Bad Gays

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We start our brand-new season with the story of Mike Jeffries, the Abercrombie & Fitch CEO who turned a bankrupt old-school outdoors brand into a late-90s/early-00s temple of exclusionary “cool."  Surely you remember the ads, or maybe you remember the stores: the pumping music, the blasts of cologne that made your throat close up, the shutters across the front of the store, as if this little corner of a suburban shopping mall was actually an exclusive nightclub.  Or maybe you remember the Bruce Weber-shot soft-porn catalogue, which once featured an essay by (yes! no!) Slavoj Zizek.  Clothes for homophobic bullies were made in marketed from a self-hating gay sensibility: and the story of Mike Jeffries might be the single solitary key to understanding how the aesthetics of the closet became mainstream marketing, how a gay aesthetic was used to sell homophobic masculinity and how that tension crushed employees and turned its visionary into a monster now credibly accused of sexual assault and harassment.

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For more on Mike Jeffries, read the sources we used to research this episode:

Netflix: White Hot - The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie and Fitch

BBC: World of Secrets - The Abercrombie Guys

https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/an-oral-history-of-abercrombie-and-fitch

 

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-story-behind-fitch-the-homeless

 

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2012/oct/18/abercrombie-fitch-boss-extraordinary-male-model-demands

 

https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/feature/fashion-photographer-bruce-weber-and-male-models-end-legal-battles-1234907151/

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce8vmy56yero

 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/abercrombie-fitch-ceo-corporate-jet-rulebook_n_1980960

 

https://www.salon.com/2006/01/24/jeffries/

 

https://www.advocate.com/crime/abercrombie-fitch-mike-jeffries-dementia

 

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2024/sep/14/i-constantly-was-saying-no-ex-abercrombie-fitch-boss-accused-of-abuse-at-global-sex-events

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/22/former-abercrombie-ceo-mike-jeffries-arrested-in-sex-trafficking-case.html\

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-jeffries-partner-is-too-involved-2013-5

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/02/former-abercrombie-fitch-ceo-accused-of-exploiting-young-men-for-sex

 

https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/55905/1/abercrombie-fitch-netflix-documentary-sexual-exploitation-racism-bruce-weber

 

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/former-ceo-abercrombie-fitch-and-two-other-individuals-charged-sex-trafficking-and

 

https://archive.ph/JUDyD

 

https://www.thecut.com/2014/02/why-abercrombie-is-losing-its-shirt.html#

 

https://monoskop.org/images/d/db/A_and_F_Quarterly_Back_to_School_2003_The_Sex_Ed_Issue.pdf

 

https://www.complex.com/style/a/emilyl/revisiting-absurd-critical-theory-abercrombies-2003-back-school-catalog

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/apr/19/abercrombie-fitch-netflix-documentary-fashion-discrimination

 

https://archive.ph/HdrvF

 

https://archive.ph/W0YZo

 

https://archive.ph/pAoOR

 

https://www.classaction.org/media/abercrombie-indictment.pdf

 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/interactive/2012/oct/19/abercrombie-fitch-aircraft-standards-manual?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB876176611622798500

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/style/mario-testino-bruce-weber-harassment.html

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20170614225056/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-01-22/the-aging-of-abercrombie-fitch-i58ltcqx

Our intro music is Arpeggia Colorix by Yann Terrien, downloaded from WFMU's Free Music Archive and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Our outro music is by DJ Michaeloswell Graphicsdesigner. Michael Oswell is the voice of Slavoj Zizek.

Happy pride! Gather around, we've got a story to tell! For Stonewall weekend, a special treat: writer, critic, and journalist Cameron Cook joins Ben to talk about the one and only Liza through the stories of the bad (and good) gays in her life, from her father Vincente Minnelli to her first husband Peter Allen to her diabolical fourth husband David Gest. Liza learned on her (and our) mother Judy Garland's knee how to survive by appealing to gay guys. Gay guys used Judy, then Liza to self-fashion. None of it is particularly healthy, and yet we love it so. Our main source for this episode was Liza's new memoir, Kids, Wait Til You Hear This!, and Cameron's newsletter Cooked, with monthly essays and regular music playlists for pop culture obsessives, can be found here.

Support our work by subscribing to Extra Bad Gays on Patreon or Apple, and get an extra monthly episode!

