Fruit (slang)
Encyclopedia
Fruit and fruitcake are sexual slang
terms which have various origins but modern usages tend to primarily refer to gay
men and sometimes other LGBT
people. Usually used as pejorative
s, the terms have also been re-appropriated as insider terms of endearment within LGBT
communities. Many modern pop culture references within the gay nightlife like "Fruit Machine" and "Fruit Packers" have been appropriated for reclaiming usage, similar to queer
and dyke
.
are not always possible to trace as they often cross-pollinate in various subcultures and thus overlap and like most languages change with time with new words being introduced and others dropped altogether.
In A Dictionary of Epithets and Terms of Address author Leslie Dunkling
traces the friendly use of the phrase old fruit (and rarely old tin
of fruit) to the 1920s in Britain
possibly deriving from the phrase fruit of the womb. In the United States
, however, both fruit and fruitcake are seen as negative with fruitcake likely originating from "nutty as a fruitcake" (a crazy person).
A costermonger
was a street seller of fruit and vegetables. The term, which derived from the words costard
(a type of apple
) and monger, i.e. "seller", came to be particularly associated with the "barrow boys" of London
who would sell their produce from a wheelbarrow
or wheeled market stall. Costermongers have existed in London since at least the 16th century, when they were mentioned by Shakespeare and Marlowe
and were probably most numerous during the Victorian era
, when there were said to be over 30,000 in 1860. They gained a fairly unsavoury reputation for their "low habits, general improvidence, love of gambling, total want of education, disregard for lawful marriage ceremonies, and their use of a peculiar slang language". Two examples of their slang are referring to potatoes as "bog
-oranges
" likely developed from the phrase "Irish
fruit" also referring to potatoes and "cool the delo nammow" which means 'watch out for that old woman' with the words essentially backwards; cool (look), delo (old) and nammow (woman).
Out of the East End of London
traditional Cockney rhyming slang
developed, which works by taking two words that are related through a short phrase and using the first word to stand for a word that rhymes with the second. For instance, the most popular of these rhyming slang phrases used throughout Britain
is probably "telling porkies" meaning "lies" as "pork pies" rhymes with lies. "Alright, me old fruit?" is an example of this as "fruit gum" is translated as meaning "chum
" (a friend or acquaintance).
Cassell's Dictionary of Slang traces uses of fruit meaning an easy victim in the late 19th century and also as an eccentric person (along with fruitball, fruit basket and fruit merchant).
is amongst the lexicon
of the cant
slang
Polari
used in the gay subculture in Britain, which has become more mainstream with transcontinental travel and online
communication. There is still debate about how Polari originated but its origins can be traced back to at least the 19th century and has multiple origins and routes of dissemination with researchers finding a relatively small base of less than two dozen common (universal words) supplemented by regional phrases. It is believed to be passed on near exclusively by oral history and teaching and was found in traveling professions such as those in the sailing and traveling entertainment industries (like minstrel shows and circuses). In Polari, fruit means queen, which at the time and still today is a term for gay men and can be used positively or negatively depending on the speaker, usage and intent.
Several origins of the word fruit being used to describe gay men are possible, and most stem from the linguistic concepts of insulting a man by comparing him to or calling him a woman. In Edita Jodonytë and Palmina Morkienë's research On Sexist Attitudes in English they note "female-associated words become totally derogatory when applied to males" and “[W]hen language oppresses it does so by any means that disparage and belittle.” Comparing a gay man to fruit
, soft and tender, effeminate, like a woman has possibly gained near universal use because both LGBT people and fruit are found nearly everywhere. In One of the Boys: Homosexuality in the Military
During World War II
author Paul Jackson writes "a number of words that originally referred to prostitutes came to be applied to effeminate or queer
men - "queen
, punk, gay, faggot, fairy, and fruit."
From the 1857 "Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial
English: Containing Words from the English Writers Previous to the Nineteenth Century Which Are No Longer In Use, Or Are Not Used In The Same Sense. And Words Which Are Now Used Only In The Provincial Dialects" (e.g. all parts of England
other than London
) several routes seem likely, cockney was "an effeminate boy who sold fruit and greens
while cobble is the stone (or pit) of a fruit which also is presently defined as male testicles from the Cockney rhyming slang
"cobbler's awls", meaning "balls" and blow was the blossoming of a fruit tree and is widely used as the Polari
definition for oral sex on a man causing him to "blow"(ejaculate).
Fruitcake
s, which are cake
s containing both fruit and nuts, have been in existence since the Middle Ages
, but it is unclear when the term started being used disparagingly, especially in the United Kingdom
and the United States
, as a slur
for a 'crazy person' (e.g. "he's a complete fruitcake") although Cassell's Dictionary of Slang traces uses of fruitcake meaning an eccentric (crazy) person to 1910s. It is derived from the expression "nutty as a fruitcake", which was first recorded in 1935. A nut can be either a seed
or a fruit.
By the 1930s both fruit and fruitcake terms are seen as not only negative but also to mean male homosexual, although probably not universally. It should be noted that LGBT people were widely diagnosed as diseased with the potential for being cured, thus were regularly "treated" with castration
, lobotomies
, pudic nerve surgery, and electroshock treatment. so transferring the meaning of fruitcake, nutty, to someone who is deemed insane, or crazy, may have seemed rational at the time and many apparently believed that LGBT
people were mentally unsound. In the United States, psychiatric institutions ("mental hospital
s") where many of these procedures were carried out were called fruitcake factories while in 1960s Australia they were called fruit factories.
