rob@ptsfa.UUCP (Rob Bernardo) (08/26/85)
The following is excerpted from "Idols of the tribe: rank and cold war within the gay community" by Marshall K. Kirk and "Erastes Pill", in "Christopher Street", issue 77. "Amongst ourselves, we are fighting a cold war over rank and power in the gay world, and the opposing sides are drawn in terms of self-identification and public appearance. What is worse, this struggle for hierarchy will continue unless we abandon some of the dogmas of the gay establishment. ... "The shared impressions and arguments put forth here are tentative, our generalizations are riddled with exceptions, and we imagine that some of our speculations will be proved incorrect. "First, consider two modes of self-perception. ... Many gay men like to identify themselves either as 'straight gays' (R-types) or not (Q-types). _R_-_t_y_p_e_s__v_i_e_w__t_h_e_m_s_e_l_v_e_s "Rs like to think that they pass as straights on the street. They value highly their acceptance in general society, and many are careful to sustain friendships in the straight community. Rs are proud of their manly appearance, and typically rankle over the camp use of feminine pronouns for gay males. They may be receptive to, or even obsessive about, social conventions and norms based on gender distinction; ... completely homosexual Rs may persist in describing themselves as 'bisexual.' "The one thread connecting the childhoods of Rs we have interviewed is _p_e_e_r _a_c_c_e_p_t_a_b_i_l_i_t_y. By and large, Rs were kids who, for one reason or another, _c_o_u_l_d conform with ease, and so did. ... Young Rs, it seems, were only dimly aware of their need for the rewards of acceptability, effortlessly achieved. So the arrival of adolescent sexuality sent a stunning shock through well-adjusted Rs. ... Many boys ignored and disguised this discovery until they could come to terms with it. In the meantime, teenage Rs struggled even harder to preserve their acceptable outer image. Even as they grew up to enjoy sex with other boys on the sly, conformism in all other aspects of demeanor became the self-exacted _q_u_i_d _p_r_o _q_u_o. _Q_-_t_y_p_e_s__v_i_e_w__t_h_e_m_s_e_l_v_e_s "... these gays often are not, and feel that they do not wish to be, 'straight-acting and appearing.' The extreme Q is a homosexual on display. (He may not always be one display ... [e.g.] in the presence of family and employers.) On the street, he may assume any one of the several public personas most familiar to the straight world: the pomaded and permed 'fem', the titanic leather master, the clipped clone, the _G_Q hyperboy, and others. ... Qs are outwardly _g_a_y_i_f_i_e_d; they have bought into strict outgroup stereotypes which, whether screaming or ultramasculine in their details, constitute a burlesque of gender roles. Qs think of themselves as visible gays, and tend to make such a profile central to their ego structure. ... "Outer eccentricity comes at a price, however, and Qs are perhaps more likely than Rs to be drawn toward the asylum of gay ghettos in urban centers. ... "Whereas Rs usually could conform [during childhood] and so did, many Qs felt that, for whatever reasons, they could not conform during their youth, and so did not. Those reasons might include passivity, effeminacy, homeliness, remarkable prettiness, lack of athletic skill, or almost any other cause for unpopularity among male youth. At first, evidently, many Qs were unhappy loners who salvaged their self-esteem by making a lodestar virtue out of _i_n_d_i_v_i_d_u_a_l_i_s_m rather than peer acceptance. But non- conformity engenders anti-conformism. So some Qs went further and acquired a taste for outrageousness, actively calculating shock to others in order to reinforce their social status as rebels with a cause. ... "As the years go by, and they learn that they are not alone, Qs adopt zealously the visible uniforms and credos of their supporting outgroups. ... Surveys have shown that, for many Qs, camp behavior is a passing phase of overt defiance, toned down in later years. "When those gays who boast R-status meet those who defend Q-status, there can be trouble. First, let's look at things for the viewpoint of the R. For one thing, the sexual objects of Rs are usually other Rs; Qs, for the most part are scorned. ... It is the 'fem' [from among the variety of Q- type personas] who bears the brunt of the invective from Rs. ... "[Gay] bars are often regarded by Rs as the bastions of self-segregated Qs - branded as twinkie bars, leather bars, etc. - and so may be viewed with distaste. ... "We should mention at this point that those Rs who shun the bars