Are all homosexuals "gay," in the modern sense of the word? No, insists David M. Halperin in How To Be Gay (Belknap Harvard Press, $35). For him, embracing "gay culture" is independent of sexual behavior, thus theoretically appealing to heterosexuals and lesbians. What is "gay culture?" According to Halperin, who is openly gay and teaches the History and Theory of Sexuality at the University of Michigan, it's based on "camp," a concept briefly discussed by Christopher Isherwood in his 1954 novel The World in the Evening, then given wider attention by Susan Sontag in her 1964 essay Notes on "Camp." Sontag admitted it was difficult to define, but included an exaggerated emphasis on style, a love of artifice, and a way of converting the serious into the frivolous. She linked camp to perspectives held by gay men. Halperin builds on Sontag's foundation, adding that gay culture centers around enthusiastic admiration for a certain type of female star.
His book resulted from a class of the same title that he taught at Ann Arbor, which attracted national attention and led to speculation that he was instructing students in explicit male-to-male sexual behavior, which was hardly the case. In essence, Halperin sees camp and gay culture as embracing male femininity, thus defusing it of its pejorative connotations. On a personal level, it took him awhile to get to that point. For example, while living in San Francisco in the 1970s, he would attend "serious" films at the Castro Theatre, but avoided gay favorites like The Women (1939). He didn't understand the appeal of female deities, such as Judy Garland, enshrined in many gay men's pantheons.
In How To Be Gay, he focuses on Joan Crawford (1906-77) in her Oscar-winning performance as Mildred Pierce (1945). Halperin admits that had he selected another actress and film, his conclusions about gay culture would be different. Crawford is a surprising choice, but one he justifies because in films like Heathers (1988), a new generation linked fascination with her to gay males. He cites references to Mildred Pierce in contemporary punk-rock songs, the renewed interest in Crawford spurred by her adopted daughter Christina's vicious and highly suspect memoir Mommie Dearest, and the 1981 Faye Dunaway film version of the book. He also mentions Lypsinka's various cabaret acts based on Crawford.
For Halperin, Crawford's Mildred is strong, successful, glamorous, yet abject and tortured by her ungrateful daughter, Veda (Ann Blyth). He believes that Crawford embodies these conflicting traits in a way that makes her uniquely appealing to a gay male sensibility. To him, the key scene in the movie �" when Mildred tells Veda to get out before she kills her �" symbolizes gay male culture. The moment is tragic and campy, with melodramatic dialogue delivered without humor.
Crawford was likely a late arrival to the Gay Pantheon, probably not entering it until the mid-1950s, after 25 years as a major star. For decades, her primary audience was working-class women. Bette Davis, Tallulah Bankhead, Mae West, Katharine Hepburn, Ethel Merman, all of whom had strong personalities with exaggerated, easily and frequently imitated voices and mannerisms, were probably more popular with gay men in the 1930s and 40s than Crawford was, and they continued to appeal to gay Baby Boomers. Halperin concedes that for most young gay men today, Crawford has been replaced by Madonna and Lady Gaga.
He discusses gay culture's relationship to misogyny, and understands why many feminists decry it. He insists, however, that camp transcends misogyny by honoring the female component of many gay men's personalities. He's impatient with the Brokeback Mountain view of hyper-masculine gay men.
While the male homophobic tree has many roots, perhaps the deepest, widest, and strongest is misogyny, which presumes that when two men have sex, one is playing the "female" part, because he is being penetrated. Even in Ancient Greece, which venerated the love between a young man and a teenage boy as the ideal romantic relationship, the younger partner's allowing himself to be entered was regarded as an extraordinary act of love, something his lover could only hope to enjoy after a careful courtship. At least that was the official story. Scholar K.J. Dover argued that homoerotic sex in Ancient Greece was intercrural and didn't involve oral or anal penetration, despite considerable evidence to the contrary found on pornographic Greek pottery.
Alas, Halperin doesn't suggest an alternative paradigm to applying male/female sex roles to male/male sexual behavior. In such a paradigm, each pairing would be distinct, and the latter wouldn't be an "unmanly" variant of the former. Given the long history of misogyny and its tenacious hold on modern society, however, such a view may be unrealistic. It is, nonetheless, worth considering.
Ironically, How To Be Gay is a very serious book about what often should be a humorous topic. Halperin's prose is frequently stiff and academic, making it a tough but rewarding read. The book is carefully researched, has an impressive bibliography and footnotes. Still, he errs in saying Crawford adopted five children �" she adopted four. Halperin's assertion that Davis' glamour was as potent as Crawford's reveals a misunderstanding of both stars. Davis insisted throughout her career that she wasn't and never wanted to be glamorous, which she claimed was incompatible with serious acting. (She was also smart enough not to compete in an area where she knew she wouldn't do well.)
Halperin rejoices in the growing acceptance of homosexuality in mainstream society, although he's quick to point out that homophobia is still potent. He doesn't want gay culture to be lost as assimilation increases. It's a legitimate concern, and he makes his case forcefully, although his argument would have benefitted from judicious editing and some levity.