From 1942 to 1947, conscientious objectors in the US assigned to psychiatric hospitals under Civilian Public Service
exposed abuses throughout the psychiatric care system and were instrumental in reform
s of the 1940s and 1950s.
. Fruit of the gibbet
(used 18th through late 19th centuries) refers to a hanged man and derives from the Halifax Gibbet Law under which a prisoner was executed first and his guilt or innocence determined afterwards.
The instances of "Strange Fruit" being used within a LGBT
context include the 1944 novel that depicts lesbianism, Kyle Schickner's 2004 video, performance artist and ethnographer E. Patrick Johnson
's one-man show (which toured the US between 1999 and 2004) and others all of which used the name Strange Fruit and addressed racial issues as well as various LGBT issues.
"Fruta Extraña," Spanish
for "Strange Fruit", is a Spanish and English gay-themed talk show
on BronxNet
, Bronx public access
television. Eric Stephen Booth directs the show as well as one of the longest-running programs on Bronx public access television - "Strange Fruits," which the New York Times describes as "a 30-minute burst of gender-bending camp
and low-budget intrigue
" that is "flamboyantly
irreverent, unabashedly gay
and teeming with men in high heels and pantyhose." "[O]ne of the few public displays of homosexuality in a blue-collar borough
that is a bastion of Latin
machismo
" the bizarre sometimes free-form soap-opera has been aired since 1997 and has multi-racial cast of straight and LGBT actors and is considered "a kind of brilliant mess." The show also broadcasts on Manhattan
Neighborhood Network and Queens
Public Television.
from 1950-1973. In discussing his choice for naming a 1994 Ontario
gay
and lesbian
film and video retrospective and then re-using the phrase for his book The Fruit Machine: Twenty Years of Writings on Queer
Cinema, film critic Thomas Waugh explains Other devices involved showing subjects pictures of seminude men and measuring eye movement or attention span
.
The Fruit Machine is an ITV Productions
1988 thriller about two Brighton
gay teenagers running from an underworld assassin and the police.
On 8 July 1992 The Fruit Machine weekly club for "queer
s, dyke
s and their friends" opened at England
's largest gay dance venue Heaven
in London
and recently celebrated their fifteenth anniversary.
of The New York Review of Books
gave an extremely unfavorable review of gay author John Rechy
's first novel City Of Night under the disparaging title "Fruit Salad" including speculation that Rechy was a pseudonym. The story is of a male hustler seeking love while working the streets of New York City
, Los Angeles
, and New Orleans. It was later revealed that the book was at least partly autobiographical. The protagonist has sex with "men for money but with women to prove his masculinity intact" with the book exploring seedy gay sex and those who deal with the criminal aspects of it. Over three decades later Rechy complained noting "I'm no longer young, I understand the attack, and I protest the abuse and its recent extension" referring to the reprint of the review in a 1988 collection of reviews, Selections which was again rerun, intact, in 1996. He specifically cites the title and adds that City of Night became an international bestseller, has never been out of print, is taught in literature courses and is considered a modern classic. In an interview in Poets & Writers
it was revealed by Chester's once-editor Edward Field that "the title of the offending review…was not Alfred Chester's but the New York Review of Books's."
In South Africa, fruit salad refers to male genitals while elsewhere it can refer to a group of gay men, a set of military medals and badges or a selection of drugs (because of the various colors) or even a mixture of marijuana and hashish
called a fruit salad bowl referring to the pipe used to smoke the mixture, the later two in the context of gay men partaking of them.
slang
term from the 1970s meaning a sexually uninterested gay man.
orange juice
, making a series of television
commercials for them. She is also widely known for her strong views against homosexuality
, and for her prominent Save Our Children campaign to prevent gay equality by overturning a 1977 Dade County
(now Miami-Dade County) human-rights ordinance
that prohibited discrimination
on the basis of sexual orientation
. Bryant led a highly publicized successful campaign to repeal the ordinance waged on what was labeled "Christian
beliefs regarding the sinful
ness of homosexuality
and the perceived threat of homosexual recruitment
of children and child molestation." The campaign was the start of an organized opposition to gay rights that spread across the nation and many credit it as a second Stonewall
mobilizing LGBT
people to come out
of their closets. Jerry Falwell
went to Miami to help her and Bryant made the following statements during the campaign: "As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children" and "If gays are granted rights, next we'll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernard
s and to nail biters
." In response gay activists countered with the slogan Suck a Fruit for Anita playing on the words to imply oral sex ("Suck") with other gays ("Fruit") was an appropriate response.
each other. "Fruit Loop" can also refer to a cluster of gay bars, stores and businesses like Las Vegas
' "Paradise Fruit Loop" just off the Las Vegas Strip
. A fruitloop can also refer to a person considered crazy
.
Fruit Loops, (also singular Fruit Loop and Fruitloops) are also Freedom Rings), a set of six rainbow-colored metal rings worn as necklaces, bracelets, etc., to symbolize gay pride
or solidarity with LGBT people that were popularized in the 1990s.
For National Coming Out Day
(United States held 11 October) students have made home-made versions of the "freedom rings" with actual Froot Loops
cereal.
As a fundraiser, an LGBT student group has made Rice Krispies treat using Froot Loops cereal and called them "Fruity Gay Bars".
radio station KPFA
, the first listener-supported radio broadcaster in the United States.
while in the US it is an area to pick-up gay male hustlers.
In 1983, Frank Robinson, then manager of the San Francisco Giants
, joked that the team is planning to have a special seating section for gay
s. “Instead of a grandstand
,” he says, “We’re going to call it a fruit stand.”
