I have a problem with the screenings on Monday that is not so much due to the provocativeness of the images but more to do with understanding the creator's goals. The clips clearly revolve around the sexual nature of lesbianism, but I could not place a finger on what story they were trying to tell or what lesson they were trying to teach. While I do not believe that the creators were trying to demonize lesbianism, I cannot comprehend that they were trying to encourage understanding and acceptance, as the way lesbianism was construed in those clips made it seem like a perversion rather than something natural and beautiful.
The music was extremely eerie and the fading, overlapping images were reminiscent of a horror film. I felt exactly the same tense and fearful feeling that I get during a horror movie, and it was not due to the sexual nature of the images, but rather the way that they were portrayed. It occurred to me that the creators were most likely using the shock factor of blatant sexual lesbianism in order to show how unashamed they are of their sexuality. However, these clips reduced lesbianism to just raw sex. The nature of the clips was purely carnal - they showed and told stories of women who simply couldn't keep themselves from pleasing one another, rather than pairing that sexual desire with women who feel emotion for each other. This film felt rather indicative of how so many men today view lesbians - as an entirely sexual object. Two women making out has become something that turns men on, rather than a loving or affectionate act between two women. In a sense, I feel that many lesbians today are violated every time they show affection in public, as often a man indirectly feels their pleasure too. Lesbians are extremely sexualized in the public eye and when a clip like this that appears to have more substance at the beginning turns out to be almost purely sexually too, I find myself disappointed. While lesbians and the portrayal of lesbians shouldn't shy away from a sexual nature simply because it pleases men, I feel that clips that tell a story that appears to educate the viewer about lesbianism should have more dimensions. In fact, I feel as though the sinister music and film style in those clips served only to alienate the viewer from the topic.
In a world where homosexuality is such a provocative subject and opinions are so widely divided, I think it is a little careless to make clips like this that do not educate or encourage an understanding. And if they do neither of those things, a clip of that sexual a nature is little more than porn shot in an artistic manner.
In a world where homosexuality is such a provocative subject and opinions are so widely divided, I think it is a little careless to make clips like this that do not educate or encourage an understanding. And if they do neither of those things, a clip of that sexual a nature is little more than porn shot in an artistic manner.
Wicht
I completely agree with your overall confusion of the filmmakers goals. All of the screenings really made it hard for me to formulate an educated assumption of what they were trying to express. The author of this post has a really great point that through with the lesbians being open about their sexuality, it makes it about their sex rather than independence.
ReplyDeleteI am hoping that through our class discussion next week that it will create some semblance of how these clips relate to the greater scheme of feminism. Their goals may have been to show that these women are not going to be restricted by the environment around them pressures. I just don't know if by showing all these exploitative scenes that it is the most effective way to achieve their goal.