The Celluloid Closet- Sarah Dickerson

     While watching "The Celluloid Closet" I found quite a few points that I would like to touch on in this blog post. I found it interesting how far we have come throughout the years on the acceptance of the LGBT+ community, however I also found it concerning that some of the things that were touched upon in the documentary are still happening today, this is what I will be mainly be focusing on.

    In the beginning of the movie there was a quote somewhere along the lines of "homosexuality can be relied upon as a surefire sense of humor". I think that this is something that we still see in movies today. However, I do think it is a bit different because from my point of view it seems as though back in the day people were laughing at queer people in movies, and nowadays it's more so that we laugh with them because of the wider range of acceptance. That being said I am not invalidating that there is still a lot of homophobia in the modern day, but it seems as though it is becoming less common. Another thing that stuck out to me were the "sissies". I thought it was interesting how they described them as somewhere between a man and women- making men feel more manly and women feel more womanly. It was also interesting to see that some of the commentators disliked this while others liked it, I can see how some would find that offensive while others find it representative. Something else that was discussed that I believe is still a problem today is when they spoke about how seeing a man dress as a woman is considered funny whereas a woman dressing as a man is not. For strictly comedic purposes (for example the movie "White Chicks") I can see how both of these would be funny, however in non comedic purposes neither should be. A man should not be laughed at because he wants to dress in a feminine way, and vice versa. This is something that we as a community need to learn to understand and respect as it is their own personal choice. 

    Overall I really enjoyed this documentary and it taught me a lot about how the LGBT+ community has been represented in films over the years.

    

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 11, 2021 at 11:27 AM

    Sarah, I totally see your point. It’s important to see how much has changed over time when it come to queer cinema. One point you made about how we laugh with the queer characters now is a great point. We now have more acceptance in the world and I think this point makes sense now because many people can relate to these characters and thats important to talk about. Many changes have been made over the years when it comes to queer cinema and to how queer people are treated in real life. We have definitely come a long way but I agree with what you say, that there could still be some changes and that this is still away to go when it comes to this.

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  2. Sarah DickersonFebruary 12, 2021 at 3:39 PM

    After having a discussion in class I feel like there are so many more things that I can touch upon on the subject. I'm also going to try to work on a more laid back/informal writing style for the blog, I think it makes it so much more enjoyable for the audience to read. Something that I didn't talk about initially is queer coding. Before this documentary I don't think I have ever heard of this so I didn't really understand what it was until we had a discussion about it. Now that I know what it is though, I can definitely think of a few examples where I have seen characters that had queer traits, even if they weren't labeled. The first thing that came to mind was Disney, specifically Disney movies. I found this website super interesting: https://thetempest.co/2020/06/04/entertainment/disney-villains-gay-queer-coding/ . Disney villains such as Ursula and Hades I always noticed had certain traits and mannerisms that made them come off as queer, but after reading that article it seems like most if not all Disney villains have these traits. That being said, it really sucks that it seems like every representation of the LGBT community that is seen in Disney movies is a villain. Something else I want to talk about is the question that was brought up, when did you first see a queer person in media? When that was brought up I honestly couldn't remember. Now that I have had more time to think the first outwardly gay characters that I have seen weren't until I was at least a teenager in shows like Degrassi. Thinking further back though, Spongebob was definitely under the umbrella. If I remember correctly I'm pretty sure that the creator of the show described him as asexual, which is pretty cool because I don't hear about much representation in that community. Although my mind was blank in class the more I think about it now the more characters come to mind, its kind of crazy but also a good thing.

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