Speaking of "celebrated fag hag
" and former Warhol superstar
Dorothy Dean, author Hilton Als writes (she) "reigned, with both cruelty and compassion, over that site of urban gay culture she called 'the fruit stand'." It is unclear whether she was referring to The New Yorker
where she worked or Manhattan
where she socialized.
is a 1985 novel by Jeanette Winterson
which she subsequently adapted into a BBC television drama
. It is about a lesbian
girl who grows up in an extremely religious community. The main character is a young girl named Jeanette (Jess in the TV serial) who is adopted by evangelists
, who believe she is destined to become a missionary. However, Jeanette finds herself subject to desires and feelings that contrast with the beliefs of the evangelical church. Because of these feelings, she finds herself subject to horrific practices and exorcisms, encouraged by her mother and her mother's friends.
The novel interweaves Biblical passages thus exploring the tension many LGBT people have with organized religion and Christianity in particular. The phrase "Be fruitful, and multiply" has been cited to support theories that God
does not believe in gay rights, LGBT people are not born as such and instead have made a lifestyle choice and that God does not approve of homosexuality
.
community group in Lismore
in northern NSW Australia
that hosts a number of gatherings throughout the year culminating in an annual New Year's Eve
multi-day party. They started in 1988 and attract international travelers to the middle of the Australian bush with attendance of 3,500 people. “We’ve got oldies, youngies, fairies
, muscle marys, trannies, queens
, vanilla dykes
, butch dykes
, femme dykes
, Michaels – that’s what we call the vanilla
boys,” she laughs, “and we all hang out here together. Our parties are very camp
, very queer
– we embrace the full queer mix.”
and two poofters" in Lismore
in northern NSW Australia
that was a focal point for the formation of the Tropical Fruits community group. It can also refer to semen
for or from a gay man.
s, whereas men associated with lesbians are known as dyke tyke
s (also at times Dutch boys and lezbros/lesbros).
In South Africa the definition seems more stringent stating that she only has gay male friends while in Filipino culture "fruit fly" is based on a metaphor of a woman buzzing around gay men.
Sexual slang
Sexual slang is a set of linguistic terms and phrases used to refer to sexual organs, processes, and activities; they are generally considered colloquial rather than formal or medical, and some may be seen as impolite or improper....
terms which have various origins but modern usages tend to primarily refer to gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
men and sometimes other LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
people. Usually used as pejorative
Pejorative
Pejoratives , including name slurs, are words or grammatical forms that connote negativity and express contempt or distaste. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social groups but not in others, e.g., hacker is a term used for computer criminals as well as quick and clever computer experts...
s, the terms have also been re-appropriated as insider terms of endearment within LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
communities. Many modern pop culture references within the gay nightlife like "Fruit Machine" and "Fruit Packers" have been appropriated for reclaiming usage, similar to queer
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...
and dyke
Dyke (slang)
Dyke is slang terminology referring to a lesbian or lesbianism. It originated as a derogatory label for a masculine woman, and this usage still exists. However, some attempt to use it in a manner they see as positive, or simply as a neutral synonym for lesbian...
.
Origin and historical usage
Slang words in general and gay slangGay slang
LGBT slang, LGBT speak or gay slang is a set of slang used predominantly among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. It has been used in various languages, including English and Japanese since the early 1900s as a means by members of the LGBT community as a group to self-advertise as a...
are not always possible to trace as they often cross-pollinate in various subcultures and thus overlap and like most languages change with time with new words being introduced and others dropped altogether.
In A Dictionary of Epithets and Terms of Address author Leslie Dunkling
Leslie Dunkling
Leslie Dunkling is an author known for his authoritative work on names books, ranging from names people choose for their children to names of pubs.-Biography:...
traces the friendly use of the phrase old fruit (and rarely old tin
Tin can
A tin can, tin , steel can, or a can, is a sealed container for the distribution or storage of goods, composed of thin metal. Many cans require opening by cutting the "end" open; others have removable covers. Cans hold diverse contents: foods, beverages, oil, chemicals, etc."Tin" cans are made...
of fruit) to the 1920s in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
possibly deriving from the phrase fruit of the womb. In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, however, both fruit and fruitcake are seen as negative with fruitcake likely originating from "nutty as a fruitcake" (a crazy person).
Costermongers and Cockney rhyming slang
Costermonger
Costermonger, or simply Coster, is a street seller of fruit and vegetables, in London and other British towns. They were ubiquitous in mid-Victorian England, and some are still found in markets. As usual with street-sellers, they would use a loud sing-song cry or chant to attract attention...
was a street seller of fruit and vegetables. The term, which derived from the words costard
Costard
Costard is a comic figure in the play Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare. A country bumpkin, he is arrested in the first scene for flouting the king's proclamation that all men of the court avoid the company of women for a year. While in custody, the men of the court use him to further...
(a type of apple
Apple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...
) and monger, i.e. "seller", came to be particularly associated with the "barrow boys" of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
who would sell their produce from a wheelbarrow
Wheelbarrow
A wheelbarrow is a small hand-propelled vehicle, usually with just one wheel, designed to be pushed and guided by a single person using two handles to the rear, or by a sail to push the ancient wheelbarrow by wind. The term "wheelbarrow" is made of two words: "wheel" and "barrow." "Barrow" is a...
or wheeled market stall. Costermongers have existed in London since at least the 16th century, when they were mentioned by Shakespeare and Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...
and were probably most numerous during the Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
, when there were said to be over 30,000 in 1860. They gained a fairly unsavoury reputation for their "low habits, general improvidence, love of gambling, total want of education, disregard for lawful marriage ceremonies, and their use of a peculiar slang language". Two examples of their slang are referring to potatoes as "bog
Bog
A bog, quagmire or mire is a wetland that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses or, in Arctic climates, lichens....
