The Bookshop
by WILFRED BRANDT
  • WHAT

    GAY DVDS, GAY CALENDARS, GAY MAGAZINES, GAY COMICS, GAY FICTION, GAY GAYS

  • WHERE

    THE BOOKSHOP, 207 OXFORD ST, DARLINGHURST

  • CONTACT

    9331 1103 OR HERE

  • WHO

    FAIRIES, QUEERS, LESBIANS, BEARS, ETC

published on 3rd March, 2009

Gay bookshops used to be a staple of every gay ghetto. They helped build community, foster a common gay ‘identity’ and were rallying point for politically-minded locals.

Nowadays, the idea’s passé. Most gay dudes are more interested in getting high and getting off than getting equality. And our hard fought ‘gay’ identity (Madonna, WILL & GRACE, Abercrombie & Fitch) is pretty damn revolting.

The Bookshop embodies the glory(hole) days of yesteryear, when it was still acceptable for gays to read, think, be ‘sensitive’, and not fit some chiseled queen mold.**Where else in Sydney can you find obscure influential films from Andy Warhol, Derek Jarman, Kenneth Anger, and Bruce La Bruce (most for under $20!); hip zines like BUTT, THEY SHOOT HOMOS DON’T THEY?, STRAIGHT TO HELL and HONCHO; and books on underground legends like Tom of Finland and the Athletic Model Guild?

The service is sassy and unsympathetic, the place is a mess, and your fellow shoppers are all old or lecherous – or both. And you know what? That’s the way it should be.

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