Author Topic: Lost Boys as Male Impersonators  (Read 1965 times)

Offline TOoP/Bruce

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Lost Boys as Male Impersonators
« on: December 30, 2007, 07:10:54 pm »
Something I've been thinking about...

Since the 1960s, there have been several generations of boys struggling for a male identity.  Often these are boys without fathers, or boys with fathers with whom they fail to identify.  It is a contemporary phenomenon, and not an exclusively "gay" one.  Straight boys seem to be struggling with these issues as well.
Without close attachments to their fathers, many young men grow up adrift in a world that struggles to redefine what is the role of men in today's society.

Boys, both straight and gay, often turn into "male impersonators," caricatures of traditional masculine archetypes, as way to fill the void.  Bikers, cowboys, gangsta thugs, jocks are all common stereotypes boys turn to in an effort to fill the void.  These are not necessarily identities they have inherited from their fathers.  Gay boys seem to understand better that the identity is a kind of role playing game, not to be taken too seriously.  Straight boys on the other hand seem often to have missed the joke. 

George Bush, the current president of the United States, is a kind of archetype for the male impersonator.  He wears his masculine cowboy identity like drag queen wears feather boas.  His identity seems to have been fashioned entirely from some John Wayne movie, and his mannerisms seem to bear little resemblance to his father from Kennebunkport, Maine.  (Did we go to war with Iraq  so that George Bush could try to earn his father's approval? )
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