HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE 1960S CRISIS OF MASCULINITY IN THE GAY DECEIVERS

During the 1960s, it seemed like everything changed. The youth culture shook up the status quo of the United States with its inves-titure in the counterculture, drugs, and rock and roll. Students turned their universities upside-down with the spirit of protest as they fought for free speech and equality and against the Vietnam War. Many previously ignored groups, such as African Americans and women, stood up for their rights. Radical politics began to challenge the primacy of the staid old national parties. “The Kids” were now in charge, and the traditional social and cultural roles were being challenged. Everything old was old-fashioned, and the future had never seemed more unknown. Nowhere was this spirit of youthful metamorphosis more ob-vious than in the transformation of views of sexuality. In the 1960s sexuality was finally removed from its private closet and cele-brated in the public sphere. Much of the nation latched onto this new feeling of openness and freedom toward sexual expression. In the era of “free love ” that characterized the latter part of the decade, many individuals began to explore their own sexuality as well as what it meant to be a traditional man or woman. It is from this historical context that the Hollywood B-movie The Gay Deceivers (1969) emerged. This small exploitation film, directed by Bruce Kessler and written by Jerome Wish, capitalizes on the new view of sexuality in the 1960s with its novel (at least for the times) comedic exploration of homosexu-ality. The film centers on the odd couple pairing of straight