Stereotypes In The Celluloid Closet

There is no rule book or set of guidelines that can teach a person how to be gay or to show others what a queer life is like. Most of what people know about the LGBTQ+ community comes from what is portrayed in media. The Celluloid Closet took viewers behind the scenes to shine a light on gay and lesbian stereotypes and misrepresentation of gay culture in the film industry. The documentary gives insight on how Hollywood has taught straight people to view gays and how gay people should view themselves. While major progressive strides have been made for LGBTQ+ visibility in films, there are still some false stereotypes that are hard to shake making it difficult for accurate representation of queer living, even today.
Gay characters have always
Gay people were “pathetically starved for images of ourselves,” Jan Oxenberg states at the beginning of the film. Visibility of homosexuality in films gave opportunity for conversations to be had about such a taboo topic. It also acknowledges that gay people are real people and not a figment of someone’s imagination. The downside to this visibility was how the mass population negatively perceived gays based solely on how they were presented in the media. The stereotypes given to homosexual characters left people with the idea that being classified as gay made one an inferior human who should be hated or
It is how we, as people, group other individuals in order have a sense of understanding of that specific group. A few stereotypes mentioned in the documentary were homosexuality equating to a life of misery and ultimately death, lesbianism being merely a phase to be broken by “the right man”, and the most notable stereotype: being a gay male makes you less of a man; you are a “sissy”. In earlier films, there was a reoccurring theme with gay characters: they all died. The character could not accept being homosexual leading them to commit suicide or live a depressing life. This was an extremely common thing in films. It reinforced the notion that being gay was a horrible thing. The documentary also shows men being affectionate and emotional on screen as a rare occurrence thus challenging their masculinity. Susan Sarandon humorously summed this up by saying “boys pull out their guns, not their dicks” in regards to how males are supposed to be tough to be considered real men. The complete opposite goes for women who are attracted to other women on screen. Those relationships are considered exotic, erotic, and done for men’s enjoyment only if both women were very soft and feminine. Women taking on the masculine role was not attractive and made them less of a woman. These stereotypes have many negative connotations leading people to believe that all individuals from this specific group are alike, stripping them of their individual