The final episode of our saga: Mandelson's fall from grace in the aftermath of Keir Starmer's election first as leader of the Labour Party and then as one of Britain's most rapidly unpopular Prime Ministers.

Can't get enough Mandelson? Subscribe now to Extra Bad Gays to hear our subscriber-only followup discussion with James Butler of the LRB and Juliet Jacques of Suite 212.

Mandelson knows too much, understands too much, to be left out of the equation. It’s because he’s sly and underhanded and deceitful that people need him, because it’s a political system that works on those qualities. This is court politics; it’s what Mandelson is a master of, it’s what Epstein was a master of, it’s what Trump is a master of: the informal power of relationships.

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SOURCES:

Mandelson and the making of New Labour, Donald Macintyre

Mandy: The Unauthorised Biography of Peter Mandelson, Paul Routledge

Outrageous! The Story of Section 28 and Britain's Battle for LGBT Education, Paul Baker

Tory Pride and Prejudice: The Conservative Party and homosexual law reform, Michael McManus

The Rivals : the intimate story of a political marriage, James Naughtie

Bloody Nasty People, Daniel Trilling

Clampdown: Pop-Cultural wars on class and Gender, Rhian E. Jones

1997: The Future That Never Happened, Richard Power Sayeed

Authentocrats: Culture, Politics and the New Seriousness, Joe Kennedy

https://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/house-of-lords-podcast/lord-mandelson-lord-speakers-corner/

https://newhistories.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/volumes/2011-12/volume-3/issue-7-open-theme/the-long-road-to-repeal-the-labour-party-and-section-28

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/jan/25/mandelson.labour6

https://ntouk.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/wilsons-white-heat-of-technology-speech.pdf

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/media-the-dirty-world-of-mr-punch-1187016.html#:~:text=Last%20week%20an%20internationally%20famous,then%2Downers%2C%20United%20Newspapers.

https://jennifrazer.com/mandelson-judaism-lord-levy-jc-dad/

https://johnmajorarchive.org.uk/1993/10/08/mr-majors-speech-to-1993-conservative-party-conference-8-october-1993/

https://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/house-of-lords-podcast/lord-mandelson-lord-speakers-corner/

https://newhistories.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/volumes/2011-12/volume-3/issue-7-open-theme/the-long-road-to-repeal-the-labour-party-and-section-28

https://www.newsweek.com/one-bonk-and-youre-out-181768

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/jan/25/mandelson.labour6

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/oct/03/mandelson.labour2

https://www.thepinknews.com/2020/12/23/peter-mandelson-boris-johnson-bum-boys-about-homophobic-attack/

https://petertatchell.net/lgbt_rights/outing/catalyst/

https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/public-attitudes-section-28

https://www.gryklaw.com/https-www-gryklaw-com-lgbt-history-month-coming-of-age-same-sex-relationship-immigration-rights/

https://www.theguardian.com/century/1990-1999/Story/0,,112756,00.html

https://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/special_reports/justice-lost-in-the-post.pdf

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/see-epsteins-full-birthday-book-with-alleged-personal-messages-from-trump-clinton-and-others

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdr6yjzkvx6o

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/630399.stm

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/nov/17/northernireland.guardianleaders

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68079300

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/peter-mandelson-why-its-taken-me-27-years-to-marry-the-love-of-my-life-3gx8cfgs5

https://www.stonewall.org.uk/resources/lgbtq-hubs/trans-hub/gender-recognition-act-2004

https://www.economist.com/briefing/2007/05/10/the-great-performer-leaves-the-stage

https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/extras/lgbt09.pdf

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/oct/13/mandelson-lords

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/oct/13/mandelson-gayrights

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2008/oct/25/corfu-rothschild-russia-osborne-travel

https://www.politico.eu/article/mandelson-backed-by-commission/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/22/former-trump-campaign-chief-paul-manafort-offered-help-putin-russia

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article384041.ece

https://www.scotsman.com/news/italian-shoe-magnate-steps-forward-to-sponsor-spruce-up-for-colosseum-1693900

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/05/over-330000-excess-deaths-in-great-britain-linked-to-austerity-finds-study

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/nov/29/politicalcolumnists.gordonbrown

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/benefits-dwp-cuts-conservatives-austerity-cap-b2956620.html

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/labour/peter-mandelson-firm-lobbies-tiktok-shell-water-labour-3409771

