In The Celluloid Closet

After watching this documentary, I couldn't help think how pathetic our nation can be when it comes to certain topics, especially homosexuality. The documentary really gave me a new perspective on how coded homosexuality had to be because of the entertainment industry and because our nation didn't want to see it for what it really was.

One thing that really caught my attention was how homosexuals were portrayed in the movies once they were allowed to be in movies. At first they were seen as the villan, as being something evil that needed to be punished or killed. Then they were seen as the victim, some sort of pray. However, they were still seen as being different, outcasts from the normal society. Their sexuality wasn't the norm. Going along with this there were movies portraying the idea that seeming gay was just as bad as being gay and a person's "gayness" needed to be cured, and apparently masculinity was the answer.

I was trying to think of movies I've seen that have gay coding in them or movies that had homosexuality in them and I had a hard time thinking of movies. The first one I could think of was Rent, which shows more openly gay individuals, but it is a fascinating movie because it shows people accepting homosexuality while trying to survive AIDS. There is another movie that I remember watching that deals with homosexuality and young men acknowledging and accepting their homosexuality, but I can't remember what the title of the movie is. Once I do I'll put up a post with the title and a website to more information about the movie because it really gave me a new perspective on young men and homosexuality.