Dandyism, Sexuality and the Return of Masculine Splendor

[walter-rebuttand]

Dandyism, Sexuality and the Return of Masculine Splendor

Since the fall of Oscar Wilde, many of the most publicized dandies have been homosexual, among them Marcel Proust, Noel Coward, Harold Acton and Neil “Bunny” Roger. Indeed a fascination with fashion combined with a cult of high taste have become stereotypes of the male homosexual, reaching mythical proportions in figures such as Liberace.

But the original dandies, including its most outspoken apologists such as Baudelaire, Beerbohm and Barbey D’Aurevilly, were all heterosexual. The correlation between dandyism and homosexuality is primarily a product of the 20th century and has more to do with changes in the status of women and modes of production than it does with shifting notions of manhood.

In her exhaustive study of male splendor through the ages, “The Peacock’s Tail,” historian Pearl Binder argues that the decline of masculine panache in the mid-19th century derives from the Industrial Revolution and the change from an agrarian and aristocratic economy to an industrial and democratic one. This change had a detrimental effect on the masculine ego, both for the factory worker who spent his day in a large bureaucratic organization monitoring machines, to his social better shuffling paperwork in the manager’s office. Both eschewed their Regency forefathers’ colorful elegance for a drab Victorian garb of black and gray, the colors of the modern city, which prompted George Bernard Shaw to dub the 1800s as “a century in mourning.”

The second blow to the masculine ego came two generations later, with the first wave of the women’s movement. Later, by the 1970s, women had achieved a radical change in their social status, one that would alter the entire relationship between the sexes. These two forces, Binder argues, are why men dress the pathetic way they do today: man has liberated his women and invented machines to do his work for him.

While both sexes dress casually today, it is clear that at every social function the women far out-dress the men. Indeed, it has become a mark of manhood for a male to denounce any concern for his appearance. What could have prompted this apathy, given that historically men were the most fashionable and extravagant?

I argue that the rise of women’s status throughout the 20th century has created a bitter resentment in the masculine psyche. Men have watched their once-unquestioned authority withered to virtually nothing in the wake of modern feminism and gender politics. This resentment has born in men a spirit of negation that sharply characterizes contemporary masculinity. A negation of what? — of everything redolent of traditional femininity.

In the effort to secure their own sense of turf, and to prove that there are still manly qualities by which men can compare themselves with each other, the Cult of the Slob has developed. This premise, upon which 90 percent of television sitcoms are based, is that men are uncultured boorish louts and that women are forced to love them anyway because at least these smelly curs are better than the available alternatives. Men today revel in their lack of manners, their inability to pick out their own clothes without the help of a maternal woman, their incomprehension of interior decorating, and their utter dread of being dragged to the opera. Manners, taste and style are things for women. Men prefer football, beer and breaking wind.

We need only look at our contemporary film icons to see the war against refinement. Among the Ramboes, Terminators and Die-Hard action heroes, there is only remaining matinee idol who can be said to embody “feminine” traits: James Bond. Polished, elegantly dressed, a connoisseur of food and wine, well-mannered and charming, Bond is the last dashing action hero, whose lineage goes back to Valentino and Erroll Flynn. And it is no coincidence that he was created before the modern women’s movement and that he is British.

Thus while an upper-class Victorian bachelor, because he lived in a patriarchal society, could have taken care in his dress, chosen fresh flowers for his apartment, collected fine China and gone to the ballet without any question of his manhood, today’s cultured sophisticate faces constant scrutiny of his sexuality if he exhibits the same qualities.

As a result of this dumbing-down of contemporary masculinity, gay men found the dandy persona to be the most viable — and enjoyable — alternative to status-quo heterosexual manhood. In the effort to differentiate themselves from the heterosexual majority, many gays create a cult of exquisite taste, high fashions and high manners that trumps the boorish notion of manhood sustained by the dominant heterosexual middle-class.

In March 1998, Forbes ran an article on the invasion of New York by dapper British tailors such as Richard James, plus the sudden sprouting up of new haberdasheries such as Turnbull & Asser and Holland & Holland. The article was entitled, with a typical malapropism, “The return of dandyism.”

While we will have to wait and see if a cult of self-made aristocrats truly manifests itself, there is evidence that men are attempting to cultivate a more traditionally masculine image as a reaction to postmodern feminism. The cult of the cigar — with all of its costly accoutrements and black tie events — has been one of the more visible signs of a return to manly pursuits and sartorial elegance in the 90s.

Among the younger set, New York and San Francisco have become major locations for the return of swing music and dance. Now, one could argue that today, every social sphere — from techno nightclubs in Fort Lauderdale to posh Manhattan cocktail parties — has the room’s most beautiful women as its stars. These are the ones everybody is looking at: the men with desire, the women with jealousy. But the retro swing scene is a social sphere in which the star is not the beautiful babe, but the cool male hepcat. Girls of the scene may look impeccable in their vintage dresses and hairstyles, but the prime guys greatly surpass them in ornamental splendor. Dig the swingin’ hepcat in his killer-diller suit, his two-tone shoes, his hat, vest, miles of silver chain dangling down his thigh, and occasionally his walking stick or boutonnière. The male struts his stuff around the club while the females stand and watch hoping he will ask them to dance.

This gives the entire swing scene a dandyish aura, as it has as its focal point a cult of masculine hipness: the cool talkin’, stylish dressin’ guy who actually knows his cocktails, his jazz, and how to dance. And not surprisingly, it is a scene that takes its inspiration from pre-feminist days.

Christian M. Chensvold

[melodius]

Mouais. A mon avis, l'association du dandyisme avec l'homosexualité n'est pas près de tomber.