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04.28.2023 The Funeral Parade of Roses

Funeral Parade Of Roses, directed by Toshio Matsumoto in Japan in 1969, is a film that explores the queer subculture of Tokyo's Shinjuku neighborhood during the late 1960s. The film centers around Eddie, a transgender club performer, and his relationship with the club owner, Gonda. The movie also features interviews with real-life members of the queer community in Shinjuku, as well as elements of documentary-style filmmaking.

Mark McLelland's book, Queer Japan from the Pacific War to the Internet Age, offers valuable insight into the cultural and historical context surrounding the film. In particular, McLelland's chapter on "Transvestic Narratives" sheds light on the importance of cross-dressing and gender nonconformity in Japanese culture. He notes that, while same-sex relationships were often stigmatized in Japan, cross-dressing was much more accepted as a form of entertainment.

Funeral Parade Of Roses can be seen as a reflection of this cultural phenomenon, as it centers around Eddie's identity as a transgender performer. The film also touches on themes of violence and self-destruction, suggesting that the act of cross-dressing and defying gender norms can be a way for individuals to cope with societal pressure and express their inner desires.

McLelland's book also provides a broader context for understanding the film's impact on queer cinema in Japan. He notes that, while there was a thriving queer subculture in Shinjuku during the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was largely invisible to the mainstream media. Funeral Parade Of Roses was one of the first films to bring this subculture to a wider audience, and it paved the way for other works that explored queer themes and identities in Japan.

Overall, Funeral Parade Of Roses is a groundbreaking film that offers a unique perspective on queer culture in Japan during a time of societal change and upheaval. McLelland's book helps to contextualize the film's significance, and sheds light on the broader social and historical factors that shaped Japan's queer community during this period.

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04.28.2023 WATERMELON WOMAN

Cheryl Dunye's Watermelon Woman (1996) can be seen as a significant contribution to queer cinema, particularly in its exploration of black lesbian desire and representation. The film tells the story of a young black lesbian filmmaker named Cheryl who becomes obsessed with uncovering the forgotten history of an African American actress from the 1930s known only as "The Watermelon Woman."

One of the key themes in the film is the complex intersection of race, gender, and sexuality. Evelynn Hammonds' essay "Black (W)holes and the Geometry of Black Female Sexuality" provides a useful lens through which to analyze this intersectionality. Hammonds argues that black women's sexuality has been historically marginalized and objectified, and that black women have been denied agency over their own bodies and desires.

In Watermelon Woman, Cheryl's search for the history of The Watermelon Woman can be seen as a reclamation of black lesbian history and identity. By unearthing the stories of marginalized and forgotten black lesbian figures, Cheryl is able to affirm her own existence and sexuality. The film also challenges traditional representations of black women in cinema, particularly the "mammy" and "Jezebel" archetypes, by creating complex and nuanced characters who defy these limiting stereotypes.

Furthermore, the film's use of a mockumentary-style format blurs the line between reality and fiction, creating a space where alternative representations of black lesbian desire can exist outside of traditional narratives. This use of the mockumentary format also highlights the importance of storytelling and the power of narrative in shaping our understanding of identity and history.

Overall, Watermelon Woman is a powerful example of queer cinema that challenges dominant narratives and offers a space for marginalized voices to be heard. Through its exploration of intersectionality and reclamation of forgotten histories, the film offers a vision of black lesbian desire and representation that is complex, multifaceted, and deeply empowering.

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04.25.2023 Captain America: The Winter Soldier

This movie is the second installment in the Captain America trilogy and a part of the Marvel franchise. The relationship between Captain America and Bucky Barnes has not been considered queer in the comics prior to the film screening as there may have not been a lot of queer coding throughout print media. The films can be seen to have a ton of queer coding and portray the male-to-male, best friend experience in an interesting way. At some times, the women in the film feel like inserts that are there to make Steve Rogers straight. The prime example of this is Sharon Carter's character and somewhat Black Widow's character.

The article paired with this movie is Melissa Locker, “Twitter Really Wants Captain America and Bucky Barnes to Be a Couple” Time Magazine, May 24, 2016. This goes over the fans on social media wanting the Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes ship to be real. The reasoning makes sense because in the movies, all Steve cares about is getting his best pal back, which is understandable in the context of his non-blood brother being taken and brainwashed by the bad guys. As Black Widow tries to guide him through getting a date and possibly with Sharon Carter, Steve says no to all of them and only speaks about his long lost friend. I understand how it can be seen in a queer lens and more than "bros being bros."

