I bought this film for one of my nieces because she loves Peter Jackson stuff, and this film seemed just right for her. My other niece, who is a lesbian and her partner watched the film and said it was like the worst film ever. I've never met a person who didn't at least like this movie. Is there something in the film that is offensive to lesbians? I can't possiblty think of anything.
shareI've watched the movie a few times and I do not see anything that should be offensive to lesbians (or gays). The only thing is that (at that time), homosexuality was still considered a mental illness. The movie was simply being historically accurate as far as the attitude towards homosexuality.
shareI considered that angle, and you are probably correct. The fact that the girls were in an unstable mental state, and expermenting in homosexual activities, may seen by some as related. Anyhow, my lesbian niece is a hardcore feminist, complete with a Woman's Studies Degree. That explains a lot. She can be totally unreasonable at times.
shareLol @ Chas437! If she is complete with a Woman's Studies degree, do you think she would know history about how people used to think it was a mental illness? But like you said, she can be unreasonable.
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." -Gandalf the Grey
Well, at the time my lesbian niece and her partner were pretty young and very sensitive and insecure about their sexuality. In hind sight, I think they thought the film was suggesting homosexual expermentation was a sign of mental illness. So, I was asking to see if there was anything offensive to lesbians in the film. It appears the answer is no.
share[deleted]
This film accurately portrays how most parents would react to the suspicion that their young daughter was a lesbian, as well as a sexual perversion. Lesbianism is a mental illness. As it happens the girls were not lesbian.
shareWell, I don't know that it was "Anti-Lesbian" per se, but it was unfortunate that it seemed like both of these girls were ALSO very mentally unstable. It could draw negative associations that should not be there.
I think it was more about unhealthy obsession. I am sure there are cases where underage opposite sex lovers have been threatened separation and have done bad things because of it.
Indeed. There was a heterosexual teenage couple in Canada that massacred the girl's entire family because the parents were against their relationship. But I guess that's not as sensationalist and "alluring" as a story of two lesbians doing something similar.
"...When they found her, she was still smiling."
Right because Bonnie and Clyde and Badlands and movies like that have never been made....
shareIn fact, the defense attorney relied on tying the assumed homosexuality of the girls to their "folie a deux" diagnosis - all part of the same package. We recognize that as offensive now, but at the time it was in keeping with societal mores.
I just finished reading "Parker and Hulme: A Lesbian View"
by Julie Glamuzina & Alison J. Laurie. Not brilliantly written - boy, did they need an editor! - but great info and an informed historical context. Chas43, I'll be your niece would enjoy a copy!
To the original point, then - no, the film itself is not anti-lesbian. The times it depicted were, and that manifested itself in this string of events.
Well there is an implication that the girls had a sexual component to their relationship. But I think it would be a mistake to view the film as anti-lesbian. For one thing I don't think either girl, at least in the film, was gay. I think they had a very close relationship and were sexually curious. IIRC both of them pursued relationships with boys. (In real life I think Anne Perry has denied that there was anything sexual in their relationship). But I also think that even if we interpret the girls as queer in some way that the film can't really be read as an anti-gay tract. The clear implication in the film is that prejudice against homosexuality is wrong and whatever sexual component there may have been to their relationship seems incidental to their motives for murder.
Unless Alpert's covered in bacon grease, I don't think Hugo can track anything.
I really recommend Parker and Hulme: A Lesbian View for some great insight on this. You can buy it used very cheap:
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=parker+hulm e&x=21&y=15
I'm in midst of it and - while a bit roughly written spots - it puts the whole event in its historical and geographical context, including views on homosexuality informed by Christchurch's social roots. Really worth your time.
I was shocked to see how hard the government worked to control exposure to the story and its retellings - going as far to ban the import of related coverage!
As an extra advantage, it was written well before the movie came out, so it's not charged with teasing out what was true in the flick as opposed to real life. It's all about the actual event.
It really isn't. The movie is very symphatetic towards the girls, and critisizes contemporary society for treating them the way they were treated. In the 50s, homosexuality was seen as a mental illness, and, in this case, as a proof that the girls were mad. But the film clearly critisizes this too.
They weren't even lesbian. Not then, not now. They really cared for each other, but what it comes to their love-making, they used each other as vessels for their games. It was all a play - they pretended to be 'saints' (film stars they really adored) making love to each other. They were taking roles.
It's not anti-lesbian. In the 1950s(when the film takes place), homosexuality was viewed as a mental illness. That's not the fault of the film or the people involved in it's production. It's just historical context.
The new home of Welcome to Planet Bob: http://kingofbob.blogspot.ca/
I'm a lesbian.
I saw this film when I was a teenager and I hated it. It's absolutely unfair but at the time I felt the need to repress my feelings and the "psycho killer lesbian" trope sort of validated those feelings of repression. I haven't been able to watch the film since. It's completely illogical, but something that I can't quite get passed. I didn't like the way their relationship was portrayed in the film.
By today's standards portraying anyone but White heterosexual Christian males as bad in anyway is considered offensive. So maybe she didn't like see lesbian's committing murder?
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