find it more difficult to lead satisfactory sex lives. They have trouble meeting other Rs because, unlike visible Qs, out in the straight world most Rs have banished any tell-tale signals of homosexuality from their conformist uniforms and are wary of mistaken self-exposures. ... "To make sexual matters still more difficult for many Rs, they face two more unique dilemmas. ... First, ... a Q may be drawn to, and satisfied by, a relationship with an acceptably masculine R. But what of the classic R-type - the 'all-American boy' whose only felt shortcoming is his sexual preference? For him, the perfect '10' - the sexual object possessing the one feature he feels he lacks and wishes to capture - may very well be the straight boy, who is, by definition, unattainable. ... "The second sexual dilemma faced by Rs involves the ritual of sex-play itself. For at least some Rs, it seems, masculine _r_o_l_e _p_e_r_f_o_r_m_a_n_c_e is the most thrilling part of sexplay, yet it is easily threatened in homosexual practices such as passive anal sex or active fellatio. ... "But even if the R is contentedly 'out' to family and friends, and self- exposure is not an issue, he may still dislike Qs for two related reasons. "First, because the R has typically conformed with ease to the mainstream, the exaggerated outgroup displays of Qs simply _b_a_f_f_l_e him. Why would any person _c_h_o_o_s_e to draw such public ridicule and abuse, he wonders? ... 'I don't see why they have to play-act at bikers or movie queens,' said one R [we interviewed]. 'It obviously looks phony and fools no one.' At best, then, many Rs come to view Qs the way that many straights view homosexuals _e_n _b_l_o_c, as somehow foolish and trivial, a nationality of sterile cuckoos. ... "Second, Qs do more than baffle Rs - they also _i_r_r_i_t_a_t_e Rs terribly, to a degree that more detached straights cannot understand. Many Rs plainly resent being identified with the Qs, and blame them for the weird profile of homosexuals as a whole. ... "Like most gay males, it seems, even exotic Qs hear the siren call of the rutting R. And so relations between Qs and Rs grow still more tense. "It is our impression that, for _b_o_t_h Rs and Qs, archetypal Rs the 'idols of the tribe.' It is the R whose natural masculine grace tops the overall hierarchy of desirable traits in the fierce gay competition of good looks. Handsome Rs often sense this pecking order, and feeds their egos while hardening their disdain for Qs, especially the effeminate ones. ... "Many Qs may learn from necessity to refocus their libido on fellow Qs. ... "For it is an awful irony that even as may Qs lust after the R as sexual object, they may also resent and reject him as social companion! There are several reasons for this rejections. 'Sour grapes' is an understandable reaction from those Qs who have themselves been spurned by Rs. And Qs who have defensively fashioned a lifestyle out of peculiar individualism are bound to resent (and perhaps envy just a little) those gays who can and do successfully conform to straight standards. ... There is more to Q/R estrangement than just these problems. "For one thing, if the handsome all-American straight boy is the ultimate sexual ideal for most gays, then to Qs the R-type homosexual must appear as a ghostly mock-up of the real thing. ... "Further, Rs are still more upsetting to those Qs who believe that 'butch' behavior is just an unnatural put-on for gays. ... Just as the anti- conformity of Qs baffles Rs, the ease with which Rs conform to the mainstream may be hard for Qs to understand. ... Hence, Qs may misinterpret the Rs' ingrained disinclination to gayified behavior, and label it homophobia. ... "Rs themselves come to accept one or another Q-type persona as the 'true' gay type, and hence feel like outsiders within their own outgroup. ... "How do these tensions between Rs and Qs affect the social structures, political institutions, and activist success of the gay community? ... Those who could not hide have instead turned to make their stand against oppression, and Qs have risen to political leadership and brotherhood in the activist movement across America. This is to their credit. Extreme Qs, as a group, may rate below Rs on the sociosexual hierarchy, but they can and do rank above them on the scale of _p_o_l_i_t_i_c_a_l power in the gay world. "In the meantime, reticent Rs, who benefit from the sacrifices of Qs and yet carp about their flamboyant image in the straight world, have been able to have it both ways: they achieve personal acceptability in the right straight world of today, while relishing the progress