Week Five: Glam Rock

Auslander states, “Gender identity was another front on which glam challenged psychedelic rock and the hippie counterculture, not only because glam offered a new, implicitly queer, image of masculinity in rock but also because it disputed the ideology of authenticity by posting gendered identities as constructed rather than natural” (p. 40). I think the statement is rather interesting because we now understand gender as being socially constructed, and we have this argument of nature vs. nurture when it comes to gender in our society. Here Auslander suggests that the hippie counterculture simply copied the gender constructions from previous generations and regarded gender as natural and unchangeable, essentially, by adopting the pre-constructed gender roles of masculine and feminine. Therefore, I find it really interesting that glam artists believed they could defy and mutate their gender identities through constructing themselves outside of the norms of gender identity. Auslander goes on to state, “The use use of makeup in glam rock illustrates clearly how glam posited sexual identity as constructed” (p. 61). However, since many glam artists were in fact straight men, it’s interesting that gender bending and tweaking with the physical characteristics of femininity being placed on men ultimately questioned their sexuality.

This brings up to the concept of camp, which I first believed to be defined as more fake and broadway-style performances. While to some extent this is still true of camp, I’m intrigued by the idea that camp became a culture that was essentially a defense mode for homosexuality. It definitely makes sense that camp would make fun of things that are traumatic. In my gender and women’s studies’ colloquium on Wednesday brought in a woman who had survived the genocide in Rwanda. Upon speaking about an instance when the militia had entered her home and beat her husband for an hour while he begged and pleaded to them to stop, apologizing to them and telling them they had every right to beat her husband based on the fact that he is Tutsi, she began laughing hysterically. The class honestly became very uncomfortable as she laughed hysterically at a traumatic event where she should have been crying, and she admitted that if she did not laugh, she would cry. This is the same defense mode that camp music takes on by making fun of things that are serious and laughing about the things that should matter in order to protect ones’ self from harm and criticism regarding their sexuality.

It’s also interesting how glam rock produced a similar, if not larger, effect from woman as the Beatles, particular T-Rex and Marc Bolan. It makes sense that women would be attracted artists and men that are similar to them in their style and characteristics. While many glam rockers portrayed gay men, rather than straight men, women were still just as in love with Bolan as they were with the straight Beatles. I suppose this makes sense due to the fact that women are attracted to gay men, since they see them are very similar in their femininity, but it’s interesting that by applying makeup, tight clothes and a boa men were able to alter their gender identity in a manner that makes them more attractive as fake homosexual men than as real heterosexual men.