Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos in Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2013) film poster
Similar to the experience of most queer kids, I rarely saw much outside of a hetero-normative experience on the television growing up. It wasn’t until my teen years I heard of Blue Is The Warmest Colour (2013). Not only was it not on public television, but many scenes are compiled (and in some cases, the entire film) and reuploaded onto pornographic sites. Sparse exposure reveals the lack of normalcy in our society. Furthermore, the uploads onto such sites unmask the true reception the film got, purely for sexual gratification.
The film became evidently driven by sexual desire, specifically by the male gaze. The male gaze is a concept developed by Laura Mulvey who described the use of women in film to be looked at with eroticism by the audience in a heterosexual-male-spectator way.
A writer for The Atlantic, Jon Frosch, is one of the main comments shown on the cover of Blue is the Warmest Colour (2013). A lesbian film was marketed by a man’s relation to arousal. It is far too common in today’s world either use lesbians as some form of humor or erotic object. As a result, many see lesbians and their relationships in media through these gazes.
“Lesbian relationships always seem to be only sexual for men to enjoy or completely unsexual, which is fine for some but makes it seem like lesbian sex is somehow dirty or problematic.” -@cup_of_tea755 (YouTube account)
There is an lack of healthy, meaningful, and truly passionate relationships among lesbian films. There is a fine line between finding empowerment through one’s comfortability in their sexuality and portraying the objectification of male fantasy.
With the poor lesbian centered depictions in film, there is also a decreasing amount of lesbian representation in major film studios being released. In 2021, there was a decrease in LGBTQ character screentime overall. The majority of the films that included queer characters were allotted less than 5 minutes of screentime. Moreover, a severe lack of diversity continues to remain prevalent.
Source: Statista.com
It is no longer enough to simply call a character queer and be satisfied. Over decades of progress in the LGBTQ community, the film industries still fall behind. Queer identifying individuals are becoming more common in society.
We must actively engage with the media we partake in. Being conscious of what we consume has always, and will always be, imperative to our societal growth.
Diversity isn’t meant to be utilized as a tool to gain social credit. Characters with diversity have the capacity to reveal complexities and truly represent unique human experiences.
A greater weight is put into consumerism than what the public needs. It is impossible to try to satisfy the status quo and subgroups of society. Art should be used to say something truly substantial and add to society.
I find this conversation very interesting.
Lately, I’ve noticed that films and shows like “Red White and Royal Blue” and “Heartstopper”, shows which revolve around gay men, are praised for their representation. They are lauded for showing the joy that love creates in a very heartfelt way. However, lesbian couples rarely get the same treatment and are less likely to have the same representation in media.
I think that this may end up backfiring as people grow up to see this and may not find themselves in a confident light after, especially younger female-presenting queer audiences. Could this be a component to decreasing mental health and suicide in younger LGBTQ people?
This is a very interesting topic in that I have not heard a lot about queer representation in the film industry before. You make a good point in mentioning that despite more LGBTQ people, there still remains a delay, if you will, in the film industry to catch up. Do you think that is because of discrimination, disinterest, lack of LGBTQ actors, or something else? The movie industry can be difficult with how big a business it is, so it’ll be eventful to watch how and if it changes in the coming years.