Why Don t You Take Your Dress Off and Fight Like a Man? Homosexuality and the 1960s Crisis of Masculinity in The Gay Deceivers

Abstract

This essay examines The Gay Deceivers as a product of this new 1960s shift in sexuality and gender. After describing the cultural climate of both the United States and Hollywood regarding sex and gender in the 1960s in greater detail, I will give an overview of how The Gay Deceivers was both typical and atypical in its representations of homosexuality. This film, however, rarely has been given a thorough treatment beyond a critique of its stereotypes. Although simply pointing out the stereotypical does have its value, there is something much more significant operating within this film. Therefore, after covering this more traditional ground of homosexual stereotypes, I will explore how the film s use of homosexuality is less about simple gay representation and more about a larger crisis in gender identity. The Gay Deceivers is actually a battleground for competing versions of American masculinity in which the old, traditional values of family, marriage, and monogamy are challenged by the new freedom of the 1960s. As such, the film also serves as an example how such tactics as feminization can be used to undermine competing masculinities in popular culture texts in order to bolster the hegemony of traditional heterosexual masculinity. Thus, the film s homophobia is less about homosexuality itself than it is about exploring what it means to be (or not to be) masculine both in the 1960s as well as in the present day.