DivineDemento

From the sonic terrorism of Throbbing Gristle, through to the playful experimentation of modern acts such as SOPHIE, industrial music has formed a core aspect of the queer musical landscape. Through studying its history, we can see how this most challenging of genres has reflected the lives of queer people perhaps better than any other.  When performance art collective COUM Transmissions unveiled their Prostitution exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in 1976, the resulting furore was almost inevitable. The show – which included artefacts ranging from used tampons to double ended dildos smeared with blood – led to Conservative MP Nicholas Fairbairn denouncing the troupe, and especially their sole female member Cosey Fanni Tutti, as ‘wreckers of civilization’. However, the show was also notably the moment COUM Transmissions made the full transformation into the equally challenging musical outfit Throbbing Gristle.  Drawing their name from Yorkshire sla...

Anyone who’s read any of my previous blog posts will, hopefully, not be surprised to find out that I’m rather invested in queer culture. So much so, that I started a blog dedicated to queer analysis of films, books, music, celebrities…any way I can put a defiantly queer spin on any given topic, I get excited. It is a way I’ve found I can express my deep, emphatic love and pride for my community. But sometimes, being an outspoken queer activist (if I may be so bold to give myself that title – God knows there are many who are more deserving) means questioning and criticising things that happen within your own community. Our community is not perfect, and often things we hold sacred need to be challenged when they’re not up to task. For a while now, RuPaul’s Drag Race has been such a cultural phenomenon. The show has done wonders for introducing positive representation of queer and gender non-conforming people into the media landscape. It was perhaps the first show to portray drag pe...

Strong, powerful and slightly ridiculous women have a long-established role in queer culture, especially for gay men. These women are a mirror, reflecting our struggles and ambitions when positive representation was out of the question. So, if a gay icon is a woman who is resilient, glamorous, exaggerated and sexually empowered, it is time to induct Nigella Lawson into the pantheon. There has been something of a trend in recent years of awarding ‘Gay Icon’ status to questionable recipients. Now, I’m certainly not going to suggest that this is the most pressing issue facing our queer community at this current time, but it is certainly indicative of certain malaise surrounding gay culture as it becomes engulfed in mainstream (read straight) society and media. To award individuals like Taylor Swift gay icon status is to show an ignorance of what constitutes a gay icon. For a gay icon, and a star who champions gay people, can be mutually exclusive. Something more is required to bec...

As America in the 1970’s was being confronted with its own twisted and sordid underbelly, Britain was grappling with being a nation in a gradual state of decay. At a time of civil unrest, financial strife and cultural escapism, two musicals combined the time’s adoration for shock,   gender bending and glamour with a twisted warning to all outsiders. *Warning - Spoilers Throughout* In my first post I explored the reaction against the corruption of early 70’s American culture in contemporary exploitation cinema. Though the tension in Europe was different to that experienced in America (which was derived more from America’s decreasing status as a financial and political superpower), tensions still ran high throughout the early 1970’s. In Britain, this was particularly felt – recession, inept governments, civil unrest and the ever-encroaching threat of Cold War loomed over the public consciousness. LikeAmerica, Britain fought in, and embarrassingly lost, several battles and c...

In 1972 and 1974, Pink Flamingos and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre were two of many American movies that exploited the nations fear of social and moral collapse. Both films depicted families living in violation of our most basic ideas of dignity. So why does Divine, and her family of misfits, inspire generation upon generation of queers and outcasts, whilst Leatherface continues to inspire terror? I would wholeheartedly argue that Pink Flamingos , the breakout hit for both director John Waters and the original Drag Superstar Divine, is the most important queer film of all time. Its reputation is legendary, the level of disgust it inspires infamous. It follows Divine and her misfit family, who are hiding out in a trailer somewhere outside Baltimore. They are forced to put their peaceful existence of hold when Connie and Raymond Marble attempt to steal Divine’s title of ‘Filthiest Person Alive’. What results is an ever-escalating tornado of taboo-breaking acts, including singing s...