This article has me so burnt up, I can barely type. The intro says it all: "They're smarter, sexier, and far more successful than you'll ever be. And they definitely don't speak with a lisp. Meet America's new ruling class—the Alpha Gays." In other words, successful gays today are masculine, sexy, and basically adhering to all the problematic standards of straightdom to cash in on economic success. Heteronormativity, embodied.
Well, a big fuck you to Details for glorifying their excellent performance at hegemonic masculinity while denigrating guys who "cruise the gay clubs," "steroid queens," guys who wear "torn jeans and leopard-print tops," and -- pointedly the "Carson Kressleys and Steven "Kojo" Cojocarus" of the world. This isn't just an expose on the new gay elite, it's a hit piece on sissies everywhere.
Again I say, Fuck you, Details! I haven't ever picked up your trashy excuse for a magazine, and I won't be anytime soon. It already has a history of being a racist pile of shit. Now it can add homophobic, masculinist, and sissy-bashing to its list of accomplishments for our community. I won't buy your crappy magazine, and I encourage my readers to do the same.
I first started reading Details in 2004, when I was trying to get inside the heads of partyboys for a campaign. For the record, I don't think the "gay or Asian" photospread was either racist OR homophobic -- the "Gay or ..." series problematises gaydar by taking it to its logical extremes, into the realm where it crosses over with practically everything. The weird thing about Details is that they mix articles about gay culture in with articles about straight masculine culture without any apology - it's just assumed that a fashionable upper middle class man, regardless of his sexuality, will be interested in both houseboys and profiles of scary divorce lawyers. It actually took me quite some time to realise it's not actually a gay men's magazine. If it stands for anything it's probably the ascendance of class over sexuality, and the "Alpha Gays" article sounds like it fits into that dynamic quite neatly - no need for shame if you're top of the heap, right? But to be fair, both Michael Hurley and Gary Dowsett have asked how a community that represents such a tiny fraction of the population has managed to have such enormous impact both culturally and politically, and I'd be guessing the "Alpha Gays" article is also a recognition of that, albeit in a rather warped, Conde Nasty kind of way. I'll have a flick through at Borders and get back to you...
Well, Daniel, I of course have to disagree with you RE: the "Gay or Asian" bit. Because of its audience -- white, upper middle class gay/straights -- that feature was all about emasculating Asian men as faggots and generally undesirable. It also of course reinforced a sexuality/race binary of either/or where "Gay Asian" doesn't seem to be a viable option.
The new article in Details I find utterly repulsive. Even after sleeping on it, I'm still fuming about its content. Ugh!
I am 100-fucking-percent with Trevor on this one. What a grotesque homophobic, sexist, sissy-phobic, heteronormative, & classist article. "A-gays mark measurable societal progress"----um, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
not only what you said, Trevor, but it's just classism too. All those things they call "the a gay" are the same things they call rich folks everywhere. And it is supposed to be what we all strive for.
I worry about the "of course" in that sentence, as if the position is mandatory. In that debate, people took offense by treating the Gay/Asian article as if it was deadly serious, which (a) betrays a lack of responsibility taken for the readings we produce and (b) utterly proved the subtext of the article, which was that only Details readers are savvy enough to 'get it'. Details is fascinating to me because they reveal and articulate how postmodern identity consciousness - the freedom to send up Gay and Asian - is a luxury and a privilege of the very rich and upwardly mobile.
It wasn't to indicate a mandatory disagreement :) I rather like agreeing with you usually, D :)
Just wanted to echo those who agree with Trevor on this one! This piece is about romanticizing hypermasculine bullshit. We can be thankful that in this economy Details is def headed down the drain!
This is seriously fucked up bullshit. Being somewhat of an assimilationist, I don't get why heteros have to say or feel like I'm "just like them" for me to have power. I'm gay--I don't just happen to be gay. Being a mathematician and dating a lawyer doesn't mean we have to fit your cookie cutter definition of heteronormativity for power, so fuck Details!!
Thank you trevor for really showing this.