-oranges
Orange (fruit)
An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....
" likely developed from the phrase "Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
fruit" also referring to potatoes and "cool the delo nammow" which means 'watch out for that old woman' with the words essentially backwards; cool (look), delo (old) and nammow (woman).
Out of the East End of London
East End of London
The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...
traditional Cockney rhyming slang
Cockney rhyming slang
Rhyming slang is a form of phrase construction in the English language and is especially prevalent in dialectal British English from the East End of London; hence the alternative name, Cockney rhyming slang...
developed, which works by taking two words that are related through a short phrase and using the first word to stand for a word that rhymes with the second. For instance, the most popular of these rhyming slang phrases used throughout Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
is probably "telling porkies" meaning "lies" as "pork pies" rhymes with lies. "Alright, me old fruit?" is an example of this as "fruit gum" is translated as meaning "chum
Chum
Chum is a fabulous person Chum may refer to:*Chum salmon, a kind of salmon , native to the northern Pacific and adjacent waterways* Chum is a slang term for a friend....
" (a friend or acquaintance).
Cassell's Dictionary of Slang traces uses of fruit meaning an easy victim in the late 19th century and also as an eccentric person (along with fruitball, fruit basket and fruit merchant).
As gay slang
Fruit as gay slang or slurPejorative
Pejoratives , including name slurs, are words or grammatical forms that connote negativity and express contempt or distaste. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social groups but not in others, e.g., hacker is a term used for computer criminals as well as quick and clever computer experts...
is amongst the lexicon
Lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...
of the cant
Cant (language)
A Cant is the jargon or argot of a group, often implying its use to exclude or mislead people outside the group.-Derivation in Celtic linguistics:...
slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
Polari
Polari
Polari is a form of cant slang used in Britain by actors, circus and fairground showmen, criminals, prostitutes, and by the gay subculture. It was popularised in the 1960s by camp characters Julian and Sandy in the popular BBC radio show Round the Horne...
used in the gay subculture in Britain, which has become more mainstream with transcontinental travel and online
ONLINE
ONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....
communication. There is still debate about how Polari originated but its origins can be traced back to at least the 19th century and has multiple origins and routes of dissemination with researchers finding a relatively small base of less than two dozen common (universal words) supplemented by regional phrases. It is believed to be passed on near exclusively by oral history and teaching and was found in traveling professions such as those in the sailing and traveling entertainment industries (like minstrel shows and circuses). In Polari, fruit means queen, which at the time and still today is a term for gay men and can be used positively or negatively depending on the speaker, usage and intent.
Several origins of the word fruit being used to describe gay men are possible, and most stem from the linguistic concepts of insulting a man by comparing him to or calling him a woman. In Edita Jodonytë and Palmina Morkienë's research On Sexist Attitudes in English they note "female-associated words become totally derogatory when applied to males" and “[W]hen language oppresses it does so by any means that disparage and belittle.” Comparing a gay man to fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
, soft and tender, effeminate, like a woman has possibly gained near universal use because both LGBT people and fruit are found nearly everywhere. In One of the Boys: Homosexuality in the Military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
author Paul Jackson writes "a number of words that originally referred to prostitutes came to be applied to effeminate or queer
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...
men - "queen
Drag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...
, punk, gay, faggot, fairy, and fruit."
From the 1857 "Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial
Provincial
Provincial may refer to:* Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country.* Provincial examinations, a school-leaving exam in British Columbia, Canada* A provincial superior of a religious order...
English: Containing Words from the English Writers Previous to the Nineteenth Century Which Are No Longer In Use, Or Are Not Used In The Same Sense. And Words Which Are Now Used Only In The Provincial Dialects" (e.g. all parts of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
other than London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
) several routes seem likely, cockney was "an effeminate boy who sold fruit and greens
Greengrocer
A greengrocer or fruiterer is a retail trader in fruit and vegetables; that is, in green groceries. Greengrocer is primarily a British and Australian term, and greengrocers' shops were once common in suburbs, towns and villages...
while cobble is the stone (or pit) of a fruit which also is presently defined as male testicles from the Cockney rhyming slang
Cockney rhyming slang
Rhyming slang is a form of phrase construction in the English language and is especially prevalent in dialectal British English from the East End of London; hence the alternative name, Cockney rhyming slang...
"cobbler's awls", meaning "balls" and blow was the blossoming of a fruit tree and is widely used as the Polari
Polari
Polari is a form of cant slang used in Britain by actors, circus and fairground showmen, criminals, prostitutes, and by the gay subculture. It was popularised in the 1960s by camp characters Julian and Sandy in the popular BBC radio show Round the Horne...
definition for oral sex on a man causing him to "blow"(ejaculate).
Fruitcake
Fruitcake
Fruitcake is a cake made with chopped candied fruit and/or dried fruit, nuts, and spices, and soaked in spirits. A cake that simply has fruit in it as an ingredient can also be colloquially called a fruitcake. In the United Kingdom, certain rich versions may be iced and decorated...
s, which are cake
Cake
Cake is a form of bread or bread-like food. In its modern forms, it is typically a sweet and enriched baked dessert. In its oldest forms, cakes were normally fried breads or cheesecakes, and normally had a disk shape...
s containing both fruit and nuts, have been in existence since the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, but it is unclear when the term started being used disparagingly, especially in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, as a slur
Pejorative
Pejoratives , including name slurs, are words or grammatical forms that connote negativity and express contempt or distaste. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social groups but not in others, e.g., hacker is a term used for computer criminals as well as quick and clever computer experts...
for a 'crazy person' (e.g. "he's a complete fruitcake") although Cassell's Dictionary of Slang traces uses of fruitcake meaning an eccentric (crazy) person to 1910s. It is derived from the expression "nutty as a fruitcake", which was first recorded in 1935. A nut can be either a seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
or a fruit.
