National Coming Out Day and our links to Oscar Wilde
Did you know... This Sunday, 11 October 2020, is "National Coming Out Day"?
We’re so lucky at our studio based in Belper, Derbyshire… We get to meet clients with all sorts of backgrounds, stories, history and general walks of life who are willing to “let us in” for their “Be Bold Be You” moment. We are so proud of both our company name, Be Bold Be You, and our ethos of being true to yourself.
"Be Bold Be You... Everybody else is already taken"
The motto, above, which we feel is so appropriate for a day such as “National Coming Out Day”, is a quote from Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde; the famous Irish poet and playwright. Known for his eccentricity, in both voice and fashion sense, Wilde loved art. He published his first, and only, novel inspired by, and subsequently named, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. The opening pages of the novel, first published in the summer of 1890, were published in a magazine. The magazine’s Editor, at the time, deleted roughly 500 words without Wilde's knowledge, fearing the story was “indecent” for its readers and the wider, Victorian, society. Straight away, within the opening pages, it’s made clear to the reader that Basil Hallward, the painter of Dorian’s portrait, is in love with his, male, subject. The story goes on and once Dorian discovers his godlike powers, he carries out various acts, including murder however, to the readers of the magazine at the time, seemed more appalled by the relationship implied between the two men. Basil tells Dorian, “There was that wretched boy in the Guards who committed suicide. You were his great friend. There was Sir Henry Ashton, who had to leave England, with a tarnished name. You and he were inseparable.”
Ten years after this novel was published, Wilde’s life had taken a dramatic turn. Just five years after the revelation of Dorian and his antics, Wilde had been imprisoned after being found guilty of gross indecency, following details of an affair with the, male, British aristocrat, Lord Alfred Douglas. His marriage to Constance Wilde, with whom he had two sons, had collapsed into a state of disrepair. and it’s reported that, once details of the affair were made public, Oscar’s wife refused to meet him or allow him to see his sons. Following his release from prison, Wilde fled to France where he lived in exile. It’s thought that, against the wishes of both of their families, Wilde and his love affair, Douglas, spent a couple of months together in Naples, Italy, before separating due to both of their families threatening to cut off all funds for them individually. On 30 November 1900 Oscar died in a run down Parisian hotel, alcohol dependent, with a catholic priest and life-long friend at his side.
As mentioned earlier, his novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray", first published in 1890, and was met with criticism and social uproar - The Daily Chronicle of London called the tale “unclean,” “poisonous,” and “heavy with the mephitic odours of moral and spiritual putrefaction”. However, following his death (to quote The New Yorker) "almost overnight, a legend was born: Wilde the homosexual martyr, Wilde the moral rebel."
Fast forward almost 70 years, to 1967, and homosexuality became decriminalised in England & Wales. In the same year an American gay and lesbian bookstore was opened in New York named the “Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop”. Following the Stonewall riots of 1969, the bookshop’s founder and owner, Craig Rodwell, used the bookstore’s mailing list to help organise the first gay-pride parade, along with Ellen Broidy, Linda Rhodes and Rodwell’s partner, Fred Sergeant. On 28 June 1970 both Chicago, and the world, was introduced to its first “gay pride”.
Oscar Wilde is certainly cherished by today’s society. In 1995, he was commemorated with a stained-glass window at Poet’s Corner, in Westminster, London. In 2014 he was inaugurated into San Francisco’s “Rainbow Honor Walk of Fame” and, probably the most poignant moment following his death, 2017 saw Wilde pardoned for homosexual acts as they were no longer considered offences under the Policing and Crime Act 2017.
Our motto of “be bold be you; everybody else is already taken” is a quote from Mr Wilde. We weren't actually aware of this until a client pointed it out a couple of years ago (Thank you, Jasmine!) however we couldn't be more proud to have something in "common" with Wilde and stand by all that he represents, for so many across the globe.
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