How the Homosexuals Saved Civilization - Cathy Crimmins [28]
But as much as gay men influenced the tastes of wealthy women and definitely put the skinny, boyish silhouette on a pedestal (or runway), their influence goes far deeper than haute couture. When it comes to wardrobes, there has been, as in other areas, that same gay-to-straight “circle of life” that has affected what straight people wear and how they think about their bodies.
The steady transfer of fads and trends from gay to straight closets has been going on since the 1950s and 1960s, and has accelerated in the post-Stonewall era. America’s newfound affection for the talents of gay stylists is merely a delayed reaction to a fait accompli. All of a sudden, heterosexuals have awakened to the huge influence gay men have had on our everyday fashion preferences.
Straight Men Who Look Gay: The Fashion Circle
Many of the trendy fashion looks for today’s straight man had their origins in gay communities. Gay men even invented the “manly” look of today.
In the late 1970s, gay men in the Castro district of San Francisco rebelled against the stereotype of the effeminate homosexual and began wearing an ultra-masculine uniform of Levi’s 501 jeans and flannel shirts. Sporting short hair and mustaches, they became known as “Castro Clones.” The clone haircut and tight-jean look became trendy for straight guys about a decade later. When the Castro Clone look modified itself, throwing away the flannel shirts and embracing form-fitting T-shirts and polos, straight fashion eventually followed.
Straight male hairstyles always follow homosexual trends, too, and at an amazing speed. When gay haircuts became even more closely cropped, straight men followed suit only a few years later. Right now many fashionable straight men are wearing their hair closely clipped or shaved off entirely. (Consider the trendy pates of heterosexuals Daniel Day Lewis, Bruce Willis, Howie Mandel, Adam Sandler, and Matt Lauer.) Hank Stuever, a Washington Post style writer, explained the origin of the gay haircut thing in the pages of Seattle’s alternative newspaper The Stranger:
About 10 years ago, when there was a culture war for gay rights going on, the men of my generation went down and enlisted. We signed up for the Caesar ’do and Navy recruit buzz, which drifted into the George Clooney and Gap Zombie looks. Some MEN went shorter, then shorter, then just shaved their heads. We bought expensive Aveda gels and plastered our short hair to our heads, making it stick up just a tad in front. The next generation will look at pictures of us waving protest signs at Christian Coalition conventions and wonder which ones were the rabid conservatives and which ones were the radical activists.
The gay-to-straight trickle-down fashion process has happened with tattoos, leather pants and jackets, and, of course, earrings. How would straight men know what to wear if gay guys hadn’t worn it first? One of my friends bought her husband a leather jacket for Christmas, and then took him to her homosexual hairstylist for a cut. Her husband, catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror, said, “Could I look any gayer?”
A few other heavily gay-influenced fashion items and trends:
Shoes: How do gay men know, almost automatically, how to change footwear? The Castro Clone look always featured boots, but then gradually, even gay men began to wear cool running shoes. But about five years ago, suddenly every gay man I knew was wearing nicer, lighter hiking boots, and straight men followed soon afterward. And flip-flops. Except for surfers, the only men who wore them were gay. Now straight guys wear them all the time, too.
T-shirts: Gay men started