I don't get it. Did she ever outwardly say she approved of gay men or anything of the like that she has developed such icon status? Or do gays just like her because she was a diva and had many memorable roles?
Bette Davis and gay men...
by Anonymous | reply 45 | May 17, 2020 11:43 PM |
anyone?
by Anonymous | reply 1 | May 24, 2015 4:38 AM |
icon status? I didn't get the message. Is there a list of DL icons posted so that we can keep up?
by Anonymous | reply 2 | May 24, 2015 4:51 AM |
She was talented. We appreciate it.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | May 24, 2015 4:54 AM |
She was talented AND extremely difficult. That's like the gay fan's bonanza.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | May 24, 2015 4:55 AM |
She genuinely didn't like gay men and wondered herself why they loved her so much. Unlike Crawford, she never embraced her gay fans.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | May 24, 2015 4:55 AM |
She's an icon get over it it R2. The gays love cunt actresses.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | May 24, 2015 4:56 AM |
R5
Umm, you have proof of this? Granted, I've never read that she embraced gays but I also never read she disliked them. So, it seems reaching to assume she didn't unless you have proof.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | May 24, 2015 5:18 AM |
Her response to gay rights was, "I ain't for it and I ain't agin it. I'm just saying there isn't anything in it for me."
by Anonymous | reply 8 | May 24, 2015 5:47 AM |
R8
LOL. I mean, I can picture her saying it just like that but uh... proof? link? video?
by Anonymous | reply 9 | May 24, 2015 6:01 AM |
I can't find quotes, but you can be sure she always had tons of gay fans. To me, she is the best gay icon. Cher/Liza/Judy/Barbra/Madonna/Beyonce/Rihanna all awful. OTOH, Bette was talented, and amazing. AMAZING.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | May 24, 2015 6:07 AM |
It's because she always said "PEE-tah, PEE-tah, PEE-tah, PEE-tah..."
Gay men just assumed if she wanted peter so badly they must have something in common.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | May 24, 2015 6:08 AM |
R10
But at least the icons you mentioned embraced their gay audience. Seems the consensus in this thread is that Bette couldn't care less or ...shock... didn't like us very much.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | May 24, 2015 6:11 AM |
Cher and Liza never had the power of Kate, Audrey, Bette, Joan, Marilyn, Judy, Barbra, Jane, or Julia. Madonna maybe.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | May 24, 2015 6:12 AM |
Who gives a shit, r12? I don't need a movie star who is long dead to ascribe to my political views; I want her to be talented and interesting.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | May 24, 2015 6:14 AM |
R14
I get it. I get what you are saying. The point is, at least the one I was trying to get at, she has such a big gay following yet I have never heard her say anything either pro or anti. It is just funny to me because we could be praising the broad and deep down, she may have wished us death.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | May 24, 2015 6:17 AM |
Gays love big bad bitches...what don't you get R15?
by Anonymous | reply 16 | May 24, 2015 6:19 AM |
Any gay man that still worships straight female entertainers in this day and age is just sad. It's so out-of-date.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | May 24, 2015 6:32 AM |
R17=takes life super serious
by Anonymous | reply 18 | May 24, 2015 6:36 AM |
In one of the biographies of her, she was quoted talking to two teen fans (girls) who surrepetitiously taped the conversation.
While she had some old-fashioned ideas about gays, she also advised the girls being gay was perfectly normal in its own way.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | May 24, 2015 6:40 AM |
Bette was from a solidly middle-class, New England family. She claimed to have remained a virgin until she married. Her mother accompanied her to Hollywood and remained a major influence throughout her adult life.
Joan Crawford, by contrast, was poor white trash from a broken home in Texas, and may or may not have been bisexual. Unlike Bette, who had solid Broadway experience, Joan was a dancer/chorine in vaudeville who scraped her way to Hollywood.
Bette loathed clothes and traditional Hollywood glamor and saw her costumes only as a way into a character. Joan loved all of it, changing her look, hair color, etc. constantly.
Wikipedia writes: Joan Crawford has been described as the "ultimate gay icon — the martyr who suffered for her art and, therefore, enabled herself to bond with this all-important faction of her fanbase." In Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography, author Lawrence J. Quirk explains that Crawford appealed to gay men because they sympathized with her struggle for success, in both the entertainment industry and in her personal life. Though Crawford had been a notable film star during the 1930s and 1940s, according to David Bret, author of Joan Crawford: Hollywood Martyr, it was not until her 1953 film Torch Song that she was seen as a "complete gay icon, primarily because it was shot in color." Bret explains that seeing the actress' red hair, dark eyes and "Victory Red" lips linked her to "gaydom's other sirens: Dietrich, Garland, Bankhead, Piaf, and new recruits Marilyn Monroe and Maria Callas."
by Anonymous | reply 20 | May 24, 2015 6:50 AM |
[quote] Crawford appealed to gay men because they sympathized with her struggle for success, in both the entertainment industry and in her personal life.
