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Lesbian and gay cultures in the twentieth century have established a number of figures as "icons". These figures, drawn from popular culture, have functioned within lesbian and gay culture in a number of ways: first they have been fantasy figures in which lesbians and gay men have seen aspects of their own lives; second, they have provided the basis for a common subcultural knowledge.
Although, for gay men, it is female stars who predominate, just to be a female star will not make a figure an "icon" - Ingrid Bergman for instance was never an icon. And, although some icons had gay links [e.g. Joan Crawford's reputed lesbian relationship, Liza Minelli's gay husband], homosexuality as such is not really an issue in a star achieving iconic status.
Gay Male Icons: US and Britain
Major
- Judy Garland
Reason for Icon Status: A unique combination of vulnerability and strength. She was probably the most famous of all gay icons, a status she knew about and acknowledged. Her Carnegie Hall concerts in the early 1960s were major meetings of gay men. Her death days before the Stonewall Riots has been cited as part of the reason for intense emotions among the NY gay community in June 1969.
In a 1967 interview Garland summed up her life in words which show just why she appealed to the oppressed gay men of her time: "When you have lived the life I've lived, when you have loved and suffered and been madly happy and desperately sad - well, that's when you realize that you'll never be able to set it all down. . . maybe you'd rather die first."
- Yahoo!: Judy Garland links
- Judy Garland Page
- Judy Garland: The Concert Performances
An amazing site which documents, with full text press reports and contemporary pictures, all of Garland's concerts. These press reports in many cases provide documentation for the gay male cult that surrounded her.- Press Reports of Judy Garland, Carnegie Hall Concerts, 1961
From the Concert Performances site: the press reports refer with amazingly little subterfuge to the gay male audience. The New York Times noted "It was to be truthful, surprising that this audience was able to muster the pandemonium it let loose when Miss Garland wound up with 'The Trolley Song,' 'Rock-a-Bye' and included among her encores 'Over the Rainbow' and 'Swanee.'"- Press Reports of Her Death
The UPI report of her make includes an account of the rainbow colored funeral wreaths, a 21 year chef who (in 1969) brough a battery powered tape recorder playing Judy songs to the wake, and and interview with a 21 year old male model. 5,000 people lined up outside the chapel.- Ethel Merman
Reason for Icon Status: Merman was not beautiful, but succeeded on what she did have - the biggest and brassiest voice of all.- Marlene Dietrich
Reason for Icon Status:- Bette Davis
Reason for Icon Status:- Joan Crawford
Reason for Icon Status:- Edith Piaf
Reason for Icon Status:- Liza Minelli
Reason for Icon Status: Liza is Judy's daughter, but that is not the only reason for her following [Lorna Luft, Garland's other singing daughter is not an icon]. Her stage performances are highly mannered, liable to failure, but bold and brassy nevertheless. She also married a gay man (Peter Allen - who died of AIDS), and has long supported gay causes.- Mae West
Reason for Icon Status:- Barbara Streisand
Reason for Icon Status: An "ugly" girl from Brooklyn, rejected and unloved by her family, grows up to realise here own inner and outer beauty - and demands the world recognize it. Oh, and the greatest popular music interpreter/singer in English.
- Yahoo! Streisand links
- Fr. Richard Neuhaus, On Barbra Stresiand
Unintentionally hilarious attack on Streisand by a neo-conservative former Lutheran.- Julie Andrews
Reason for Icon Status:- Madonna
Reason for Icon Status:
Minor
- Carmen Miranda
Reason for Icon Status:
- Carmen Miranda Page [in English and Portuguese]
- Dolly Parton
Reason for Icon Status: Has admitted that if born a man, she would have had to have been a draq queen.- Joan Collins
Reason for Icon Status: She never tries to be good. She's a mistress of artiface, and she does not age.- Barbara Stanwyck
Reason for Icon Status:- Josephine Baker
Reason for Icon Status:- Cher
Reason for Icon Status:- Bette Midler
Reason for Icon Status: Brassy New York woman, whose carreer got aboost playing at the Continental Bathhouse in New York. From the start she supported the lesbian and gay political movements.- Ann Margret
Reason for Icon Status:- Talullah Bankhead
Reason for Icon Status:
- Tallulah [See this!]
Gay Male Icons: US
Although US culture pervades much of the world outside its borders, there remain some aspects of American culture which are virtually unknown overseas. This includes a number of gay icons.
- Blossom Dearie
Reason for Icon Status:
Gay Male Icons: Britain
Hollywood provided a common set of icons for both British and US gay cultures. There are also entirely homegrown aspects of British showbusiness. Inevitably some of the female figures became icons for British gay culture.
- Shirley Bassey
Reason for Icon Status: Although she plays, and fills, American halls regularly, Shirley Bassey is not a major American gay icon. For British gay men, however, she is among the greatest.- Kathy Kirby
Reason for Icon Status:- Lulu
Reason for Icon Status:- Cilla Black
Reason for Icon Status:Coronation Street
A long running British TV soap opera [since 1960] set in working-class Manchester. Several of its stars achieved cult status for British gays.
- Coronation Street
- Pat Phoenix [Elsie Tanner in Coronation Street]
Reason for Icon Status:- Julie Goodyear [Bet Lynch in Coronation Street]
Reason for Icon Status:
Gay Male Icons: Other Countries
- Additions/Suggestions accepted
Compiling a page such as this requires a certain degree of subcultural knowledge! I have access to this for the UK and Britain, but not for other countries. I would be interested in suggestions for such figures, suggestions which include the following information
- Name of iconic figure
- Country in which icon status is appreciate
- Reason for icon status
- any known links, other information
- Additions/Suggestions accepted
Compiling a page such as this requires a certain degree of subcultural knowledge! I have access to this for gay male subcultures, but much less for lesbian subcultures. Note that I am not looking for Lesbian *stars*, but for figures who have acquired the status of icon, comparable to the Judy Garland cult of gay men. Inlcude
- Name of iconic figure
- Country in which icon status is appreciate
- Reason for icon status
- any known links, other information
- Patsy Cline
Reason for Icon Status:
General Discussions
- Beyond Judy Garland: Can Camp Survive? [At Utne]
- Kistch [Site includes extensive summary of Sontag's "Notes on Camp"] [At Internet Archive]
- Rhonda Garelick: Outrageous Dieting: The Camp Performance of Richard Simmons [At IATH] or at MIT
- Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Icons
At this site, "icon" means flags, visual symbols, etc.- Icon/Camp Pictures
Books are articles about the sociology and history of lesbian and gay subcultural use of iconic figures. Texts about the icons themsleves [biographies, etc.] are excluded.
- Richard Dyer, Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society, (New York: Macmilla, 1987). Contents: Introduction - Monroe and Sexuality - Paul Robeson: Crossing Over - Judy Garland and Gay Men.
- Suggestions taken.
© 1998, Paul Halsall, halsall@murray.fordham.edu
[a picture!]
Note: I read all mail, and keep much of it, but I will not be able to reply to all
notes.
Last updated April 12, 2007
