DECEMBER 1976

STYLE?

LEON SAYS YES

HIGH GEAR

By Leon Stevens

fertility rites performed at seasonal equinoxes and solstices. You may not recognize church steeples or pagodas as phallic symbols but that is their precise origin. Our notion of causality and even spatial distinctions take their form from (hetero) sexual templates. Entire civilizations have radiated from the things which interested their ancient founders, and sex ranks first among tribal preoccupations, without exception. Our greatest literary achievements deal pointedly with sexual tension, be it between bungling MacBeth and his ambitious wife wishing to be "unsexed" or Faust and "das Ewig-weibliche" (Eternalfeminine).

Sorry, Van, but you couldn't be wronger! "Freudian" has become a sort of philosophical dirty word in the last part of our century, mostly because psychoanalysis has proven to be a gargantuan flop. But some of Freud's less technical insights have more than vindicated his genius. Most notably, and relevant for us are, namely: a) that homosexuality is irreversible and especially b) that sexuality saturates our culture and dominates our psychology. Sexuality (and perhaps foodgathering) is the kernel and catalyst for cultural evolution. In technological societies, the preempting of culture by sexualThere is no such thing as ity is considerably sublimated "neutral" or non-sexual culture! and disguised but it remains Nor are there life-styles which omnipresent. In primitive are not committed to some form societies sexuality is showcased of sexuality. Our sexuality and in dress, art and ceremony. how we conduct it carries enorTribal peoples consistently cele-mous impact on our view of brate sexual maturity, nuptial contracts and fertility as their most important (or only) festive

events.

So immediate is sex 'to homosapiens that such major and disparate linguistic groups as the Indo-European, UgaroAltaic and Semitic families of languages actually divide the

word's

in their respective tongues into sexual genders, regardless of whether the word

is inanimate or abstract!

The duality present in religion and philosophy is traceable directly to the mutuality of terrestial sexual systems. Such conceptual pairs as Yin and Yang, good and evil, right and left, thesis and antithesis all reflect an inescapable sexual consciousness. We seldom think in triads, as for instance, "Ying, Yang, and Yong," "good, evil and knievel," "right, ahead, and left," "thesis, antithesis and prothesis" etc. Trinities such as "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" betray an underlying sexual couple with offspring as the third party.

During the 18th century when the major Western philosophies were formulated (Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer), the modern beneficiary of which most of the world is, much

literature

emerged which demonstrated the complicity of sex in great Western thought. In works like Goethe's

novel, Elective Affinities, we can clearly see how philosophical concepts are abstracted from sexual relationships.

Holidays like Christmas and Easter are, in fact, painted-over

reality and our management of our personal environments. Michaelangelo's mode of living had direct bearing on his aesthetic expression which stands without comparison amid the art of his contemporaries. Schopenhauer's rather antiheterosexual private life is powerfully reiterated in his writings which are at complete variance with the ideas of his collegues (and remarkable as a result).

Recent surveys have revealed that gay (men) are different from their contemporaries as a result of their collective circumstances. They make more money, are more ambitious, independent, etc. than their straight compatriots. Especially in large cities, gays tend to pattern their tastes after those of other gays, even if they are not "wealthy" or "ambitious."

The gay men with little or no college education and low incomes who attend symphony orchestra concerts, theatre, collect antiques, patronize the culinary arts, dress "chicly" etc. greatly outnumber straights in the same category.

an

Dr. Walter Sheppe in interview in High Gear last t month asserted that "sucking cock may not be enough for a sense of community." The question of "gay community" is moot. THERE IS A GAY COMMUNITY REGARDLESS OF THE LEVELS OF POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS OF ITS MEMBERS! The leading criticism of the weekend crowd is not that it is strange or

fragmented but that "there are always the same faces" or that "people are cliquish." Gay discoteques on Friday and Saturday are frequently veritable family gatherings of close and distant "relatives." Most gays have interconnecting microcosms of gay friends and associates.

Gay employers and gays in managerial positions frequently hire gays before straights causing an accumulation of gays in various businesses and professions. For example, a certain department store in Cleveland is known to us here as "The Gay Co." because it is staffed by a disproportionate number of non-heterosexual employees. A friend and I recently visited an expensive, but popular local restaurant and requested a gay waiter. The maitre d' replied, "show me a waiter who isn't gay!"

"Out" gays share a host of subtle conventions which, in many cases, make them recognizable to one another in straight contexts. These include, for example, a brand of humor or which "camp" involves exaggeration of show-biz trivia, bits of antiquity and other cultural curiosities. Gay men are unusually deliberate dressers and groomers. A man in worn jeans with an expertly trimmed beard, for example, stands a better-than-average chance of being gay. (Straight men trim their mustaches for weddings only at which time they do so with either a butterknife or an axe, otherwise they customarily chew them away).

I have not discussed the lesbian community and characteristic mode of living because that would require another entire dissertation. Suffice it to say that lesbians have a dynamic community based on a strong sense of sisterhood Current prevailing. feminist consciousness has given lesbians an identifiable, heroic and in many ways. enviable collective lifestyle.

Admittedly, gay culture and lifestyles depend on era and area, repression and suppression. Gay culture and lifestyles are as eternal as the phoenix. When they happen, they happen. And right now, Van, gay is where it's at!

JANUARY 15, 1977

Miss Gay Canton

**Pageant +

Page 27

at the American Legion Hall 1439 Cleveland Ave. N.W. Canton, Ohio

Master of Ceremonies

VICKI ST. CLAIR (Miss Gay Ohio 1976) Admission $3.00/person $5.00/couple Entry Fee $10.00 First Prize $200.00

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