Morgan, Post 9

Morgan Frost

1.)The ever-changing portrayal of gay people developed throughout history predominately due to forces of social and political nature. Though there are recorded instances of homosexuals themselves altering the public’s perceived image, the amount remains minor. As is the theme throughout movie history, the monumental “sense of identity that came with the rise of the Gay Liberation, (was) in no way reflected on screen” (Barrios 363). Instead we see a separate realm of homosexuals in their portrayal through the cinema. It is debatable whether the changes these portrayals took were a product of historical forces or rather events that coincided with historical events, but there is no doubt that the historical aspects had an influence on the changing views.

The first of these historical forces is the coming of Broadway and sound. Broadway helped “(institute) a tradition of gayness in musical film” (Barrios 41). The effeminacy of song and dance in the musical plays were adopted into the movies, and have a similar effect as the flamboyance of previous silent films in the portrayal of homosexuals as comical. Sound, however, offered a different influence. By adding an element to characterization, the vocal, the actor casted can offer a “more vivid (representation) than the simple mockery of silent films” (Barrios 42). Instead we have the development of a gay character, with specific traits such as a lisp; and the door is also opened for the vocalizations to be the vessel of communicated thoughts of gays.

Next is the coming of “The Code” in 1930. This is the Production Code of the MPDDA which advised the content of movies in adhering to moral standards as determined by its officials. This coincided with the Depression, and can be seen as an attempt to maintain structure and value in a time of its rapid decrease. “Homosexuality (in movies)—termed ‘sex perversion’ in the Production Code guidelines,” adapted by forming a “more expansive and varied” array of depictions to be viewed as the Code was installed (Barrios 52, 80). The purpose of the Code, however, was barely a ghost in its actual execution. Instead during the Depression, in order “to lure cash-poor spectators into movie houses, the movies became rawer and racier, sometimes more adult.” With this we can observe not a desperate obedience to the Code but a “nose-thumbing defiance of it” (Barrios 55). The 30s found the Code “having the exact opposite effect of its original intent…and alternative sexuality had become commonplace and accepted by audiences” (Barrios 122). It is important to note, though, the difference and the connection between “acceptance” and “acknowledgement” (Barrios 59). Yet movies continued to contain gays, thus acknowledging their presence in America, and the more this was seen on screen, the more it is believed to be accepted more readily.

With World War II came even more diverse changes. “The war gave (homosexuals) an opportunity to escape, to meet, to find themselves and be themselves” (Barrios 167). Recruiting companies even performed drag acts, sending the message that gays were allowed to “serve while being themselves.” With the war progressing, America entered an escapist mindset, yielding a “delirious and mostly gay-friendly” attitude (Barrios 175). This attitude was reflected in films of the time, with 40s films such as Star-Spangled Banner, and This is the Army. Homosexuality had become almost expected in the lives of servicemen and servicewomen. The time of escapism, though, opened another door to the negative side of gay portrayal in film. Film noir had begun to put homosexuals in a much darker light. They were no longer the non-threatening “pansies” of the past, but with more visibility onscreen came representations full of “corruption, weakness, and in some cases genuine evil.” Homosexuals were playing larger roles, but at a higher price, as the “true demonization of gays by film” had just begun (Barrios 212). With Hitchcock producing another version of Rope, real-life homosexual villainy was resurrected and put on screen in movies that reflected past cases such as Loeb and Leopold, the thrill-killing gay couple. Here the end of the forties marks a time when “gay ceases to be good” (Barrios 212).

In 1969 came a different breed of historical force—one with homosexuals behind it. The Stonewall riots in New York set the wheels in motion for a social revolution. Though progress was slow, homosexuals were finally altering their own image. “Groups started forming, discussions opened up, and existences were rethought” (Barrios 347). In a century where the driving forces behind changing views on homosexuals were typically social and political, the later years brought power to homosexuals in the portrayal of their own image.

2.) “How to Look at Television” offers Adorno’s insights on the messages delivered by the media. His work identifies the overt messages advocating the adherence to the status quo that characterizes successful media. According to Adorno, though, “the hidden message may be more important than the overt since this hidden message will escape the controls of consciousness, will not be ‘looked through’” (Adorno 221). This is to say that the overt message can be merely a vessel through which the work is distributed to the consuming public. The purpose of the underlying subtext, however, is to be absorbed; yet it still “aims at reinforcing conventionally rigid and ‘pseudorealistic’ attitudes similar to the accepted ideas of more rationalistically propagated by the surface message” (Adorno 222). Throughout history, these surface and hidden messages can be seen to provide audiences with certain views on gays in homosexually-oriented films.

