Her first album dropped when I was in fifth grade, and was "safe" for my parents to let me listen to.
Sam Corbett adds:įor my generation of gay men of a certain age (twentysomething), she was probably Baby's First Diva. Russian art specialist Nick Nicholson points out that Spears, as well as Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera "were the first Mickey Mousers to attempt to jump into the dirt of dance music to erase their squeaky clean images, and I suppose we loved the perversity of that". Still, Spears enjoys a place in the gay male imagination. Then, as now, a " money-making machine", as some outlets refer to her. It's the same indentured servitude model she lived as a Mouseketeer, starting 20 years ago last month. Her father will maintain control over his now 32-year-old daughter for at least two more years while she appears in a long-running show in Las Vegas. Speaking of her appeal in her early days in the public eye, Salon writer Daniel D'Addario says, "There was also the high-camp aspect of her perpetual naivete she was perhaps the least "knowing" pop star in a way that read as comic … " To which another commenter responds (imagine all of this happening on THE most heavily trafficked thread ever to appear on my Facebook page), "Anything BUT naive, clearly very cleverly calculating in every move."īut there seems little chance of Spears controlling her own destiny for now. Women who are distinguished by control over their careers and their images, by playing mostly or entirely by their own rules, by being true to their extremely unique personalities."Īt one point, Spears seemed to occupy both ends of that spectrum. " Liza and Barbara and Bette and Cher in the musical sphere – and Kathy Griffin and Margaret Cho in comedy. Pozner points out this different gay affinity: Hence the wide range of the pantheon: Bette (Davis and Midler), Cher, Clinton, Crawford, Davis – both Bette and Texas' brave Senator, Wendy – Garland, Kristin Gillibrand, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Liza, Rhianna, Streisand. Women who dominate and women who refuse to be cowed. Women who lose control of their lives, as Spears officially did in 2008, when her father was awarded "conservatorship" of her – that is, control of her career, personal life and finances – at the height of a very public meltdown in her mid-20s.Īnd then there's the flip side of gay male diva worship: the love of women who come back from the depths. Women with substance abuse problems and crap taste in men. Women who are victimized or go down fighting.
How else, other than this shared experience of hardship, plus a taste for melodrama and camp, to explain the fondness that some gay men have for a first-class train wreck of a woman, someone truly over the top, whether at the opera, on the classic movie channel, or on the dance floor and YouTube? An underdog. Part of the bad old days when being gay meant endless heartache and persecution and the constant risk of arrest (as it still does for the LGBT citizens of over 60 countries including Russia and India, where the supreme court just reinstated a colonial-era ban on gay sex earlier this week). The well-documented phenomenon of diva worship amongst "gays" is primarily a gay male prerogative.
Except to prove that Britney is wallpaper to 98% of my lady friends, gay or otherwise. My instant response is to ask if this alleged love of Britney Spears is uniform across gay communities or if it breaks down by race, class, and gender, among other things.Īll of them are useless. Andrea Plaid, the associate producer of Black Folk Don't, said: Media critic Jennifer Pozner, author of Reality Bites Back, started her response with, "Assuming the premise is true (and are we sure it is?)". "Do gays love Britney?" asked Kaila.Īnd then there were the smarty pants cultural critic types. Um … wow! Why am I always the last one to know which celebrities we're supposed to love on? We need a newsletter or something.