HIS374H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Gay Liberation, Centrality, Lawbreakers
Document Summary
Disco was changing the dance floors for gay men. It changed gay culture from fashion to what masculinity should look like. Discos occupied space and had a whole new type of music and style. Role of disco in producing commercial spaces that could be occupied by those who failed containment . Recognizing stonewall (and liberation movements writ large) as within american consumer culture, rather than somehow opposing or underneath it. Centrality of racial, sex, and gender exclusions that work in tandem with gay liberation in new gay spaces. Before disco, gay men relied on music theatre to meet in secrecy. Broadway musicals were a way to suffer through smiles and song. Tony and maria are in love, but in secret. They can only use song in order to express their feelings. Disco was the public coming out for gay culture and gay aesthetics. Prohibition is repealed in 1933, but harassment remains an issue.
