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With downcast gays: Aspects of homosexual self-oppression
Staple-bound booklet in which "Andrew Hodges and David Hutter present a bold and uncompromising analysis of the ways gay people help keep themselves in line. First written in 1974..." Published by Pink Triangle Press, publisher of gay liberation news-magazine THE BODY POLITIC.
- GenresNonfictionLGBT
42 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1977
32 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Hodges
21 books114 followersAndrew Hodges is a British mathematician, author and an activist in the gay liberation movement of the 1970s.
Since the early 1970s, Hodges has worked on twistor theory which is the approach to the problems of fundamental physics pioneered by Roger Penrose.
He is a Tutorial Fellow in mathematics at Wadham College, Oxford University.
Since the early 1970s, Hodges has worked on twistor theory which is the approach to the problems of fundamental physics pioneered by Roger Penrose.
He is a Tutorial Fellow in mathematics at Wadham College, Oxford University.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 26, 2020
While reading this pamphlet I had to continuously remind myself that it was originally written between 1973/74 and that the seminal works published on homosexuality were yet to be published. Although I vehemently agree with some of Andrew Hodges and David Hutter’s points (especially about homosexual representation, liberal ‘tolerance’, and humor’s role in oppression), this pamphlet is deeply, and often disturbingly, the product of its time. While the authors criticize complicit and privileged gays, they frequently ignore their own privilege and, rather ironically, deny humanity and empathy to fellow gay men/women, the working class, and people of color (this last one came as an unpleasant surprise in the last few pages). The pamphlet is broken into 8 main chapters: Introduction, On sexual freedom, On coming out, On E. M. Forster, On gender roles, On humour, On liberal tolerance, On politics. Each section is broken into separate subsections which follow the theme of the chapter. Although Hodges and Hutter discuss homosexuality on a general level, their commentaries seem to revolve around gay men, with only a few references to lesbians.
I respect the place of frustration and urgency this pamphlet originated from; however, Hodges and Hutter rush to condemn those they view as complicit in their own struggle without deconstructing the complicated and oppressive system that forces people to act against their own interests in order to survive a society that is deeply hostile, one which threatens their psychological, economic, and physical survival. The authors attempt to unravel the complicated web of “self-oppression”, by (again ironically) blaming closeted men and women for their own oppression, claiming that not declaring their sexuality openly is a form of deception, and guilting them for oppressing the rest of the gay community by not coming out.
In the Introduction, Hodge and Hutter deconstruct the language used to describe homosexuality, as well as the betrayal of the “privileged gay elite” who have adopted heterosexual mannerisms and broken from their working-class contemporaries: “One longs for such people to display genuine emotion, to cry out against the distortion of their lives; to admit that their social status has been paid for by a million petty deceits and the death of all spontaneity; above all to realise that the outward conformity of which they are so proud has stunted and falsified all their relationships”.
Of all of the fear-based heterosexual accusations levelled at the gay community, one of the most common (even in 2020) and dehumanizing is that of gay promiscuity. This chapter especially tragically reminded me that the pamphlet was only written in 1973/74. In one foreshadowing segment, they allude to the seeming meaninglessness of contraception in gay relationships: “Gay sex, unencumbered as it is with conception and contraception, could be as free and available as sunshine and air, and yet we are encouraged to disown these benefits in favour of the dubious respect gained by mimicking the outward forms of family life.” He even alludes the liberty of gay saunas. This is a tragic and hollow foreshadowing in light of the AIDS epidemic which would devastate the gay community in 1981, especially as saunas were thought to be a hotbed of many AIDS outbreaks. As someone who has never lived in a world without AIDS, the naivety and ignorance shown in this section broke my heart.
Meanwhile, “On coming out” was where the majority of the pamphlets troubling and (ironically) oppressive philosophy manifests. It begins by defining the phrase “coming out” and explaining the invisibility of the homosexual to both society and him/herself. They state: “[t]his essay is only about those who identify themselves as gay among gay people, but do not come out to the outside world.” The authors claim that those who do not declare their homosexuality are deceptive and oppressive: “Deception need not be a positive act; one can deceive by default.”
