Any other former homophobes here?

[cdstefi]

Growing up as a boomer in the 70s, it was practically compulsory to be homophobic. A lot of TV humour revolved around it for instance.

That attitude I believe has stuck with me in that although I now openly crossdress and have had a couple of full-on gay sexual experiences, I still prefer not to identify as a sissy or remotely camp, and find outrageously campy behaviour (e.g. drag race etc) a switch-off. It has too many overtones of the 70s for me, as if people still can't be gay or bi without exaggerating it.

The guys I've gotten sexy with have been lingerie wearers but not sissy, and I like that best.

 

[stickygirl]

Growing up as a boomer in the 70s, it was practically compulsory to be homophobic. A lot of TV humour revolved around it for instance.

That attitude I believe has stuck with me in that although I now openly crossdress and have had a couple of full-on gay sexual experiences, I still prefer not to identify as a sissy or remotely camp, and find outrageously campy behaviour (e.g. drag race etc) a switch-off. It has too many overtones of the 70s for me, as if people still can't be gay or bi without exaggerating it.

The guys I've gotten sexy with have been lingerie wearers but not sissy, and I like that best.

From what I hear that's about it with the 70s. I was talking to an old timer at work about David Bowie and he recalled how people thought that when Bowie camped it up, he was either gay or nuts and no one really understood it was just a performance. We can be sure now that Bowie was bi, but he was only playing around like an actor. People then tended to think a musician's act was who they were.
Same with people reading waaay too much into Beatle album covers (Paul's dead! ) and playing some track backwards to summon the devil or some shit like that!
There must have been a scarey naivety then - like the US paranoia about communism.
We just have different crazy these days... vaccines gave me autism

 

[cdstefi]

From what I hear that's about it with the 70s. I was talking to an old timer at work about David Bowie and he recalled how people thought that when Bowie camped it up, he was either gay or nuts and no one really understood it was just a performance. We can be sure now that Bowie was bi, but he was only playing around like an actor. People then tended to think a musician's act was who they were.
Same with people reading waaay too much into Beatle album covers (Paul's dead! ) and playing some track backwards to summon the devil or some shit like that!
There must have been a scarey naivety then - like the US paranoia about communism.
We just have different crazy these days... vaccines gave me autism

There is the famous Bowie appearance on Top of the Pops, 1972 I think, where he faux-fellates Mick Ronson's guitar during Starman. The trope is that that single moment gave thousands of kids validation to be a bit queer, and it's borne out by a lot of anecdotal evidence. Have to admit I didn't actually watch it at the time or get turned, being only 10 and not yet into glam rock, but I have seen it many times since.

But even Bowie's performative camp seems a bit over the top to me. I know that camp is quintessentially part of gay culture and many celebrate it for that, but the ingrained homophobe in me is still left cold by it. I kind of feel that when gayness is seen as normal and no more unusual than heterosexuality, that you can be gay without having to wave your freak flag high, it'll have won the battle rather than just the fight.

 

[stickygirl]

There is the famous Bowie appearance on Top of the Pops, 1972 I think, where he faux-fellates Mick Ronson's guitar during Starman. The trope is that that single moment gave thousands of kids validation to be a bit queer, and it's borne out by a lot of anecdotal evidence. Have to admit I didn't actually watch it at the time or get turned, being only 10 and not yet into glam rock, but I have seen it many times since.

But even Bowie's performative camp seems a bit over the top to me. I know that camp is quintessentially part of gay culture and many celebrate it for that, but the ingrained homophobe in me is still left cold by it. I kind of feel that when gayness is seen as normal and no more unusual than heterosexuality, that you can be gay without having to wave your freak flag high, it'll have won the battle rather than just the fight.

So how do you feel about RuPaul and co?

 

[cdstefi]

So how do you feel about RuPaul and co?

It's just not for me.

 

[stickygirl]

It's just not for me.

I'm guessing you felt you needed to be brief, perhaps for fear of offence? I'm with you on that and although there have been one or two contestants who have subsequently come out as trans, I find the show's format pretty crass. Initially I thought it insulted trans women - and cis women too, but I realise viewers see it as pantomime. OTOH isn't that how blackface started out and now that is definitely seen as racist? I think there's little chance of successful objection being made in defence of trans women by calling transphobic, because after all these days, who gives a shit?

 

[cdstefi]

I'm guessing you felt you needed to be brief, perhaps for fear of offence?

I see no need to offend anyone who thinks Drag Race is absolutely fabulous (my wife likes it for instance), it just does nothing whatsoever for me. I think it reminds me of the 70s in that drag/camp was the only vaguely acceptable way to be gay and express it back then, and camp acts were a convenient deflection for the homophobes to laugh at while everyday unassuming gay guys were getting beaten up for coming out of the wrong clubs.

 

[cdstefi]

I guess my latent queerness began at an age I'm better off not revealing, but I did have a wet dream when at grammar school (HS for Americans) about a classmate naked apart from his tighty-whitey Y-fronts.

 

[stargame]

I guess my latent queerness began at an age I'm better off not revealing, but I did have a wet dream when at grammar school (HS for Americans) about a classmate naked apart from his tighty-whitey

Like you I won't reveal my age, but i was already wearing panties when I was seduced by a older friend. He knew I was different and took full advantage of it. My gay radar was operating at an early age. It was all a good thing.

 

[Sol41]

Im so happy to see people like this are welcomed here. I used to hang out in a lot of leftist queer spaces and its completely insufferable how insular it can be. They fundamentally believe people cant change.

And I dont care what media someone likes. Its a meaningless signifier imo.