Gay male flight attendants I’m So Exced: The history of the gay steward stereotype.

soul plane gay flight attendant

My flight was beg served by an obvly gay flight attendant, who seemed to put everyone a good mood as he served food and drks.

Contents:

THE GAY FLIGHT ATTENDANT

* soul plane gay flight attendant *

My flight was beg served by an obvly gay flight attendant, who seemed to put everyone a good mood as he served food and the plane prepared to scend, he me swishg down the aisle and told that "Capta Marvey has asked me to announce that he'll be landg the big sry plane shortly, so lovely people, if you uld jt put your trays up, that would be super. Some mentary on Pedro Almodóvar’s new edy I’m So Exced has noted that rerc gay stereotyp, particularly the characters of s sassy male flight attendants, who are all gay. When did the gay steward bee such a mon stereotype?

Some stewards were hired back after returng om World War II—often out of a sense of loyalty or patrtic duty—but bee they performed what was nsired “women’s work, ” they were thought to be effemate and were therefore spected of beg homosexual, acrdg to the bias of the time. This perceptn was further rerced when the killg of a gay male flight attendant a “lover’s lane” Miami brought the stereotype to the headl of sensatnal stori the Miami Daily News.

HOW THE GAY AIRLE STEWARD BEME A STEREOTYPE

In the macho, homophobic years of the 1950s, this provoked a crackdown on the cy’s unrground gay muny, and stori like the were seen as evince that gay people were “perverts. ” Many airl (some of which traed their stewards Miami) turn quietly did away wh hirg stewards, both gay and straight. Ever sce, men have generally prised about 15 percent of flight attendants, pendg on the airle, and a high percentage of the men returng to the ranks of the flight attendant rps the 1970s were gay.

For gay men, there were many reasons to bee a flight attendant— wasn’t jt the willgns of many to do stereotypilly feme work. As Tiemeyer wr, “the aisl and galleys of airplan, as well as crew hotels and crash pads, served the same role that other gays and lbians found bars: a place where they uld meet others like themselv and even embrace their same-sex sir for the first time. And I’d walk through termals, and I knew if there were gay men, they’d be lookg at me.

So how many flight attendants were and are gay?

GAY FLIGHT ATTENDANT

They timated that “between 30 and 50 percent of male flight attendants were gay the 1950s, and between 50 and 90 percent the 1970s. Includ on the flight is the basic assortment of ritur: an effemate gay flight attendant, a bld pervert, a ravenoly sexual black uple, some bootylic stewarss, a pair of wisecrackg secury agents, and a handful of past-their-prime hip-hop stars.

The script gets a lot of eage out of s gay character (played by Gary Anthony Williams) and while 's not exactly a sympathetic treatment, there's no sign of the mean-spiredns that often lours this type of role; 's fun to watch hip-hop hard-ass like Method Man and Snoop Dogg nonted wh some gay ntent. There is a gay flight attendant named Gaemon (another unorigal and obv name joke, played by edian Godey).

Later the film, Gaemon paras around the airplane wh other stereotypilly gay passengers. The Qantas passenger b was beg served by an obvly gay flight attendant who seemed to put everyone to a good mood as he served them food and drks.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* SOUL PLANE GAY FLIGHT ATTENDANT

Gay male flight attendants I’m So Exced: The history of the gay steward stereotype. .

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