GBFs, camp and the real gay reality

Comment, Highlights by Alex Hopkins on February 8, 2010 at 1:25 pm

Walk past Cambridge Circus any Friday or Saturday evening and the sight will be the same: hoards of usually scantily glad straight women clinging on to their men as they prepare to be intoxicated by the spectacle that is Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

The scene inside is no less horrifying. Half of Essex cheer and scream, abandoning the little decorum they have as the sight of the faded Jason Donovan takes to the stage to deliver a decidedly lack-lustre and embarrassing rendition of Tina Turner’s What’s Love Got to Do with It. And as they stumble across the bars at the interval, the refrain is always the same: “Isn’t it CAMP!”

The show gives us a timely insight into straights’ relationship with gay men and women. Almost every straight woman wants to be a fag hag, or the new infuriatingly patronising term GBF (Gay Best Friend.) To qualify you have to be fun, frivolous, give great dating advice and love fashion. “I want one of those” shouts the lush from Loughton as she eyes the three drag queens in Priscilla. It’s all about having the latest, sparkling accessory.

The truth is there is nothing camp about the stage musical Priscilla. In peddling the outmoded stereotype of gay fabulousness and wallowing in sentimentality (the scenes where Donovan bonds with his son are utterly excruciating), the show amounts to nothing more than a tawdry display of kitsch.

So too are the straight men who are dragged along to the show in feather boas and wigs. Like their female partners they are quite happy to dip in and out of gay culture as long as they deem it “safe” (i.e. their own sexuality is not questioned or threatened) and as long as it is entertaining and provides suitable distraction. In effect, what they are saying is “gays are always good for a laugh.”

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Fords

"Almost every straight woman wants to be a fag hag, or the new infuriatingly patronising term GBF (Gay Best Friend."

How is this total generalisation any better than the supposed attitudes you're complaining about? And far be it from me to state the obvious, but 'Priscilla' isn't claiming to 'represent' gay men or gay life. It's a bloody musical. It's no more based in reality than 'Mamma Mia' or 'The Phantom Of The Opera', and straight women enjoying it are no more patronising gay culture/gay life than someone who enjoys 'The Lion King' is patronising African culture.

It's worth saying, however, that I've seen the show and one of the loudest reactions during the whole show is when the transexual Bernadette violently tackles a homophobic thug who has been attacking her effeminate gay friend. This was met with cheers and applause from all around, which doesn't really tie in with your trite theory that these 'straight women' (I can imagine the venom spitting onto the keyboard as you typed that) are revelling in a neutered idea of homosexuality.

Jason B

Love this article. Been trying to say things like this to people for ages, but I get accused of "reading too much into it"! The GBF phenomenon is nauseating and downright demeaning. Well done as ever Alex!