Obama and Clinton: Butch and Fem? Ctd

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30 May 2008 01:35 pm

A reader writes:

As an obsessive Golden Girls fan, and a generally fem gay man, I have to say that your reader's simplistic formulation about Barack and Hillary falls prey to the sad gender-based fallacies that still plague the gay community. I would agree with him only to the extent that some gays (butch and fem) still insist on playing the victim, and I can see an argument that they might gravitate towards Hillary. But you certainly can't peg that type of mentality to any sort of cultural gender construction reliably. My large group of gay friends runs the gamut from defensively butch to conspicuously fem, and there is no correlation between that behavior and who they support.

I am a huge Barack fan, while my butchest friend supports Hillary. None of us are what I would call professional victims, for the record. As gay men continue to learn to live their lives with sexuality as merely one personality component out of many, I honestly don't think you'll see fem boys becoming more butch simply because they don't feel victimized by society any longer, which is what your reader's argument seems to indirectly suggest. Judging from what I've seen in the young gay crowd in New York, in fact, high sass and over-the-top camp is still very much alive and well in a generation that thinks Stonewall is just a lame bar on Christopher Street. They are cocky, self-obsessed, and utterly indifferent to whether or not you approve of their attitude, just like most kids their age. What they aren't is more "butch" than their predecessors; in fact they are arguably less faux-butch than the fading Chelsea generation. One could just as easily make the argument that it was a victim mentality that created that strange steroid bubble in the first place.

Another:

Your reader is projecting it seems. I live in San Francisco. In fact, I live just down the street from the heart of the Castro. I don't see this dichotomy at all. My most 'fem' friends, the ones that love Cyndi Lauper and dance in the pride parade to the tune of Survivor are diehard Obama supporters, even precinct captains, a few are Clinton supporters, but I don't see any particular bias to one or the other. Additionally, the most butch gay friend I have, the one who almost hates to be called "gay" (even though he's open and in a relationship), clings to Clinton even now. I suspect your reader "wants" to see this dichotomy and so that is what he is seeing. I think sometimes I see a dichotomy between lesbians (Clinton) and gays (Obama), but even that is so weak I think it's my own preconceived notions getting into the way sometimes.

Another adds:

A quick note to your reader who portrays those who march in gay pride parades as wallowing in victimhood. I hope he doesn't mean all participants in these parades are wallowing. I haven't wallowed in 30 years. But I've had a damn good time celebrating improvements and advancements and increasing acceptance.

I'd like to meet his friends and see how he divides them into masculine and effeminate. Interesting that for someone who wants no part of identity-based parades, he's very quick to label and fit folks into slots.

I'm with the dissenters.

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