PREV INDEX NEXT Pre- & Post-Stonewall Gay Male Imagery Guest Curator: Stephen Davis, Columbia University Libraries

Because homosexuals have generally been a despised minority in the West, at least in recent centuries, visual portrayals of them are usually fraught with cultural baggage and non-aesthetic agendas of various kinds. Mainstream Western societies have often created stereotypes that reflect their fear of the erotic, intolerance for sexual diversity, and dislike of gender role blurring.

Popular media in the US, both before Stonewall and still today, for the most part simply refused to portray gay men (or lesbians) at all. When they are presented, it has usually been as marginal characters who live in a "twilight world of misfit conduct" (Russo). These portrayals tend to alternate between traditional effeminate stereotypes used for comic effect, and lurid portrayals of homosexuals as troubled, lonely, perhaps artistic, sometimes witty (or at least waspish), often predatory and occasionally even homicidal.

More recently such images have been interspersed with attempts to portray gay men in a more positive light, promoting the "liberal" notion that gays are really "just like anyone else." Within the last year or two, a few mainstream media and advertisers have dared to brave conservative and religious fundamentalist backlash in the hope of capitalizing on what is viewed as a prosperous gay market. This new trend has resulted in a revised set of handsome, sanitized, white middle class, Madison Avenue images that seem culturally suspended among the ever-present hateful stereotypes of the past and the actual, extravagant diversity of the queer and transgender population.

Case Displays

Images from 18th & 19th Century England

Rictor Norton. Mother Clap's Molly House: The Gay Subculture in England 1700-1830. London: OBGMP, 1992.

Norton's work documents the highly developed gay male subculture in England in the 18th and early 19th centuries, which existed despite that fact that the penalty for "sodomy" during much of this period was hanging. The images below are among the illustrations included in this work.

"Ganymede & Jack-Catch" (1771).    A satiric engraving done by M. Darly in 1771 portrays convicted sodomite Samuel Drybutter ("Ganymede") as he escapes being hanged. The hangman ("Jack-Catch") says "Damme Sammy you'r a sweet pretty creature & I long to have you at the end of my string." Drybutter coyly replies "You don't love me Jacky."

"Confirmation, or, the Bishop and the Soldier" (1822).   This satirical print was published in 1822 and represents an actual incident. The Bishop of Clogher had been discovered soliciting the favors of the soldier John Moverley in the back parlor of the White Lion pub. Upon discovery, both Clogher and Moverley were dragged through the streets, severely beaten, and jailed. (Ironically, Clogher was a noted member of the British Society for the Supression of Vice, which held homosexuality to be an abomination. A great scandal ensued during which clergymen on the street were reportedly regularly spat upon.)

Images of Oscar Wilde, 1892/1893

	"Oscar Wilde," from The Sunday Chronicle (London, England), April 23 1893.	"Noah's Head," from The Yorkshire Weekly Post (Leeds, England), April 22, 1893.
"Fancy Portrait" in Punch, March 5, 1892

Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900, called himself a "professor of aesthetic," "an apostle of pleasure," and a socialist. Perhaps the most widely caricatured figure of his time, he himself cultivated a public image of sensuous, decorative languor, emotional extravagance, and flamboyant "effeminacy," all of which were reflected in and heightened by the press and contemporary artists. After Wilde's imprisonment for sodomy, the name "Oscar" was reportedly used in the streets as an epithet to be hurled at long-haired or effeminate men, becoming the late 19th century equivalent of today's "faggot."

The detailed "Fancy Portrait" from Punch, portrays Wilde as an effete pretender to the throne of Shakespeare; the accompanying article complains about Wilde's behavior addressing the audience after a performance of Lady Windermere's Fan, during which he apparently comported himself in a way that resembled nothing so much as the performance or conceptual art of the later 20th century--a style that characterized of much of Wilde's public life.

George Grossmith walks his flowery way as Reginald Bunthorne, a fleshly poet (ca. 1881)

Three Aesthetic Dragoons from Patience (ca. 1881)

Patience, a New and Original Aesthetic Opera in Two Acts, by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, included a satiric portrayal of Wilde and the aesthetic movement, with Wilde's affectations distributed between the two rival aesthetic poets, Bunthorne and Grosvener. Note also the photo of "three aesthetic dragoons" from the same operetta. Wilde reportedly disliked the play but appreciated the notoriety. The images are reprinted in: Robin Wilson and Frederic Lloyd. Gilbert & Sullivan: The Official D'Oyly Carte Picture History. New York: Knopf, 1984.

The Twentieth Century

Vito Russo's groundbreaking work, The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies, (Rev. ed. New York: Harper and Row, 1987) describes what he considers Hollywood's "consistent refusal to portray lesbians and gay men--when it portrayed them at all--as anything but one-dimensional characters, alien to the American dream." (from the introduction). The movie stills below are reproduced from Russo's book.

Ernst Truex in "The Warrior's Husband" (1933)

Franklin Pangborn in "Only Yesterday" (1933)

"The Gay Deceivers" (1969)

John Cazale and Al Pacino in a still from "Dog Day Afternoon" (1975).

The Village People appropriated gay male fantasy role types of the kind that had begun to capture the erotic imagination of Greenwich Village and San Francisco in the mid-Seventies. Jacques Morali, who produced the records and wrote the songs--many dripping with gay sexual innuendo--somehow managed to sell the concept to straight America without their catching on ... at least initially. The real unanswered question may be: exactly which "village" did America think these gentlemen were from?

"Cruisin'" was published in Los Angeles, by Casablanca Record & Filmworks, 1978. Songs included: "YMCA," "The Women," "I'm a Cruiser," "Hot Cop," "My Roomate [sic]," "Ups and Downs." Performers: Policeman, Victor Willis; Cowboy, Randy Jones; Construction Worker, David "Scar" Hodo; Indian, Felipe Rose; Leather Man, Glenn M. Hughes; The GI, Alexander Briley.

Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite (1990)

Tom Hanks in "Philadelphia" (1993)

Stills from IKEA's gay-oriented marketing campaign (1994).

"The Comfort Zone" (1994)

Lara Flynn Boyle, Josh Charles and Stephen Baldwin in "Threesome" (1994)

"Northern Exposure" (1994)