Well, through my years of being a strong minded and opinionated person, I have always noticed that Hollywood doesn't seem to make movies about everyday gay life. I'm offended!! Where's the hot Brad Pitt/Tom Cruise make-out scenes from the sexually-charged Interview with the Vampire?? Every other Vampire movies have always had some sort of sex appeal to them, but it's always (in Hollywood's record) heterosexual sex. Where are all the gays?! My concern isn't for the rich conservative people who only want their children to watch heterosexual content; they already have their minds and lives made up for themselves. My concern is for the next generation of kids who are homosexual that do not have any role models or celebrity to look up to. Even the movies that do have homosexual characters in them have some sort of eerie theme or tragedy that occur, such as death. Why?
I decided to start a blog about gay themes in movies, which don't necessarily aim to make a character gay shine, or directly have a gay character, and demonstrate many of the stereotypes society has about the gay community. I have always seen popular Hollywood movies and seen many of their characters as feminine or masculine. This could be just because of how I'm wired internally, or just my own way of finding similarities with myself in the characters on screen, but isn't that what pop culture is about?
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As a child/teenager, there were very few role models which I felt had the characteristics I wanted to model myself after. While little Tommy next door grew up with G.I. Joe and Rambo, I was busy looking for a smart, sophisticated, clean-cut, All-American, gay man who was successful and a natural leader. That was me and that was what I wanted to see. Doesn't seem like a lot to a 10 year old at the time, but apparently I was mistaken. The choices I was limited to were Nathan Lane's ultra-flamboyant, cross-dressing character from The Birdcage, a gay man with AIDS who eventually dies such as in Philadelphia, a transgendered man who is raped and murdered like in Boys don't Cry, better yet, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and To Wong Foo, which star talented drag queens who go through many different adventures and conquest. Thank God for Ellen Degeneres and her star power in her TV Show, The Ellen Degeneres Show, or I wouldn't have much to hope for.
After many years, I realized none of the characters portrayed as homosexual in Hollywood were anything like me, and it made me venture out into the world of independent and foreign films. Today, I find myself only enjoying Independent films featuring gay and lesbian content as opposed to the ones created by major studios. The realness of the depictions is far more on point to what a real gay person is like when compared to those in Hollywood films. I will take a look into what I mean specifically by looking at a little old movie called "The Birdcage". It is not really a "BIG HOLLYWOOD" movie, but it was the first one I saw in theaters that had a gay character.
The movie, staring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane, was hilarious! It simply was the greatest movie at that time I had I ever seen!! I fell in love with the performance played by Nathan Lane as the obvious "wife" to Robin Williams! I did, because it was sheer comedy. However, I have never seen such a feminine gay man in my real life, and being a gay man, I have seen many! My partner, NJ, is the obvious yang to my yin, and has a flamboyant appeal, yet he doesn't act in such an extreme manner. I remember watching this movie in the theater with my mother at the age of 12, without exactly knowing what we were watching. My mother wasn't very comfortable with homosexuality at that time, so when she realized what the movie was about, she began to cringe at the sight of Nathan Lane; especially in the scenes he is dressed in drag. To me, this was no bother, in fact I laughed through the entire movie. Other people in the cinema, granted the year was 1996, did not seem to join me in my loud cackling. No matter, I didn't mind a "Reyes, party of one", moment.
There is a scene in the movie where Williams and Lane are sitting on a bench, in their normal posture, which will stick in my head forever. Williams, the masculine side of the relationship, is sitting as I would be comfortable. Lane, however, is sitting as my mother would sit. To me, this was a cute sentiment of a modern gay couple, but the jeers in the audience was enough to tell me this is not a way to be. Now, I didn't care, but I would have loved to have seen more of this in movies, and in media in general. Unfortunately, I did frown upon the scene where Williams is teetering on the straight/gay boundary line with his former lover played by Christine Baranski. Were the studio producers not satisfied with the lack of heterosexual content from the masculine character Armand? Really? I mean...Really?
In the next few blog posts, I will attempt to look into these things, which have plagued my good cinemas and kept the gay youth of America from finding role models in media just like the other kids on the playground. It's what's fair and right! Kids don't have the ability to find and watch Independent films unless they go through great lengths to find them. Why can't gay cinema play on the big screen? It would help more people become familiar and accepting of the subject.
As I wrap up this entry, think about the gay movies you have seen, that involve a non-stereotypical theme and the characters do not die or become depressed!! Any insight would be wonderfully fantastic!!
-Reyes
There is a scene in the movie where Williams and Lane are sitting on a bench, in their normal posture, which will stick in my head forever. Williams, the masculine side of the relationship, is sitting as I would be comfortable. Lane, however, is sitting as my mother would sit. To me, this was a cute sentiment of a modern gay couple, but the jeers in the audience was enough to tell me this is not a way to be. Now, I didn't care, but I would have loved to have seen more of this in movies, and in media in general. Unfortunately, I did frown upon the scene where Williams is teetering on the straight/gay boundary line with his former lover played by Christine Baranski. Were the studio producers not satisfied with the lack of heterosexual content from the masculine character Armand? Really? I mean...Really?
In the next few blog posts, I will attempt to look into these things, which have plagued my good cinemas and kept the gay youth of America from finding role models in media just like the other kids on the playground. It's what's fair and right! Kids don't have the ability to find and watch Independent films unless they go through great lengths to find them. Why can't gay cinema play on the big screen? It would help more people become familiar and accepting of the subject.
As I wrap up this entry, think about the gay movies you have seen, that involve a non-stereotypical theme and the characters do not die or become depressed!! Any insight would be wonderfully fantastic!!
-Reyes
Great job Reyes. This post analyzes a movie and critiques movies in general. I'd love to see a paragraph here about masculine socialization for young gay men/boys. You allude to the punishments and role models for this group in their process of socialization, but without using the course terms. Excellent beginning, keep it up!
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