“The Queerness of Bruce Springsteen.” Wait–what?
The mark of a truly great performer is one who knowingly or unknowingly can reach across many different interests and communities. Naomi Gordon-Loebl has written this study of Bruce Springsteen which takes fans in a most unexpected direction.
“A quick poke around the Internet reveals as much: the academic texts reading his work as “homoerotic or queerly suggestive,” as Rosalie Zdzienicka Fanshel writes; the “We’re Here and We’re Queering Bruce Springsteen” roundup at one of the longest-running sites for queer women, Autostraddle; the queer writer Tennessee Jones’s short story collection Deliver Me From Nowhere, based on the album Nebraska; and of course, the many, many queer Bruce Springsteen zines, from Because the Boss Belongs to Us to Butt Springsteen. Writer Muna Mire once asked Twitter, “Can anyone name a straight man that qualifies as [a gay icon]?” Among the most liked replies, from the writer Teo Bugbee: “Bruce Springsteen for lesbians only.”
“Which raises a difficult question: What exactly is so queer about Springsteen?”
Fascinating stuff. Keep reading.
