Castro Street Clone

Castro clone is gay slang for a homosexual man who appeared in dress and style as an idealized working-class man. The term and image grew out of the heavily gay-populated Castro neighborhood in San Francisco during the late 1970s, where the modern gay rights movement, sparked by the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City and the Summer of Love, gave rise to an urban community.

The Castro clone look typically consisted of masculine attire such as uniforms, leather or Levi's and checked shirts. Typical of the "Castro Clone" look was a form-fitting t-shirt, shrink-to-fit denim trousers worn snugly (bell bottoms and low-rise jeans in the early seventies, later more traditionally working-class 501s), sneakers or boots, and, often, a full moustache and sideburns. Hair styles were relatively short-- not a crewcut, but definitely something that would not blow in the wind or require a lot of hairspray to hold it in place.

The elements of the look all served to emphasize the wearer's physical attributes, especially those associated with masculinity; those with buff bodies believed that less clothing was often better, so that their hard work at the gym was evident. Gay men so frequently adopted this attire, at first when bar-hopping, that it soon became associated with males of the post-Stonewall LGBT community. As with any "look" there were those who carried it off with elan, and others who became parodies of the look.

More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Castro_Street_Clone ]

Jump to: Main Page • Micropedia • Macropedia • Icons • Time Line • History • Life Lessons • Links • Help
Chat rooms • What links here • Copyright info • Contact information • Category:Root