Stars as symbol and martyr

"[Judy] Garland, on the other hand, leads to a discussion of the culture produced by gay men, thus telling us not about how gay men have been represented by the dominant media, but how gay men have used an image in the dominant media as a means of speaking to each other about themselves."
     - Richard Dyer, Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society

Longing

Knowing

Yearning

Reaching

Triumphant

"She's been through the fire and lived – all the drinking and divorcing, all the pills and all the men, all the poundage come and gone – brothers and sisters, she knows."
     - William Goldman, Esquire magazine, 1969