This is a piece I made in response to Johnson's "Quare" Studies article and his discussions of his book "Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South". I couldn't help but think about a close friend who is a black gay man living in the south. Having known him over the years, I have seen what I consider to be his "real" identity, a relatively quiet, nerdy, intelligent college graduate. In public, he adopts the identity of the sassy and flamboyant gay best friend, a role society has deemed acceptable for gay men in large part due to media and shows like Will & Grace. Why is this performance accepted while others are not? When will my friend be able to stop performing and just be who he really is?Like Johnson said, in the past these performances, like those of Little Richard, challenged oppressive systems and pushed ideas surrounding masculinity and femininity. In contemporary society, witnessing his daily performances has me feeling that he is not contributing to social justice but instead stuck in a role he does not want. It's as though he has been pushed out on stage during the middle of a play and now has to continue the performance of a character that black gay men of the south developed before he was born.
My response art is a funeral for this role as I think it is time to push beyond this performance and write an entirely new act. It is time to accept people for who they are. Society is afraid of my friend's true identity that he must perform in a the ways that we understand (being an over the top, flamboyant gay man) in order to be accepted. A gay man living outside of this performance is not as easily understood, especially in the south, and what we don't understand we often interpret as dangerous. The knife resembles something dangerous but is in fact a harmless plastic toy. Covered in glitter, this symbol represents society's views of what constitutes a gay man: stylish, glittered, colorful, sassy, dangerous, and sequined all of which need to be challenged and put to rest.
Laura, this is such a powerful piece. I remember watching you make this in class and was wondering where you were going with this. I agree with everything you said and it is so interesting to think of people's roles in society as performances, because a lot of times that is really what it is. We are not always seeing people's true identities and I think you have a powerful art piece to portray this. I could see this turning into a series, you should keep going with this!
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