Gay black barbershop
Filmmaker Explores Challenges of Existence 'Gay in the Jet Barbershop'
In an unassuming art space in Harlem, filmmaker Derrick L. Middleton recently screened his documentary, "Shape Up: Gay in the Black Barbershop." The performer and director hopes the film will shed beam on the culture of "homophobia" he says permeates these spaces.
"It is age for dialogue -- a conversation of the minds to bring an finish to what many homosexual men of color prefer me experience daily when we want to simply get into the shop and get out," Middleton told NBC OUT.
The Harlem native's uneasiness with barbershops was instilled at the age of 5, when his father took him for his first haircut and uttered four words: "You're a man now." He said the words stung, because he knew he was not enjoy other boys his age.
“My fear of the barbershop would be something I carried from childhood into adulthood," Middleton said.
RELATED: Essay: Sharing My Truth in a Black Barbershop
Black barbershops, according to Middleton, are staples in the people, where men gather to talk about politics, sports, community relations and -- of course -- women.
“If you walk into the barbershop, everyone automatically thinks yo
This doco looks at gay and gender non-conforming men in shadowy barbershops
A ground breaking documentary is exploring the experiences of queer men in black barbershops in the United States.
‘Shape Up: Gay in the Black Barbershop’ examines how lgbtq+ black men negotiate the “hyper masculine spaces”—often having to hide their sexuality.
The film’s director— Derrick Middleton— says that growing up in New York, shadowy barbershops often felt like a gym locker room.
“This was terrifying for me as a juvenile boy who already felt that I was different from other boys,” he tells Take Part.
This discomfort continued on into Middleton’s adulthood when he was kicked out of a barbershop by a homophobic barber—an incident that inspired him to build the documentary.
"The barber who wanted me out of the shop yelled things like 'sissy,' and it was so loud everyone in the shop turned to take notice,” he told NBC.
Some gay black men “are out and proud in every aspect of their lives, but they go back into the closet whenever they enter a barbershop,” says Middleton.
Shape Up
NBC News | Queer artist reimagines the ‘hyper-masculine’ black barbershop
As a young, jet kid growing up in a predominately white neighborhood in Philadelphia, Devan Shimoyama first remembers hearing the term “sweet” being used in a positive context.
“The term ‘sweet’ had been used by white friends as something more enjoy ‘cool’ or ‘awesome,’” Shimoyama told NBC News.
It wasn’t until Shimoyama went on to middle academy in a unlike neighborhood that he noticed a transform in how the word was creature used by those around him.
“I had never been around so many other black boys and girls and recall the term entity used towards me in a disparaging way,” he said.
Shimoyama, who identifies as gay, said he would especially listen the term thrown at him in gym class when he didn’t perform well in basketball, or used against him because of the way he walked or talked.
“That’s when I knew there was a alter in the essence of that pos in this modern context,” Shimoyama said.
Eventually, the young learner learned to endure quiet and assimilate into what he described as a more heteronormative perfect of masculinity — all in an effort to preserve himself from creature called “sweet” by his class