Op-ed: The Gay Clon Everyone Knows

Hey--while Im not gay, I fd this perd tertg:Like any other thg, facial hair has s trends. In the 60s, beards were popular; the 80s, was signer stubble ala Don Johnson. Currently, the most popular facial hair trend * gay clone look *

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. )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.

CLONG FASHN: UNIFORM GAY IMAG MALE APPAREL

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 look *

”) “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. (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.

TOM OF FLAND’S HYPERMASCULE GAY IMAG ‘THE PLEASURE OF PLAY’

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 surp... * gay clone look *

“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. “The clone look was certaly about a whe gay man’s rponse and engagement wh those archetyp, ” says Ben Barry, the an of the school of fashn at the New School’s Parsons School of Dign, whose rearch foc on fashn’s relatnship to masculy, sexualy, and the body.

ONE OF N.L.'S FIRST MARRIED GAY UPL LOOK BACK WH PRI

Late June’s (2019) 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Rts is makg this Pri month a particularly reflective one. But like a newly mted AARP member flippg through their high school yearbook, the morn gay rights movement’s “Big five-oh” moment brgs, wh s flood of memori, certa hard qutns—not the least of which is: What posssed… * gay clone look *

”)Prentg as mascule public was physilly safer for gay guys, but the clone stume pulled double duty, Barry says, tweakg tradnal masculy while also signalg to other queer folks. “There’s this munal thg happeng right now where people are more open that they’re trans and non-bary or bisexual and not jt on the spectm of beg straight, gay, male, female. ) 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.

GAY HISTORY: AFTER STONEWALL CLON, CLOSETS AND COS

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… * gay clone look *

Hey--while I'm not gay, I fd this perd tertg:Like any other thg, facial hair has 's trends. Many '70s porn stars, such as Ron Jeremy and others also wore the late '70s, many gay men cid to drs like blue llar straight men and th the ''clone'' look me to the fore.

It's not necarily a gay thg, after all, there are women who have beards and siburns:DI always wonred why guys had mutton chops, or those texas motach that curled out on the sis. The 70s, the two most popular forms of facial hair a man uld have were eher a mtache, siburns, or, and had nothg to do wh beg gay.

Yeah, I didn't mean that had anythg to do wh beg gay--siburns and stach were '''' the 70s. However, due to the whole clone look which appeared toward the end of the , stach me to be unfortunately associated wh gays.

GAY HISTORY: REMAKG THE CASTRO CLONE

::)and I thought Ned Flanrs was gay but he has a wife and 2 children so my assumptn was wrong. I've certaly read about Ana Bryant's pie to the face and Barney Frank's youthful(ish) discretns, but what really gets me to a time warp k-hole are the now-disntued personals and advertisements for bars, clubs, and "spas"; you get to see how gay men really prented themselv and what the often-warped standard of bety the issue is om the '60s, the featured guys are smooth, mcled, and whe (diversy wasn't our strong su back then).

)There is certaly a clone "look" that still permeat gay male culture; specific styl that intify someone as a rd-rryg homosexual, whether that's the tentn or not.

Sce I haven't been to a gay bar six months (too much effort), I cid to pese -- our sister se and arber of gayville -- to see what the predomant gay look is the attentn was pulled strongly and swiftly toward "The 30 Sexit Gay Sex Scen Film" (unlike fashn, men never change). One of my favore movi of all time, 2011's Weekend, almost tops the list (sorry) and that movie not only ptured the morn gay male experience a te, betiful, and searg way, also got the "look" jt right.

POLIL-ENOMIC NSTCTN OF GAY MALE CLONE INTY

Ma characters Rsell and Glen are thoughtful and distctive, but physilly they're clon; their refully librated scff and poma-assisted hair is at every gay dive bar om Edburgh to Williamsburg.

GAY HISTORY: SEND THE CLON

Looks was to the ' soclogil searchg next took me to the gay bars of our time: iPhone apps. ) beg the Inter, cloth were not a huge mody, so I thought about draggg myself to a gay bar for an up-close look at clone fashn.

Sadly, I jt uldn't stomach the will to shower aga (hyper-cleanls beg a big part of gay clone culture), so I did the next bt thg, more like the most lazy: I Facebook-stalked my gay male iends. I walked to the bathroom and looked at the gay man the mirror.

GAY HISTORY: WHEN DID WE TURN ON THE MOTACHE?

In honor of the realizatn of my samens, I snapped a photo: more than scff, poma, and polos, the selfie will likely be the endurg gay look of the BROVERMAN is a lumnist for The Advote and the edor chief of Out Traveler. Gay men have ed fashn to create a regnizable image, sometim imatn or exaggeratn of aggrsively heterosexual attire. Before Stonewall, the gay man was often intified as a 'Pansy'.

TOM OF FLAND’S HYPERMASCULE GAY IMAG ‘THE PLEASURE OF PLAY’

After the Send World War, the artist Tom of Fland began prentg a new image of gay men--happy, rambunct and hypermascule appearance, cidg wh the velopment of biker culture and social groups of gay men who did not intify wh the effemate stereotype. Wh gay liberatn me the 'Clone', a seri of variatns reflectg the ncerns of gays, who -opted apparel and groomg intified wh tradnally 'mascule' men, cludg some viewed as opprsors.

Gay History: After Stonewall Clon, Closets and Cos | timalrman

Recent Posts

Tags

Contents: