Gay interest was surely aroused by the preview of Shame (the single and video), combining the talents of Gary Barlow and Robbie Williams for the first time since the latter went defiantly solo 15 years ago. Since then to his recent marriage, Robbie has pursued an unevenly successful career, teasing us with ambiguous messages as to his queer credentials.
Now we have a song of reconciliation and a video with clear visual references to Brokeback Mountain and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Barlow and Williams dance holding token females in a bar whilst gazing longingly into each others’ eyes. They both strip to the waist (showing some evident gym work), race joyfully to the top of a mountain ridge with a lake far below it, and then turn their faces back to the sun just as you think they will join hands and jump.
The end of this romantic sequence is perhaps symbolic of what Barlow has admitted may be only an eighteen month joint venture with the band, with Robbie likely to resume his lone career after that. What deserves deeper examination is the gay factor in all this, and how it helps us to decode the hidden meaning of the song’s chorus, “What a shame we never listened…” Read the rest of this entry »
Whether gay or straight, tattoos have become increasingly popular, and some guys carry them really well. As ancient tribal markings, rites of passage, signs of gang affiliation, pure artistry, fashion accessories or deep meaningful statements, many gay men find tattoos a homoerotic delight. Anyone getting one for the first time prompts a mini-celebration in the tattoo parlour as they become one of the inked fraternity. For gay men it means joining a brotherhood within the exclusive brotherhood we already are.
One of the most famous books ever written, Moby Dick by Herman Melville (1851), has the unforgettable scene where the narrator Ishmael has to share a room and a bed for the night with Queequeg, a South Sea Island harpooner, who is covered in elaborate native tattoos all over his face and body:
“Upon waking next morning about daylight, I found Queequeg’s arm thrown over me in the most loving and affectionate manner. You had almost thought I had been his wife…..though I tried to move his arm - unhook his bridegroom clasp - he still hugged me tightly, as though nought but death should part us twain.”
Melville (whose last work was about the handsome young sailor Billy Budd), makes much of the profusion of strange tattoos covering the islander’s arm, which he can hardly distinguish from the busy pattern of the conterpane. Many a gay reader must have felt the erotic charge of Ishmael’s account. Read the rest of this entry »
Gay retirement - Mothership Gay Dating member ‘outerlimits’ reflects on his own experiences:
Gay retirement - a bridge to fulfillment
Is retirement for gay people a different experience, just as their earlier working life has been, as a consequence of our sexuality? Most definitely. I took early retirement in January, and have become aware that as a gay man I’m especially privileged as I try to get the most from this neglected phase of life; but why?
What I wish to explore here is how the gay retirement experience qualitatively differs from that of heterosexuals. We all need enough money to sustain us in our pursuit of happiness, and many problems we may face will be similar, so what’s different? As the coalition govenment has now made working longer and longer a possibility, even dressing it up as something desirable, we may well question the sanity of working till we drop. A gay perspective enables us to do this more readily, because we’ve learnt to be more rebellious, questioning, and imaginative, just to survive. Read the rest of this entry »
Biggles took to the skies long before James Bond came to life in the imagination of Ian Fleming. A great British hero, invented by prolific writer Captain W. E. Johns, was fighting our country’s enemies. Through over a hundred books ( many now sought-after by collectors), Biggles along with his cousin Algernon (Algy) Lacey and the young Ginger Hebblethwaite were adventurers in a white European male-dominated world - far removed from gay cultural developments to come.
While Johns, a First World War pilot (who reached the rank of Lieutenant), went on to pursue a settled heterosexual lifestyle, closer reading of his stories may surprise us in their suggestion of a hero very much in tune with the modern gay movement, even down to some dubious titles: Biggles Gets His Men (1950 ), Biggles Takes It Rough (1961 ), Biggles Takes A Hand (1962 ), and Biggles Sees Too Much (1968 ).
No one could doubt James Bond’s liking for women (reflecting Fleming’s own sexual fantasies), laid on with a trowel in character names like Pussy Galore. By complete contrast, in one book Biggles comments that he much prefers smoking to contact with the opposite sex!
Fast forwarding to the 2005 tv episode of Dr Who which introduced Captain Jack, an RAF volunteer, and we find a character who is a conscious tribute to Biggles, even to the point of having a friend called Algy. Gay actor John Barrowman has since made the role of Captain Jack ( in Dr Who and the Torchwood series) very much his own. Read the rest of this entry »
When I told my friends I fancied being a stand-up comedian, unfortunately they all laughed. Anyway, there I was one dreary, rain-soaked Saturday in January attending a comedy workshop for this potential Bill Hicks-cum-Joan Rivers-cum-Larry Grayson. I’d just taken early retirement to cope better with rheumatoid arthritis in my knees, and as I walked in (stiffly) I’d never felt less funny in my life.
My gaydar told me that I was the only one there, and my select group of wannabe gagsters as I later discovered consisted of a fit ex-para (who I made sure sat next to me), a Jo Brand-type nursery teacher, and a loud psychiatrist along with his lanky, much quieter son, who turned out to be a racing driver. The course was run by a sometime tv cartoonist and experienced sitcom writer, and his pretty wife who kissed us on arrival and performed lunch.
The first excercise was for the class to guess who we were in real life - instructions had been given to divulge no personal information up to that point. They concluded, after much judging by appearances, that I worked with young people, was married and had children of my own. And it was then that your jobless, childless gay brother went into demolition mode with some relish, and began to enjoy the ride. Read the rest of this entry »
