The Celluloid Closet- Nyssa burton

 I found the Celluloid Closet a fascinating dive into the evolution of gay appearances throughout history. I had known before of the many actions the movie industry took for censorship, but I wasn't aware of how much it changed the expression of homosexual relationships between people. The gradual change through the years from a group of people ostracized because of exaggerated femininity to the modern growth of acceptances shows just how effective the movie industry was informing the opinion of the masses. The growth of homosexual opinions and feminist opinions seemed to partially grow together because of the movie industry. 

The most striking image of the film for me was the image of the woman in the suit. It felt like an ambiguous view of attraction that was different for its time and is getting more presence today. The negative history of LGBTQ+ reflected a sad but hopeful view of how those estranged from society may gradually enter the mainstream. The exaggerated vibrant behavior that was exhibited in film was an offensive but necessary step in the acceptance. It brought exposure to what was already typical behavior in many past civilizations and histories before. Prior to our modern advent of same-sex couples, they were commonplace in places like Greece. Unfortunately, they didn't develop to be shown in a truthful representation and to this day are still stigmatized. 

The biggest and most recent step forward in the homosexual film community had to be the announcement that Disney would feature an outwardly gay character in the live-action Beauty and the Beast. The announcement was then marred by how the movie industry is still bound in its ways; it was a single scene and played by Lefou in the standard exaggeration present everywhere. The story presented in the Celluloid closet is still going on and while great strides have been made we are still stuck in an era where gay is not given the light of day in the mainstream. My favorite expression of homosexual relationships is when the media puts them on the same level as any other pairing and allows them to be a natural addition, instead of shoe-horned section of a film to appease the gay demographic. 

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