Sexing Elvis

The image of Elvis as a butch god, sexual folk hero and archetypal macho man is largely the creation of the male media. The existence of this image has served to explain-away the threat of uncontrollable groups of female fans and has bolstered the egos of male writers, who have created ‘Elvis’ in their own (fantasy) image. The emphasis on sex has disguised the existence of differing experiences among Elvis fans, particularly that many did not experience him as a sexual phenomenon at all, but rather as a mascot, secret friend or hobby. The total domination of the male-defined sexual image of Elvis, adopted also by feminists, leads to interesting questions about how and why such a one-sided view of reality emerged and how such knowledge survives unquestioned. The author examines these questions by analyzing her own personal experiences of being an ‘Elvis fan’ and trying to understand the contradictions between subjective experence and so-called objective accounts.