The femininity stamp
This morning I heard Jelly Roll Morton, when I was 1 year old, introduce "Winin' Boy" with the explanation that he had to sing dirty blues in order to ward off "the femininity stamp" due to his playing the piano. The arts, among the vulgar in Protestant cultures, count as women's territory.
Fancy an Italian or a Spaniard being afraid of compromising his masculinity by playing the piano! Catholic machismo is crueler to women than Protestant machismo (which, e.g., is less inclined to gang rape & the cult of virginity), but Protestant machismo is far meaner to men. They have to be terribly watchful of getting tainted by a long list of effeminacies. They mustn't hug each other or admire each other's looks.
I remember one time, must have been about 1970, being in a barbershop when a young man came in who was spectacularly handsome by conventional standards. He was the most conspicuous thing in sight, so some comment seemed called for, so eventually one of the chitchatting proles told him he ought to go into show business --- he had a good voice. The substitution was absurd, but it saved the speaker from the suspicion of being queer.
That kind of thing does seem to be fading. Times do change.
Fancy an Italian or a Spaniard being afraid of compromising his masculinity by playing the piano! Catholic machismo is crueler to women than Protestant machismo (which, e.g., is less inclined to gang rape & the cult of virginity), but Protestant machismo is far meaner to men. They have to be terribly watchful of getting tainted by a long list of effeminacies. They mustn't hug each other or admire each other's looks.
I remember one time, must have been about 1970, being in a barbershop when a young man came in who was spectacularly handsome by conventional standards. He was the most conspicuous thing in sight, so some comment seemed called for, so eventually one of the chitchatting proles told him he ought to go into show business --- he had a good voice. The substitution was absurd, but it saved the speaker from the suspicion of being queer.
That kind of thing does seem to be fading. Times do change.