Sexuality on film

One of the most controversial films to receive a release last year was Romance, which dealt with the central character's quest to satisfy their sexual needs and desires. The most significant aspect of the film was not the explicitness of the sex scenes, but that the central character was a woman. Cinema is finally accepting that women have needs too, and that these needs can dominate a film.

One of the first images to be filmed, and one of the first to cause outrage, was a passionate kiss between a man and a woman. As filmmakers explored what they could film, and what audiences liked to watch, sex and desire featured highly popular. The early screen stars such as Rudolph Valentino, Pola Negri, Clara Bow and Douglas Fairbanks were lusty, and lusted after, and starred in tales of passion and romance. Largely though, the actors were there to be objects of desire for the audience, and the tales inevitably revolved around the man wanting (and getting) the girl. The woman was seen as the quest for the man, either the man on the screen, or the man in the cinema. Women, meanwhile, were presumably told to see themselves as the object of the man's quest, rather than the subject of the narrative.

The other main use for women, which hasn't altered much throughout the years, was as a reassurance that the central (obviously male) characters in a buddy-buddy movie were Just Buddies, a role filled admirably by Katherine Ross in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, for example, or Kelly McGillis in Top Gun.

In the Thirties and Forties, the screwball comedy -- headlined by the likes of Katherine Hepburn -- and the melodrama appeared. Female characters were allowed to quest, but the purpose of that quest was still the same: a happy marriage, with a happy man. The femme fatale -- a woman of dangerous sexuality -- was also allowed to threaten the accepted notions of a woman's place, but she always paid the price.

The screwball comedy, and the woman's place, continued into the Fifties pretty much unchanged: Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot is the perfect example. In the Seventies, feminism allowed Jane Fonda (before she started to tell women how to have the perfect body) to spearhead "strong" female roles, though cynics would argue this was just due to the box-office appeal of feminism.

And now? Films like Bound appear to be glowing examples of female sexuality on screen, but the conflicting reports of the Wachowski's hyping the lesbian angle to get funding, and their commitment to accuracy in hiring lesbian novellist Susie Bright muddy the issue. On the other hand, American Pie, whilst concentrating on the boys' antics for comedy effect, considers the needs and desires of both males and females. More subtly, Eyes Wide Shut skips sexuality issues, instead concentrating on the universal issue of fidelity. Then there's 10 Things I Hate About You, a balanced study of male and female sexuality, based on a story written in 1592... Progress, comes slowly.

Glad to be Gay?

Being gay -- it's all about comedy, camp style and panache, isn't it? Or that's what films like Happy Texas, Some Like It Hot and Desert Hearts make out, isn't it? Of course, that is true for some, but gay does not always equal happy. There's homophobia, family pressures and the desire to be anything but different to deal with, as well as the usual trials and tribulations of love. In amongst the screen images of gay men being either comedy characters or evil, and lesbian women being either butch comedy figures or evil, are an assortment of characters who probably reflect the truer diversity of lesbian and gay living, and that includes troubled souls. Characters such as Ari in Head On, who have to deal with homophobia from his Greek community, and racism from his gay community, who's torn between his loyalty to his family and cultural traditions and his loyalty to his own self. Racism and homophobia features in My Beautiful Laundrette's Omar's life too. On the lighter side, there's Ludovic in Ma Vie En Rose, who just wants to be a girl, though again, parental pressures come to bear.

If you are want to talk to a friendly person about your sexuality then call the Lothian Gay and Lesbian Swichboard on (0131) 556 4049, every evening from 7.30-10pm.

Nightline, the student-run organisation offering a confidential listening and information service, provides a supportive method of talking through your feelings, without making judgements or decisions. Drop in to the Pleasance Courtyard for a face-to-face talk from 6pm to midnight, or call 557 4444, 6pm to 8am any night of term.

Notes by Scott Keir
Taken from programme note distributed as part of Sexuality Awareness Week 2000 programme