By the 1930s both fruit and fruitcake terms are seen as not only negative but also to mean male homosexual, although probably not universally. It should be noted that LGBT people were widely diagnosed as diseased with the potential for being cured, thus were regularly "treated" with castration
Castration
Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses the functions of the testicles or a female loses the functions of the ovaries.-Humans:...
, lobotomies
Lobotomy
Lobotomy "; τομή – tomē: "cut/slice") is a neurosurgical procedure, a form of psychosurgery, also known as a leukotomy or leucotomy . It consists of cutting the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex, the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain...
, pudic nerve surgery, and electroshock treatment. so transferring the meaning of fruitcake, nutty, to someone who is deemed insane, or crazy, may have seemed rational at the time and many apparently believed that LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
people were mentally unsound. In the United States, psychiatric institutions ("mental hospital
Mental Hospital
Mental hospital may refer to:*Psychiatric hospital*hospital in Nepal named Mental Hospital...
s") where many of these procedures were carried out were called fruitcake factories while in 1960s Australia they were called fruit factories.
From 1942 to 1947, conscientious objectors in the US assigned to psychiatric hospitals under Civilian Public Service
Civilian Public Service
The Civilian Public Service provided conscientious objectors in the United States an alternative to military service during World War II...
exposed abuses throughout the psychiatric care system and were instrumental in reform
Reform
Reform means to put or change into an improved form or condition; to amend or improve by change of color or removal of faults or abuses, beneficial change, more specifically, reversion to a pure original state, to repair, restore or to correct....
s of the 1940s and 1950s.
Strange Fruit
"Strange Fruit" is most often a reference to the lynchings of black people in the American South, in reference to the jazz song popularised by Billie HolidayBillie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
. Fruit of the gibbet
Gibbet
A gibbet is a gallows-type structure from which the dead bodies of executed criminals were hung on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. In earlier times, up to the late 17th century, live gibbeting also took place, in which the criminal was placed alive in a metal cage...
(used 18th through late 19th centuries) refers to a hanged man and derives from the Halifax Gibbet Law under which a prisoner was executed first and his guilt or innocence determined afterwards.
The instances of "Strange Fruit" being used within a LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
context include the 1944 novel that depicts lesbianism, Kyle Schickner's 2004 video, performance artist and ethnographer E. Patrick Johnson
E. Patrick Johnson
E. Patrick Johnson is an African American performance artist, ethnographer, and scholar.-Contributions:Johnson has made important contributions in the fields of performance studies, critical race theory, and queer theory...
's one-man show (which toured the US between 1999 and 2004) and others all of which used the name Strange Fruit and addressed racial issues as well as various LGBT issues.
"Fruta Extraña," Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
for "Strange Fruit", is a Spanish and English gay-themed talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
on BronxNet
BronxNet
BronxNet is a Public, educational, and government access cable tv network in The Bronx, New York, airing on multiple Cablevision and Verizon FiOS channels. BronxNet is located on the campus of Lehman College....
, Bronx public access
Public Access
Public Access is a 1993 American drama film directed by Bryan Singer in his feature film debut. Singer also wrote the screenplay with Christopher McQuarrie and Michael Feit Dougan. The film was shot in 18 days for US$250,000. It was screened at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, where it was...
television. Eric Stephen Booth directs the show as well as one of the longest-running programs on Bronx public access television - "Strange Fruits," which the New York Times describes as "a 30-minute burst of gender-bending camp
Camp (style)
Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...
and low-budget intrigue
Intrigue
Intrigue is a Sámi band formed in 1989 in Kárášjohka Karasjok, Norway, that sings in North Sami and English.- Intrigue 1994 :# Is This The End# Revolution# Star In The Night# Iešjávre luntat# Angel Heart# Need Your Love# Liar# Voodoo Child# Orbin...
" that is "flamboyantly
Flaming
Flaming, also known as bashing, is hostile and insulting interaction between Internet users. Flaming usually occurs in the social context of an Internet forum, Internet Relay Chat , Usenet, by e-mail, game servers such as Xbox Live or Playstation Network, and on video-sharing websites...
irreverent, unabashedly gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
and teeming with men in high heels and pantyhose." "[O]ne of the few public displays of homosexuality in a blue-collar borough
Borough
A borough is an administrative division in various countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing township although, in practice, official use of the term varies widely....
that is a bastion of Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
machismo
Machismo
Machismo, or machoism, is a word of Spanish and Portuguese origin that describes prominently exhibited or excessive masculinity. As an attitude, machismo ranges from a personal sense of virility to a more extreme male chauvinism...
" the bizarre sometimes free-form soap-opera has been aired since 1997 and has multi-racial cast of straight and LGBT actors and is considered "a kind of brilliant mess." The show also broadcasts on Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
Neighborhood Network and Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
Public Television.
The fruit machine
The fruit machine was an actual machine built to aid in the detection of gays in the Canadian Civil ServiceCanadian civil service
The Public Service of Canada is the staff, or bureaucracy, of the federal government of Canada. Its function is to support the Canadian monarch, and to handle the hiring of employees for the federal government ministries...
from 1950-1973. In discussing his choice for naming a 1994 Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
and lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
film and video retrospective and then re-using the phrase for his book The Fruit Machine: Twenty Years of Writings on Queer
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...
