Newspapers / Q-notes (Charlotte, N.C.) / May 31, 1997, edition 1 / Page 19
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Q-Notes T May 31,1997 T PAGE 19 Controversial book explores degeneration of gay sensibility by Vicki Chew Special to Q-Notes In The Rise and Fall of Gay Culture, prize winning essayist and critic Daniel Harris ar gues that the assimilation of gay culture into mainstream society is rapidly undermining gay men’s sense of themselves as a distinct minor ity. Harris, whose work has been anthologized in Best American Essays of1993 and who is a When did gay men abandon the natty attire of the fop and begin imitating the appearance of working-class straight men? What role have homosexuals played in society's recent fascination with men's underwear? Why was AIDS — the first disease with its own gift — turned into kitsch? shop regular contributor to Harper’s, Salmagundi, and Newsday, shows how a once vibrant sensi bility, which was originally created in response to oppression, is now being eroded by social acceptance and rampant commercialization. Furthermore, Harris raises crucial questions, not only about the decline of the homosexual sensibility, but about the death of racial and cultural diversity in society at large. With wit, audacity, and penetrating insight, Harris charts the historical development and meaning of the icons and institutions of gay cultute in order to assess what is gained and what is lost when the vety factors that gave rise to that cultute are eliminated. What, Harris asks, lies behind the deification of gay cult fig- utes such as Judy Garland and Bette Davis? When did gay men abandon the natty attire of the fop and begin imitating the appeatance of working-class straight men? What role have homosexuals played in society’s recent fascina tion with men’s underwear? ^^y was AIDS — the first disease with its own gift shop — turned into kitsch? Over time, Harris contends, essential ele ments of gay cultute have not only changed, but have changed into their opposites; what were once ve hicles of political protest have now become sanitized commodities. The veneration of ac tresses has become the ridicule of ac tresses. Butch, tat tooed bodies have become effeminate, “decorated” ones. Exotic, playful drag queens have become mean, militarized gender benders. Sa distic leather men have become macro biotic neopagans. Conservative, assimilationist propagandists have become anti mainstream radices. Harris reveals how changes have occurred not only in the most conspicuous aspects of gay culture, but in the least visible and, at first sight, insignificant ones — from the facial ex pressions of cross-dressers and the way actots kiss in pom films to the coverage of opera in gay newspapers and the urban homosexual’s attitudes toward chest hair and tan lines; from the language gay men use to describe their pref erences in bed and the words they use to iden tify their lovers to the literary circumlocutions pornographers have created for body parts and sex acts. Harris writes, “The force behind these changes is the accelerating pace of our assimi lation into mainstream society. What is hap pening to gay cultute parallels what has been happening to popular culture on a much larger scale ever since the invention of a metaphor central to our understanding of the historical mission of America: the melting pot.... The Rise and Fall of Gay Culture traces the circuitous route of assimilation, following the long trail of debris jettisoned by a decaying civilization as it levels the features of the various tribes it comprises in order to create out of a racially plurdistic society a single monolithic culture. By focusing as a test case on the changes that have occurred in the gay community, I describe the gtadual dissolution of the ethnic diversity of a country that demands from its minorities nothing less than a voluntary act of subcultural suicide performed to avoid both social ostra cism and economic disenfranchisement.” Can gay cultute maintain a separate iden tity as its major institutions lose their vitality and become both comfottable and familiar? And, what’s more, would the demise of gay culture really be as devastating a tragedy as many believe? Only a nostalgic fool, Harris asserts, would want to prevent it from happening, since the flourishing of traditional forms of gay cul ture depends on the persistence of oppression. Nevertheless, he writes, “the process of assimi lation is unpleasant, and we recoil ftom the sight of the extreme homogenization of American culture, of a monolithically uniform melting pot gobbling up its minorities.... It is this com plex and ambivalent attitude toward assimila tion, toward both its necessity and its ultimate ruinous impact on us as a minority, that marks the pages of this book.” At a time when gay culture is reaching its most “mature” and self-aware form. The Rise and Fall of Gay Culture claims it is aaually on the verge of extinaion. A confrontational and brilliantly inventive work of cultural criticism comparable to Wayne Koestenbaum’s The Queens Throat and Camille Paglia’s Sexual Per sonae, it is certain to stimulate debate, both in side and outside the community. T Your Gay & Lesbian Everything Store! CHARLOTTE 834 Central Ave. (704) 377-4067 Monday-Saturday 11 am-9 pm Sunday 1 pm-6 pm White Rabbit Books & Things GREENSBORO 1833 Spring Garden St. (910) 272-7604 Monday-Friday 10 am-9 pm Saturday 10 am-7 pm Sunday 1 pm-6 pm RALEIGH 309 W. Martin St. (919) 856-1429 Monday-Friday 11 am-9 pm Saturday 11 am-7 pm Sunday 1 pm-6 pm Host Hotel OMNI-Chapei Hill t{600)THE-OMNI Call & ask for the $8S •Pride" rate JUNE 6-B North CARnUl^ji^ Rally Highlights disappear fear Sarah's Naked Salad Z-UP McMIier's Agditist Jesse in CAFSRBnRn-CHAPEL Hi LL Domna Bed Wag Tom McCormack ¥ STATES BEINGS Hilarious Lesbian Comedian, Marga Gomez will perform two shows at the OMNI on Friday Night June 6th. Call "Pride" Line for tickets. Saturday, June 7 9pm-2am The States of Being Dance” Hot DJ in the OMNI Ballroom Pick Up a Pride Guide at your local book store or nightclub and check us OUT! NC Pride 97 Contacts P.O. Box 205, Carrboro, NC, 27510 Pride Line (919)990-1005;Fax (919)968-6032 Email ncpridc97@aol.com web page (http://mcmbcrs.aol.com/ncpridc97/indcx.html)
Q-notes (Charlotte, N.C.)
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May 31, 1997, edition 1
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