Lesbian icons - who they are and why they are
November 2nd, 2009
What does it take to make a lesbian icon? What is that particular quality in an entertainer that renders them dear to the heart of gay girls and boys everywhere? These are questions I’ve been pondering in preparation for my new show A Brief History of Divas, which is coming up in London in November, writes Terry Sanderson.
For some, of course, the accolade of lesbian diva comes from a direct identification as being lesbian themselves – think of Dusty Springfield, kd lang or Marlene Dietrich.
For others it’s not so obvious, but what most of the classic gay icons have in common is their subversion of traditional gender roles – and that was important way back in the forties and fifties when people like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were chewing up the silver screen, repeatedly proving themselves stronger than their male co-stars.
It was women like this who gave comfort to all those closeted lesbians in the days when any admission of homosexuality was likely to bring down society’s disapproval and result in social exclusion at best and suicide at worst. Gay women in those times had to look for affirmation wherever they could find it – and often it was through the powerful women they saw in Hollywood films.
There was a sense of androgyny, too, about some of the gay heroes of yesteryear. Mae West, for instance, could easily have been a man in drag. She constantly mocked gender roles with her outrageous drag-queen-inspired outfits, laughed at the idea of men as superior and always triumphed in the war of the sexes.
Marlene Dietrich, in the same period, also gave the distinct impression that she was more than just a brainless Hollywood beauty. By some kind of mysterious psychic force – nowadays we call it gaydar – those gay people in the audience knew that she was laughing at the foolish froo-froo characters she was forced to play in her films.
Marlene was never happier than when she was dressed in male drag, kissing the girls (as in her second Hollywood film Morocco way back in the thirties). And when she became a cabaret singer, she would dress up in top hate and tails and sing “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face”. Her concerts, needless to say, were packed to the rafters with camp followers who knew a fellow traveller when they saw one.
These female performers were important to the gay community during those hard times, and lesbians and gay men were drawn to them without any prompting. The message may have been subliminal, but it reached the hearts of those of us who were struggling alone with our feelings of differentness out in the sticks.
In the fifties Doris Day sang about her “Secret Love” and longed to “shout it from the highest hill”. For her gay fans it was a statement of their frustration at being locked in this emotional closet, and they took comfort from it. Lesbians also took comfort from the rest of Calamity Jane, the film that the song came from. In it, Doris Day dresses for the most part in male drag and can’t make her mind up whether she wants to be a boy or a girl. She even sets up house with a very femme lady.
It was these occasional reassuring messages that slipped through the enforced silence about homosexuality in those narrow times that told us that there were others like us somewhere.
Nowadays we don’t need hidden messages – rather we want our icons to be standard-bearers for our sexuality. We want divas who are supportive and involved in our community. We like Madonna and Kylie and Bette Midler – all of whom have made a special effort to include and embrace their gay fans and to pay them back with their involvement in gay events.
In A Brief History of Divas, I am going to look at how the relationship between the gay community and its entertainment heroines has changed over the years. I’ll be showing some of their best performances on a big screen, looking at the comedy queens, the drama queens and the best torch singers who have had an especial appeal to the gay sensibility. It will be an evening of fun and music, as well as a means of looking what it is in us that loves camp, histrionics and sheer over-the-top glamour.
We’ll see on a big screen Eartha, Marlene, Bette & Joan, Barbra, Judy, Liza, Mrs Overall, Edina & Patsy and many other gay favourites performing at their best and (of course) their very worst.
A Brief History of Divas will play for two nights at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL on Thursday 5 and Friday 6 November. Tickets are £10. Further information and booking here: www.secularism.org.uk/divas
I loved this article!
meagain ∼ November 5th, 2009 8:21 am