Cinema, film critic Thomas Waugh explains Other devices involved showing subjects pictures of seminude men and measuring eye movement or attention span
Attention span
Attention span is the amount of time that a person can concentrate on a task without becoming distracted. Most educators and psychologists agree that the ability to focus one's attention on a task is crucial for the achievement of one's goals....
.
The Fruit Machine is an ITV Productions
Granada Productions
Granada Productions was a British commercial television production and distribution company. The company took its name from the successful ITV franchise, Granada Television....
1988 thriller about two Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
gay teenagers running from an underworld assassin and the police.
On 8 July 1992 The Fruit Machine weekly club for "queer
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...
s, dyke
Dyke (slang)
Dyke is slang terminology referring to a lesbian or lesbianism. It originated as a derogatory label for a masculine woman, and this usage still exists. However, some attempt to use it in a manner they see as positive, or simply as a neutral synonym for lesbian...
s and their friends" opened at England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
's largest gay dance venue Heaven
Heaven (nightclub)
Heaven is a Superclub in London, England which appeals predominantly to the gay market. It is located underneath Charing Cross railway station in Central London, just off Trafalgar Square.-Early history:...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and recently celebrated their fifteenth anniversary.
Fruit salad
On June 1, 1963, Alfred ChesterAlfred Chester
Alfred Chester was an American writer known for his provocative, experimental work, including the novels Jamie Is My Heart's Desire and The Exquisite Corpse and the short story collection Behold Goliath....
of The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
gave an extremely unfavorable review of gay author John Rechy
John Rechy
John Francis Rechy, , is an American author, the child of a half-Scottish and half-Mexican father, Roberto Rechy, and a Mexican-American mother, Guadalupe Flores. In his novels he has written extensively about homosexual culture in Los Angeles and wider America, and is among the pioneers of modern...
's first novel City Of Night under the disparaging title "Fruit Salad" including speculation that Rechy was a pseudonym. The story is of a male hustler seeking love while working the streets of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, and New Orleans. It was later revealed that the book was at least partly autobiographical. The protagonist has sex with "men for money but with women to prove his masculinity intact" with the book exploring seedy gay sex and those who deal with the criminal aspects of it. Over three decades later Rechy complained noting "I'm no longer young, I understand the attack, and I protest the abuse and its recent extension" referring to the reprint of the review in a 1988 collection of reviews, Selections which was again rerun, intact, in 1996. He specifically cites the title and adds that City of Night became an international bestseller, has never been out of print, is taught in literature courses and is considered a modern classic. In an interview in Poets & Writers
Poets & Writers
Poets & Writers, Inc. is one of the largest nonprofit literary organization in the United States serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers...
it was revealed by Chester's once-editor Edward Field that "the title of the offending review…was not Alfred Chester's but the New York Review of Books's."
In South Africa, fruit salad refers to male genitals while elsewhere it can refer to a group of gay men, a set of military medals and badges or a selection of drugs (because of the various colors) or even a mixture of marijuana and hashish
Hashish
Hashish is a cannabis preparation composed of compressed stalked resin glands, called trichomes, collected from the unfertilized buds of the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients but in higher concentrations than unsifted buds or leaves...
called a fruit salad bowl referring to the pipe used to smoke the mixture, the later two in the context of gay men partaking of them.
Frozen Fruit
A gayGay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
term from the 1970s meaning a sexually uninterested gay man.
Suck a Fruit for Anita
In the 1970s Anita Bryant became the spokesperson for FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
orange juice
Orange juice
Orange juice is a popular beverage made from oranges. It is made by extraction from the fresh fruit, by desiccation and subsequent reconstitution of dried juice, or by concentration of the juice and the subsequent addition of water to the concentrate...
, making a series of television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
commercials for them. She is also widely known for her strong views against homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
, and for her prominent Save Our Children campaign to prevent gay equality by overturning a 1977 Dade County
Miami-Dade County, Florida
Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the state of Florida. As of 2010 U.S. Census, the county had a population of 2,496,435, making it the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States...
(now Miami-Dade County) human-rights ordinance
Local ordinance
A local ordinance is a law usually found in a municipal code.-United States:In the United States, these laws are enforced locally in addition to state law and federal law.-Japan:...
that prohibited discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
on the basis of sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
. Bryant led a highly publicized successful campaign to repeal the ordinance waged on what was labeled "Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
beliefs regarding the sinful
Sinful
To be sinful is to have committed an act that violates a known moral rule.Sinful may also refer to:* Sinful , a 1979 hard rock album* Sinful , a 1965 Mexican film-See also:* Sin * Sinner...
ness of homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
and the perceived threat of homosexual recruitment
Homosexual recruitment
Homosexual recruitment is a term used, primarily in the U.S., to describe alleged attempts by homosexuals to actively "recruit" otherwise heterosexual youths into the 'gay lifestyle'. Allegations of gay recruitment are sometimes leveled at efforts by gay activists to encourage homosexuals to "come...
of children and child molestation." The campaign was the start of an organized opposition to gay rights that spread across the nation and many credit it as a second Stonewall
Stonewall riots
The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City...
mobilizing LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
people to come out
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
of their closets. Jerry Falwell
Jerry Falwell
Jerry Lamon Falwell, Sr. was an evangelical fundamentalist Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist, and a conservative commentator from the United States. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia...
went to Miami to help her and Bryant made the following statements during the campaign: "As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children" and "If gays are granted rights, next we'll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernard
St. Bernard (dog)
The St. Bernard is a breed of very large working dog from the Italian and Swiss Alps, originally bred for rescue. The breed has become famous through tales of alpine rescues, as well as for its large size.-Appearance:The St. Bernard is a large dog...
s and to nail biters
Nail biting
Onychophagia, or nail biting, is a common oral compulsive habit in children and adults.-Classification:Nail biting is considered an impulse control disorder in the DSM-IV-R; the ICD-10 classifies it as "other specified behavioral and emotional disorders with onset usually occurring in childhood and...
