| Transcript |
14 Montrose Voice/Nov. 11,1983
Good Taste, and Why Not?
Commentary
By Allen Young
"Good taste" is supposedly a matter of special concern to gay men. When a gay man
lacks good taste, whether in his clothes,
his home decor, his conversation or his
behavior, he is said to be "tasteless," a
word that in today's gay banter has
become a campy exclamation. (For some
reason, all of this seems less relevant to
gay women, which is why I refer ony to
gay men here.)
A friend of mine who writes for Fag Rag,
one tasteless enough to burn a Bible at a
Gay Pride rally, has on several occasions
expressed his mockery and disdain for
this gay male preoccupation. He see it, I
believe, as a kind of faggot snootiness, an
attempt by gay men to use esthetic values
to find respectability in upper-middle-
class heterosexual society. My friend's
Bi'6/e-burning must be forgiven if only
because it spurred much interesting discussion about religion's role in gay oppression. As for his condemnation of faggot
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preoccupation with taste, I have been until
recently quite sympathetic with his point
of view. I am beginning to distinguish,
however, between good taste that is
simply an honest appreciation of beauty,
and a fashion-oriented concept of taste
sometimes known as "piss-elegance."
Piss-elegance is something I find irksome. The Queen's Vernacular {now published by Paragon Books as Gay Talk)
defines a piss-elegant queen as "one equating wealth and style with real achievement; one who lives in sham elegance." (A
second definition of the term says it is a
"jealous reference to a rich homosexual.")
Since coming out into the gay world, I
have met a few gay men who could be
described as "piss-elegant," and a few others who manifest a self-conscious preoccupation with taste, based on airs, manners
and fashion.Such men are not likely to
become my close friends.
But I have also met some fine artists-
men (and women, too) with a well-
developed esthetic Bense and a
commitment to creativity. The gay friends
and acquaintances have meant a lot to me.
They have opened doors for me to realms
previously unknown, and they have
taught me something about good taste. I
use that term in the most positive way.
Twelve years ago, my main idea of
something attractive to put up on a wall
was a brightly colored Cuban poster showing fists and guns, supposedly to express
solidarity with the people of a beleaguered
Third World nation. In general, the idea of
having attractive surroundings was then
of little concern to me. That was before I
was part of the gay community. If I were to
list the things I have learned from my
involvement in gay life, I would have to
place at the top this newfound concern for
beauty in my immediate surroundings.
And why not? Our lives are enriched by
beautiful things, both manmade and natural.
This is one of my disagreements with
the radical left, which focuses so much on
negativity. There is often no room for
beauty in their world; they see most art as
"politically incorrect," for according to
them, we must always be aware of suffering and injustice. Frankly, I don't want to
look at fists and guns anymore, neither in
real life nor in posters on my wall. I feel
sorry for the oppressed artists who are victimized by political commissars, whether
they are movement ideologues or Communist party bureaucrats. For such commissars, art is "bourgeois" unless it "serves
the interest of the working class," whatever that is.
Some might claim that it is middle-class
privilege that allows me this concern for
beauty. But poverty and squalor are not
synonymous. When I lived among the
Zinacanteco Indians in southern Mexico,
they manifested a strong desire for beauty
and excellence in their colorful clothing.
The Indian man I lived with, who was
weaving a new staw hat for an upcoming
festival, made it quite clear to me that he
had "good taste" and also that he felt a
certain disdain for men in the village who
did not take the time and effort to make
their hats beautiful.
All of this is really by way of introduc
tion, as I want to share with readers of this
column my appreciation for the work and
friendship of an artist I know, Gerard
Brender a Brandis, whose wood engravings are among the decorative items in my
home. Ger, a Canadian who lives and
works in Ontario, is one of several artists I
have met in the gay community. I was
introduced to his work through RFD, the
country gay journal, which published
some of his engravings of rural architecture and plants. Shortly after, a feature
article on him in Body Politic made me
aware that his temperament and lifestyle
were much similar to mine. Eventually we
met, and we now have become friends. We
are now collaboreating on two books, one
on Cape Cod, another a collection of quotations, both to be published through Brand-
stead Press.
Brandstead Press is Ger's own creation
and was established 11 years ago to produce limited editions of wood engravings
and linocuts. It now has facilities to perform every stage of production of handmade books, from papermaking to
binding. Ger's primary work has been
botanical illustrations, but in recent
years, he has sought to bring his gayness
to his work, and the result has been two
volumes of illustrated gay poetry. But, as
Ger wrote me in a letter I excerpted for
publication in Lavender Culture, overt
gayness in art is not essential: "What is
more important is to realize that the presence in my life of interpersonal realtion-
ships nourish my entire being and spill
over into my creative processes, just as my
creative vitality makes me more capable
of contributing to another man's life."
Ger's work has won him significant
recognition; it is included in may public
galleries and university and library collections, as well as in numerous private collections. His dedication to his craft is
inspiring: imagine working a book from
start to finish, including weaving the
cloth for the cover, making the paper,
engraving the illustrations, handsetting
type and operating the printing press! Yet,
for all his success, Ger does all he can to
keep from being "sucked into the suburban, commercialized and consumerized—
too much a part of the trendy gay scene,
too much a businessman." He writes, "My
life and lifestyle appear too often relevant,
and yet there is no real alternative on this
planet." These are my feelings, for when I
leave the typewriter today, I will go into
the garden to plant carrots and eggplant,
spend some time in puttering around the
house to make it more pleasing to me, and
a little later, go to the bus station to pick up
an old friend whom I haven't seen in
years.
These pleasures—the manmade beauty
in my home, the natural beauty of the
plants in the garden, both the functional
beauty of vegetables and the "pure"
beauty of flowers, and the love of friends
in the gay community whom I have come
to cherish so much—help make life rich
and worthwhile.
I refuse to rob myself of these pleasures
just because I know that there is pain and
suffering elsewhere in the world. My
appreciation for beauty does not undermine a desire and hope for a better world;
in fact, the two are inextricable.
®1983 by Allen Young, author of several
books, including "Gays Under the Cuban
Revolution"and "Lavender Culture. "Distributed by Stonewall Features Syndicate.
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