Closet (pronounced kloz-it)
(1) A small room, enclosed recess, cupboard or cabinet
for storing clothing, food, utensils etc.
(2) A small private room, especially one used for prayer,
meditation etc.
(3) A state or condition of secrecy or carefully guarded
privacy.
(4) A clipping of “closet of ease” and later “water
closet” (WC), early names for the flushing loo (toilet; lavatory; privy with a
waste-pipe and means to carry off the discharge by a flush of water).
(5) Of or pertaining to that which is private; secluded
or concealed; undertaken unobserved and in isolation.
(6) To shut up in a private room for some purpose.
(7) A private room used by women to groom and dress
themselves (obsolete).
(8) A private room used for prayer or other devotions (archaic).
(9) A place of (usually either fanciful or figurative in
that typically it referred to the state of thought rather than where it took
place) contemplation and theorizing (archaic).
(10) The private residence or private council chamber of
a monarch accompanied by a staff establishment (page of the chamber; clerk of
the closet et al) and related to the bedchamber (archaic).
(11) In a church, a pew or side-chapel reserved for a
monarch or feudal lord (regarded as obsolete but the concept endures in that
the order of precedence is often used when seating is allocated for ceremonial
events conducted in churches).
(12) In heraldry, an ordinary similar to a bar but half the
width.
(13) A sewer (Scots dialectical, now obsolete).
1300-1350: From the Middle English closet (a small private room for study or prayer), from the Old
French closet (small enclosure,
private room), the construct being clos
(private space; enclosure) + -et (the suffix used to form diminutives), from the Latin clausum (closed space, enclosure, confinement), the neuter past participle of claudere (to shut). In French, it tended to be
applied to small, open-air enclosures. The
suffix –et was from the Middle
English -et, from the Old French –et & its feminine variant -ette, from the Late Latin -ittus (and the other gender forms -itta & -ittum). It was used to form diminutives, loosely
construed. Some European languages picked up the Old French spelling
while others used variations including Czech
(klozet) & Spanish (clóset).
Closets can be tiny or
fair-sized rooms so the appropriate synonym depends on context and architecture
and might include: cabinet, container, locker, room, vault, wardrobe, bin,
buffet, depository, receptacle, recess, repository, safe, sideboard, walk-in,
ambry, chest of drawers & cold storage.
Closet is a noun, verb & adjective, closeting is a verb (which some
dispute) & adjective (plural closets) and closeting is a noun &
verb. The noun plural is closets.
The adjective dates from the 1680s in the sense of “private,
done in seclusion”, extended by 1782 as "fitted only for scholarly
seclusion, not adapted to the conditions of practical life" (ie in the
sense of the “ivory tower”). The meaning
"secret, not public, unknown" was first applied to alcoholism in the
early 1950s but by the 1970s had come to be used principally of homosexuality. This, and the earlier forms (closet anarchist,
closet alcoholic, closet Freemason, closet smoker et al) were all based on the
idiomatic “skeleton in the closet” (which existed also as “skeleton in the
cupboard”), describing some undisclosed fact which, if revealed would cause reputational
damage (or worse) to a person. Literally,
the imagery summoned was of someone with a human corpse secreted in a closet in
their house, one which had sat there so long the flesh had decomposed to the
bone. The earliest known appearance in
print was in 1816 but it’s not known how long it’d been in oral use and it usually
implied culpability for some serious offence though not necessarily anything
involving a corpse.
Lindsay Lohan's walk-in closet. To optimize space utilization, the hangers are very thin and covered with black velvet to ensure no fabrics are marked. In a well-organized closet, items can be arranged in a number of ways such as color, season or type and Ms Lohan does it by manufacturer, the name of the label printed on rail-tags.
The phrase “come out of the closet” (admit something
openly) was first recorded 1963 and the use rapidly became exclusive to homosexuals
and lent a new meaning to the word “out”.
This meaning itself became nuanced: “To come out” (openly avowing one's
homosexuality) emerged as a phrase in the 1960s and was an overtly political
statement (obviously different from the earlier “a confessed homosexual”
whereas “outing” and “outed” came to be used in the 1970s to refer to people making
the homosexuality of others public knowledge.
Outing became controversial because of the argument (made sometimes by
those within the gay community) that it was justified if exposing hypocrisy (usually
a conservative politician who publicly condemned homosexuality while in
private indulging in the practice). In
Spanish use (most notably in Latin America) the noun clóset is used to refer to the state of being secretly gay (from salir del clóset), the plural being clósets.
