Friends of Dorothy—Why Gay Boys and Gay Men Love the Wizard of Oz by Dee Michel—Contents & Foreword by “Wicked” Author Gregory Maguire!

Table of Contents

Foreword by Gregory Maguire Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART ONE GAY FANS OF OZ
1 Gay Men and Oz
2 Surface Explanations
3 Gay Boys
PART TWO INDIVIDUAL REASONS AND RESPONSES 4 Escaping to Oz
5 Gender Roles in Oz
6 Difference in Oz
7 Messages and Uses of Oz
PART THREE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS
8 The Subcultural Phenomenon
9 Oz and Judy in Gay Folklore
10 The Oz–Gay Connection Now and in the Future
APPENDIXES
A The Questionnaire
B Methodology
C Was Baum Gay?
D Cross-Dressing in Oz Performances
E Early Allusions to Oz in Gay Contexts
F The Origin of “Friend of Dorothy”
Notes
Index

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Foreword by “Wicked” Author Gregory Maguire

Anything that makes a mark in the air—a mark in time—is open to an evolution of meaning. The striking crucifix against the sky means one thing in the pages of the New Testament, another thing in the windows at Chartres, another to oppressed people hoping for transcendence, and still another to colonialists intending to use it to subdue and dominate.

What is less obvious, it seems to me, is that while irony is the clearest mode in which symbols are reinterpreted, it isn’t the only one. We can note a more subtle if imprecise capacity of symbols to reframe and encapsulate a new or revised meaning, just as genuine in nature as the original.

For the exercise of it, think of that very word “Stonewall.” For the sake of argument, I am prohibiting myself access to the web for confirmation of these apprehensions. I come up with the concept of “Stonewall” Jackson, first. A public figure with a life much open to interpretation, he always comes to my mind primarily as the first American president to arise from the common people rather than from the landed gentry of the original colonies.