Final Presentation

1. How gays and lesbians are
depicted in film
Emma Tani

2. Why Does this Matter?
• History
– 1920’s-Present
• Hollywood’s influence

3. Trends
• Disguised sexuality
• Lesbians sexualized
• Stereotyping
– Gays and lesbians as
pedophiles
• Boys Beware, Carol
– Gays and lesbians as
villains
• Hitchcock films Boys Beware, 1961

4. Key findings
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmdOlk
wy1Us
– Gigli
• Sexualizing

5. Key Findings
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhi8f9EW
dt4
– Rope
• Disguised sexuality
• Villains

6. Findings
• Celluloid Closet
– “Hollywood had learned to write movies between
the lines.”
– “If a director was subtle enough or clever enough,
they got around it.”
The Celluloid Closet. Dir. Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman. Song Picture Classics, 1996. Film.

7. Findings
• “The creation of a
lesbian film criticism is
particularly urgent,
given the intensified
use of the lesbian as a
negative sign in
Hollywood movies and
the continuing space
assigned to lesbians as
gratification of male
fantasy”- Creekmur,
Doty
Creekmur, Corey, and Alexander Doty. 1995. Out in Culture: Gay, Lesbian, and Queer Essays on Popular Culture. Duke University Press.
Basic Instinct,1992

8. Thank you!