Gay Artists in Modern American Culture: An Imagined Conspiracy

by Michael S. Sherry

Book Overview

Today it is widely recognized that gay men played a prominent role in defining the culture of mid-twentieth-century America, with such icons as Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Montgomery Clift, and Rock Hudson defining much of what seemed distinctly "American" on the stage and screen. Even though few gay artists were "out," their sexuality caused significant anxiety during a time of rampant antihomosexual attitudes...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807831212
• ISBN13: 9780807831212
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Remarkable

At first I was reading this book rather grudgingly due to what I perceived as its flaw, the almost total absence of West Coast-based artists among his case studies. In fact I still don't know why that would be, the book is about "Modern American Culture" not "Modern Upper East Side Culture," nevertheless there it is, and what's here is almost bewilderingly good in all the best ways. It takes up a topic you thought you knew all about, and it brings to light the documents themselves that force you to see the whole "conspiracy" in a different light. AN IMAGINED CONSPIRACY shows us the intricate web of enemies any gay artist had to deal with in the 1940s and the 1950s, and perhaps in response the art of the men in question became more and more patriotic and American. Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" was praised for its universal qualities. Rock Hudson became the most manly and appealing of all movie stars, while Aaron Copland saw his composition "Fanfare for the Common Man" become a second national anthem. The most riveting and heterosexually erotic musical, "West Side Story" was composed by an entire troupe of gay artists including Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim. Sherry shows us how the State Department and other proponents of American imperialism cynically pushed forward these cultural products as weapons in the Cold War with Russia and the hated Red Menace of communism, and until such time as these tactics ceased to matter, the artist were protected to a certain extent from public exposure. Then in the sixties and seventies, all of their reputations collapsed: their American-ness had become too middlebrow, and besides the general public was now on to an idea of gay artists as being part of a homosexual conspiracy in which one hand was constantly washing the other or jerking the other off. "Hom," for homosexual; "intern," for international, and Samuel Barber perhaps got it worst, due to the international, or unAmerican nature of his longtime relationship with the Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti. The book's climax occurs during the erection of the new Metropolitan Opera House in the mid-sixties and the opening night performance of Barber's ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA with Leontyne Price. The critics tore it apart, despite their previous acclaim for Barber's various works, and the thesis is that they felt free to attack him for his role in the so-called "homintern." Going further, Professor explains that Susan Sontag sicc'd on the dogs by her treatment of Barber in her famous "Notes on Camp." You don't have to know anything about the private life of the creator, opined Sontag (ironically enough, since she went to such pains to keep her own so hidden) to know that Barber's VANESSA is a huge piece of camp from beginning to end. Indeed the theorization of camp proved to be something of a disaster for gay artists, for it gave scornful straight critics one more stone to fling at us; from now on anything could be dismissed

An intriging history of an idea

Gay Artists in Modern American Culture is a well-researched look at the history of an idea: that an organized group of gay males had overtaken American culture, high and low, and was using it to undermine American values at home and America's standing abroad. The book is full of insights that may surprise the uninitiated, for example, the idea that the "closet" is a mostly 60's-era creation that gay men were already out of during the 20's and 30's. The sheer number of gay men on the list of mid-20th century American artists is also astonishing - nearly every major composer and most of the playwrights, a good number of visual artists and a healthy smattering of authors, architects, and social critics. Also notable, the book exposes how views once confined to arcane psychoanalytic theory slowly entered the mainstream, both right and left, which distorted the public's previously condescending, but not vicious, views on gay men (and women, to an extent). It's a complicated, but truly new (for me) explanation of history. Despite these strengths, the book disappoints on a few levels. One, it suffers from the defect of most social histories: to discuss general trends and other abstractions precisely requires a new and jargon-filled language. Also, to do so can require you to skip other real examples in the service of your general thesis, leading to some eye-glazing passages. I say this with the huge caveat of having only skimmed the chapter "Barber at the Met" - an entire chapter on a real example. Lastly, once the book enters the 1980's, the author is clearly not discussing his expertise and most of the ideas are rather banal and no longer focusing on artists as much as an ill-defined gay culture. That said, the book is worth checking out, especially for its many pithy quotes and its dissection of the McCarthy-era "Lavender Scare."

The Influence of Gay Men

Sherry, Michael S. "Gay Artists in Modern American Culture: An Imagined Conspiracy", University of North Carolina Press, 2007. The Influence of Gay Men Amos Lassen We are all aware of the amount of influence gay men have in the arts especially in the middle of the twentieth century. It was a time filled with great names---Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Aaron Copeland, Samuel Barber, Montgomery Clift and Rock Hudson, to name a few. They were all not as we say, "out" and Americans were filled with anxiety over anti-homosexual attitudes. America depended on gay men while they were afraid of them at the same time. Gay men have always been the subject of interest in our country--even long before gay liberation became a movement. Those who were artists and entertainers lived in a constant spotlight and there was always a great deal of attention focused on them. Much of the publicity about them was not only negative but hostile. What makes this so interesting is that America depended upon gay men for a great deal of the development of the culture of this country while there was a great deal of disdain, even revulsion towards them as well as a conspiracy theory. There was in some minds the idea of a "homintern" or a "homosexual international" that was taking control while debasing the cultural mores of the country and the time was ripe for such a theory as we all know of the anticommunist groups, the anti-Semitic groups and the blatant racism that America was facing. These gay conspiracy theories took hold because no one bothered to resist them. The artistry of the gay men had helped in the shaping of American life and culture and brought about the rise of modernism to this country. America was at the time involved in the Cold War that she was determined to win and the success of gay men in the arts gave rise to anti-gay feelings that reached the highest levels of government. It was not until late in the 20th century that suspicion was waylaid and gay artists found their rightful place in the culture of this country. This is an absolutely fascinating study of the idea that gay men exerted such a tremendous influence particularly in the areas of music and theatre. Sherry looks at and analyzes the amount of anti-gay feelings and the scope, sources and meanings of what was going on and does so with facts and in a way that what he writes is completely believable and real. It is hard for those who did not live through this period to realize that anything like this could have gone on. The very idea that a homosexual takeover was possible is utterly ridiculous but the idea that it was believed That it would happen is not when considering the temper of the times. The very idea that there was a "homosexual menace" is absurd but for those of us who lived through it, we cannot forget what it was like. Sherry gives us a completely readable book about this trying period of American history and we all owe it to ourselves to read it.