Rachael Eyre's Blog - Posts Tagged "equality"
Why We Need More LGBT Film Critics
The year was 2008. My other half and I went to see Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging on a whim. We weren’t exactly the target demographic, but what’s not to like about a fun coming of age yarn?
But.
On various occasions throughout the movie, the girls’ PE teacher appears. She is plainly coded as a lesbian, the only things coming out of her mouth innuendos. She doesn’t contribute to the plot in any way, her mere existence as a gay woman apparently hilarious. Bear in mind this was five years after Section 28 was repealed and three years after civil partnerships were legalised, yet the writers thought using her as a running gag was acceptable. What the heck was this doing in a film for young people?
I read reviews for the following month, hoping at least one critic would take umbrage at the offensive caricature. Guess what? Not one person noticed. It demonstrates how commonplace casual homophobia was in the Noughties - but also highlighted something else.
The media is a primarily white, male, middle class, cishet field - and movie criticism is no different. Reviewers may have an extensive knowledge of film theory, but that doesn’t mean they understand LGBT themes or culture, or that they recognise bigotry when they see it. Indeed, sometimes they perpetuate such harmful cliches.
Take Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, a beautifully shot and acted masterpiece. Due to its subject matter, it was dubbed ‘the gay cowboy movie,’ when the protagonists are bi, and Jack vilified as a ‘predator,’ because he’s the less repressed of the pair. Other well meaning reviewers were at pains to insist it could have been about any forbidden love during any time period, when it’s specifically about masculinity and homophobia. Whichever tack they took, their straight privilege was showing.
The Wachowskis’ debut Bound ran into similar issues. It’s a tense, stylish heist movie, but because the central romance is a lesbian one, with one of the best f/f sex scenes committed to celluloid, it’s dismissed as an erotic thriller. Never mind the heroine is able to escape an abusive relationship and go off into the sunset with the studly Corky, giving a queer couple a rare happy ending. Straight reviewers only see the scandal.
Of course, these are cases where the gay themes are explicit. Fried Green Tomatoes and The Color Purple are both adaptations of beloved novels with canonical lesbian relationships, but the filmmakers didn’t want to scare the horses, and watered the main couples down to gal pals. In Fried Green Tomatoes Idgie and Ruth raise a son and run a business together, but straight viewers are oblivious to the subtext. Some reviewers clocked that Idgie is a baby butch, and ‘has a crush on’ Ruth, but were bamboozled by Ruth’s femmeness. If there isn’t kissing, they can plausibly deny everything - though the women do have a suggestive food fight.
Awareness is growing with time, but there’s room for improvement. Reviewers still seem uncomfortable discussing non straight, non gender conforming characters. I’ve heard the queer couples in The Favourite and Disobedience called ‘close friendships;’ the eponymous Carol has been described as a ‘predator’ for daring to fall for a younger woman (yawn). Smutty snickering is largely a thing of the past, but reviewers remain tone deaf to contentious tropes like Bury Your Gays or evil lesbian or trans characters. They also don’t seem able to grasp bisexuality, thinking you either turn gay overnight or go off heterosexuality after a disastrous relationship.
Thanks to the popularity of vlogs and sites like Buzzfeed, the tide is beginning to change - but it needs to go further. LGBT reviewers shouldn’t be restricted to YouTube or queer publications. They should be reviewing for the broadsheets, the film programmes on TV and radio. Producers should scout to find talent from a multitude of backgrounds throughout the year, not designated ‘seasons’ that are dominated by white cis gay men. These initiatives should genuinely shape and promote gifted minority reviewers, rather than be tokenistic lip service. LGBT isn’t a niche category you can fob off twice a year with a doomed period romance or a formulaic coming out tale, but a vibrant community that wants - and deserves - better.
But.
On various occasions throughout the movie, the girls’ PE teacher appears. She is plainly coded as a lesbian, the only things coming out of her mouth innuendos. She doesn’t contribute to the plot in any way, her mere existence as a gay woman apparently hilarious. Bear in mind this was five years after Section 28 was repealed and three years after civil partnerships were legalised, yet the writers thought using her as a running gag was acceptable. What the heck was this doing in a film for young people?
I read reviews for the following month, hoping at least one critic would take umbrage at the offensive caricature. Guess what? Not one person noticed. It demonstrates how commonplace casual homophobia was in the Noughties - but also highlighted something else.
The media is a primarily white, male, middle class, cishet field - and movie criticism is no different. Reviewers may have an extensive knowledge of film theory, but that doesn’t mean they understand LGBT themes or culture, or that they recognise bigotry when they see it. Indeed, sometimes they perpetuate such harmful cliches.
Take Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, a beautifully shot and acted masterpiece. Due to its subject matter, it was dubbed ‘the gay cowboy movie,’ when the protagonists are bi, and Jack vilified as a ‘predator,’ because he’s the less repressed of the pair. Other well meaning reviewers were at pains to insist it could have been about any forbidden love during any time period, when it’s specifically about masculinity and homophobia. Whichever tack they took, their straight privilege was showing.
The Wachowskis’ debut Bound ran into similar issues. It’s a tense, stylish heist movie, but because the central romance is a lesbian one, with one of the best f/f sex scenes committed to celluloid, it’s dismissed as an erotic thriller. Never mind the heroine is able to escape an abusive relationship and go off into the sunset with the studly Corky, giving a queer couple a rare happy ending. Straight reviewers only see the scandal.
Of course, these are cases where the gay themes are explicit. Fried Green Tomatoes and The Color Purple are both adaptations of beloved novels with canonical lesbian relationships, but the filmmakers didn’t want to scare the horses, and watered the main couples down to gal pals. In Fried Green Tomatoes Idgie and Ruth raise a son and run a business together, but straight viewers are oblivious to the subtext. Some reviewers clocked that Idgie is a baby butch, and ‘has a crush on’ Ruth, but were bamboozled by Ruth’s femmeness. If there isn’t kissing, they can plausibly deny everything - though the women do have a suggestive food fight.
Awareness is growing with time, but there’s room for improvement. Reviewers still seem uncomfortable discussing non straight, non gender conforming characters. I’ve heard the queer couples in The Favourite and Disobedience called ‘close friendships;’ the eponymous Carol has been described as a ‘predator’ for daring to fall for a younger woman (yawn). Smutty snickering is largely a thing of the past, but reviewers remain tone deaf to contentious tropes like Bury Your Gays or evil lesbian or trans characters. They also don’t seem able to grasp bisexuality, thinking you either turn gay overnight or go off heterosexuality after a disastrous relationship.
Thanks to the popularity of vlogs and sites like Buzzfeed, the tide is beginning to change - but it needs to go further. LGBT reviewers shouldn’t be restricted to YouTube or queer publications. They should be reviewing for the broadsheets, the film programmes on TV and radio. Producers should scout to find talent from a multitude of backgrounds throughout the year, not designated ‘seasons’ that are dominated by white cis gay men. These initiatives should genuinely shape and promote gifted minority reviewers, rather than be tokenistic lip service. LGBT isn’t a niche category you can fob off twice a year with a doomed period romance or a formulaic coming out tale, but a vibrant community that wants - and deserves - better.