toward social flexibility made on their behalf for tomorrow. But because Rs do not choose to play the activist game in great numbers, they lose their ability, as a group, to influence the rules of that game. "Although the point is hard to prove with certainty, we suspect that it is mainly Qs who organize the gay community, set its norms, and decide which of its collective efforts are PC ['politically correct']. PC initiatives are those which the gay leadership and press deem to be good for the gay community as a whole. And the mobilization of the R-type subgroup, it turns out, is definitely _n_o_t PC - at least, not in Boston. Let us give you an example. "Several years ago, a handful of young men in that city attempted to start an organization which would bring together self-perceived Rs for social activities. They posted two short announcements in college and local papers with the headline, 'STRAIGHT GAYS.' The leaders rather crudely hinted that this new club would be for those young gays 'not entirely comfortable with the glittering bar crowd.' One of the authors attending the organization's first meeting. He found the room packed with excited and grateful Rs, who immediately set about the organization of the club activities ranging from baseball to opera-listening. The only qualification for membership was self-selection according to the understood character of the organization, and its aims remained social rather than political. ... Within weeks, the club was regularly drawing to its meetings between one and two hundred members - making it one of the most active gay groups in Boston. ... Its leaders likened the group to the gay clubs designed to bring together men with other special interests, such as the black/white, sadomasochist, transvestite, or 'man/boy love' societies in town. "Boston's gay leadership did not buy the comparison, however. There was evident suspicion and resentment (based some part, no doubt, on envy) at the prospect of 'student-aged' all-American Rs cloistering exclusively among themselves for social and sexual companionship. A local gay newspaper attacked the group openly for its supposed macho snobbery and for the 'closet cases' it seemed to nurture. ... The organization's leaders protested that their intentions had been misunderstood (although, in a sense, they have been all-to-clearly understood - and found politically incorrect). But eventually they bowed to the pressure. Over two years they gradually phased out the stress upon 'straight gays.' The criticism from the gay community stopped coming. Alas, so did the group's R-type members. Having lost its distinctive drawing card, the entire operation fizzled. It had failed the test of PC administered by the Q-oriented community. ... "And there is a final twist in the Q/R cold war which may impede the growth of gay rights from time to time. R-type gays are the ones who actually succeed in slipping into the circles of mainstream political power in America. So it is a sad irony that confidential liaisons between uptight Rs in government and Qs heading the gay activist movement can be further strained by the R's basic alienation form unconventional Qs in general. ... "This analysis has found the gay world troubled and handicapped by the mutual alienation of Qs and Rs. It is PC to deny this split. ... First, we must abandon PC myths and admit that the split exists. Second, we must understand clearly the root cause of the Q/R cold war. Someone once called it 'oppression sickness': each outgroup member is ill-at-ease with himself, and is frustrated by his forced companions, because the social mainstream imposes pressures and expectations which he feels that he cannot meet, and because his companions remind him of his own failure. So the more progress we can make toward social acceptance in the straight world for gays as a whole, the less tension we will see between groups _w_i_t_h_i_n the gay world. ... "In the meantime, the gay community should recognize the distinct identity and special problems of R-type homosexuals - and could begin by expanding the aegis of PC tolerance to include R-type organizations. "At the same time, the community must also burn off the chaff of its own implicit contempt for Qs of various hues." -- +--------------+-------------------------------+ | Rob Bernardo | Pacific Bell | +--------------+ 2600 Camino Ramon, Room 4E700 | | 415-823-2417 | San Ramon, California 94583 | +--------------+-------------------------------+---------+ | ihnp4!ptsfa!rob | | {nsc,ucbvax,decwrl,amd,fortune,zehntel}!dual!ptsfa!rob | +--------------------------------------------------------+