Judy was one of the most talented singers ever. She also had a lot of pain and struggle throughout her life. Despite that, she had a good heart, which is hard to encounter in Hollywood. At a time when gay people were oppressed beyond belief, they identified with her struggles and she theirs.
by Anonymous | reply 21 | May 24, 2015 5:23 PM |
Davis, Crawford, Dietrich - I get all those gay icon statuses. Judy, Marilyn, Cher, Madonna, Audrey -all weak boring people who were not that talented, also I'm not big on people doing plastic surgery. Davis & Crawford & Dietrich wore their original faces, Davis till the end.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | May 24, 2015 6:05 PM |
You think Judy and Marilyn were boring and not talented? I think all your taste is in your mouth.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | May 24, 2015 6:14 PM |
Bette measured everything using the bottom line. If it could have hurt her career or her income it didn't exist to her. That doesn't mean she was for it or against it. It just didn't matter.
by Anonymous | reply 24 | May 24, 2015 6:16 PM |
R23 and I think you sound butt hurt about my opinion. GTFO yourself you old queen.
by Anonymous | reply 25 | May 24, 2015 6:21 PM |
I'm not 'butt hurt' you imbecile. If you honestly think Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland are boring and untalented you are goddam idiot. And a fucking homophobe. Go die.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | May 24, 2015 7:14 PM |
Bette Davis had gay male friends throughout her life, and especially in her later years. One of her BFF's was an old queen antique dealer in LA who she always stayed with when she lived on the east coast in the 60s and 70s.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | May 24, 2015 7:19 PM |
The gay designer Patrick Kelly was a good friend of Bette's in the 80s.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | May 24, 2015 7:22 PM |
r22, don't forget Glenda Jackson in your list.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | May 24, 2015 7:25 PM |
r28 I loved Patrick Kelly
by Anonymous | reply 30 | May 17, 2020 10:18 PM |
Bette Davis is one of the two or three greatest actresses in the history of Hollywood. Isn't that enough for icon status?
by Anonymous | reply 31 | May 17, 2020 10:30 PM |
I really don't get all the head scratching that goes on about why people like Bette Davis, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe and Maria Callas are gay icons. Also Barbra Streisand. They happen to be FUCKING GREAT at what they do. Gay men have good taste. And that's that.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | May 17, 2020 10:34 PM |
Davis did an interview in the Advocate in 1977, well before many stars would appear in the paper(it was a newspaper not magazine at that time). This is a quote from that interview "[on gay men:] let me say, a more artistic, appreciative group of people for the arts does not exist ... They are more knowledgeable, more loving of the arts. They make the average male look stupid." Based on that, she seemed to appreciate her gay fans.
by Anonymous | reply 33 | May 17, 2020 10:35 PM |
Wonderful quote! Thanks
by Anonymous | reply 34 | May 17, 2020 10:37 PM |
In B.D. Hyman's book about her famous mother she recounted an occasion where Bette told her she was going to marry again, to a younger man who B.D. believed was gay. B. D. told her mother "it's perfectly up to you if you want to marry a homosexual. Maybe it'll work out." Whereupon Bette exploded, saying that "maybe he WAS" but all he needed was a "real woman" to straighten him out, the "real woman" being herself. I thought that was pretty funny.
by Anonymous | reply 35 | May 17, 2020 10:38 PM |
She lived in a really gay condo in West Hollywood just south of Sunset. Someone help me here - a traditional 1920s building where Jamie Lee Curtis also lived.
by Anonymous | reply 36 | May 17, 2020 10:39 PM |
BD's father was a hot piece of ass.
by Anonymous | reply 37 | May 17, 2020 10:40 PM |
I wouldn’t trust anything that grifter BD Hyman has to say.
by Anonymous | reply 38 | May 17, 2020 10:42 PM |
I think she was homophobic early on in her career and became more accepting towards the gay community in her later years.
by Anonymous | reply 39 | May 17, 2020 10:44 PM |
She was a one of a kind human being, a superb actress and a true movie star. It's not like there is a ton of people around like that. Gay men appreciate uniqueness and talent - it's not complicated.
by Anonymous | reply 40 | May 17, 2020 10:49 PM |
[quote] The gay designer Patrick Kelly was a good friend of Bette's in the 80s.
Black gays from that era adored Bette Davis. I remember Gore Vidal once said that James Baldwin (a friend and contemporary of his) loved Bette Davis and her movies, and was in awe when he finally met her.
by Anonymous | reply 41 | May 17, 2020 10:58 PM |
What a dump.
by Anonymous | reply 42 | May 17, 2020 10:59 PM |
"I wouldn’t trust anything that grifter BD Hyman has to say."
B.D. is a nut but I tend to believe Bette was how she described her; histrionic, always making scenes, always wanting to be in control, a heavy drinker, a pain in the ass. But B.D. also admitted that Bette quite generous, providing for her children well. She allowed B.D. to marry at the tender age of 16 (she married a 29 year show business something or other), paid for her lavish engagement party and wedding, and continued to be quite generous even after B.D. married and became a housewife to her lord and master. I think it really did break Bette's heart when B.D. wrote that nasty book about her. Bette actually thought she had raised her children well, and all by herself. In a Playboy interview, when asked about Christina Crawford's "Mommie Dearest", she said flat out that she didn't think her kids would ever write a book about her. It must have been quite a shock when B.D. did exactly that.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | May 17, 2020 11:00 PM |
Didn't suffer fools = 90% of gay men or so they wish anyway
by Anonymous | reply 44 | May 17, 2020 11:03 PM |
She is easily mimicked... that's enough to be a show biz icon.... the camp makes her a gay icon.
by Anonymous | reply 45 | May 17, 2020 11:43 PM |