only real activity as that which takes, invades, aggresses, albeit a bias that has been
with us for a long time, in both straight and gay cultures: “Hollywood is clearly not
yet ready to show us a man “passively” giving himself over to another, at least not
when the actors in question are our cultural icons. Too feminine. Too suggestive,
metaphorically speaking, of penetration by another” (Bordo 1999, p. 191). Leo
Bersani (1987) criticizes the phallocentric system that is characterized by its
phallogocentrism and works hard to maintain meaningful identity; it is not primarily a
denial of power to women (though always that) but a denial of the value of
powerlessness, and of meaninglessness, of nonidentity or disidentification, in both
women and men (Thomas 1996, p. 35).
Hence, Edge of Seventeen appears to provoke Hollywood’s conservative rules by
showing a same-sex erotic spectacle focused on a man who is suggestive of insertion
by another man and practices the “condemned” powerlessness on several occasions
and variations. On the other hand, this film does preserve the patriarchal division
between privileged masculinity and subordinated femininity as the penetrated one is
always the sissy adolescent who is inspired by the campy and sometimes
androgynously or unisexual performances of 1980s British-oriented pop stars such as
Jimmy Somerville, Boy George, Morrissey, Marc Almond, “Depeche Mode,”
“Johnny Goes to Hollywood,” and “Duran Duran”
3
. Following these artists and pop
groups, Eric challenges hetero-normative aesthetic codes of masculinity and
machismo. He celebrates his sissified and penetrated body, which is systematically
contrasted to Rod’s mature and never permeated body.
In Une Robe d’Été, Frederic’s sissified body is homoerotically exposed in the first
shot. The camera tilts up his almost hairless legs, his tight blue swimming trunks, the
sparse hair on his belly, slim torso, and boyish armpits when he lies in the sun. His
partner for this summer vacation is his muscular, tanned, bleached-hair and somewhat
more hairy boyfriend. However, his masculine partner is erotically sissified when he
starts singing along to Sonny and Cher’s romantic hit song “Bang Bang,”
accompanying his singing with effeminate gestures of mimicry and dance. Later in
this film, Frederic is shown in sexual intercourse with a young woman on the
3
˜ Barbara Klinger notes that camp attitudes and dress began appearing earlier in successful rock music
trends. Glam rock and punk (in the early 1970s) found musical stars such as the Kinks, David Bowie,
Mick Jagger, and Lou Reed adopting dandyism and cross-dressing for their look. While not without its
conservative critics, rock music made one of camp’s potentially most volative issues, transgressive
sexual identity, into a public spectacle that sold (Klinger 1994, p. 138).
Convention