Gay icon
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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A gay icon or LGBT icon is an historical figure, celebrity or public figure who is embraced by many in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) communities. In particular, they are figures perceived to be strong or brave individuals who have wrestled with psychological demons, issues of sexuality, have suffered publicly or met an early tragic end. The term Dykon, a portmanteau of the words "dyke" and "icon," has recently entered the lexicon as a word to describe lesbian icons.
Qualities of an LGBT icon usually include a larger-than-life image, inherent glamour and eventual flamboyance, strength through adversity, androgyny, or an ambiguous sexuality.
A gay icon is a popular culture entertainer, usually a woman, who has a significant following among the gay community, particularly among gay men. The term dykon (dyke icon) is sometimes used in reference to gay icons that appeal primarily to lesbians.
Although icon entertainers usually embrace their homosexual fans, most of them are heterosexual in sexual orientation. Along with being entertainers, many gay icons have been subject to high-profile personal tragedy, come-from-behind success or an untimely, tragic death.
It should also be noted that status as a gay icon does not necessarily mean that all gay people are fans of a celebrity.
Historical examples
The earliest gay icon was Saint Sebastian. The combination of his strong, shirtless physique, the symbolism of the arrows penetrating his body, and the look on his face of rapturous pain have intrigued artists both gay and straight for centuries, and began the first explicitly gay cult in the 19th century. Richard A. Kaye wrote, "contemporary gay men have seen in Sebastian at once a stunning advertisement for homosexual desire (indeed, a homoerotic ideal), and a prototypical portrait of tortured closet case." Due to Saint Sebastian's status as gay icon, Tennessee Williams chose to use that name for the martyred character Sebastian in his play, Suddenly, Last Summer. The name was also used by Oscar Wilde—as Sebastian Melmoth—when in exile after his release from prison, as is Little Britain character Sebastian, tortured in his unreturned love for the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Wilde—Irish author, humorist and "dandy"—was about as "out of the closet" as was possible for the late 1800s, and is himself considered to be a gay icon.
Marie Antoinette was an early lesbian icon. Rumors about her relationships with women had been circulated in pornographic detail by anti-royalist pamphlets before the French Revolution. In Victorian England, biographers who idealized the Ancien Régime made a point of denying the rumors, but at the same time romanticized Marie Antoinette's "sisterly" friendship with the Princesse de Lamballe as—in the words of an 1858 biography—one of the "rare and great loves that Providence unites in death." By the end of the 19th century she was a cult icon of "sapphism;" her execution, seen as tragic martyrdom, may have added to her appeal. Allusions to her appear in early 20th century lesbian literature, most notably Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness, where the gay playwright Jonathan Brockett describes Marie Antoinette and de Lamballe as "poor souls... sick to death of the subterfuge and pretenses." She had crossover appeal as a gay icon as well, at least for Jean Genet, who was fascinated by her story. He included a reenactment of her execution in his 1947 play The Maids.
List of gay icons
- Julie Andrews, UK singer and actress
- Tammy Faye Bakker, American singer, talk show host and television evangelist
- Talullah Bankhead, American actress and pundit
- Shirley Bassey, Welsh singer
- Cher, American singer and actress
- Margaret Cho, American comedian
- Patsy Cline, American singer (lesbian icon)
- Joan Crawford, American actress and dancer
- Bette Davis, American actress
- James Dean, American actor
- Marlene Dietrich, German actress and singer
- Celine Dion, Canadian singer
- Mylène Farmer, Canadian/French singer
- Judy Garland, American actress and singer
- Audrey Hepburn, US actress and singer
- Lucy Lawless, New Zealand actress (lesbian icon)
- Madonna, American singer
- Ethel Merman, American actress and singer
- Bette Midler, American actress and singer
- Liza Minnelli, American actress and singer, daughter of Judy Garland
- Kylie Minogue, Australian singer
- Marilyn Monroe, American actress
- Julie Newmar, American model and actress
- Edith Piaf, French singer
- Diana Rigg, UK actress
- Diana Ross, American singer
- Barbra Streisand, American singer, actress and director
- Mae West, American actress and singer
