, novelist and playwright Jean Genet was phenomenon is the revulsion toward France that surfaces peri- similarly precocious in creating gay characters and situations. odically among American conservatives, who associate France Rajat D. Singh argues that, while Genet’s rebelliousness endears with things fancy and artsy and effete—the very qualities that him to “queer theory,” his criminality and anti-social behavior, presumably attract gay people to them. possibly even racism, pose a challenge to those seeking a work- The reason is not hard to surmise: compared to the English- ing-class hero for the modern queer set. speaking peoples, the French have just always been cooler in Another French writer who rebelled early on was Marguerite matters sexual and experimental. The Brits have no equivalent to Yourcenar, who left France before World War II never to return, the Marquis de Sade, a pervert with literary cred. This tolerance instead settling on the Maine coast with her longtime partner was sufficiently well-established in 1804 that a ban on homo- Grace Frisk. Frisk has been blamed for forcing Yourcenar to re- sexuality was expressly omitted from the Code Napoléon. main in the U.S., but Joan E. Howard maintains that this notion The tradition of French tolerance is personified by the 18th- belies a loving and productive relationship. century writer Voltaire, whose philosophy of pluralism and in- Bringing things up to date, the hot new novelist Édouard clusion, coupled with a suspicion of all authority, was echoed in Louis is interviewed by Philip Gambone about his newly trans- his private life. When he needed a place to stay upon returning to lated book, The End of Eddy. Louis reminds us that, for all the Paris, as Roy Luna elaborates here, he turned to his friend the tolerance of Paris, growing up gay in the French hinterland can Marquis de Villette, a well-known “anti-physique” whose life of- still be fraught with drama and trauma. It’s an age-old story. fers a glimpse into the gay demimonde of his era. RICHARD SCHNEIDER JR. Maurice W. Dorsey @mdorsey10 mdorsey10 www.mauricewdorseybooks.com 4Th# Gay & L#sb!an R#v!#w / oRLdide GUEST OPINION Hypermasculity as the New Drag of Black Men ality of black men who won’t cry or go to a doctor or thera- KEVIN E. TAYLOR pist for help. There was a story that went viral about a young UPAUL, the “glamazonian” drag performer who has man who took the house his father left him and tried to turn made an international name and career for himself as it into a community center for black men in trouble, and he R“a living Barbie doll,” has said: “We are all born was beaten to a pulp by the black men of the hood—hyper- naked; the rest is drag!” When I first heard him say that, I un- masculine, turf-protecting men who regarded his efforts as derstood it to mean that many people dress outside of their contrary to the norms of manhood. He is seen crying on-cam- own normal character to create a new and different persona, era, heartbroken by this response to his effort to give back to another version of themselves, so that, say, they don’t feel old the community. going into a club with twenty-somethings, or they can feel Have we programmed our men and boys not to cry and (and look) expensive by spending a lot on designer labels. not to care, because caring and loving are soft values? Is the But there is one place where the idea of clothes and presen- trouble that many black men have with Moonlight—written tation as “drag” is serious business, and that is among black and directed by a straight black man, starring an award-win- men. ning cast of black men, all of whom are straight—the fear that It has been a year since the movie Moonlight didn’t win— they will find compassion and love and affection among black and then did win!—the Academy Award for Best Picture at men in this film, that they will have to question the hatred or the annual ceremony. In reviewing some of the post-Oscar disdain that they have for gay men in their community or fam- commentary, I am struck by the number of black men who ily? Perhaps the greater fear is that they will bear witness to boycotted the movie because it was, in one man’s words, tenderness among black men—nurturing friendships and sup- “playing into Hollywood’s propaganda to try to emasculate portive role models—and have to let go of the hypermascu- black men.” I find this reaction and this remark quite puz- line drag the they think keeps them safe. zling. If anything, Hollywood has bought into the opposite of emasculation, insisting on turning black men into hypermas- Kevin E. Taylor is an author, TV producer and empowerment culine representations of “manhood” for whom crying or car- speaker who tours the country and is the senior pastor of Unity Fel- ing about each other is almost impossible. lowship Church NewArk in Newark, NJ. Thus Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney were going way outside of the usual Hollywood agenda when they decided to make an independent film about their lives, which started out in the sometimes dark streets of Liberty City in Miami, Florida, complete with rough rides on drug-infested streets and stories of the mothers lost to those streets. Play- wright McCraney wrote the play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue,” and when he handed it to filmmaker Jenkins to adapt, their worlds collided, because they discovered that, while they had lived blocks apart, they’d never met and had lived very different lives. In the version of their collective tale that made it into the film, the main character is a representa- tive of those little black boys who are mocked for being quiet and ridiculed for jeans that don’t sag to the ground. But they also created a hyper-masculine, music-blasting, grills-over- teeth, muscled man who was seen as the most masculine guy on the block. The latter image comes much closer to the mainstream perception of black men in America. To ensure that we aren’t seen as the effeminate caricatures of black gay men on real- ity TV (RuPaul and his kind), black gay men endeavor to out- butch other men, with chiseled bodies and beautiful female best friends, especially on social media and at family events. That’s why Moonlight had such an impact on black men across the spectrum of sexuality. Black men, with our posturing and profiling and mean- mugging and such, disclose to the world and to each other that we are unbreakable, never vulnerable or scared; and then we wonder why we are seen as so hard and perhaps even harsh. The image that comes from Hollywood is also the re- March–Apr%l 2018 5 FRIENDS OF THE REVIEW “Friends of The Review” are readers who donated $120+ to The Gay & Lesbian Review, a 501(c)(3) educational corporation. All gifts are fully tax-deductible. LEADERSHIP CIRCLE ($5000+) James Hess Robert K. 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