SSC Film Studies

http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC28folder/CellulCloset.html



The article is called "The Celluloid Closet"
It was written by Martha Fleming

The article asks the question, "Is a film inherently lesbian because lesbians make it?
Also, is this because "women in our society can relate to women 'on their own terms'?

It says that the director, Russo romanticises the relationship between two women so much that he then ignores the lesbian perspective. This is an example of how females who are gay are regarded as sexual desires still for men, despite their sexuality and this also goes along with Laura Mulvey's theory of the 'Male Gaze' in which women are only seen through the eyes of a heterosexual male.
An example of this is the sub-genre of Lesbian Vampirism which could be seen as a step forward for lesbians in film, yet in these films, there are often over sexualised images of these women and the man will always come out on top. This proves that Hollywood wants to reinstate masculinity, suggesting that lesbians are a direct threat to this.
"the total lack of lesbians on fiction feature films indicates that lesbians are much more socially terrifying then gay men"


In a piece of work written by Brogan Ramm, called "The One Sided 'Mirror' Of The Movies: The Misrepresentation of the Lesbian on our cinema screens"

"the lesbian vampire was not invented to engage or entice a lesbian audience. Instead, she is the result of the heterosexual male gaze." Shows how over sexualised lesbians are for the benefit of men watching the movie. This gives an unrealistic image of lesbians to main stream audiences and lowers the status of a lesbian. It also takes away that persons own sexuality and then promoting it for someone else.

"love between these women, according to these films, cannot be described by any other means then vampires" unrealistic representations because people don't understand it or 'fear; it.

"lesbian vampire movies provide security for masculinity from lesbianism, whilst managing to provide titillating, sexualised images that once again reinstate to the top of the societal scale: and the idea of heterosexual and masculinity will always come out on top" Laura Mulveys 'male gaze' forces us to view women from a heterosexual males view, no matter the characters sexuality or the spectators.