Levis 501 jeans. Sk tight. Sand down at the kne and crotch for that perfectly worn- look. Third button unbuttoned to create a b of allure. T-shirt, also sk tight. A Levis snap-ont plaid. That was the uniform of the Castro clone, the gay fashn in spawned the 70s that -- wh surprisgly mor…
Contents:
- HOW THE GAY COMMUNY HELPED POPULARIZE WORKWEAR
- OP-ED: THE GAY CLON EVERYONE KNOWS
- GAY HISTORY: REMAKG THE CASTRO CLONE
HOW THE GAY COMMUNY HELPED POPULARIZE WORKWEAR
Workwear's roots may have started on railroads and nstctn s, but s boom populary more recent history ow much to the gay mun * gay clone style *
But when one particular look cropped up the post-Stonewall gay scene of the 1970s, was so popular—and so distct—that the guys who sported were dismissed as “clon.
OP-ED: THE GAY CLON EVERYONE KNOWS
Gay men of the '70s are remembered for hirsute fac and sktight jeans; their brothers of the '90s were partial to bangs and stubble. How will the gay "look" of the 2010s be remembered? * gay clone style *
)And while the nickname was ially pejorative, the clone perd marked perhaps the first time that gay men prented themselv wh a queer-signalg uniform that was a direct rponse to societal stereotyp. “The clone was a reactn to thgs you would see movi of gay men beg flty and nelly, ” says John Calendo, a wrer who lived LA and New York Cy throughout the 70s and 80s, and worked as an edor at the clone-cubatg sk mags Blueboy and In Touch for Men. He pots to the gay mstrel stereotyp the 1967 film The Producers, along wh the timid-lookg guys on the illtrated vers of gay pulp books wh nam like All the Sad Young Men.
(Not to mentn the 1964 article Life magaze lled “Homosexualy Ameri, ” which scribed a “sad and often sordid world. ”) “That’s the kd of imagery”—backwards stereotyp that basilly villaized queer people—“that a lot of my generatn who beme the clone people grew up wh the ccible of the 60s, ” Calendo ntu, when the civil rights and gay liberatn movements were expandg ias of equaly and eedom. Drsg like a clone, he says, was a rejectn of those olr gay ’s not so easy to ppot precisely who origated the clone ial, guys who were alive at the time ually brg up Al Parker, an adult film star turned producer and director who worked om the 70s to the early 90s.
GAY HISTORY: REMAKG THE CASTRO CLONE
(Parker would eventually bee an advote for gay rights and safe sex, producg only safe-sex films before he passed away om plitns due to AIDS 1992. It was like, Oh that’s somethg wh a ltle work I uld atta, and I thk that’s why beme so quickly absorbed to the gay muny.
“When I thk back on havg lived through the time, was like gay guys were pg om this stereotype that was jt culted to the culture of sissi and faggots, ” says Woodff.