Lindsay Lohan in another part of her walk-in closet, here choosing what to pack for an appearance at the Cannes Film Festival, May 2014.
The verb closet (shut up as in a closet) was originally
usually for purposes of concealment or private consultation and dates from the 1680s. The water closet (WC and described also in
the delightful phrase “closet of ease”) was the ancestor of the familiar modern
loo (toilet; lavatory; privy with a waste-pipe and means to carry off the
discharge by a flush of water), the term first used in 1755 and later perfected
by the famous plumber, Mr Thomas Crapper.
The phrase “walk-in” was used first in the 1890s as a slang term by
hotel check-in clerks to refer to those arriving without a reservation (it’s
now a standard statistical category in hotels) and by 1928 was used in many
forms of commerce to mean “customer who arrived without an appointment”. The “walk-in closet” was first advertised in
the US in 1946 where it described a built-in wardrobe large enough to walk into,
some equipped with mirrors, tables, chairs etc).
The Gay Bob Doll
Gay Bob with man-bag.There’s evidence that for much
of human existence, homosexuality has been at least widely tolerated and often
accepted but in the West, under the influence of the Christian churches, it came
to attract much disapprobation though even in the nineteenth century there were
those who (without much success) campaigned for legislative and social change,
the odd self-declared homosexual sometimes urging others to out
themselves. However, it wasn’t until the
1960s that the still embryonic “gay liberation” movement understood that “coming
out en masse” was of importance because with critical mass came political
influence. Social attitudes did change and it was perhaps an indication of acceptance that in 2005 the cartoon show South Park could run an episode called Trapped in the Closet in which the Scientologist film star Tom Cruise (b 1962) refuses to come out of a closet. Not discouraged by the threat of writs, South Park later featured an episode in which the actor worked in a confectionery factory packing fudge. Attitudes and legislative changes didn't always move in unison and things unfolded
gradually but that process was still incomplete when, in 1977, the Gay Bob doll
was released.
The winds of change were clearly blowing by 1977 because
in that year Harvey Milk (1930–1978; member of the San Francisco Board of
Supervisors, 1978) became the first openly gay man elected to public office in
California (and it’ll never be known how many of his predecessors were still in
the closet). However, if Milk was out of
the closet, Gab Bob came neatly packaged in his own (cardboard) closet buyers
able to out him and put him back as required.
Designed to look like popular film stars of the era, Gay Bob’s creator
described the doll as perfect for “…an
executive’s desk, dash board ornament, the attaché case, the bathtub rim or a health
club gym bag”, a notable feature was the doll’s “anatomical correctness”, presumably a sales feature but one which
necessitated production being out-sourced to Hong-Kong because US manufacturers
declined the contract.
Gay Bob stepping out of the closet.Just so there were no misunderstandings, Gay Bob was
supplied with a fashion catalog which contained an explanation: Hi
boys, girls and grownups, I’m Gay Bob, the world’s first gay doll. I bet you are wondering why I come packed in a
closet. “Coming out of the closet” is an expression which means that you admit
the truth about yourself and are no longer ashamed of what you are. Gay people are no different than straight
people. If everyone came out of their
closets, there wouldn’t be so many angry, frustrated, frightened people. It’s not easy to be honest about what you
are, in fact it takes a great deal of courage. But remember, if Gay Bob has the courage to
come out of his closet, so can you!
Popular since the nineteenth century, mail-order was the
on-line shopping of the analogue era.Conservative activists were of course appalled
by Gay Bob, his anatomical correctness and his threateningly optimistic message,
describing it all as “a threat to family
values” and more “…evidence of the
desperation the homosexual campaign has reached in its effort to put homosexual
lifestyle, which is a death style, across to the American people”. The forces of capitalism either agreed or
were unwilling to risk a backlash because attempts have the big department
stores stock Gay Bob on their shelves were unsuccessful so the doll was sold
via mail order, advertisements placed in gay magazines. One doll cost US$19.50 (including shipping and
handling within the US) while a pair could be purchased at a discounted US$35
(and to take advantage of the anatomical correctness, buying a brace was
presumably in vogue. Over two
thousand were sold within months and in liberal New York and San Francisco,
some boutiques would later carry the product.
Something of a footnote to the LGBTQQIAAOP timeline, Gay Bob is a now a
collector’s item, examples in good condition realizing over US$200 at on-line auction
sites and of course, those with a pristine, un-violated closet will command a
premium.
