still so fucking weird to go from real life, where a cis man being flamboyant/effeminate/camp is judged like 70+% by how he speaks and carries himself, to online queer communities, which often seem to have no concept of male gender non-conformity that doesn’t involve wearing a skirt
i promise you, a man can be fem to the point of being in danger while wearing literally exactly the same thing as a hypermasculine guy. a boring basic black suit. a t shirt and jeans. a UNIFORM. gender conformity is not only about what you wear
None of you have watched that heartbreaking scene in The Birdcage where Albert gives up wearing everything he likes to try and blend in for their son’s conservative prospective in-laws and is so awkward and uncomfortable that no one says much until finally he says, defeated, “I know what you’re thinking - dressed like this, I’m even more obvious, aren’t I?” and it shows.
Here, have your queer heart broken:
This is what I’m talking about. This is still literally how it is in most places in the Midwest if you’re trying to “pass” for straight/cis/whatever.
I’ve watched “Wilde”. It was on my to-watch list for a pretty long time, thanks to @xenolinguistics-department ’s Instagram it was there even before I started making different segments for different actors. Be sure, though - I watched it because of Michael Sheen. I’ve seen clips from this movie in so many Ineffable Husbands Human!AU videos… Well, Michael Sheen is twenty-eight years old in that movie and it’s just illegal to be so young, pretty and charming! Have you seen those eyes? (And lips, and buttocks which were shown for the whole screen…) I probably should confess – I have read “The Portrait of Dorian Gray” and I didn’t like it… It felt boring and pretentious. I’ve read some of Oscar Wilde’s short stories (yes, the one about the giant too) and, what’s the most important - “The Importance of Being Earnest” – I’ve seen twice in the theatre and it was great! So, I’m a little familiar with Oscar Wilde’s works, but not a big fan of it. I’ve also seen Stephen Fry for the first time in that movie and I liked his performance a lot. I also wanted to make a note – I don’t know how historically accurate it is, so I’m not going to judge it those grounds. I enjoyed this movie so much! It’s dramatic, it’s romantic, it’s sensual (I was going to write sexy, but this word is just not good enough). I’ve seen so many beautiful naked young men in this movie. A lot of them was Jude Law, but I’m not saying it’s something bad. I cried a few times while watching – a lot of times, when I saw Michael Sheen, during the scene (Spoilers!) when Oscar and Bosie had a meeting in prison and started holding hands through the bars and I definitely cried in the end, which I didn’t expect to be at least slightly happy, however, it was. So, watching queer movies with no particular actors in them.
I have been working with Bedside Productions and Morph Film on a new queer erotic film called “Ei Blot Til Lyst”. Here’s a small teaser pic. More to come.
“The season’s most provocative lesbian sequence was in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Sign of the Cross (1932). The film, adapted from an 1895 British stage play, depicts the conflict between a Christian community and the powerful Roman state, headed by Nero (Charles Laughton). Nero’s right-hand man, Marcus Superbus (Fredric March), falls in love with a young Christian woman, Mercia (Elissa Landi). Though he tries to bring her around to the Roman way of life, her faith eventually inspires him to face the lions with her. Despite the film’s Christian message, it was packed with eroticized, violent spectacle, including gorillas and alligators attacking nearly nude women in chains, a battle between Amazons and Little People, and packs of lions attacking and eating Christians. Reprising the bacchanalia in Manslaughter (1930), female same-sex desire is embedded in the sexual excess of ancient Rome. There are no female inverts, although some of the men are sissyish, particularly Nero. The first potentially lesbian moment occurs when Nero’s wife, Empress Poppaea (Claudette Colbert), bathes in a pool of asse’s milk. After slipping off her robe and lowering herself into the milk, Poppaea invites a female slave to join her. The camera modestly looks away, panning to two cats lapping milk from the edge of the pool. This look away suggests that a sexual encounter might occur; the lapping cats intimate oral sex.”
-FromGirls Will Be Boys Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908-1934 by Laura Horak
HEARTSTONE (2017) dir. Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson Language: Icelandic
The story of two teenage boys, when one tries to win the heart of a girl, while the other discovers new feelings towards his best friend.
Over one long summer in their small fishing village, Thor and Kristján become inseparable. Hanging out with older teenage sisters and friends, they get into scrapes and have adventures. Facing the travails of an alcoholic father and a single mother who’s newly back on the dating scene, the two stoically cope with a problematic domestic life by taking refuge and pleasure in each other’s company. Sex is never far from anyone’s minds and the rich emotional landscape of early adolescence offers plenty of opportunities and challenges. The boys appear unable to articulate what all their friends already suspect, but then things change suddenly and dramatically, offering up some unexpected results.
