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Post subject: The Ten Gay Icons
 Posted: Feb 27, 2007 - 03:27 AM
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Joined: Sep 06, 2006
Posts: 1754
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The Ten Gay Icons
Rufus Wainwright picked a list of ten gay icons for the Observer. Without going into his reasoning, here's the list.
1. Judy Garland
2. Stevie Nicks
3. Dusty Springfield
4. Madonna
5. Kylie Minogue
6. Morissey
7. Barbra Streisand
8. Pink
9. Prince
10. Kate Bush
Now, there's nothing wrong with Rufus' list. It's a fine list. It's just a little odd, as lists of gay icons go. |
_________________
"If you want the freedom, the abilities, you have to find a way. Just don't be so passive. We are capable of so much more." -- Larry Kramer
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Post subject: RE: The Ten Gay Icons
Posted: Feb 27, 2007 - 03:30 AM
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Joined: Sep 06, 2006
Posts: 1754
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The Spouse and I spent a great deal of time today puzzling over what WE thought the ten gay icons were. It entailed a certain amount of discussion on just what qualifies a person for "icon" status. We agreed that simple popularity or influence just isn't enough. As MonkeyBoy put it "I'm thinking of people that gays would have a giant portrait of stenciled on their walls." That about covers it, though those creepy "shrines" count too in my view. Second, someone does not become an icon just because a herd of tweaked-out twinkies embraced a fad... more than one generation of gays are needed to acclaim a real gay icon. Lastly, if people aren't dressing as you when they don drag for Halloween, there's a really good chance you just aren't an icon. The rest of them are just pop stars... sometimes incredibly popular pop stars. Rufus' list happened to all be singers, and given the context in which the story appeared, that was deliberate: he's not listing the ten gay icons, he's listing the ten singers who are gay icons. Alas... my house must disagree with him on a number of points. We don't think there ARE 10.
1. Cher
2. Madonna
3. Judy Garland
4. Liza
5. Barbra Streisand.
That's it. I don't know if Rufus intended his nominees to be in any particular order but we did. Ms Streisand's star is just that much paler than Cher's, but a star she most definitely gets. Before anyone jumps in with the "I must be a really bad homo then, because I don't like any of them," let me say that this is not about what you or I like -- it's about the cultural footprint these people made. I do own a recording of Judy Garland singing "Over the Rainbow," and I have a Junior Vasquez remix of a Cher tune and a DJ Monster Mo mash-up of a Madonna tune, but otherwise I do not favor any of these singers. I dare say MonkeyBoy would not be able to identify many of them by listening to a song. But he can name them, oh yes. Limiting a list of gay icons to just singers is rather odd, since a great many gay icons just don't sing. Here is our preliminary list of THE ten gay icons:
1. Cher
2. Joan Crawford
3. Bette Davis
4. Divine
5. Madonna
6. Judy Garland
7. Audrey Hepburn
8. Liza
9. Andy Warhol
10. Barbra Streisand
Mind you, the list could go on from there. Freddy Mercury would be the eleventh. It's a top-ten list though. There is no door prize for being eleventh. And yes... we were quite conscious of the fact that Madonna slips to fifth place once REAL icons are added to the mix. While we both agreed that Rufus is right -- Morrisey is the gay Elvis -- neither of us are all that certain that he's a gay icon at all. |
_________________
"If you want the freedom, the abilities, you have to find a way. Just don't be so passive. We are capable of so much more." -- Larry Kramer
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