Here is a picture of Aristotle dancing in his Indian attire. Although it is not visible, the background is a gay bar. This is one of the first hints that he may in fact be gay.

The Business of Gay and Lesbian Criticism

In regards to this week topic of Gay and Lesbian Criticism, I had a few thoughts. First of all, I thought the readings related to The Business of Fancydancing quite well. For example, in the reading the author discussed how gay and lesbian audiences preferred to be represented by gay film directors. If a straight person was making gay films, the gay and lesbian audiences were upset because they wanted to be represented by "their own kind." This makes sense because a gay person obviously has more insight into the gay life than a straight person. Thus, the representation would be more accurate. This same idea is present in The Business of Fancydancing when the Indians become upset about Seymour's poems. Seymour is representing the Indian population through his poetry, and the Indians are upset because they feel that he is no longer a true Indian. He left the reservation and lives a different lifestyle. Much like the concept in the reading, it is simply not an accurate representation.

Also, today in class, we discussed the possibility of Aristotle being gay. I thought about it, and I believe this makes sense. First of all, the director shows him dancing in his Indian attire and the background is a gay bar. These type of hints exist all throughout the movie. When Aristotle attacks the white man whose car broke down, this could represent his anger towards Seymour's white lover. This topic in general relates to the reading in regards to spectatorship. Gay audiences and straight audiences watch films differently. For example, I did not pick up on Aristotle being gay until we discussed it in class. Gay audiences may have suspected it all throughout the movie. I find it quite interesting to watch a film through another perspective. For one thing, it adds a lot of meaning to the film. Things begin to make sense that were confusing before. I would have to say that this is one of the most interesting topics we have discussed all year.

Gay&Lesbian Stereotypes in Cinema

Stereotypes played a big part in cinema that portrayed gays and lesbians. There was the sissy character and the dyke. These portrayed gays a certain way. The men were given a feminine style, and lesbians were given a more masculine identity in films. This didn't always please the audience-that is to say the gay audience, because not all appreciated the comical spin on gays in society. However, gays were portrayed as being more isolated from the rest of the world, and lesbians were seen as a more dominant character such as the "lesbian vampire." This helped gays feel that there lives were being brought out to the world for once about how they sometimes do feel the need to live their lives in isolation or as a "monster." I really liked this reading because I never thought about gay characters this way, and how it affected everyone. Today people are much more open to it, and to see a gay character in a film is not uncommon, but back then there were stereotypes at first just to actually be able to add in gays because it wasn't acceptable.

Missing Pictures

My posts have pictures with them, but they dont always show up. Sometimes they look like boxes with x's in them. Sorry

Hollywood’s Stereotypes of Gays and Lesbians

Vito Russo’s writing which was later transformed into a movie, The Celluloid Closet, was a project that exposed moments of homosexuality on the movie screen. He wanted to reveal that lesbians and gay men do exist in our world and to expose the homophobia that kept homosexuality in the closet both on and off the screen.
Stereotypes are inevitable, because when you think of a group of people it is natural to associate everyone in the group with a particular thought. Homosexuals are no exception. Films were criticized for producing stereotypes of homosexuals, because they would indicate that the homosexual man or woman fell short of the heterosexual norm. I would have to agree that the homosexuals fell short of the norm, because God made humans to reproduce and to love the opposite sex. If He wanted people to “love” their own sex, He would have made it possible for homosexuals to reproduce together. These stereotypes of them in Hollywood are the gay queens and the lesbian dykes. The queens are the effeminate men who are sissies that like colors and to cook, etc. The dykes are basically the mannish women. The gays and lesbians in Hollywood’s films also are usually unhappy in a story and often die in the end. They could not play the role of the hero in movies as well.
Russo exposed moments from films throughout Hollywood’s history which brought to light the gay and lesbian aspects of movies. His work showed that homosexuals were present in the movies but kept in the closet. He would look at clothing or gestures to reveal a character’s sexuality when it was not explicitly shown. Because there were gay characters, but their sexuality was more often than not closeted, this showed the homophobic nature of Hollywood. I can see why Hollywood is homophobic, because as a viewer I don’t want to see two guys kissing each other, I would rather the characters stay in the closet, as would probably a lot of the audience.

Feminism & "Brick Lane"

Last week my class and I watched the movie Brick Lane (2007). Also we studied feminism in film which went along very nicely with the movie. The movie Brick Lane has many feminist-film characteristics. This is very noticeable when the main woman in the film cheats on her husband (who she was sent to marry) and also when she tells her husband she is not going to go with him. She stands up for herself. To make the feminist meaning of these events even stronger, they live in Bangladesh where women are always supposed to cover themselves and take the back seat to men, and it is not acceptable for a woman to be strong and stand up for herself. really enjoyed this film, and it was great to see a woman stand up for herself, and the cultural aspect made it even more interesting.

Brick Lane

Sarah Gavron's Brick Lane tells the story of a woman, Nazneen, who grew up in Bangladesh and later moves to London after she is married off to a man named Chanu. The story focuses on various aspects such as the independence of women and cultural issues like the post-9/11 view of Muslims. For much of the movie, Nazneen is portrayed as a relatively repressed woman who always sacrifices her own desires for the children and especially for her husband. Her husband, Chanu, disapproves of her taking up a job sewing and repairing clothing because he feels it shows inadequacy of the man to provide for his family. Chanu does love and care deeply for his wife and family, but his desire to maintain an extremely traditional family structure causes the family a great amount of stress at some points. Shortly after acquiring her sewing job, Nazneen begins to have an affair with Karim, the man who brings her clothing to repair. In this relationship, Nazneen is shown taking control of her love life, for better or for worse. As the movie progresses, the events of 9/11 occur and the Bengali community begins to hold regular meetings regarding the public's new view on Muslims. Karim is one of the leaders in the local Muslim group and begins to grow out a beard and dress more traditionally to show his support for Muslims around the world. At the last meeting Nazneen attends, her husband comes and makes a very heartfelt and genuine speech about his views of Muslims and their relationship with each other. Nazneen begins to realize her husbands capacity for passion beyond his own pride. At the very end of the movie right before the family will leave to move to Bangladesh, Nazneen tells her husband that she wants to stay in London, her new home. For the first time in the marriage, as far as the daughters can remember, this is the first time Nazneen stood up for her own desires and expressed her opinion. Her husband accepts his wife's desire to remain in London with the kids, and moves to Bangladesh by himself. Brick Lane incorporated many cultural elements to develop an intriguing story about the independence of women in modern times.

My video essay about the two sides of the zombie genre- the serious and the parody, and how they relate. Before watching, it might be a good idea to learn a little bit about zombies, George Romero, and zombie movie history.

Note: I've had to re-post a number of times, and finally posted the video in three parts due to a rendering issue. Video editing in Linux is pretty difficult.