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What's the meaning of Mardi Gras?
Brad Ruting
The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is a much loved festival filled with artistic, dramatic, social and intellectual activities. And, of course, the parade.
Since it was first held in 1978, the Mardi Gras parade has consisted of colourfully over-dressed cross-dressed gay men and women (and all things in between) marching down Oxford Street. By doing so, the gay community has claimed this space as its own.
The carnival of politics, protest, sexuality and costume that is Mardi Gras has made it a metaphor for Sydney’s gay community. Many gays in Sydney have a long-term love with the festival.
Sydney loves its Mardi Gras too. It’s an entertaining spectacle for many people - both gay and straight - and gives Sydney a cultured image that attracts a lot of spectators and tourists. It's estimated to attract over 800,000 spectators and inject up to $100 million into Sydney's economy annually.
The parade’s very nature makes it profoundly political. The original aim was achieving greater civil rights for non-heterosexuals, the acceptance of homosexuality in society and in workplaces, and support in the fight against AIDS, among other things.
Yet things have changed. The love affair is different now. The political edge has dissipated a bit. Is Mardi Gras still a rallying call to Sydney's gay population? Or do more and more gay people find it boring and redundant?
When the organising body went into receivership in 2002 - succumbing to fundraising difficulties, rising insurance costs and declining international tourism - it looked as though Mardi Gras might have disappeared for good. Luckily that didn’t happen, and it bounced back, finding a new major sponsor, Gaydar.com.au, and diversifying the events on offer.
Yet criticisms of the parade abound. Has it become too commoditised, captive to the commercial pressures of sponsors and popular pressures of the media? Have the creativity, shock value and highly sexual displays been toned down so it can be shown on TV, so children can attend and so it can stay on the right side of the police and council?
Perhaps - but that’s not a bad thing. The more people who watch Mardi Gras, the more publicity gay issues get. Many of the floats are witty and entertaining. There’s still ample opportunities to get messages across.
Undoubtedly, though, some gays are asking: What’s in it for me? Gay political struggles of previous decades have been achieved. Legal equality (gay couples notwithstanding) has been largely achieved. Medical advances, public health campaigns and support agencies have dimmed the threat of AIDS. Many more people are willing to accept, even facilitate, gays in their community.
Wider society is a lot more tolerant of homosexuals that it ever has been. Popular culture embraces gay, and it's hard to think of a television drama or sit com that hasn't had a gay character or covered gay themes. Gay is in. What's left to fight for?
But then, at the same time, gay stereotypes aren’t so popular for homosexuals anymore. Why adopt such practices and attitudes when there's no incentive - such as survival, community, or politics - to do so anymore? Why live your life on Oxford Street, which some now consider a 'fauxhemia,' when you can be an individual?
Wasn't individualism, being oneself, the ultimate aim of the gay liberation movement?
Yet these arguments are sometimes beside the point. Oxford Street is going through a period of change, with some gay clubs and businesses closing, some opening, and generally succumbing to the wider pressures of the Sydney property and shopping markets.
Yet other gay spaces are evolving elsewhere, such as Newtown’s King Street. Gays feel more comfortable being out and living elsewhere, suburbia even, and gay populations may be dissolving.
Yet that doesn’t mean they can’t get together once a year for a big party, their party: Mardi Gras. The love affair is far from over. Even if all gays don’t want to live their lives on Oxford Street, it doesn’t preclude them from coming to Mardi Gras to let their hair down, parade or party, and fight for further gay rights. There’s still plenty left to fight for.
Mardi Gras is still dear to our city’s heart. It’s changed with the times, but not always for the worse. Perhaps it’s now more humour than activism for the spectators. For those parading, and the gay community, maybe it’s entertainment more than politics: just another big after-party for the gay scene.
Nevertheless, you can still have fun without politics, and there’s lots of potential left for that. Vive la Mardi Gras!
Brad Ruting is in the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney. Email: br@student.usyd.edu.au