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Bette Davis and gay men...

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?

by Anonymousreply 45May 17, 2020 11:43 PM

anyone?

by Anonymousreply 1May 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 Anonymousreply 2May 24, 2015 4:51 AM

She was talented. We appreciate it.

by Anonymousreply 3May 24, 2015 4:54 AM

She was talented AND extremely difficult. That's like the gay fan's bonanza.

by Anonymousreply 4May 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 Anonymousreply 5May 24, 2015 4:55 AM

She's an icon get over it it R2. The gays love cunt actresses.

by Anonymousreply 6May 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 Anonymousreply 7May 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 Anonymousreply 8May 24, 2015 5:47 AM

R8

LOL. I mean, I can picture her saying it just like that but uh... proof? link? video?

by Anonymousreply 9May 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 Anonymousreply 10May 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 Anonymousreply 11May 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 Anonymousreply 12May 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 Anonymousreply 13May 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 Anonymousreply 14May 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 Anonymousreply 15May 24, 2015 6:17 AM

Gays love big bad bitches...what don't you get R15?

by Anonymousreply 16May 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 Anonymousreply 17May 24, 2015 6:32 AM

R17=takes life super serious

by Anonymousreply 18May 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 Anonymousreply 19May 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 Anonymousreply 20May 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 Anonymousreply 21May 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 Anonymousreply 22May 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 Anonymousreply 23May 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 Anonymousreply 24May 24, 2015 6:16 PM

R23 and I think you sound butt hurt about my opinion. GTFO yourself you old queen.

by Anonymousreply 25May 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 Anonymousreply 26May 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 Anonymousreply 27May 24, 2015 7:19 PM

The gay designer Patrick Kelly was a good friend of Bette's in the 80s.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 28May 24, 2015 7:22 PM

r22, don't forget Glenda Jackson in your list.

by Anonymousreply 29May 24, 2015 7:25 PM

r28 I loved Patrick Kelly

by Anonymousreply 30May 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 Anonymousreply 31May 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 Anonymousreply 32May 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 Anonymousreply 33May 17, 2020 10:35 PM

Wonderful quote! Thanks

by Anonymousreply 34May 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 Anonymousreply 35May 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 Anonymousreply 36May 17, 2020 10:39 PM

BD's father was a hot piece of ass.

by Anonymousreply 37May 17, 2020 10:40 PM

I wouldn’t trust anything that grifter BD Hyman has to say.

by Anonymousreply 38May 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 Anonymousreply 39May 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 Anonymousreply 40May 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 Anonymousreply 41May 17, 2020 10:58 PM

What a dump.

by Anonymousreply 42May 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 Anonymousreply 43May 17, 2020 11:00 PM

Didn't suffer fools = 90% of gay men or so they wish anyway

by Anonymousreply 44May 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 Anonymousreply 45May 17, 2020 11:43 PM
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