Divine By Name, Divine By Nature

What is it about a person's contradictions that render them most memorable? Is it that complexity breeds fascination, or is it merely that the more varied a person's appeal is the more varied their fan base will be?

Whatever it was, Harris Glenn Milstead (born this day in 1945) had it in abundance. As himself he is inevitably described by those who knew him as gentle, soft-spoken, and unfailingly generous; which makes his appearances as Divine all the more shocking, because Divine is, simply put, the filthiest thing ever seen in the American cinema, bar none*.

Visually, of course, Divine was the creation of John Waters and Van Smith, the hairdresser on many of Waters' earliest and trashiest films. Emotionally - even though the words belonged to John Waters - Divine was all Milstead. As trite as it is, there is truth to the stereotype that even the most sensitive person, when bullied, will act out against ill-treatment given the chance. For that reason alone, Divine ought to serve as a beacon to fat sissy-boys everywhere, as he always has for me...

*And all the more fabulous for it!
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