Queers Uned: Word of the Gay: "Saturday Night Butch"

Contents:

• 10 GREAT FRENCH GAY FILMS
• NO, GAY MEN DON’T HAVE TO BE ‘BUTCH’ OR ‘MASC’ TO WATCH THE NFL OR SUPER BOWL
• THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW
• GAY BUTCH T-SHIRTS & SHIRTS
• MOSW GAY BARS
• GAY LYON

10 GREAT FRENCH GAY FILMS

Although workg class butch/femme culture of the 1940s and 1950s was not a simple imatn of heterosexualy, that assumptn led to stereotypg and dismissal by many lbian femists, the medil tablishment, and more affluent lbians and gay men. La Cage x Foll (1978)Tradnally France has been seen as one of the most liberal untri the world, and boasts an enviable rerd on gay rights, spe the ocsnal rantgs om Brigte Bardot. But has this homoiendly attu translated to s cema?

We’ve kept the list to films that are easily available to watch the UK, but honourable mentn should go to The Ostrich Has Two Eggs (1957), a dated farce that at least has a sympathetic gay son, albe one who never appears on screen, and L Amiés particulièr (1964), set a boys’ boardg school. Un chant d’amour (1950)French wrer Jean Ge is one of the key figur of gay culture, whose novels (cludg Querelle of Brt), plays and says have been champned by gay and straight rears alike.

NO, GAY MEN DON’T HAVE TO BE ‘BUTCH’ OR ‘MASC’ TO WATCH THE NFL OR SUPER BOWL

There’s nothg explicly gay here, but any film that shov Jacqu Perr  a sailor su, squeez Gee Chakiris to tight whe troers and rat self wh lavish, lurid sets fely has a queer eye. La Cage x Foll (1978)“Une édie très gay” smirked the tagle for this box-office smash.

Blier’s films often foc on two aquate men ung agast women (L Valss, the Osr-wng Get Out Your Handkerchiefs), and unrton of homosexualy have always lgered the air. Here ’s ma explic, albe an ocsnally homophobic ntext – the scen where the hband is forced to don women’s clothg are particularly unfortable.

The arrival of the betiful and charismatic Gill threatens both his thory and his mand on his sexualy, as an unrequed homoerotic attractn tak hold.

THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

Anatomy of Hell (2004)Gay men hate and fear women, even more than straight men. When a woman (Amira Casar) slash her wrists a gay bar, she challeng her homosexual rcuer (Italian porn star Roc Sifedi) to spend four nights wh her to “watch me where I’m unwatchable”. Fet the cliché of the gay bt iend, this guy n’t stand women.

It’s easy to snigger at the portento dialogue (“The elasticy of a boy’s an don’t lie about the tightns of the lower tt”) and the assumptn of misogyny may rile male viewers, gay or straight.

GAY BUTCH T-SHIRTS & SHIRTS

Only the fal third is explicly gay, but homoerotic tensns simmer throughout. Most reviews foc on the showy performance of the equently naked Nilas Cazalé as the rebel whout much of a e the first chapter, but the emotnal heart li the fal third, as Morel explor the plexi of the vulnerable gay youth who mt choose between aternal loyalty and a chance at romantic happs. L Invisibl (2012)Sébastien Lifshz is bt known for his gay featur (Prque rien, Gog South), but his ft work to date is this revealg documentary which gay men and women their 60s and 70s talk about their liv and lov.

Stirrg archive footage om the 1960s shows pro-gay monstratns – tertgly, many of the straight onlookers support the liberal march. The wty, charismatic and urageo people paved the way for the eedom gay men and women enjoy today.

MOSW GAY BARS

Their disarmg ankns creat an valuable oral history, while their tal of opprsn show how far gay rights have progrsed over the s. But ’s not that we’re rels; ’s that unlike, say, the gay whe men who have been given all too much cred for fluencg ntemporary visual culture, we’re simply not out to appease the male gaze.

STEINER her own clothg; the mician MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO her own clothg; the artist NICOLE EISENMAN a vtage jacket, urty of What Go Around Com Around, (212) 343-1225, and her own clothg; the wrer EILEEN MYLES a Gucci blazer, $3, 500,, and their own clothg; the wrer ROXANE GAY a Universal Standard jacket, $448,, and her own clothg; the artist MICKALENE THOMAS a Balenciaga jacket, $2, 390, (212) 328-1671, and her own clothg; the filmmaker LORENA RUSSI a Laste su, price on requt, ; the filmmaker SU FRIEDRICH her own clothg; the artist TIONA NEKKIA McCLODDEN her own clothg; the actor-mol JENNY SHIMIZU a Raf Simons at, $5, 495,, and her own clothg; and the wrer ALISON BECHDEL her own clothg.

GAY LYON

But wasn’t until the 1960s and early 1970s that butch, themselv at the tersectn of the burgeong civil, gay and women’s rights movements, beme a more visible and viable muny. “In my early 20s, I intified as a stone butch, ” says the 45-year-old wrer Roxane Gay.

Compoundg the ual homophobia and misogyny, black and brown butch mt ntend wh racist assumptns: “Black women often get read as butch whether they are butch or not, ” Gay says. Gay not that “people tend to assume if you’re a black butch, you’re a stud and that’s , ” which is ultimately unte.