They accuse closeted homosexuals as cowards who are not truly at economic risk of persecution if they come out: “Most homosexuals would suffer little loss in purely material terms by coming out. It is the loss of a protective shell which is the real barrier.” However, this ignorant statement is disproven time and time again by those who’ve lost their jobs, their family, their communities, and more, because they came out prematurely in a hostile environment. Hutter and Hodges eviscerate “privileged gays”, not realizing that their opinions are bloatedly ignorant and disrespectful. As two university darlings (Hodge currently is a professor at Oxford), Hodge and Hutter’s condescending attitude shown towards those in a less privileged socio-economic position was deeply alarming. They grandstand, claiming that job-security is an excuse for avoiding one’s sexuality: “The fear of putting a job at risk is often deliberately exaggerated by those who need a convincing excuse for secrecy.” And “Gays expose the fact that they are merely looking for excuses for remaining in the closet when they plead their purely voluntary activities as reasons for secrecy. apparently [sic] we are expected to see their hobbies as some inescapable, unchangeable aspect of their lives”. Instead of blaming larger hierarchies of power, they blame the individual for not being able to easily surmount those aforementioned hierarchies. People have been brutally murdered for their homosexuality, so the gravity of coming out can not be so callously treated. Overall, they persecute and dehumanize those they attempt to advocate for – and this is the greatest, and most unforgivable, error in their ideology.
Hodge and Hutter confront the Proustian narrative that homosexuality is “Nature’s error” wherein a woman’s mind is place within the man’s body. However, in deconstructing this idea, the authors make a blundering misstep with regard to transgenderism: “Women's minds do not exist as separate entities capable of being fitted into the wrong bodies because of inattention somewhere along the production line. There is no such thing as a woman's mind which exists independently from the female body, and if a woman's brain does differ intrinsically from that of a man it can only because it has developed in a woman's body.” With this phrase, it becomes clear that they do not respect and represent all identities, they only acknowledge their own. Transgenderism has existed just as long as homosexuality.
Finally, Hodge and Hutter scold those who do not acknowledge the homosexual man/woman’s humanity, yet they employ dehumanizing language that rob other minorities of their humanity. In a shocking paragraph, the authors casually use racial slurs, as they compare their struggle to black Americans: “"I'm not joining any liberation movement", they cry, clambering on to the [n-word] end of the bus. "I'm part of the wide, wide spectrum of humanity." A few paragraphs later, completely self-aware and tone-deaf, they attempt to compare their struggles to those they’ve just disrespected: “Alienated by the heterosexuality constantly plugged in advertising, we can sense the way in which the poor and the black are also make [sic] to feel that they are living in someone else's world.”
While many of their points are still relevant today and a few quotes were particularly striking, this pamphlet is outdated, disrespectful, willingly ignorant, tone-deaf, and – ironically and above all – privileged.
Hodges and Hutter have made their pamphlet available for free on their personal website, if one is interested:
https://www.outgay.co.uk/intro.html
I respect the place of frustration and urgency this pamphlet originated from; however, Hodges and Hutter rush to condemn those they view as complicit in their own struggle without deconstructing the complicated and oppressive system that forces people to act against their own interests in order to survive a society that is deeply hostile, one which threatens their psychological, economic, and physical survival. The authors attempt to unravel the complicated web of “self-oppression”, by (again ironically) blaming closeted men and women for their own oppression, claiming that not declaring their sexuality openly is a form of deception, and guilting them for oppressing the rest of the gay community by not coming out.
In the Introduction, Hodge and Hutter deconstruct the language used to describe homosexuality, as well as the betrayal of the “privileged gay elite” who have adopted heterosexual mannerisms and broken from their working-class contemporaries: “One longs for such people to display genuine emotion, to cry out against the distortion of their lives; to admit that their social status has been paid for by a million petty deceits and the death of all spontaneity; above all to realise that the outward conformity of which they are so proud has stunted and falsified all their relationships”.
