RiotPaisley said:
Come to think of it, was there ANY gay representation in the 80's? Weren't gays always the joke or stereotypes? Ellen didn't come out until the mid 90s. Broke back mountain was like 2000 something. And if there's not a lot of gay black folks representatives today, I think you should also look to the Hetero black folks and how they respond to homosexuality. I will never say that being queer compares to being any other minority, but the thing with being discriminated against because you are another color- at least your family doesn't disown because you're whatever hue. And your peers are pretty obvious. A lot of us can't find anyone to hang out with. Sorry I just had to put that out there. I'm so fed up with the Prince is gay bs. Bottom line is why did or would it matter- he's a flipping musical genius. I miss him.
Freddie Mercury, Boy George, ...
Any ethnic group was and is the butt of stereotypical jokes along with gays. But yeah the 80s had it's moments. There was lots more by the 90s though. MTV's the Real World/Road Rules always had a resident that was gay, more movies, 'gayness' was represented more in the video/musical world, art etc
the hetero black take on homosexuality was-is horrid.(I believe any group with hypermasculine images ie Italian Latino Black, tends to have higher degrees of homophobia With the rise of ganster rap in the 90s there was a whole different level of misogyny and homophobia. A certain image of 'man' was created that was very different from what you saw in the 70s and 80s. Because of the extreme hyper masculine images that came up, it put a further gap into who could be gay. If you danced you were gay if you were too happy you were gay if you were too colorful you were gay. Whereas before in the 80s 70s and prior those things were a regular part of African- descendant cultures
When Tony M told people Prince wasn't black enough, I think he was also addressing Prince's masculinity.
Prince dressed like a lot of 70s 80s rock stars and entertainers who happened to be white, and Jimi Hendrix. If you look at a lot of 80s rock bands/hair bands etc as outrageous as they were in style they were never accused of being gay. Look at David Lee Roth from and still today. People don't call him gay.
Prince was able to also express energy and take from female artists too like Chaka Khan & Joni Mitchell.
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