Professional wrestling is no different than almost everything else on television - highly scripted.
And like so many other programs it has become a complicated mix complete with anti-heroes with questionable values whom you are supposed to hate but find yourself cheering for.
But once upon a time, professional wrestling was simple with heroes who embraced the notion of fair play battling it out with cheaters, foreign invaders, and assorted oddball.
And no oddball was stranger than the "Exotic" Adrian Street. Street portrayed an effiminate wrestler would prance to the ring with his valet (and real life wife) Miss Linda in tow arrayed in glitter, leather, and make-up with his hair in pigtails.
While no one would come out and say the words "gay" or "homosexual," the epithets hurled at him by the crowd and the snide comments by announcers left no doubt that this was the image he pushed out there.
But there was something else about the Adrian Street wrestling character that made him a fascinating paradigm.
He was portrayed to be as tough as hell. Members of the audience who laughed at his mannerisms found themselves screaming in rage with how he demolished opponents, outsmarted fan favorites, or engaged in ugly beatdowns.
So I guess the question is can Adrian Street's RuPaul-cum-Arnold Swarzeneggar style be considered as an unusual spin on the negative ways lgbts were portrayed in the media or was he just the standard stereotype of the "psychotic queer?"
Check out his videos and judge for yourself. And yes that is him singing:
Past Know Your LGBT History postings:
Know your lgbt history - The Choirboys
Know your lgbt history - Eddie Murphy
Know your lgbt history - The Killing of Sister George
Know your lgbt history - Hanna-Barbera cartoons pushes the 'gay agenda'
Know your lgbt history - Cruising
Know your lgbt history - Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones
Know your lgbt history - I Got Da Hook Up
Know your lgbt history - Fright Night
Know your lgbt history - Flowers of Evil
The Jeffersons and the transgender community
5 comments:
I have to say this is one of the best blogs I've been to. Thanks for doing it.
Thank you. All of my work is worthwhile when folks like yourself enjoy it ;p
Your blog is absolutely amazing. Special thanks for this examination of "Exotic" Adrian Street. As a gay man who is also a longtime pro wrestling fan, it's nice to see one of the greats getting some respect. Street was a trailblazer and a legitimate badass, and was one of the few "gay" characters in the history of the medium who wasn't played strictly for laughs.
Thank you Vernon ;p
I wanted to say, because I was looking into Adrian Street, that it seems like he was a friend to the gay community, unlike some other wrestlers who portrayed implicitly gay men.
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