 Usually when people say that a girl looks androgynous, all they're really saying is that she the girl in question has a boyish figure and a very short haircut and perhaps mannish clothes and flat-heeled shoes. When women look outstandingly masculine, they are usually labelled lesbians, even when they're not, just as guys, who look slightly feminine, are usually labelled homosexual, even when they're not.
One of my oldest and dearest friends was
a daughter of Sappho. We went everywhere
together. We went to Moscow in 1960 accompanied
by her friend Winnie and a West Indian pal
of mine called Tillman Kleinhans. Sadly Laura
passed away a couple of years ago. Tillman
later died a tragic death from a fall.
Laura was the one close friend in my life who was a gay, she was what people nowadays call a closet-gay, although I also suspected in a few other cases that certain men and women I knew may well have been of that persuasion. Laura Kirton was employed in quite a high managerial position in a local factory near where I lived; in fact, it was the same factory, The Dunlop Rubber Company, where my mother worked for most of her life. Laura was the Secretary of our local Labour Party, and as I was a member, [I was the Education Officer for the Youth Section at the time.] We came to meet in that way.
In 1960, a few years after we met I organised
a trip to visit Moscow in Russia in my car.
Laura came along on the three-week holiday,
and with her, she brought her friend Winnie.
 Laura was good company. She was humorous,
rather shy, cheerful, highly organised, and
although she wasn't an intellectual - she
was knowledgeable and informed. She was a
lot older than I was at the time, and although
our lives went down different paths as the
years went by, we still considered ourselves
friends. Tillman Kleinhans (or Bill as we
called him) was originally from Jamaica.
He was a charmer - over six foot in height
and extremely handsome with a fine sense
of humour underlying an intelligent and observant
mind.
Laura has since passed away. and the last
time I saw her was about twelve years ago
[it is now 2000 ] when I was assisting my
friend John Briercliffe who was standing
for the 'County' constituency of Walton,
in the local elections as the Labour candidate
for the Liverpool City Council elections.
John and I had been out canvassing. We had
been walking round the streets of the Walton
District of Liverpool, where we were both
born and raised, posting leaflets through
the doors. When we returned to the Party
Headquarters at William Grice House in Hale
Road Walton for a drink at the bar, who should
walk into the room but Laura and Winnie.
I hadn't seen either of them for about five years, and the change in them was dramatic. Both of them had become enormously fat, and they were dressed in unmistakably [in your face] masculine clothes. They were drinking beer from men's 'pint' glasses and spoke in very loud, confident, deeply pitched strident voices. It was obvious that they has "come out" and did not give a damn if people overheard them, neither did they care what they said, or how the other people in the room reacted to their awesome, overpowering presence. The old gentle, sensitive Laura and the quiet, demure Winnie of yesteryear had metamorphosed into noisy and apparently insensitive dykes
Maybe the so-called normal heterosexual world can only handle androgyny when it comes wrapped in young, thin, pretty, hetero-friendly parcels, reeking of Calvin Kline One? Anything older, more ordinary, or less fragrant than that, and the world collectively recoils, or goes on the attack.
I suppose it's the same for all gender-surfers, but most specifically women. Why had they changed you may ask? The answer is that they had changed along with society. The intervening years had wrought many changes in the attitudes of British society towards gayness and lesbianism. No longer must gays conceal their sexual preferences and adopt 'low profile' lives. We are now in the days when gayness and lesbianism have come out of the closet, and men and women now live openly with others of the same gender in sexual partnerships, walk hand in hand in the streets, and even kiss in public - and why the hell shouldn't they?.
Between you and me - to be honest with you,
I much preferred them as they were before
the days of openness. As true friend I rejoiced
on their behalf at their new found freedom
to act in the way that they felt to be most
natural and comfortable, but their bluff,
aggressive stance appeared ugly and combative.
They were out-male-ing the men just like
male gays sometimes tend to out-feminine
the women. Maybe the gay community will settle
down as they feel more confident in their
acceptance by the hetero world and adjust
accordingly.
I must tell you about a troll that Laura
and Winnie carried out when they were younger.
They got an old earthern pot and scratched
on it the following in Latin type letters.
ITSAP OT FO RPIS SIN GIN.
They claimed to have dug it up in their back garden whilst digging the foundations for a shed. It hit the local papers and the Archaeologists from Liverpool Museum were called in to identify it. It was weeks before somebody spotted the real meaning of the inscription.
John and I went to Laura's funeral and wept at her graveside. She was a wonderful human being and I miss her dreadfully. I miss Bill Kleinhans too. |
