Fleet Freak
May 24th, 2011
Paul Cadmus, The Fleet's In (1933-4)
“There are more than a dozen figures in the painting, but in one section a sailor is depicted accepting a cigarette from a man in a suit. The civilian wears a red tie, one of the quiet sartorial signals that gay men used to identify one another prior to the gay liberation movement of the 1960s; it was a time when nearly all gay men remained “in the closet” for fear of social or professional ostracism.” (Like the kind legislated in Tennessee as of this week.)
Charles LeDray, Us (2009-10)
Cranberry Beret
Because a gay man was flicking his Bic for a sailor, the Navy angrily demanded that the Corcoran Museum remove the painting from exhibition, almost 80 years before The Smithsonian’s G. Wayne Clough bent to The Catholic League’s infantile panic over David Wojnarowicz. Now that smoking is illegal in NYC parks, the Navy can rest easy; all Bic-flicking will happen in cars and apartments.
