How the Homosexuals Saved Civilization - Cathy Crimmins [0]
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Book One - Heart
Chapter 1 - I Know It When I See It: Camp, Irony, and the Gay Aesthetic
Chapter 2 - Language: Gayspeak and Straight Shooters
Chapter 3 - Community, Rituals, and Home
Book Two - Body
Chapter 4 - Eat Me: Gay Dishes, Straight Appetites, Common Thirsts
Chapter 5 - Fashion, Style, and Body Image: Gay Guys Do It Better!
Chapter 6 - Butts and Cocks: Gay Men and the Future of Sex
Book Three - Soul
Chapter 7 - Movies: My Favorite Things
Chapter 8 - Game-Show Sissies and Gay Dads—and Was Gomer Pyle a Fairy?
Chapter 9 - Music: Play That Funky Music, Gay Boy!
Chapter 10 - Theater: Life Is a Drag
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
About the Author
JEREMY P. TARCHER/PENGUIN
Published by the Penguin Group
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First trade paperback edition 2005
Copyright © 2004 by Cathy Crimmins
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If you removed all of the homos and homo influence from what is generally regarded as American culture, you would be pretty much left with Let’s Make a Deal.
—Fran Lebowitz
To all my gay boyfriends—especially
the fabulous St. James Shatzer
As always, to the memory of John Gaggin
And, finally, to the memory of Matthew Shepard,
and in celebration of two friends
who survived brutal attacks,
Robert Drake and Trev Broudy
Homosexuals have pinned their integration into society on promoting the aesthetic sense.
—Susan Sontag
Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.
—Dorothy Gale (played by Judy Garland) in The Wizard of Oz
Prologue
Putting My Finger on It
I grew up in paradise. The area had every natural resource going for it—rolling green hills, a gentle scenic river, heirloom trees, and views of endless fields and woods dotted with wild and domestic animals. But it wasn’t the natural setting that spelled paradise to me. Even as a child, I leaned more toward artificial pleasures, which the place had in droves. The pretty valley skirting the Delaware River boasted flamboyant restaurants in eighteenth-century inns, fine local theater that attracted actors, writers, and directors from New York and Hollywood, quaint antiques shops, art galleries, and impossibly beautiful