An op-ed piece on homophobia in heavy metal culture that ran in issue #251 of ‘Terrorizer‘ magazine has been republished on the web. It was written by Tom Dare and argues that homophobia in metal culture is essentially ironic given the various homosexual undercurrents that run through it. A quote from the piece can be read below:
“Heavy metal is totally gay. It’s a predominantly male audience watching predominantly male bands act as butch and masculine as possible. It’s leather, denim, tight trousers (we’ll skip over the baggy jeans of nu metal, because that was actually the closest metal’s ever come to being straight) and a bunch of other shit that has more to do with 1970s San Francisco gay clubs than anything vaguely hetero. It’s all phallic metaphors, homoerotic imagery and sweaty (frequently topless) men grappling each other in a dark room. And yet we are amongst the most homophobic sets of music fans in the world.
There seems to be this odd perception amongst metallers of gays as mincing queens effeminately cocking a limp wrist. And while gay men like that certainly exist, it is far from the majority – and in fact, is something liable to win you prejudice even amongst the LGBT community. In fact, the closer to a Manowar press shot (with or without loincloth-only garb) you get, the closer you get to something genuinely gay.”
You can read the full article over at Terrorizer.