DIVA dives into the complexities of culture, identity, and what it means to be “queer”
BY LANIA HAMILTON, IMAGE BY FOX
Darren Criss, Emmy-nominated American actor and singer, most notably came to fame as Blaine Anderson of Glee. On the show, Criss’ romance with Kurt Hummel begins with mentorship and concludes with marriage. Inspired by their on-screen romance and Criss’ recurring portrayal of gay men (Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, Hedwig in Hedwig And The Angry Inch), many viewers speculated upon Criss’ own sexuality. In an interview addressing rumours, he sets the record straight: “I have been so culturally queer my whole life”. He explains: “Not because I’m trying — you know, actually, I was gonna say not because I’m trying to be cool but I’m gonnaerase that because I am trying to be cool. The things in my life that I have tried to emulate, learn from and be inspired by are 100% queer as f*ck.”
But what is cultural queerness? What is 100% queer as f*ck?
“Culture” is qualified by collective ritual, experience, sensory wealth, attitudes and behaviours. Crucially, these are definable characteristics – this is why, since the culture we inhabit is often tied to ethnicity or social background, we see many “cultural facets” protected as characteristics from discrimination. What we are, authentically, as a product of genetics and vital experiences, as divorced from the culture we inhabit. The notion of cultural queerness – defined as “the performance of queerness as an identity or aesthetic without necessarily being queer” – tears queerness from its conventional crux. It splices queerness’s connotations, iykyks, and it’s learned the cache of cultural aesthetics from the formative experiences and politics of being queer.
Criss’ proposition, which severs the “queer” from the “lived”, has torn audiences broadly into two: those who commend his allyship, and others who question his ready ownership of the word “queer”. On the one hand, Criss commends “queer communities [in which] I’ve found people that I idolise, that I want to learn something from”.
To others, however, it is all a little vicarious. Criss acknowledges the “privilege” of playing Blaine, seemingly to suggest identity is exchangeable, something to be bestowed upon an artist. This encases Blaine’s character – meant in his phrasing to distil a certain experience of queerness – within tangible bounds. He certainly omits to clarify the privilege he now holds as a result of the role, which accelerated his career into its present bloom.
A judgement on the authenticity and authority of Criss’ statement can be left to the Twitter pundits. However, Criss’ celebrity is a vital lens by which to examine a widening gulf between the state of being queer from its cultural connotation, in large part a result of its constituent identities’ commodification.
As Chloe Bruère Dawson notes, the self’s derivation from cultural facets is a fundamental principle of consumerism. Marginalised groups’ cultures, however, have been historically exploited and bent into a consumerist tool; subcultures are reduced, homogenised, turned into an aesthetic, and sold back to audiences. Criss’ portrayal of Blaine, Andrew, andHedwig, whilst self-identifying as “culturally queer” is an example of the ever-growing misappropriation and commodification of queerness. In our increasingly disconnected world, it seems those with fame are platformed increasingly in our generational commoditisation of “otherness”.
DIVA magazine celebrates 30 years in print in 2024. If you like what we do, then get behind LGBTQIA media and keep us going for another generation. Your support is invaluable.
