Fieldnotes #3
So after getting rejected at the door of the Eagle, my friend and I decided to bro out at Mirabar. This was my first time going with just another guy--usually I’ve gone in groups, including with some girlfriends of mine. My friend, like I said in the last post, could be placed in the “twink” box - cute face, toned muscles, but overall a skinny/pretty-boy type. We came in wearing tight jeans and tight-ish shirts, which are very generic at Mirabar
This trip was REALLY different than the last one in that my intention was more to let loose than it had been when i was with my other friends. After five minutes and a vodka tonic (yes I paid a 25-ish guy sitting by the bar to give me alcohol, although he didn’t want to dance), I got on the elevated dancefloor-component of the club, which is a see-and-be-seen platform. Like last time, most of the guys at the club were white but a lot were not...that said, it seemed that the platform was completely dominated by what appeared to be white gay men. Absolutely no women were up there and neither were the men of color I saw that evening in the club, with maybe a few exceptions. My friend, who is Asian American, joined me and started dancing with another guy we recognized as a Brown or RISD gay, and I let them do their thing so I started to go aroun the club for more possibilities.
Every corner of Mirabar is like a different pocket of queer identity/experience. In one were the thicker veteran-Mirabar-goer boys (maybe 40-60 yrs old?) who could probably fit in pretty well at the Eagle. Lots of these men sit on the balcony overlooking the elevated dancefloor, scanning the crowd for cute guys. I figured that this is a research project, so I approached one (very nervously...this is crazy and I kinda regret it!) and asked “what exactly are you looking at?”...The guy, probably in his early 50’s? told me : “I’m looking at you now, sugar” and put his hand on my chest. Okay, so in all due respect I wasn’t into that, so I moved on and tried to identify the Mirabar experience in action without getting groped by men twice my age.
Anoher corner of the club was the gay boys-with-their-(mostly straight)-femalebodied friends.. I found a SUPERRRRRR cute guy in this pocket who was dancing with his friend and he gave me the eye, so I went in and we danced for a minute. He told me he goes to Mira every Thursday night because there’s karaoke sometimes before the club rolls in at 10. He was 21 (but looked younger), appeared Latino, came from New Jersey but went to Johnson&Wales... anyway we ended up on the dancefloor but after 20 minutes he ditched me
The black men in the club were clustered in what could more-or-less be called another corner...there were not many there, and like Ash told me in the interview there seemed to bea a pecking-order in place whereby the twinky white boys did not dance with the black men let alone hang out in the same nook of the club. Segregation was very evident along racial lines...also there seemed to be a class component as the well-dressed, fancy-looking queers (mostly between 20 and 40) hung out by the bar drinking expensive-ish booze together
A final thing to discuss is the shotboy dynamic. Mirabar hires 10-20ish shot boys to staff the club every night, and all these guys are lean-muscled, usually short white men. I think shot boys serve as ambassadors of a certain image or fantasy identity that the club attempts to generate, and it’s interesting to note how the whitewashed dynamic at play among the club’s employee plays into the segregated dynamic of the dancefloor as well as the sense of undesirability that many darker skinned folks, like Ash, have assumed given these facets of the Mirabar experience.
The racial dynamic present in Mirabar is striking, but I guess to be expected. You'd think that since a lot of gays have experienced separation and prejudice they would be able to deal with it in a better manner, but social dynamics will be what they be. It's interesting that you noted the marketability of white boys working there, we've talked a lot in class about the marketability of blacks and black culture, but every race has some sort of niche. Do you think the whites in this case are given a more desirable label?
ReplyDeleteGood luck exploring this scene further, watch out for those bears.
Ben,
ReplyDeleteYou have a great writing style and keep the reader engaged. I felt like I was reading a personal blog, and then would get these great snip-its of ethnomusicology-related observations and insights. I think it's great that you've immersed yourself into the scene as a participant-observer. I'm curious as to how you asked people questions, such as the 50 year old man - were you mostly just observing and asking casually, or explaining this project to people when you talked to them? How do you think your presence affected the scene?
Your commentary on the specific body type of the shot boys is interesting. I've noticed a specific body type (and whiteness) represented by shot girls at a women's gay club in Providence, too. I'd be curious as to how and why those bodies are seen as ideal in some way (or if they are) within the community.
Great work!