Beautiful essay about Michael Chabon's fashionista son

Wonderful. Thanks for sharing. Great for this kid to have a dad who supports him like that.

I was SHOCKED when I read Michael Chabon married a woman a couple of years ago. Can a person be any gayer?

Apparently his son can?

I guess his mom got her wish, though.

ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz

What are his digits so I can insert mine?

That face has cookie sniffer all over it.

OMG. Is "Ah·Bay" wearing eyeliner at 13 ??? He doesn't even stand a chance...

He certainly is stylish, though.

Is he a Jew?

Yawn. The kid is unbearable.

Did anyone else have trouble reading the article? It kept scrolling up and down while I was reading it, and I kept having to move the cursor to locate the part I had been reading. I finally gave up; it was too much trouble. Chabon is an incredible writer though. The Amazing Adventures of Cavelier and Clay is brilliant.

Ahhhh.... The privileged of money... Isn't it beautiful?

They're all queers.

R10 I also had the same obnoxious scrolling issue and gave up on trying to read the article.

The white Smiths.

Michael will live vicariously thru Abey

I had the same scrolling issue I t was the pop up ads which refreshed the page. Very annoying so I stopped reading the article.

Bravo for him. Most of us wish we had understanding fathers (and mothers) who could've nurtured us based on who were, instead of being hellbent on "fixing" us. If he had been some junior jock, parading around in cool sneakers and sport jerseys, rattling off his abilities and knowledge at some sports expo, he would've been complimented and praised for being such a cool little man. I'm glad he's getting some praise for being who he is.

Bravo for him. Most of us wish we had understanding fathers (and mothers) who could've nurtured us based on who were, instead of being hellbent on "fixing" us. If he had been some junior jock, parading around in cool sneakers and sport jerseys, rattling off his abilities and knowledge at some sports expo, he would've been complimented and praised for being such a cool little man. I'm glad he's getting some praise for being who he is.

Bravo for him. Most of us wish we had understanding fathers (and mothers) who could've nurtured us based on who were, instead of being hellbent on "fixing" us. If he had been some junior jock, parading around in cool sneakers and sport jerseys, rattling off his abilities and knowledge at some sports expo, he would've been complimented and praised for being such a cool little man. I'm glad he's getting some praise for being who he is.

MiXed thoughts here. I applaud the father for his understanding. I fear for the kid who'll have a hard time with his fellow male students.

I wish someone, anyone, would say "bravo" to this kid.

Those ears!

Chabon probably got $5 a word for that drivel.

Fucker.

Bravo, Girl!

[quote] Bravo, Girl!

Brava, girl!

[Quote] I fear for the kid who'll have a hard time with his fellow male students.

I'm glad his dad will have his back if this happens. Many dads would've tried to "fix" him by now, and blamed him for any exhibition of lingering sissiness.

Is it bad of me that I don't know who Michael Chabon is?

Yes, R27.

Go to the nearest Golden Corral and hang your head in shame.

R27 -- The Amazing Adventures of Cavelier and Clay is my novel. It's brilliant.

Gorgeous essay. Adored it. Had my father been one-tenth as compassionate and aware, I'd have had many fewer struggles in my life.

Plus, for someone not into fashion, his descriptions of the clothing at the shows are beautiful.

Proud papa:

Abe:

Mama:

Fierce?

Still surprised Chabon married a woman, let alone had children.

They sound insufferable. I wonder if he's going to find a nice woman like his daddy did; we all can see that being a raging queen didn't stop him from doing it...

Seriously -- is Chabon really gay? An author of his caliber has no reason to not be out if he is gay. Why would he pretend he's not?

I think he's out as bi. There's a postscript in the second edition of Mysteries of Pittsburgh where he talks about how he wrote it after having broken up with a man he loved.

Well, at least he's not transitioning.

Mixed feelings here. As a general thing, I think it's horrible for parents to write about a child's issues, and put their business out where the whole world can cluck about it. It's a violation of the child's privacy, at an age when they're too young to understand what exposure to the mass media can entail,t hey can't give true informed consent to be discussed by all the readers of GQ and the whole fucking internet.

However, I'll make an exception this time, and thank Abe for allowing this discussion. Because in a world where people are being told that it's fine and normal to turn your girly boy into a pretend girl, someone had got to stand up for the for the right for femme boys to be femme boys!

