Gay black barbershop
This doco looks at gay and lgbtq+ men in ebony 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 male lover 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 adolescent 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 form 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
Filmmaker Explores Challenges of Being 'Gay in the Black Barbershop'
In an unassuming art space in Harlem, filmmaker Derrick L. Middleton recently screened his documentary, "Shape Up: Gay in the Black Barbershop." The actor and director hopes the film will shed light on the culture of "homophobia" he says permeates these spaces.
"It is time for dialogue -- a conversation of the minds to bring an end to what many gay men of color enjoy me experience daily when we hope for to simply receive 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 appreciate 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 group, where men accumulate to talk about politics, sports, collective relations and -- of course -- women.
“If you step into the barbershop, everyone automatically thinks yo
NBC News | Gay musician reimagines the ‘hyper-masculine’ shadowy barbershop
As a young, dark 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 appreciate ‘cool’ or ‘awesome,’” Shimoyama told NBC News.
It wasn’t until Shimoyama went on to middle school in a different neighborhood that he noticed a modify in how the pos was being used by those around him.
“I had never been around so many other black boys and girls and recall the term being used towards me in a derogatory way,” he said.
Shimoyama, who identifies as male lover, said he would especially hear the term thrown at him in gym class when he didn’t excel in basketball, or used against him because of the way he walked or talked.
“That’s when I knew there was a shift in the meaning of that synonyms in this new context,” Shimoyama said.
Eventually, the childish student learned to linger quiet and assimilate into what he described as a more heteronormative preferred of masculinity — all in an effort to protect himself from organism called “sweet” by his class