In the past, there were style icons, and then there were style icons. Before we had Daniel Craig ditching his Bond suits for long hair and Loewe sweaters, there was another kind of bisexual style icon the culture adored, one who showcased his queerness in ways both subtler and more daring.
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I’m of course speaking of Cary Grant, the Hollywood actor whose career spanned three decades and whose popularity never completely waned, even though his queerness was practically a matter of public record the entire time.
But try telling conservatives that! Currently, there are some people on X who think that Cary Grant represents classic masculinity. And they’re right, sort of. But they don’t know the whole story.
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Yes, Grant cut a dashing figure in classic men’s suits and coats, but he also appeared in drag onscreen many times. For those somehow not in the know, he even makes a gay joke at his own expense in the classic screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby.
There was also his extremely literal performance in this 1949 comedy which had him dressing up in full drag.
But so did lots of Hollywood stars in the classic era, and not all of them were a bit fruity (though to be fair, lots of them were.)
Grant, for his part, was pretty out there with his bisexuality. For years, he lived with his lover Randolph Scott in Palm Springs and nobody had a goddamn word to say about it.
Nothing to see here! Just buddies. Buddies whose “souls touched.”
I guess the moral of the story here is that style icons of every age are usual queer men. So next time a conservative tries to pull the wool over your eyes, tell them that the best dressed men have a tendency to go gay all of a sudden.
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