Pink Society

The analysis below it has been taken from The Pink Society(1991) by spanish author Oscar Guash. We think homosexual men are difficult to classify, but these categories are still close to our reality.

The inter- homosexual typology is composed by 5 kinds: macho, softy, camp, old queen and the repressed. The first 3 are represented by their degree of masculinity. The other two types referring, in the repressed, to his degree of self-acceptance of his homosexual inclinations, and in the case of the old queen in direct relationship with his age. It is convenient to know the nature of the characteristics used in the homosexual universe to create classificatory categories. They have a similar characteristics to the ones used from the heterosexual perspective in relationship with the homosexual universe. The types are built by assigning a certain sexual role (active or passive) adding to it, afterwards, image attributes (masculine o feminine) culturally associated to that role. The types macho, camp and softy are represented by their degree of apparent masculinity that they represent. That masculinity is defined in the homosexual discourse by the dichotomy active-passive. It is, then, an adapted reproduction of the criteria used by the heterosexual universe to classified homosexuals.

Macho:

His image answers in every way to what is socially prescribed for the male. He hates everything camp and often radicalized his manly features wearing military clothes, leather or American cowboy style; with beard, check shirts, muscle lorry driver looks. He is strong and sexually aggressive. From his hiper-masculine attitude condemns the effeminate behaviour of the camp man, whom uses to establish his own manly features denying them to the camp man. Defining his manly identity taking as a reference the camp man, the macho reproduce the way that heterosexual men define his own manliness (this one uses the camp man as a reference to define his own virile features). All these make the macho been perceive as an individual sexually active in the homosexual universe though aggressive and hyperactive men are usually who invert the roll that from them is expected.

Camp:

Someone who is recognizable as homosexual. His choice of taking as identity reference the feminine is seen by the rest of homosexual as a voluntary choice. There are other ways available for the homosexual to build his identity away from the ones impose from the heterosexual perspective. It is , precisely, this idea of the free choice of the feminine of the camp man that makes him to be target of stigma in the homosexual universe, from those homosexuals(macho or not) that intend to build a manly definition of homosexuality and see in the camp man the reproduction of the heterosexual stereotype of the homosexual that they hate. Therefore, the camp man is the image of everything the manly homosexual does not want to be.

The loud, flamboyant and dramatic airs of the camp man and the image that represents make him the most recognizable kind of the homosexual universe. It is the most stigmatized in too, in opposition to the heterosexual universe where is seen not only as funny and amusing but can be manipulated in function of concrete interests.

Softy:

He reproduce the characteristics of the adolescent although he is not, it is presented as kind of transition between the macho and the camp man that are tow opposite poles, it is not easy to recognize him, been a transitional kind but it can be done by denying in him characteristics presents in other kinds. He practises soft sex, where caresses are more often present than penetration. The softy is able to say ‘I love you’ but not necessary falling crazy in love. He usually shaves and refuses (in opposition to the macho) beard and moustache on his sexual partners. His degree of been effeminate or his degree of lack of masculinity is not high and it is normal on him not having any camp manner. He defines himself as sexually active or passive depending of whom he is he going to have sex with. If is with a camp man is expected to be active if is with the macho his roll would be passive. Usually he meets with men of his own characteristics. This ambivalent feature is the most significant of the softy and it makes more difficult when trying to classify him.

Old queen:

The overrating of youth that is imposed by the ‘gay scene’ is translated in a rejection of the mature adult man. The homosexuals over 50 years old are characters with problems of their own in the heart of the homosexual universe. He cannot compete horizontally in the sexual market, except in the case of adopting an strategy of hard manly attitude similar to the macho, what makes sometimes to delay for a while his displacement to the periphery of the sexual market. The old queen can only participate horizontally in the sexual exchange when he has sexual relations with other old queens. Apparently he look for sexual partner among softy men, though cannot access to them only by the means of prostitution or acting like a sugar daddy. The youthful attitude of the old queen is seen as ridiculous and reprehensible, because show the possible future of any homosexual.

The process of marginalization of the old queen in the homosexual universe mirror in a bigger spectrum how, in our society, old people are displace to the periphery, economically, socially and sexually.

The repressed:

These are homosexuals that, for the lack personal criteria to build their own sexual identity, define themselves a non-homosexuals. The repressed rarely goes to the ghetto(gay scene) and prefer the street to meet sexual partners. The relationship that he establish are assumed to be temporal. He usually is in a relationship with a woman(wife or girlfriend) who ignore or prefer not to know the homosexual tendencies of her husband of boyfriend. The repressed is condemned by the rest of homosexual men because he does not assume his homosexuality and because he remind them of their own auto repression.