Landslide said:
umm... so what's the Judy Garland thing all about??... and the Cher thing...
Half-joking there... but... seriously though.
Peace.
don't totally get it ... i do think that gay men and straight girls have many things in common, not least of which is often having the shared experience of being treated like dirt by other men. i also think that gay men are able to relate to female singers in a way that straight men can't. and with someone like Cher, there's a huge, campy appeal. i haven't done enough reading on camp to be able to explicate it here, but the ironization of one's environment (a central part of camp) is something gay men tend to do really well. and they also have lots to do with Drag Queens -- again, performance studies stuff that i find fascinating, but don't know enough about to really write about.
personally, i'm not much into that stuff. i do tend to like female singer/songwriters, but more along the lines of Lucinda Williams, Patti Smith, Martha Wainwright, Kate Bush, etc.
i do enjoy a good drag show, though. i'd never (ever) do one myself as i have no interest in women's clothes (either putting them on or taking them off), but Drag Queens can be very, very funny, and one of the more creative and unexpectedly transcendent aspects of gay culture when a Drag Queen, done up to the nines in make up, can suddenly imbue a shlock-fest song like, say, "I Dreamed A Dream" from Les Mis, with an unexpected poignancy.
just imagine a gay man, in drag, alone on a stage in a crowded, sweaty club illuminated by a single spotlight and a glittering disco ball finding meaning in the lyrics "he slept a summer by my side/ he filled my days with endless wonder/ he took my childhood in his stride/ but he was gone when autumn came/ and still i dream he'll come to me/ and we will live the years together/ but there are dreams that cannot be/ and there are storms we cannot weather."
it can move you to tears.
and i also think that this is the effect U2 were aiming at with PopMart (among other things). meaning in unexpected areas, when the profane becomes the sacred, when the ridiculous suddenly becomes sublime.