I totally get the part about having to find your own people. I was out in high school which was a huge and sucky step in the early to mid 80s. I wasn't mocked as much as ignored. The theater and art guys would talk to me so I had a place to eat lunch, but I really wasn't interested in their world. I college, I fell in with the math guys who were great but not quite what I needed. Then I discovered the archeologists. A lot were gay. My interests (mathematical classification, geographic modeling, and paleopatholgy) were in line with their interests. I felt like I was at home. To this day, I still have the strongest ties to my undergrad and grad friends who were fellow archeologists. He's lucky he found his people.

This kid probably goes to some posh private school where looking like that isn't a big deal. But if he went to public school he'd probably get his ass kicked on daily basis.

Here's Chabon in the era when he was banging guys.

I would've hit it.

His older son is extremely tall and kinda cute.

He goes to Bard. Of course.

On one hand, cool. On the other hand... poor kid.

[quote] He goes to Bard. Of course.

Of course.

[quote]I would've hit it.

I still would.

Back in the day:

Kudos to Chabon for keeping his brand 'relevant' and building his kids' brands at the same time. Slam dunk!

But he overwrites a bit doesn't he.

The father is just as gay as the son, and likely favors that child above the rest for that reason. Must be a situation where he got married and squirted out four kids because of the cultural expectation among Jews to procreate. It's often considered mandatory. My Jewish dad married my Christian mom in the 1970's (neither are at all religious) and poor mom has never been accepted by dad's side of the family even after 35 years of marriage. I think she was secretly relieved when her inlaws finally died.

My female cousins on my dads side both married non-Jewish men but are raising the kids Jewish and that's acceptable because it's a matrilineal religion, but my male cousin is clearly held to the expectation that he's got to marry a Jewish woman.

Keep right on spinning those stereotypes R51. They're what make Americans so . . . bigoted.

Michael Chabon is hot!! (and obvs NOT straight)

I know someone in Pittsburgh who said they had a fling with him back in the day.

I don't think it takes a detective to figure that the Mysteries of Pittsburgh is autobiographical. Or elements of Wonder Boys, for that matter.

[quote]I know someone in Pittsburgh who said they had a fling with him back in the day.

Tell all, please, R54.

Maybe if Michael came out, his sentences wouldn't be so tortuous anymore too...

HETEROnormative Bliss y'all:

He's clearly not straight. I agree with the poster who said he favors his gay kid because he relates, and will live vicariously through him.

I went to a reading of his once, circa Yiddish Policeman's Union. He was checking out the cute guys as they came up to get their books signed. Holding eye contact, looking them up and down, etc.

^ I can see picture that. I honestly think Milo Y will himself go down the Chabon route and stop living as a gay man. He'll find himself a nice Catholic girl to breed with.

I know several men like Chabon who couldn't make gay relationships work so married their hags and had kids. All of them were a bit homophobic opposing gay marriage and adoption and a few really hated lesbians but liked straight women.

Pegging! The secret to Michael Chabon's heterosexual marriage. And I'm pretty sure he has random anonymous hook ups with younger 18-22 yr old guys from all over the bay area via grindr.

I think he's a bottom daddy into jock/thug tops, very much into roleplaying.

I remember reading The Mysteries of Pittsburgh when it came out and thinking it was great--I went back and reread it a few years ago: not only does it read like an MFA thesis-novel (which I think it was), but a bad one. But I think Wonder Boys and Kavalier and Clay are terrific. I haven't read most of the others.

You bumped a three year old thread about MC’s son to post that?

Ass.

Does anyone remember when Arlo Weiner, "The Littlest Dandy," was the adorable son of a celebrity who loved fashion?

Michael Chabon's dad was a doctor AND a lawyer. My God, his Jewish mother (Mike's grandmother) must've been orgasming when he got the second degree.

I'm definitely no foot fetishists, so I don't know what they normally go for, but I'm going to assume R57's pic is not it in either case. Fucking ugly "feets."

[quote]The Amazing Adventures of Cavelier and Clay is my novel.

Too bad neither you nor r10 got the title right.

[quote] Is it bad of me that I don't know who Michael Chabon is?

I wondered too, but not enough to look him up. If he is unleashing a new Jazz Jennings on the world that says it all.