The Nineties: A Book

by Chuck Klosterman

To say homophobia was “more common” in the eighties wildly underrates the degree to which it was ingrained. Unconcealed homophobia was still an acceptable topic for commercial entertainment. The 1988 family-oriented action film Crocodile Dundee II jokes that being gay is a valid reason for committing suicide. The Beastie Boys, a musical group who’d eventually become progressive icons of inclusion, wanted to title their 1986 debut album Don’t Be a Faggot. Eddie Murphy, whose stand-up routines mocked gays with obsessive regularity, was (by far) the most popular comedian of the eighties. All those retrograde sensibilities were about to transform at an astonishing pace: Within ten years, the notion of nonchalantly using homophobia as a vehicle for unironic humor would disappear almost entirely (at least in the entertainment industry).