In Defense of Lisping, Nelly Screamers

(Crossposted on “Alas” and on “TADA.” “Alas” is, if not “safe” space — no such thing, alas — intended to be relatively pro-queer space.)

Stephen Fry was recently listed number three in The Independent’s “Pink List” of 100 admired lesbian and gay celebrities. The Independent also included a “Rogues Gallery” of non-approved queers, in which they listed minor British celebrity Louie Spence. Who is Louie Spence, you ask?

Anyhow, on his blog, Fry printed this letter from his friend Kim Harris:

Very nice to see you ranking high on The Independent’s Pink List. Quite right too. They made one vast and vastly suggestive mistake, though. They instituted a Rogues Gallery and frogmarched Louie Spence into it. Do you know who I mean? He’s a big old lisping, nelly screamer at Pineapple Dance Studios (Sky something) whom Joe Sixpack has clasped to his bosom because he’s sweet and funny and fabulous. Brightens the day, cheers the hour. There’s another reason the public loves him, but we’ll get to that in a mo. The compilers of the List, however, hate him because – well, can’t you guess? What’s the least imaginative, least penetrating thing you could possibly say about an unreconstructed flamer? That’s right – he “perpetuates the stereotype.” Christ on a marmalade cross but that pisses me right off.

Occupying the top spot was the rugby player, Gareth Thomas, who came out (finally) last year. Well done for that, boyo, I suppose. Can’t have been easy. It usually isn’t for most people, even on the Liberal Riviera where we’re all supposed to be basking today. Now, you can see where I’m going with this, can’t you? Gareth is a “real man”. He was married to a real woman. Louie is not and was not. If only we could all disport ourselves like Gareth the straights won’t hate us whereas if we all carry on like Louie….ach, how quickly these cowardly, self-oppressed, social-climbing McCarthyites forget where they come from. If I remember rightly, the whole Gay Lib thing wasn’t engineered by “real” men at all. It wasn’t sponsored by marines or scaffolders or rugby players. It was ignited by…ah, yes: drag queens.

So, instead of getting a hate on at poor Louie, instead of frantically trying to patrol their butch and instead of gussying up their drool for Gareth into blather about bravery, these creeps should remember the Rainbow. They should remember Diversity. They should remember Tolerance. They should remember that in evincing a distaste for effeminacy they’re simply making an exhibition of their own misogyny.

Fry added:

By singling out Louie Spence for lofty disapproval, by sneering at his “mincing” they are turning their back on, dissociating themselves from, insulting and demeaning a fine man and whole way of being. An authentic, strong, charming and loveable person, every bit as “courageous” as the others on the list, certainly more courageous than me, Louie deserves respect and support, not insult and derision. Do they want people like him not to count, do they see him as being guilty of a choice in his manner and his demeanour, just as homophobes everywhere accuse all gay people of choosing their sexuality and preferences? How dare they of all people dismiss a gay man in a few contemptuous, bigoted phrases because he doesn’t fit the “type” that they think a gay man should exemplify?

Hear, hear.

(Emily, Sex Nerd, also has some comments.)

This entry posted in crossposted on TADA, Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer issues, Men and masculinity. Bookmark the permalink. 

6 Responses to In Defense of Lisping, Nelly Screamers

  1. 1
    lilacsigil says:

    Well said, Mr Fry. I remember a “defence” of feminists published in a major newspaper in Australia last year that was all about how feminists aren’t fat, hairy-legged butch lesbians, really! They’re just like you and me!

  2. 2
    SeanH says:

    Hear, hear. Check out some more Louie Spence here. The man’s a legend.

  3. 3
    Mandolin says:

    Great post, Barry.

  4. One of the celebrity deaths in my adult life that particularly saddened me was Quentin Crisp. His life was about “being himself no matter what they say,” and I have no doubt he would have been in the Rogues’ Gallery had this been compiled during his lifetime. But I’m not sure why Stephen Fry is a better GLBT celebrity. It seems to me he’s just less challenging, less different. More conformist, like that’s a good thing.

    EDIT: I wrote this before — though obviously less than an hour and a half before — reading the Sex Nerd post that quotes Fry mentioning Crisp. It’s nice to be validated like that.

  5. 5
    Katie says:

    Yes! Go Stephen Fry and go you.

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