In the 1912 film Algie, the Miner, the overt text shows viewers the passage to manhood that must be completed in order to earn a woman. The main character Algie, possessing suggestively effeminate characteristics, must achieve a level of masculinity before he is worthy to marry his girlfriend. Through his successful journey we see the change to another message—one holding much more weight than the simple audience-pleasing plot. The subtext presents the view that homosexuality or homosexually-inclined behavior can and should be “cured.” As recognized by Barrios, this becomes a common theme in films all the way to the present day. In this case Algie’s feminine nature is unacceptable if he is to follow a normal and what is deemed successful path. He must quit his flamboyant character in order to assume the masculinity of a true heterosexual man. It is like he is putting on a costume, and Algie’s transformation is meant to be believed by the audience, regardless of the absurdly unrealistic point of a homosexual man being “cured” of his gayness. Nonetheless, this film satisfies Adorno’s analyses on the media’s depiction and influence to maintain the accepted standards of society.

A later film depicts a similar surface message of naivety, but with a hidden message containing aspects of lesbianism and the way femininity was defined during the time. The naivety of Doris Day in the 1953 musical Calamity Jane is like that of the character Algie just discussed. Almost as a mirror of Algie’s effeminacy, Jane’s personality embodies the term “masculine”—from the physical traits of her clothes, gestures, manners, and slang, to the emotional and sexual curiosity she possesses towards actress Allyn McLerie. The overt message of Calamity Jane is one of amusement through the humorous comparisons illustrated between “butch” Jane and the fragile Katie. The musical seems to merely be poking fun at a naïve tomboy—quite successfully, too, since Jane is a buckskin-wearing, hunting country person while Kate is a dress-up, lipstick-wearing girl from the city. The surface message is not taken too seriously because Jane’s homosexual behavior is made light of as something that she learns to suppress in the end of the movie. While her homosexual nature is being made comedic, the message can be seen to take a deeper meaning in its hidden agenda. The insinuation that Jane’s “tom-boyness” is out of ignorance and something that one must be taught to be free of results in implications that fit into the same view on homosexuals present 40 years earlier in Algie, the Miner. The latent message still purports to “cure” the possibly homosexual girl of her queer ways by imposing the traditional status quo of femininity upon her ruggedness. This is exactly what Adorno addresses in “How to Look at Television” as he discusses the purpose of the message to direct the audience that “one has to adjust oneself at any price” to the standards accepted by society (Adorno 220).

The 1943 musical This is the Army was meant to boost public morale for America during World War II. It contained performances “done all in fun and all in drag” (Barrios 175). Where the obvious message is exhibited in order to show the excitement, cheerfulness, and carefree experiences that can be had in the army as a distraction to the depressing and morbid aspects, the message takes on a new form when viewed at through a homosexually-aware lens. The musical subconsciously—or consciously (depending on the audience member’s position as a consumer or an analyst of the film)—depicts the presence of homosexuality in the armed services. The social position on the issue is one of feigned ignorance—the notion that it is ok if kept behind closed doors. And so the army has become a safe haven for homosexuals to exist as long as the relationships are confined within the time they serve. The implications of this stance are that those in the armed forces transcend the requirements of the status quo. The status quo of the army becomes the detachment from the status quo back home. Homosexuality thus remains something that can be added or taken away from a person, much like the depictions of homosexual characters in the earlier Algie, the Miner and later Calamity Jane. Homosexuality is also portrayed as something that is still not acceptable if taken on as a true lifestyle, but only if it is something to resort to in desperate times like war.

The messages of a movie change when transitioning from the overt to the hidden as a result of their purposes to the audience. Where one may be simply to entertain, the other provides commentary and instruction from the social perspectives of the particular time.

3.)

Source

This image is meant to depict the physical and emotional connection between two homosexual men in a positive light. The placement of the hands suggests fondness of one another as the couple displays a loving relationship. Though being naked is the obvious indication that their embrace is sexual, the position of their bodies is not one of homosexual intercourse, and so we can see the men are embracing out of emotional motivation as well as sexual desire. In culmination, the aspects of this image send the message that homosexual relationships possess elements of connection beyond the person’s sexual preference, but deeper into the emotional realm.

Although this is an artistic and near-perfect representation of the male body, the blunt homosexual nature would deem it a degenerative piece of work by the Nazis. It can also be used as a “culture industry product.” The site mentioned uses it as visual decoration in its advertisement of the gay haven Costa del Sol. Thus it can still be viewed as a work of art, but it is employed here to appeal to the gay audience as a cultural product. In this way its message is also changed, not as one showing the deep connection between these two males, but as more of a surface message that means to appeal its audience into realizing their own sexual desire will be catered to in that location.

Source

This picture is a negative representation of the judgments made on people simply based on sexual orientation. The point is that people do not choose to be gay, and a baby already being gay illustrates this point. But the negativity comes from the way people view homosexuality. Many parents find it hard to accept their children as gay, often trying to “cure” them. This baby is thus less desirable simply because of its alleged sexual orientation. It is important to note, however, that the picture can be used in a positive manner as a “culture industry product” in order to raise awareness and combat homophobia. Used in this way, the negative image is used in way that exceeds the standards of visibility from the Celluloid Closet, making a point in support for homosexuals.