My Thoughts on "The Celluloid Closet": Matt Hurley

    I already knew a bit about Hollywood's censorship of queer content, but this documentary taught me a lot more than I had expected. I wasn't aware that there was a time before these censorship rules that there was some queer representation. I mean of course it wasn't the best because queer people were the butt of the joke, but I'm still surprised to learn that the concept of a sissy goes back so far. I always assumed the stereotype of a limp wristed white gay was a more modern invention, but the concept has been around since the times of Charlie Chaplin films. It was cool to see so many examples of queer representation back then because its the type of thing you rarely see.

Another thing is that I wasn't expecting to laugh so much while watching this film. A lot of the commentators had some very funny things to say. One of my favorite moments was that bisexual woman who said “I'm a big pervert and I'm so happy about it”. That really cracked me up. I think that line really encompasses the comedic attitude a lot of folks I know have about their sexuality.

The only other thing I want to talk about is a moment that made me really uncomfortable. One of the (white) commentators said the n word when talking about how frivolous Hollywood could be about the use of the word f*g. I understand how frustrating it is to have slur used against you, but that's no excuse to start throwing slurs at other groups. Just because Hollywood likes to throw around gay slurs doesn't mean white gays can use racial slurs.  You’d think he’d understand how shitty it feels to be called something like that and why he shouldn’t say that kind of thing.

That's all the thoughts I have right now on the Celluloid Closet.  Thanks everyone!

Comments

  1. Matt HFebruary 12, 2021 at 5:38 PM

    After talking more about The Celluloid Closet in class it made me think about things in a new light. Particularly about how queer representation is so lacking in Hollywood, but intersectional queer representation is almost nonexistent. Especially queer people who belong to more than two minorities. Our talk about mainstream movie studios making films mostly about white queer people (mostly men), made me realize that I can only think of 2 movies that came out in the last five years featuring stories about queer POC. One of the films that comes to mind, Rafiki, is a Kenyan movie that I doubt many Americans have heard about. I only know it exists because of the fact Kenyan courts banned it when it first came out in 2018.
    Personally, I can not think of a single time I have a seen someone like me on screen. Sure, I've seen all the separate parts of my identity represented, but never at the same time. This is also a problem of Hollywood being terrible with representing disabled people, but I digress. Also, I don't think I've ever seen a human nonbinary person on screen. Only shapeshifting aliens or genderless robots. I've never really thought about this before we talked about it in class, but it kinda sucks that I have no representation, and it sucks even more that people I love who fall into multiple marginalized groups like me have no representation either.

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