Detail from A Macaroni Dressing Room (1772), artist unknown but published by Matthew Darly.
Featured on PDR in the essay A Queer Taste for Macaroni
With his enormous hair, painted face, and dainty attire, the so-called "macaroni" was a common sight upon the streets and ridiculing prints of 1770s London. Dominic Janes explores how with this new figure — and the scandalous sodomy trials with which the stereotype became entwined — a widespread discussion of same-sex desire first entered the public realm, long before the days of Oscar Wilde.