184 Journal of Popular Culture rather, is a culmatn of a remarkable velopment, primarily theater, North Ameri and England durg the mid-to-late 1960s. This is the era of dience-participatn theater, outrageo plays on genr and old-movie stereotyp the subgenre known as âtheater of the ridiculo,â and a Greek ht revivalism t a clud performanc of Greek tragedy theii origal language? The Rocky Horror Show,which opened London 1973 and Los Angel 1974, is th relatively belated, the movie was released 1975. Th whatever we might say about the figure of Dnys and the practic over which he pris, based on observatns of the Rocky Horror Picture Show,should have some bearg on our unrsrandg of their strikg importame m relatn to the velopment of public gay sensibiliand cultural pric the formative 1970s. As is tbe se wh all Greek mythic figur, is very difficult to fe and pecially to isolate Dnys f o the seamls web of ias and imag that forms rm the text of s lerary and relig culture.â But a least for the prent, mak sense t to pot to (about) three feams of
Contents:
POSTMORN GAY DNYS: DR. FRANK N. FURTER
* is frank n furter gay *
Beyond this, everythg begs to atrophy after Frank is shown rapg Brad and Ja, re-enforcg the “bury your gays” and “ath by sex” trop. Throughout the history of cema, queerns has long had associatns wh wickedns and villay – whether that’s explic homosexualy or a gay dg that signaled a character’s unspoken troubled legacy – which too often treats same-sex attractn as the e of vlent perversn – n be a burn for queer dienc lookg for greater posive reprentatn. While ls than a fifth of top-grossg 2014 releas featured a gay character, a disturbg number (Get Hard; Ted 2) relied on gay people as the butt of their jok.
Dr Robert Elltt, a Hchck-que trans killer played by Michael Cae Brian Palma’s 1980 film Drsed to Kill, was one of the first films – followed by Silence of the Lambs – to be protted by LGBT groups for s reprentatn of queer the recent Do I Sound Gay?, documentarian David Thorpe pots out that the gay villa is also absurdly ubiquo the Disney non: everythg om The Jungle Book to Aladd featur an effemate animated antagonist. ” Waters’ own work is a ttament to his love of “bad” gay people, om his s-long iendship wh Llie Van Houten to his omniprent bands of outsirs – films like Pk Flamgos – that remble more the Manson Fay than the Brady an dtry that too often tells LGBT viewers ’s bad to be queer through lazy, homophobic jok at our expense, queer villas remd that embracg the darkns isn’t jt liberatg – beg bad n be absolutely dive. Th whatever we might say about the figure of Dnys and the practic over which he pris, based on observatns of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, should have some bearg on our unrsrandg of their strikg importame m relatn to the velopment of public gay sensibiliand cultural pric the formative 1970s.
In a time and place where gay rights was jt fdg a voice the wake of the Stonewall rts, the Waverly attracted a ngregatn of groovy outsts, weirdo and rejects.