I was fascinated to read two pieces, HIS WICKED, WICKED WAYS and Three of the best, in the QB edition of the Weekend Australian.  They feature the famous Australian trio Errol Flynn, Chips Rafferty and Robert Helpmann, whose birth centenaries occur this year.  There’s also reflection on the changes in Australian society over this period.  Who would you name as ‘three of the best’ in Australia today and would there be a queer person amongst them?  

I’m always interested in queer representations in the media.  I knew of Flynn’s matinee-idol good looks and reputation as a prolific lover; but I’d also heard reports of bisexuality, that he was the lover of Howard Hughes.  Surprise, surprise, there’s no mention of this.  However he’s described as both “a ladies’ man” and “a man’s man”.  Could this indicate bisexuality?  I also like to think the expression “a man’s man” is really subtext for gay!

In Three of the best their contrasting styles are compared, “each variants on national typology and images of Australian masculinity” with a little lament that each is a “legend of vanished Australia”: Rafferty the “homegrown hero, lean and plain”; Flynn “a walking god of Australian pastoral handsomeness”; and Helpmann “the gay boy” with the voice of “a smouldering archangel”.  Which typology do you go for?

One feels Flynn gets the most flattering portrayal.  Yet he died at 50 “the victim of a life of excess”, a man who “didn’t care what other people thought or felt” and for whom the “strict moral codes of the early 20th century meant nothing”.  Sounds rather 21st century to me!  I’ve read elsewhere that he was unconcerned about being known as bisexual – but no mention of this of course.

In contrast Helpmann’s portrayal is probably the least endearing.  One cannot help pondering if this is associated with his homosexuality and mainstream’s continued reluctance to really embrace us.  While Rafferty is described as “the decent yob”, Flynn “the playboy pastoralist”, Helpmann is styled “the poof from the sticks”.  I sense a pejorative tone here.  I don’t believe mainstream journalism has the right to call gay men ‘poofs’ however clever they might think it!

Dear readers, I’m delighted to see ACON’s This is Oz anti-homophobia campaign.  It’s obviously very necessary – Michael Kirby’s “JUDGE NOT…” and Matthew Mitcham’s “Thank you Mum & Dad for making me the GAY I am.”  Now here are two worthy Australians!

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