Critic Kyle Turner, of Paste Magazine, argues that there is a long list of such films that no one cares to remember or mention. In addition to this, it is not to say that queer sexuality and eroticism can’t exist in circumstances that forgo explicitness to make a bigger point about ideas of gender and sexuality. interview for is in print & online now ✨ - katie goh September 4, 2018Īs Tirado neatly summarises: ‘Straight gatekeepers are an unfortunate necessity if you want LGBTQ+ films to be in the mainstream, which means that uncensored queer sex in films remains niche.’ Nobody is saying every queer film must include sex, and it would also be refreshing to watch a film about gay people that does not centre itself around sex. Had the absolute pleasure of speaking to Desiree Akhavan about THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST and why the sex in blue is the warmest colour SUCKS, a take i will champion until the end of time. For women, this is even more confusing, as lesbian sex in mainstream porn is designed for male visual pleasure, fuelling its inaccuracy.
In addition to this, less mainstream visibility of gay sex allows porn to be the media representative, reinforcing damaging stereotypes, like the idea that all gay men have perfect bodies. Most frustratingly, ‘raunchy’ sex scenes between a man and a woman have not prevented big films from receiving nominations for top awards, such as Atonement (2015) and Blue Valentine (2011). While indicative of a wider issue of diversity in Hollywood, instances such as this again fuel the idea that gay sex is a sort of scandalous unknown. Blue is the Warmest Colour (2013) is an infamous example - Julie Maroh, the author of the novel on which the film is based, took issue with the film’s sex scene, reportedly saying ‘as a lesbian there was something missing from the set: lesbians’. If sex does find its way into queer films it is often inaccurate or, as is often the case for women, performed and orchestrated for the male gaze. No wonder that for so long queer people have found refuge in literature which openly and accurately depicts how it feels, physically and emotionally, to be gay. Other representations are contrasting and confusing from a more everyday perspective, the reality is that in most film and television addressed at teens, queer men seem to be gentle and sexless - note the trope of the gay best friend, ‘who talks about how hot guys are but never touches one’. Its exasperating perpetuation of stereotypes only encourages parts of society to continue viewing queer identity and sex in this negative, reductive way. The film also shapes Mercury as a one dimensional promiscuous gay man, reducing his seven year monogamous relationship with partner Jon Hutton to a single kiss.īohemian Rhapsody won Best Editing for editing out all the gay sex scenes.- Gonzalo Cordova February 25, 2019 This year’s Academy Award winning Bohemian Rhapsody has been widely criticised for its disconcerting attempt to distance Freddie Mercury’s homosexuality from his art, and its framing of his AIDS diagnosis as a punishment for his queerness.
Doing this, it can be argued, removes key moments of joy, political identity and accuracy in their portrayals of the queer experience. Though centred around queer characters, the exclusion of sex from films like these is now a joke in the queer community, one where directors ‘forget’ to put them in. He argues that many films are still trapped in this chokehold, including recent box office hits Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) and Call Me By Your Name (2017).
GAY SEX SCENES FROM MOVIES FREE
Is this fair? Is it more important that in omitting queer sex scenes, these films reach a wider audience to promote acceptance? Or is it doing queer people a disservice, making queer culture more approachable but still keeping it at arm's length?įran Tirado, Deputy Editor of Out magazine, recently published an essay in which he claimed that ‘to be queer is to be sexually free’, and that to be free is to ‘break away from the chokehold of heterosexual respectability politics. As we grow up, this prudish attitude to sex leaves us and so does this censorship instead we enjoy seeing characters bond in scenes that often enrich storylines as they bring in real life, complicated, and often messy sex.īut this seems to only really be reserved for straight people, and queer sex is constantly being put back in its box, sanitised for a wider audience or reserved for indie films.
It makes sense then that in certain films, these scenes are censored for universality. To younger audiences, sex scenes in films are unknown and uncomfortable.
GAY SEX SCENES FROM MOVIES SERIES
The first part of Epigram Film & TV’s series on LGBTQ+ representation in media questions the lack of intimacy shown in non-heterosexual, onscreen couples.