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04.25.2023 AMC Interview with a Vampire (Alan Taylor, US, 2022): episode 1 

I honestly really enjoyed this first episode of the series. I looked up the first film this series was remade from and was surprised when it included Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, and Kirsten Dunst. The series' decision to make the vampire character black is an interesting choice that adds a lot of depth to the situation he's in during his age before vampire. There's already a strong anti-queer sentiment in old American times, and more so in black culture as noted in the earlier lectures. Adding on Louis' status as a black man that came from nothing to establishing an empire adds another level of stakes to what he has to lose.

The reading paired with this screening is Sue-Ellen Case, “Tracking the Vampire,” differences (1991): 1-20. This reading discusses vampires in media as a device for feminist and queer perspectives. The ambiguity of the vampire and its overly sexy imagery inspires directors such as Kathryn Bigelow to explore gender and sexuality.

In the case of this screening, the white vampire is used as a friend first, then the sexual tension increases and gets Louis when they're at his mansion/house. They first start having sex together with another woman as a threesome, then turn to each other to continue and have sex. The white vampire's push for more enables Louis to cave in, and their established male to male intimacy was solidified for this to happen after he takes him to meet his family as a business partner.

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04.25.2023 Happy Together

The film Happy Together is a love story between two Chinese men in Argentina. The portrayal of love by Wong Kar Wai ultimately ends in the turmoil between them, which juxtaposes the film's title. Despite being together the whole film, the two are at each other's throats at almost every minute. When they are not together, we see Fai (portrayed by Tony Leung) caring for his partner through actions such as making him food from his work and providing him a place to stay.

The reading paired with this film is "Reflecting on Decolonial Queer" by Pedro Paulo Gomes Pereira. In this, he dives deep into the ideas of the "decolonial queer", an approach to decolonialism and queer theory. it challenges Western-centric understandings of gender and sexuality in which were imposed on society during colonialism.

In this context, maybe the hetero-normative culture drove Fai and Po-Wing to run to Argentina. The part where Fai tries to call his father and there is just silence really hits that idea hard. The hetero-normative culture in Hong Kong is so engrained into their culture, that his father seems to have engrained in his head, reflects a very sad scene in the film.

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03.06.2023 Black Mirror's Striking Vipers

This is one of my favorite episodes of the Black Mirror franchise. I was surprised seeing this in the syllabus, but also recognize that it's super important to go over this piece of media. The thing that I love most about it is that like Moonlight (2016), it dances between the lines of Black male masculinity and Black queerness. The queer characters in each piece challenge the other's traditional, grass roots, straight Black male culture.

In the reading, Raj explains this:

"Ghassan Hage argues that whiteness is not simply the notion of colour, but rather it is a hegemonic category or form of cultural capital (1998: 55). That is, whiteness is not a question of geographical location necessarily, but in an Australian context, seems to hinge upon a ‘yearning’ for an imagined position of national belonging or citizenship – a fantasy that exists through the existence of a racial ‘Other’. Such belonging is marked through uses of language, sartorial styles, cultural tastes, economic mobility and political activities (Hage 1998: 51). Whiteness, then, is an inherited system of privileges (Han 2006: 3)." - Raj, Critical Race and Whiteness Studies

The model for gay men in media has mostly been defined by a white male. What about the other minorities? This reminds me of an earlier conversation where queer minorities are just double oppressed because they have to deal with race and sexuality as two different suffrages in their identity.

The challenging of striaght Black male reminds me of queer Asians challenging the traditional straight Asian male status quo. I barely saw that in Hollywood, and only in recent times have I seen more and more Asian men coming out as queer. Examples include Kal Penn, Tan France, Joel Kim Booster, and George Takei.

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02.15.2023 Hammonds and Black Queer Voices

For this week's lecture, we discussed The Watermelon Woman and the presence, or lack of, queer Black voices. The question that lingered is:

If black lives have been shaped by silence, erasure and invisibility in dominant discourses, then are black lesbian sexualities double silenced?

This reminded me of a joke by a comedian named Nimesh Patel, where he was talking about how your sexuality and ethnicity aren't things you can choose. His joke was pointing out that if you are black and gay, you're kind of shooting yourself in the foot with double hardships. This recognizes that despite not being able to choose, both communities have very difficult hardships put on by certain people in society.

