SFist Tonight
Week Around the Ists
SFist Tonight
In honor of the opening of Julie & Julia today (a movie which Robert Wilonsky calls "half of a great movie" in the Weekly), gay blogger JoeMyGod points to a 2007 Boston magazine piece in which the venerable Julia Child was revealed to be a homophobe, much like the majority of her generation. In specific:
She often used the term pedal or pedalo (French slang for a homosexual) draping it with condescension, pity, and disapproval. "I had my hair permanented at E. Arden's, using the same pedalo I had before (I wish all the men in OUR profession in the USA were not pedals!)," she wrote to [her friend and co-author Simone Beck]. Fashion designers were “that little bunch of Pansies," a cooking school was "a nest of homovipers," a Boston dinner party was "peopled by 3 fags in an expensive house. We felt hopelessly square and left when decently possible," and San Francisco was beautiful but full of pedals. It appears that SF is their favorite city! I'm tired of them, talented though they are."
Her bitterness toward gays in "our" industry also got her sued in 1992, when she was accused of blocking a gay San Franciscan by the name of Daniel Coulter from becoming executive director of the American Institute of Wine and Food, which Julia helped found. We're still trying to figure out what happened to Daniel Coulter, who does not appear to have continued a culinary career. Any tips would be appreciated.
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Shocking, as she was a Smith alum. She must have been an O.G. Quad Bunny.
Shocking, as she is clearly a biological male in drag.
You go get her!!
This small dish of revenge is being served cold, which is the optimum temperature.
Finally, a respite from the endless hype for that fucking "Julie Julia" movie. Thank you, SFist.
here here.
but you know, food is very 'cool' these days, so anything having to do with it will be hyped to death . . .
It's technically not a respite
What's homoviper? Is it like foie gras?
"One of the men of the executive committee [of the AIWF], who himself was gay, said 'Julia was the target [of the lawsuit] because she had money. It was green mail, extortion....It had nothing to do with Julia as a person.'" (from Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child, by Noel Riley Fitch).
According to Julia Child, she "had nothing to do with the selection" of executive director because she was not on the committee, the board, or anything governing the AIWF. (She was one of the founders, and participated in fundraising events.)
She was good friends with James Beard, Sybille Bedford and her partner, and Cora DuBois - all gay.
Also Julia Child dedicated "The Way to Cook" to Robert Johnson, her lawyer, who was gay, who had died of AIDS.
She was of her generation, she was outspoken, and not afraid to shock people.
"We're still trying to figure out what happened to Daniel Coulter, who does not appear to have continued a culinary career. Any tips would be appreciated."
Isn't it obvious? He had a sex change and now goes by Ann
+4
This is a big surprise. I'm reading My Life in France and she writes that she's very liberal, very different from her father who's a big conservative. I guess anyone from her time would be very homophobic. But she lived and loved France: how much gayer can that be??!
I fondly remember Julia Child making an appearance in the kitchen at Hamburger Mary's probably 10-15 years ago. I didn't know much about her before that and thought of her as an old-school housewife type tv chef. After seeing her in the kitchen at Mary's having a grand time (I'm pretty sure she was drinking a bloody mary and eating a burger) my opinion of her and interest in her grew tremendously. I'm not surprised she may have said homophobic things because she is from a homophobic time as adalgisa noted. But I can't imagine a true homophobe would have willingly spent any time at Hamburger Mary's in its heyday.
You should take pause before branding her with the scarlet "H". I'm sure you wouldn't be so quick with the accusation if she was still alive.
I'm not buying the She was a product of her time; homophobia. My mother was born a year and three months after Julia, and in Latin America. Neither my mother, her sisters, my father or their friends were homophobes. Queers came and went with ease at our home; none of them were branded as anything other than friends.
If Julia was a homophobe, let her bigotry rest on her own shoulders. I'm very proud of my parents.
Who fucking cares?
bringing this up is pointless, regressive, and doesn't "serve as another reminder that things aren't still okay for us" or anything like that. it's a sensationalized piece of trivial information that probably isn't even true. i'm tired of my fellow 'mos whining.
bringing this up is pointless, regressive, and doesn't "serve as another reminder that things aren't still okay for us" or anything like that. it's a sensationalized piece of trivial information that probably isn't even true. i'm tired of my fellow 'mos whining.
I say that she probably mixed a weak mimosa with her runny french style eggs. Do not mess with a gaybois Sunday morning elixir or hellfire shall rain upon thee!