MCA 351 Exam 1

Bros

Director Nicholas Stoller, A romantic comedy film that centers around two gay men navigating their relationship and the complexities of love.

The Bride of Frankenstein

James Whale directed this (Openly gay), a chastened Henry [???] attempts to abandon his plans to create life, only to be tempted and finally blackmailed by his old mentor, along with threats from the Monster, into constructing a [???] for the Monster.

The Wizard of Oz

Victor Fleming, director of this film. It was a popular depression-era film that promised dreams really can come true

The Children’s Hour

Directed by William Wyler, about teachers who are accused by a deceitful student of having a lesbian relationship.

The Killing of Sister George

Directed by Robert Aldrich, it is a British soap opera. The actress spends her time drinking and engaging in lesbian sex with her much younger lover

inherent

Intentional and clear queerness being the conflict

incidental

not essential (to the plot); minor, happen stance

Heteronormalty

Monogamous heterosexuality usually leading to marriage and children

Economics

Distribution technologies, reception, etc - “do people want it/can we sell it?“

Queering the Text

Queer Audiences read/decode/imagine “straight“ characters as queer

Pre-Code cinema

“The Time Between“; Featured some of the most risque material… (The Sign of the Cross (1932)) and the Coded queer characters

Gender Inversion

Connecting homosexuality with behaving like the “opposite” gender.

Kenneth Anger

The first openly gay filmmakers in Hollywood to address male homosexuality; he used experimental cinema to express homosexual desire and the complicated emotions surrounding it, while challenging conventional ideas of masculinity and Hollywood representation.

Andy Warhol

He integrated open, unapologetic expressions of homosexuality, camp aesthetics, and gender non-conformity into the mainstream avant-garde and Pop Art movements during an era when being queer was heavily criminalized and suppressed; parodying and dismantling Hollywood's conventions about gender, sexuality, masculinity, and celebrity.

Queer Definition One

Human Sexuality is Multiple, varying, and diverse. (Acknowledges multiplicity of sexualities)

Queer Definition 1800s

Sociologists used BOTH heterosexual AND homosexual to describe “abnormal“ medical conditions.

Broad Queer Definition

Any sexual activity other than heteronormative; The vast array of human sexualities

Discourse

What legal, medical, and religious establishments communicate/proscribe about what is normal/acceptable. These can change over time. Mainstream Mediareinforces this.

“Camp“

“To Flaunt,“ not just a performance- reading of individual performers, films, or genres. Associated with Gay Men’s idolization of melodramatic Hollywood stars