gay men and Oz

“What is it about gay men and The Wizard of Oz?” [a student asked.] Thirty or so pairs of eyes focused on me. … Never a teacher to discourage genuine curiosity, I searched my gray cells for record of a study on the subject. It was an unsuccessful split-second search. I fell back on my natural insight, born of years of watching The Wizard of Oz since its first showing on television, and even more years of humming ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ whenever things got tough.

… “Most of us little gay boys felt as if we were growing up in black-and-white Kansas, when what we really wanted was to live in the Technicolor place where people wear funny hats and pink taffeta and burst into song and dance whenever they wanted without anyone thinking it was weird or sissy.”

… I challenge [skeptical gays] to listen at your next party … and count the number of references to Oz in the conversations.”

It’s a theory. I have better thoughts on the queer-friendliness of L. Frank Baum’s books than for the MGM movie. In his community college English class Robert Gorman makes no mention of the Oz books. Perhaps he never read them. 

I didn’t fall in love with the MGM Wizard of Oz. It wasn’t my Oz. Oz was the books. That’s where I went to be transported. 

That said, the movie is an excellent piece of filmmaking. Besides the big Hollywood musical treatment, all of which works, the MGM movie retains the essence of Baum’s book — Dorothy’s agency. The little girl is the leader. I think it’s also important that the qualities her friends seek are ones they prove they already have — smarts, courage, love. Dorothy gets home, naturally, but she gets there because she has acquired the power to do so, not because she is helpless and has to be rescued. The male authority figure turns out not to be the source of power, but a sham. 

Why would gay men identify with a girl? Because she is worth identifying with. She’s not arrogant; she’s practical. She’s doesn’t intend to take over; she’s just living her life, trying to help her friends and herself. Dorothy remains ordinary, and yet shows how powerful that can be.

source:

The Empress is a Man: stories from the life of Jose Sarria

by Michael Robert Gorman

1998. The Haworth Press, New York