Poor Tara Subkoff is a straight woman stuck (tortuously) in, by her own description, "a gay man's profession". Nothing makes me sadder to hear that a poor struggling artist like Subkoff cannot make it in our cruel gay world. Oh, wait. This just in: Tara Subkoff is from Westport, CT, the daughter of a highly successful antique-shop owner, George Subkoff. But to read In Fashion, Who Really Gets Ahead? in today's Thursday Styles section of the Times the supposition is presented that gay men dominate the fashon industry at the expense of women.
One piece of evidence presented by poor Ms. Subkoff is that "gay men stick together like a band of brothers ... whereas a woman would be threatened" by another woman. But doesn't this really say that the problem is not with gay men; the problem is apparently the self-loathing and paranoia of women.
Further evidence is the lesser media presence of women in the media coverage of fashion. Dana Buchman notes that "If you look at who is touted in the fashion press, it is overwhelmingly young gay men." As the owner of a stable business centered around "working mother" and "career woman" looks perhaps Buchman has lost sight of the fact that news organizations seek "news". "News" as in innovative new styles and the pushing of the envelope. The last time Buchman pushed an envelope was into the hand of her posh building's doorman at holiday.
Also cited is the proliferation of shows filled with vibrant gay men, the Queer Eyes et al with gay men at the forefront. Not mentioned? The fact that there are more of these type shows that are helmed by women; it's just that they aren't as successful. Also not brought up is the core audiences for these shows - women.
The article touches on the fact that maybe gay men are just better at design, but Manhattan Offender is not really the place to make such a conclusion one way or other. Although, from head to toe today: coat - Paul Smith, suit - Alexander McQueen, shirt - Helmut Lang, boots - Marc Jacobs, underwear - 2xist (which could possibly be a woman, right?). Obviously men have had a say in my appearance today, and sure, some are gay. (Can I mention that I have no idea when I became such a label whore, by the way?)
The fact that gay men have an industry where they are allowed to flourish and succeed is to be applauded, not leered upon with suspicion. Perhaps there are simply things that gay male designers can achieve with their work that women cannot, but Tara Subkoff and Dana Buchman can do things that gay men cannot do, namely marry the person of their choice. So perhaps these ladies will next complain that more black men succeed in the NBA or that more catholics become popes. More hopefully though, maybe they'll put less of their energy into hating and more into innovating.