Of all of the fear-based heterosexual accusations levelled at the gay community, one of the most common (even in 2020) and dehumanizing is that of gay promiscuity. This chapter especially tragically reminded me that the pamphlet was only written in 1973/74. In one foreshadowing segment, they allude to the seeming meaninglessness of contraception in gay relationships: “Gay sex, unencumbered as it is with conception and contraception, could be as free and available as sunshine and air, and yet we are encouraged to disown these benefits in favour of the dubious respect gained by mimicking the outward forms of family life.” He even alludes the liberty of gay saunas. This is a tragic and hollow foreshadowing in light of the AIDS epidemic which would devastate the gay community in 1981, especially as saunas were thought to be a hotbed of many AIDS outbreaks. As someone who has never lived in a world without AIDS, the naivety and ignorance shown in this section broke my heart.
Meanwhile, “On coming out” was where the majority of the pamphlets troubling and (ironically) oppressive philosophy manifests. It begins by defining the phrase “coming out” and explaining the invisibility of the homosexual to both society and him/herself. They state: “[t]his essay is only about those who identify themselves as gay among gay people, but do not come out to the outside world.” The authors claim that those who do not declare their homosexuality are deceptive and oppressive: “Deception need not be a positive act; one can deceive by default.”
They accuse closeted homosexuals as cowards who are not truly at economic risk of persecution if they come out: “Most homosexuals would suffer little loss in purely material terms by coming out. It is the loss of a protective shell which is the real barrier.” However, this ignorant statement is disproven time and time again by those who’ve lost their jobs, their family, their communities, and more, because they came out prematurely in a hostile environment. Hutter and Hodges eviscerate “privileged gays”, not realizing that their opinions are bloatedly ignorant and disrespectful. As two university darlings (Hodge currently is a professor at Oxford), Hodge and Hutter’s condescending attitude shown towards those in a less privileged socio-economic position was deeply alarming. They grandstand, claiming that job-security is an excuse for avoiding one’s sexuality: “The fear of putting a job at risk is often deliberately exaggerated by those who need a convincing excuse for secrecy.” And “Gays expose the fact that they are merely looking for excuses for remaining in the closet when they plead their purely voluntary activities as reasons for secrecy. apparently [sic] we are expected to see their hobbies as some inescapable, unchangeable aspect of their lives”. Instead of blaming larger hierarchies of power, they blame the individual for not being able to easily surmount those aforementioned hierarchies. People have been brutally murdered for their homosexuality, so the gravity of coming out can not be so callously treated. Overall, they persecute and dehumanize those they attempt to advocate for – and this is the greatest, and most unforgivable, error in their ideology.
Hodge and Hutter confront the Proustian narrative that homosexuality is “Nature’s error” wherein a woman’s mind is place within the man’s body. However, in deconstructing this idea, the authors make a blundering misstep with regard to transgenderism: “Women's minds do not exist as separate entities capable of being fitted into the wrong bodies because of inattention somewhere along the production line. There is no such thing as a woman's mind which exists independently from the female body, and if a woman's brain does differ intrinsically from that of a man it can only because it has developed in a woman's body.” With this phrase, it becomes clear that they do not respect and represent all identities, they only acknowledge their own. Transgenderism has existed just as long as homosexuality.
Finally, Hodge and Hutter scold those who do not acknowledge the homosexual man/woman’s humanity, yet they employ dehumanizing language that rob other minorities of their humanity. In a shocking paragraph, the authors casually use racial slurs, as they compare their struggle to black Americans: “"I'm not joining any liberation movement", they cry, clambering on to the [n-word] end of the bus. "I'm part of the wide, wide spectrum of humanity." A few paragraphs later, completely self-aware and tone-deaf, they attempt to compare their struggles to those they’ve just disrespected: “Alienated by the heterosexuality constantly plugged in advertising, we can sense the way in which the poor and the black are also make [sic] to feel that they are living in someone else's world.”
While many of their points are still relevant today and a few quotes were particularly striking, this pamphlet is outdated, disrespectful, willingly ignorant, tone-deaf, and – ironically and above all – privileged.
Hodges and Hutter have made their pamphlet available for free on their personal website, if one is interested:
https://www.outgay.co.uk/intro.html
August 5, 2023
Very well appreciated. This pamphlet was way better than all the queer nonsense they write today.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews