She picked up a copy of the book in the aftermath and begged Oprah to put the author on the couch.

Downs’s invitation, as he understands it, came after the boyfriend of one of the show’s producers left her for a man. And his appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show hasn’t hurt his cause. The Velvet Rage was first published in 2005, but it has been a slow-burn success – in each of his royalty statements Downs has noticed that sales have markedly increased. It is a controversial theory, but for a book whose only marketing campaign has been word of mouth, it is having a profound impact.

“This anger pushes me at times to overcompensate and try to earn love and acceptance by being more, better, beautiful, more sexy – in short, to become something I believe will make me more acceptable and loved.” “Velvet rage is the deep and abiding anger that results from growing up in an environment when I learn that who I am as a gay person is unacceptable, perhaps even unlovable,” he explains. Man orders fifth pint at the bar: “It’s OK, it’s just my velvet rage.” Boyfriend finds partner trawling through the thousands of profiles on sex-on-demand website Gaydar: “But it’s my velvet rage.”ĭowns coined the phrase to refer to a very specific anger he encountered in his gay patients – whether it was manifested in drug abuse, promiscuity or alcoholism – and whose roots, the book argues, are found in childhood shame and parental rejection. Urn:oclc:872694195 Republisher_date 20121019021437 Republisher_operator Scandate 20121017202402 Scanner snappy title is slipping, sometimes ironically, into the gay lexicon. OL1901732W Page-progression lr Page_number_confidence 90.94 Pages 234 Pdf_module_version 0.0.20 Ppi 500 Related-external-id urn:isbn:0738210617 Urn:lcp:velvetrageoverco00down:epub:879eaaea-126a-4322-88b4-bdbeecab89fa Extramarc University of Toronto Foldoutcount 0 Identifier velvetrageoverco00down Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t4wh3vd5d Isbn 9780738210117Ġ738210110 Lccn 2005004606 Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Openlibrary O元393959M Openlibrary_edition Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 19:04:18 Bookplateleaf 0010 Boxid IA160920 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City Cambridge, MA DonorĪllen_countydonation Edition 1.

The velvet rage book