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2012/03/labour-party-within-progress

https://labourlist.org/2013/06/falkirk-clp-placed-in-special-measures-over-selection-allegations/

https://labourlist.org/2017/02/mandelson-i-am-working-every-day-to-bring-down-corbyn/

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/apr/27/mandelson-and-mcsweeney-a-partnership-forged-on-winning-and-crushing-the-labour-left

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/keir-starmer-labour-leadership-election-abolish-tuition-fees-nationalisation-396843

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/keir-starmers-not-driving-the-train-confessions-of-his-inner-circle-mq2kbg39x

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/14/who-is-josh-simons-labour-mp-andy-burnham

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/06/labour-thinktank-close-to-morgan-mcsweeney-allegedly-paid-firm-to-investigate-journalists

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/apr/27/mandelson-and-mcsweeney-a-partnership-forged-on-winning-and-crushing-the-labour-left

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/20/labour-minister-falsely-linked-journalists-to-pro-kremlin-network-in-emails-to-gchq

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/28/keir-starmer-leadership-labour-leader-left

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/dec/20/appointment-peter-mandelson-new-uk-ambassador-to-us-divides-labour-mps

https://archive.progressivebritain.org/2013/06/27/no-more-falkirks/

peterchrome-extension://oemmndcbldboiebfnladdacbdfmadadm/https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69b13135cdd628b29e3495f8/V1_FINAL.pdf

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26086390-jeffey-epstein-50th-birthday-book/

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/apr/16/revealed-mandelson-failed-vetting-but-foreign-office-overruled-decision

https://www.ft.com/content/fdf7afe9-9ad3-4325-8843-f590dcdd7e57?syn-25a6b1a6=1

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/world/europe/ties-peter-mandelson-jeffrey-epstein.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn82elvzpz7o

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd9el4dw0z3o

https://archive.ph/uWXFn

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crrjd2kxw2lo

https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00764113.pdf

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/peter-mandelson-epstein-swear-ambassador-trump-b2693376.html

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/04/starmer-confirms-he-knew-mandelson-kept-epstein-ties-after-prison-term

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/11/peter-mandelson-declines-to-apologise-for-association-with-jeffrey-epstein

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/jeffrey-epstein-peter-mandelson-emails-b2914283.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/world/europe/ties-peter-mandelson-jeffrey-epstein.html

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/04/starmer-confirms-he-knew-mandelson-kept-epstein-ties-after-prison-term

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/05/how-epstein-scandal-shaken-british-government-peter-mandelson

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/06/peter-mandelson-election-labour-insiders

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/apr/20/peter-mandelson-a-timeline-of-his-appointment-as-uk-ambassadorto-the-us

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czx26yz7kxzo

https://www.ft.com/content/fdf7afe9-9ad3-4325-8843-f590dcdd7e57?syn-25a6b1a6=1

Today we are reaching the next to last chapter––for now!––of the Mandelson story.

Listen to the sixth and final episode now by subscribing to Extra Bad Gays on Patreon.

As we are recording this, on 18th May 2026, the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, is facing a potential leadership challenge and a collapse in legitimacy following two major crises, both of these the responsibility of Peter Mandelson; one, directly, the other a consequence of the changes of which Mandelson has been the driving force of for almost 40 years. The first crisis is Starmer’s appointment of Mandelson as Ambassador to the United States, despite his having failed a Foreign Office vetting procedure, and the fallout of that once Mandelson was outed as a close long-term friend of the child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, to whom it’s alleged he passed sensitive government and financial information while in power. The other is the complete decimation of Labour in the recent local elections, and in elections for the Welsh and Scottish devolved assemblies, which saw the party lose close to 1500 local council seats and, in Wales, lose a century-long winning streak as the country’s largest party. In today’s episode we’ll talk about Mandelson’s journey from MP to peer to Ambassador, and we’ll also discuss how his enormous influence over that time, usually behind the scenes, has led to a Labour Party and indeed the two party system itself on the edge of total collapse.

Peter Mandelson has been the definitive comeback kid of British politics, and it’s impossible to ever rule out his return.

Listen to Episode Five right now and get Extra Bad Gays every month by subscribing on Patreon!

Today, we will learn why he got that reputation as we look at Mandelson in power. The Millennium Dome, a Y2K fever dream! His public outing! A wider cultural shift in attitudes towards gay men, one which contributed to the idea that poofs were everywhere at the top of society! Resignations, and returns!