Queer Watchlion
Feminists,
survivors, queeny gays, transvestites, lesbians, prostitutes, and even
a woman in a wheelchair are all present in I Shot Andy Warhol.
Some are sexist, others do not recognise the woman in the man's body and
still others have something against everybody. Queer by definition, but
not by heart. Since attitudes of various groups are weel-observed, we do
not believe that the result was not intended. The most obvious portrayal,
as it occurs most often, is that of the queen in every respect, from the
spiteful gay, to the hyped-up artist and the transvestite: superficial,
spiteful, egocentric, ignorant, misogynist. Alibi-gays are not included.
This smells of cliché, but may have been reality in Warhol's circles,
as it is today in many places.
However, director Mary Harron has wrapped even those gays up in a true 90's broad-minded style. Gay images of the previous decade have been swept aside and replaced by one in which they are regarded highly by not necessarily taken seriously. A trend which can be watched nicely, because of its authenticity, in a scene in Douglas Keeve's documentary Unzipped about fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi.
Why should we complain? If everyone developed a sense for the ever exhilirating world of queens, it wouldn't be hals as much fun...
ki
copyright: Queer View 1996