Fashion-obsessed, limp-wristed caricatures, these “sissy” characters were – and in a way still are – broad stock characters whose wimpiness (in the case of the men) or toughness (in the case of the women) were seen as hilarious slapstick juxtapositions to what men and women really "ought" to be doing. There was the occasional mincing male or butch lady, but they were often used as comedic stereotypes. Outright gays were on screens in the '20s and '30s, but they weren't necessarily called “homosexual,” or “gay,” and they were certainly never seen having relationships with other homosexuals. Was there any actual gay romance happening in these scenes? To be sure, there was. Women would sometimes kiss and hold hands and be physical as a form of friendship. If the public were constantly thinking of gay coding (as a modern audience no doubt does), then the men would be seen as lovers and not as friends, sex would enter the picture, and some audiences would get uncomfortable. Ironically, these pseudo-romantic relationships were only possible because of the absence of outright homosexuality in the film. It's not necessarily a sexual attraction, but it does seem romantic. You find this kind of intense male friendship in many old works of literature. The men loved each other deeply and valued their friendship above all other relationships. If you watch older silent movies – say 1927's Wings, the first film to have won an Academy Award for Best Picture – you will find weepy and emotional men who kiss one another and openly declare their friendship. Where to begin? Let's go back to the 1920s. Indeed, frank and open depictions of homosexuality on film was only exploding in earnest in 1991, and had spent a good 70 years going through all kinds of growing pains. Women smooching on each other was, I learned, not terribly common in movies. This was simply not something I had seen in a film before. I wasn't grossed out or titillated by the scene, but I was a little startled. He's still a straight man on the inside, so he finds himself/herself attracted to women. In the film, a womanizing misogynist is killed by several girlfriends, and, in a fit of divine justice, is allowed to return to Earth in the body of a woman, played by Ellen Barkin.
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I think the first outright homosexual thing I saw in a movie was, inauspiciously enough, a lesbian kiss in the 1991 Blake Edwards comedy Switch.
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There is still a lot of acceptance to be gained in this country (and in other countries), but the dominoes are toppling, and patience will prove full equality soon enough.īut for old-timers like me, who were born in the 1970s and before, the first homosexual character from a movie was kind of a shocking – or at least surprising – thing.
In an age of marriage equality, “Glee” and “Drag Race,” does it really matter who is gay anymore? Some would say that it doesn't. Indeed, the notion of the “gay best friend” to the female romantic lead is such a well-worn trope at this point that any screenwriter who includes it is liable to be laughed at by his peers. By the 1990s and beyond, gay characters were pretty common in movies and on TV. I'll begin with a question: What was the first gay character you saw in a movie? For many of you reading this, who were, I'm guessing, born in the 1990s, the answer may be kind of irrelevant. I will finish next week's lecture with the Jason Statham action flick The Transporter from 2002 as a clear indicator that gay culture is finally mainstream, and gay movie characters have finally reached the level of the incidental. Next week, I will talk about how the 1969 Stonewall riots sparked a new visibility for the gay community, and how that visibility spread into movies, in both positive and negative ways. This was a time of hiding and coding gay characters, and a time when homosexuality wasn't too often openly dealt with in the movies. In the first part of this lecture, I will trace gay characters through the 1920s all the way through the 1960s.