." In response gay activists countered with the slogan Suck a Fruit for Anita playing on the words to imply oral sex ("Suck") with other gays ("Fruit") was an appropriate response.
Fruit Loops
Cassell's Dictionary of Slang lists several definitions for "Fruit Loops" including the loop at the back of a man's shirt collar which can be used to "hold a victim ready for buggery" (circa 1980 on college campuses), gay men and an area where they hang out and cruiseCruising for sex
Cruising for sex, or cruising is the act of walking or driving about a locality in search of a sex partner, usually of the anonymous, casual, one-time variety...
each other. "Fruit Loop" can also refer to a cluster of gay bars, stores and businesses like Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
' "Paradise Fruit Loop" just off the Las Vegas Strip
Las Vegas Strip
The Las Vegas Strip is an approximately stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada; adjacent to, but outside the city limits of Las Vegas proper. The Strip lies within the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester...
. A fruitloop can also refer to a person considered crazy
Insanity
Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including becoming a danger to themselves and others, though not all such acts are considered insanity...
.
Fruit Loops, (also singular Fruit Loop and Fruitloops) are also Freedom Rings), a set of six rainbow-colored metal rings worn as necklaces, bracelets, etc., to symbolize gay pride
Gay pride
LGBT pride or gay pride is the concept that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity...
or solidarity with LGBT people that were popularized in the 1990s.
For National Coming Out Day
National Coming Out Day
National Coming Out Day is an internationally observed civil awareness day celebrating individuals who publicly identify as bisexual, gay, lesbian, transgender—coming out regarding one's sexual orientation and/or gender identity being akin to a cultural rite of passage for LGBT people...
(United States held 11 October) students have made home-made versions of the "freedom rings" with actual Froot Loops
Froot Loops
Froot Loops is a brand of breakfast cereal produced by Kellogg's and sold in Hungary, Mexico, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the United States, South Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Germany, The Middle East, The Caribbean, South Africa, Latin America, Sweden and Finland...
cereal.
As a fundraiser, an LGBT student group has made Rice Krispies treat using Froot Loops cereal and called them "Fruity Gay Bars".
Fruit Punch
Fruit Punch was the first gay radio show in the United States, and possibly the world, which aired weekly from 1982–1987 from BerkeleyBerkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
radio station KPFA
KPFA
KPFA is a listener-funded progressive talk radio and music radio station located in Berkeley, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station signed on-the-air April 15 1949, as the first Pacifica Station...
, the first listener-supported radio broadcaster in the United States.
Fruit stand
In South Africa a fruit stand is a gay barGay bar
A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender clientele; the term gay is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT and queer communities...
while in the US it is an area to pick-up gay male hustlers.
In 1983, Frank Robinson, then manager of the San Francisco Giants
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....
, joked that the team is planning to have a special seating section for gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
s. “Instead of a grandstand
Grandstand
A grandstand is a large and normally permanent structure for seating spectators, most often at a racetrack. This includes both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium in that it does not wrap all or most of the way...
,” he says, “We’re going to call it a fruit stand.”
Speaking of "celebrated fag hag
Fag hag
Fag hag is a gay slang phrase referring to a woman who either associates mostly or exclusively with gay and bisexual men, or has gay and bisexual men as close friends. The phrase originated in gay male culture in the United States and was historically an insult. Some women who associate with gay...
" and former Warhol superstar
Warhol superstar
Warhol superstars were a clique of New York City personalities promoted by Andy Warhol during the 1960s and early 1970s. These personalities appeared in Warhol's artworks and accompanied him in his social life...
Dorothy Dean, author Hilton Als writes (she) "reigned, with both cruelty and compassion, over that site of urban gay culture she called 'the fruit stand'." It is unclear whether she was referring to The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
where she worked or Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
where she socialized.
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Oranges Are Not the Only FruitOranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a novel by Jeanette Winterson published in 1985, which she subsequently adapted into a BBC television drama...
is a 1985 novel by Jeanette Winterson
Jeanette Winterson
Jeanette Winterson OBE is a British novelist.-Early years:Winterson was born in Manchester and adopted on 21 January 1960. She was raised in Accrington, Lancashire, by Constance and John William Winterson...
which she subsequently adapted into a BBC television drama
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (TV serial)
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit was a critically acclaimed 1990 BBC television drama, directed by Beeban Kidron. Jeanette Winterson wrote the screenplay, adapting her semi-autobiographical first novel of the same name . The BBC produced and screened three episodes, running to a total of 2 hours and...
. It is about a lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
girl who grows up in an extremely religious community. The main character is a young girl named Jeanette (Jess in the TV serial) who is adopted by evangelists
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
, who believe she is destined to become a missionary. However, Jeanette finds herself subject to desires and feelings that contrast with the beliefs of the evangelical church. Because of these feelings, she finds herself subject to horrific practices and exorcisms, encouraged by her mother and her mother's friends.
