At Slate, Evan Urquhart writes about Meat Loaf, Butch Lesbian Icon. “Gay and queer aesthetics are known for stepping outside of stereotypical categories for male/masculine and woman/feminine, but they often they make that step in one fairly predictable direction that we call androgyny. Androgyny is an aesthetic of masculine emotional detachment combined with feminine prettiness. What made Meat Loaf so special was that he bent these aesthetics along the opposite axis, in the way you’re not supposed to do it—sincerely, yearningly, with emotion permeating every line he sang. His trademark was an intense sincerity of delivery at war with his intentionally parodic lyrics. As a pop icon, he was the anti-Madonna; he was florid and baroque, with a solid, earthy physique grounding his excesses. Meat Loaf’s style was every bit as over the top as any pop diva, but he eschewed the ironic detached stance and sense of superiority that normally accompanies that style.”