{"id":139764,"date":"2018-10-05T10:16:21","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T14:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=139764"},"modified":"2023-04-24T12:09:46","modified_gmt":"2023-04-24T16:09:46","slug":"the-tao-of-barbra-and-the-biggaythrill-as-explained-by-mitchell-fain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=139764","title":{"rendered":"The Tao of Barbra and the #BigGayThrill as told by Mitchell Fain"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nHere’s a piece Mitchell has performed called “The Tao of Barbra.” No last name necessary. I have known Mitchell since college, and I have heard him talk about “The Tao of Barbra” since our earliest days as friends. What Mitchell can do \u2013 almost like no other \u2013 is CONTEXTUALIZE a gigantic cultural phenomenon like Barbra. It’s important. Because nothing comes from nothing. We all stand on the shoulders of giants. And what do these iconic figures MEAN to those who love them? To the LGBTQ audience who have, in many cases, held the torch up for the rest of us? <\/p>\n

The Tao of Barbra<\/h1>\n

by Mitchell Fain<\/i><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a religious person. At all. But I am spiritual, and while I believe that each person\u2019s spirituality is as individual as their thumbprint, and that I don\u2019t need to constantly show you my thumbprint or convince you that my thumbprint is better than yours for it to be real — I am going to share a bit of my spirituality with you this evening. <\/p>\n

It’s very simple. It’s called The Tao of Barbra. The Way of Barbra. The guiding principles being the life and times and music and lyrics and films of our Goddess and Savior, Barbra Joan Streisand (Barbra with two A\u2019s, and Streisand with a soft \u2018s’, like \u201csand on the beach\u201d).<\/p>\n

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The philosophy involves a familiar concept: the Holy Trinity. I\u2019ve heard that some doctrines have other versions, but mine is, of course, The Mother, The Daughter, and The Holy Jewess: Judy. Liza. Barbra.<\/p>\n

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Gay men have always loved and needed the guidance and inspiration of powerful women with other-worldly talents. Why? I\u2019m not sure. I\u2019m not a psychiatrist or a sociologist or an anthropologist, but I am a gay man and a believer, so I\u2019ll try to explain my theory.<\/p>\n

Gay boys are magic! We are magical and different. Too often our frightened, unprepared fathers recede, and our Mother\u2019s natures abhor a vacuum, so they rush in to build us up. Therefore, the old damaging misogynistic trope of the Evil Dominant Mother and The Emasculated Passive Father creating Homosexual boys is bullshit. Scaredy-cat men, raised to believe that \u201cbeer, boobs and baseball\u201d is the only valid parenting tool for their sons, often fail to see the beauty and power and strength of their more than binary sons. And so we NEED that goddess energy to find our \u201cway\u201d. Thank Goddess! <\/p>\n

And thank Goddess for the creation of the Movie Star! <\/p>\n

When I was 7, I knew that I loved Judy Garland. I would go into my grandmother Bessie\u2019s room and put on the album Judy at Carnegie Hall<\/em>. I was the only 7-year-old that I KNEW of who had it memorized. <\/p>\n

I could lipsync every word to \u201cStormy Weather\u201d before I even knew that I was gay or that she was a gay icon or even that she was the same human who played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz<\/em>. It was my first experience of the BGT. The Big Gay Thrill. That glorious, gorgeous, electric feeling when something joyful ripples in the Gay Universe, like any time Bette Davis wielded a cigarette or any time a shaft of light crossed Joan Crawford\u2019s miraculous face, or the opening number of every single episode of the Cher show, or when Bette Midler sang goodbye to Johnny Carson for all of us. <\/p>\n

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