The novel interweaves Biblical passages thus exploring the tension many LGBT people have with organized religion and Christianity in particular. The phrase "Be fruitful, and multiply" has been cited to support theories that God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
does not believe in gay rights, LGBT people are not born as such and instead have made a lifestyle choice and that God does not approve of homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
.
Tropical Fruits
Tropical Fruits is the name of a LGBT grassrootsGrassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
community group in Lismore
Lismore, New South Wales
Lismore is a subtropical town in northeastern New South Wales, Australia. Lismore is the main population centre in the City of Lismore local government area. Lismore is a regional centre in the Northern Rivers region of the State.-History:...
in northern NSW Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
that hosts a number of gatherings throughout the year culminating in an annual New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...
multi-day party. They started in 1988 and attract international travelers to the middle of the Australian bush with attendance of 3,500 people. “We’ve got oldies, youngies, fairies
Radical Faeries
The Radical Faeries are a loosely-affiliated, worldwide network and counter-cultural movement seeking to reject hetero-imitation and redefine queer identity through spirituality. The Radical Faerie movement started in the United States among gay men during the 1970s sexual and counterculture...
, muscle marys, trannies, queens
Drag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...
, vanilla dykes
Dyke (slang)
Dyke is slang terminology referring to a lesbian or lesbianism. It originated as a derogatory label for a masculine woman, and this usage still exists. However, some attempt to use it in a manner they see as positive, or simply as a neutral synonym for lesbian...
, butch dykes
Butch and femme
Butch and femme are LGBT terms describing respectively, masculine and feminine traits, behavior, style, expression, self-perception and so on. They are often used in the lesbian, bisexual and gay subcultures...
, femme dykes
Butch and femme
Butch and femme are LGBT terms describing respectively, masculine and feminine traits, behavior, style, expression, self-perception and so on. They are often used in the lesbian, bisexual and gay subcultures...
, Michaels – that’s what we call the vanilla
Vanilla sex
Vanilla sex is a description of what a culture regards as standard or conventional sexual behaviour. Different cultures, subcultures and individuals have different ideas about what constitutes this type of sex...
boys,” she laughs, “and we all hang out here together. Our parties are very camp
Camp (style)
Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...
, very queer
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...
– we embrace the full queer mix.”
Fruit Juice
Fruit Juice is a name of a magazine started in 1988 by "two dykesDyke (slang)
Dyke is slang terminology referring to a lesbian or lesbianism. It originated as a derogatory label for a masculine woman, and this usage still exists. However, some attempt to use it in a manner they see as positive, or simply as a neutral synonym for lesbian...
and two poofters" in Lismore
Lismore, New South Wales
Lismore is a subtropical town in northeastern New South Wales, Australia. Lismore is the main population centre in the City of Lismore local government area. Lismore is a regional centre in the Northern Rivers region of the State.-History:...
in northern NSW Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
that was a focal point for the formation of the Tropical Fruits community group. It can also refer to semen
Semen
Semen is an organic fluid, also known as seminal fluid, that may contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize female ova...
for or from a gay man.
Fruit fly
People who associate with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people may be called fruit flies (along with fruit bats) regardless of their sex. Fruit fly can also refer to a gay man. Females associated with gay males are also known as fag hagFag hag
Fag hag is a gay slang phrase referring to a woman who either associates mostly or exclusively with gay and bisexual men, or has gay and bisexual men as close friends. The phrase originated in gay male culture in the United States and was historically an insult. Some women who associate with gay...
s, whereas men associated with lesbians are known as dyke tyke
Dyke tyke
Dyke tyke is a gay slang phrase referring to a man who either associates mostly or exclusively with lesbian , bisexual or transgendered women or has gay women friends...
s (also at times Dutch boys and lezbros/lesbros).
In South Africa the definition seems more stringent stating that she only has gay male friends while in Filipino culture "fruit fly" is based on a metaphor of a woman buzzing around gay men.
Further reading
- Fruit Loops and Naughty Places: How the Language of Gay City Reflects the Politics of Urban Gay Experience. In Natasha Warner et al. (eds.), Gender and Belief Systems: Proceedings of the Fourth Berkeley Women and Language Conference. Leap, William L. 1996c. Berkeley: Berkeley Women and Language Group. Pp. 411–23.
- Earlier Citations for Terms Characterizing Homosexuals by Fred R. Shapiro, Journal of American Speech, Vol. 63, No. 3 (Autumn, 1988), pp. 283–285.
- Whose National Security?: Canadian State Surveillance and the Creation of Enemies By Steedman, Mercedes, Dieter K. Buse. 2000 Between The Lines, ISBN 1896357253.
- Queer Words, Queer Images. R. Jeffrey Ringer (ed.) New York: New York University Press, 175-92.
- A Secret World of Sex, Forbidden Fruit: The British Experience 1900-1950 by Steve Humphries, London; Sidgwick and Jackson 1988.
- "Character Weakness" and "Fruit Machines": Towards an Analysis of the Anti-homosexual Security Campaign in the Canadian Civil Service. Labour/Le Travail 35 (Spring 1995): 133-61. - The Regulation of Desire. Rev. ed. Montreal: Black Rose 1996.
- “Kinks and Queens: Linguistics and Cultural Aspects of the Terminology for Gays”; Ashley, Leonard R. N. 1979. . Maledicta III, 215-56.
- “A Glossary of Homosexuality”. Bardis, Pano A. 1980. Maledicta, IV.1, 59-64.
- Gayspeak, Gay Male & Lesbian Communication. Chesebro, James W., ed. 1981. New York: The Pilgrim Press.
- Reclaiming the Sacred: The Bible in Gay and Lesbian Culture by Raymond-Jean. Haworth Press - 1997.