I have spoken some about my frustration with the incessant coverage of the Olympics just gone, but it would be remiss of me to not say how pleased I was to see that Australian fellow – Matthew Mitcham – win the GOLD in the ten-metre high dive late on in the piece.
You see, I have an admission to make: I am a sucker of the unrepentant, naturally flamboyant homosexual. Aussie GOLD medallist Matthew is just that, standing still you wouldn’t pick it, but even the slightest of moves (flick of an eyebrow, twitch of the calf) and there it is loud and proud. Even better was his reaction to the coded questioning by the press gallery (hushed whispers at the back, “is he gay?”), “Errr, fellas, c’mon, whattaya reckon!?!”
So on that note, I was happy to farewell the Games on a high note. Thus, I have been equally been pleasantly surprised to see that this orange juice company was so happy to employ a similarly flamboyant friend of Dorothy to promote their product. In fact, I think the fellow pimping this juice is a cross between Mr Humphries (“I’m Free!”) and the late, great Kenneth Williams (“Ohh err missus!”). It has been so heart warming to know that middle America were happy to embrace such a spokesperson for their vitamin C needs as early as the late-1950s.
For both issues of taste and legality, I have declined to speculate on the presence of that exuberant young lad lurking behind there. I will leave that thorny issues to your own imaginations!
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Oh, something I meant to tell you. There's a splendid lady who goes to the Barrow bridge club. I partner her occasionally, she's a very sprightly eighty-odd and we often have a chat. Her name is Bessie Horne. (You know what's coming, don't you? Me, I was always a bit slow on the uptake.) Anyway, last Thursday she was interested in my running around Walney, and told me about how she and her Willie used to enjoy walking around Walney a lot after he had his heart implant when he was 72. My jaw when slack. "Your Willie?" I said. "The Willie Horne?" She nodded, unassumingly.
They were both like that, in their heyday. Quiet, unassuming, friendly. How different from the sporting divas of today.
I bet you had better coverage of his story et al over there? They mentioned that he took more than a year off due to personal issues, but didn't go into more detail (not that I wanted to know everything, but there wasn't an interview or anything).
He seems like such a lovely person. That's just from the body language, maybe I'm totally off.
USelaine, my excursions into gender studies (not much beyond undergrad at uni) revealed the sometimes thorny relationship between ‘queer studies’ and ‘women’s studies’. Hell, the divide between ‘homosexual’, ‘lesbian’, ‘bi’ and ‘transgender’ is often problematic enough.
The feminine aspect of the camp gay man is an interesting one. I’ve known guys who (closeted), exhibited no ‘campy’ mannerisms, but really did assume them upon ‘coming out’ into the gay community. Conversely, there are others who always had such mannerisms (from kindergarten on).
I like that we have all sorts of gay role models emerging now, from the ultra camp like Mitchim, who is absolutely (and quite bloody rightly) unapologetic about who he is, to someone like Ian Roberts, a big boofy rugged Rugby League guy who just happens to fancy men.
That’s what it will take to break some of the ignorance and fear that seems to float around with some people. (Off my high horse now!)
BTW, that Bessie Horne story does make me style. She clearly has a touch of class about her!
Kitty, I think that he has had suffered with depression in the past. I know that he is from a rural area, so like so many gay men probably struggled with it at some point (the rates are appalling). Like you, the thing that attracts me to his character that he just seemed very natural, very excited, no PR coaching like the swim team. I agree that he does seem a genuinely lovely person, and that isn’t something I have felt much of this Olympics.
That said, I am sure that there are heaps of them there, it’s just that all of the media training drains all of the ‘natural charisma’ out of someone.