Abstract
Early rounds of what is known as “bar hopping” with my best friend. As we sit down in one of the many gay bars scattered around central London, I spot a photograph hanging from the walls of this popular establishment: “What is an obviously buffed-up European man dressed in Native American attire doing in front of what appears to be the bar’s façade?” His picture hangs among photos of cowboys, sailors, workmen in hard hats, police-men, and leather-clad imposing figures wearing mirror shades. I slowly begin to recognize familiar references in this photo and the series it is part of. It is obviously a modern photographic take on the popular 1970s gay pop group The Village People. During a long career in commercial music the stylish American band fixed stereotypes in the gay imagination across the world, which epitomized the diversity that seemingly characterizes the gay universe. The only difference in this case, I quickly figure out, is that the Indian is not an indigenous American like the original group member, Felipe Rose. Rather, he is a European, almost certainly chosen for the photo shoot for his good looks among the many male prostitutes who populate London’s gay world while aspiring to become internationally renowned models. The fetishized stillness of photography triggers in me a series of questions: what are the predicaments and conditions that permit these representations to emerge and be popularly consumed by large numbers of European gays? Why do Native Americans have such a privileged place in gay men’s imaginary repertoire? What is it about the American Indian that continues to fascinate Europeans and, in particular, gay men? Surely, it is no coincidence that they feature a great deal more than any other ethnic group in the representations destined to a European gay public. A realistic estimate, I reflect.
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Notes
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© 2013 James Mackay and David Stirrup
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Carocci, M. (2013). Native Americans, Europeans, and the Gay Imagination. In: Mackay, J., Stirrup, D. (eds) Tribal Fantasies. Studies in European Culture and History. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137318817_7
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