In the reading, Hammonds mentions that:

"Three themes emerge in this history: first, the construction of the black female as the embodiment of sex and the attendant invisibility of black women as the unvoiced, unseen everything that is not white; second, the resistance of black women both to negative stereotypes of their sexuality and to the material effects of those stereotypes on their lives; and, finally, the evolution of a "culture of dissemblance" and a "politics of silence" by black women on the issue of their sexuality." — Hammonds, Black (W)holes and the geometry of Black female sexuality

From what I've seen and heard from online media, Black culture is somewhat afraid of queerness. I don't think it's homophobia, but it's more of a fear for survival. I understand that Black people universally have a hard time, especially in America. I feel that Nimesh Patel joke brings light to that issue, where being Black and queer is just 2 hardships stacked on top of each other, especially back then. The Watermelon Woman is a film that brings light to the social issues that Black and queer people experience. Having to fight even harder to survive as well as rarely having representation in media is something that a lot of people don't have to do, and being represented on screen is just something that can be taken for granted. In retrospect, fighting for that representation, especially an authentic kind of representation with an actual story, seems almost impossible in early queer cinema.

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02.15.2023 Japanese Postwar Perverse Culture

This is initially for Week 3/4 of our discussion, but I haven't been able to form any commentary or ideas on it. The reading talks about how Japan's defeat and occupation by U.S. forces, there was a boom in street prostitutes and pornography. The reading states:

"Jay Rubin points out that "the Japanese were sick to death of being preached at constantly to be good, frugal, hardworking, and self-sacrificing" and were consequently attracted to "a decadence that was simply the antithesis of prewar wholesomeness" (1985: 80). Many people were keen to forget the past and looked forward to the beginning of a new and newly private life in which eroticism was flaunted as an important symbol of liberation." - McLelland, Japan's Postwar Perverse Culture

This reminded me of the Netflix series The Naked Director, which is a live action comedy/drama about a real important figure in the Japanese pornography boom. The protagonist, Toru Muranishi, pushes the industry to promote uncensored work, as the government only allows censored pornography. This reminded me of the hush-hush culture around queer media during its early years. The involvement of the Japanese government is very similar, if not the same, to imposing their ideals of what is "normal" into law.

As an Asian American, I understand that older and traditional Asian culture shuns away from talking about anything related to the sexual. Since that happens, homosexuality would be in even bigger problem to talk about. Asian immigrant parents usually don't even think about their children being queer, so it's a huge shock and kind of goes against everything that they learned growing up in their own country. I feel that the film screening of Funeral Parade of Roses is actually insane (in a good way) because it shows that there's a universal need to express queerness, despite the way of expressions being slightly different from American techniques of doing it.

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02.05.2023 Representation in Queer Media

For this week's lecture, we went over how queerness is represented in media. With the conversation of last week coming into play, there had to be many innuendoes in place for them to talk about queer topics without explicitly saying them. Queer expression extends beyond the explicit through fashion and writing, and it leaks through media behind the scenes and some of it is represented on screen.

In the reading, Doty talks about how there is queer coding in film, as the queerness leaks through design and writing choices per character. These codings include behaviors and styles such as cross-dressing and having feminine traits.

The one character I thought of is Fez from That 70's Show because he would be the one of the characters to champion feminine qualities more than the others. This reminds me of a quote from the Doty reading:

"After homophobically declaring that 'modern thinkning has added unfortunate connotations' to 'trans-gender impersonation,' Gary Carey admits that audiences who find cross-gender material 'embarassing and alienating' do so because ''too often it cuts close to our own suspicions about the actors involved or to our fears about ourselves.'" Doty, 38

This explanation and response reminds me of episode 3 of HBO's The Last of Us. Minor spoilers ahead, but the episode is about a homosexual relationship between two characters in the story. A number of the responses to this episode were very negative because it is an episode that is unapologetically explicit in its messaging of promoting a queer love story. These responses of people being very negative and disgusted remind me of the censorship and hush-hush approach to queerness that we talked about last week, only that it has been ingrained in these viewers' minds for generations.

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01.29.2023 History of Sexuality

In this week's lecture we discussed the history of sexuality represented in film. It was interested and not surprising that there was a notion of promoting secrecy and silence back then. The reading by Foucault discusses this as these techniques were used to dictate that only heterosexual relationships were allowed. Anything relating to homosexuality was made to be treated as a taboo and the idea of silence, concealment, and repression were enforced through law and medicine.

This influenced the representation of sexuality throughout movies as metaphors and innuendoes were used to communicate around the subject. Dancing around the subject, however, gave a nice illustration/outline of the subject as a whole.

"The statement of oppression and the form of the sermon refer back to one another; they are mutually reinforcing. To say that sex is not repressed, or rather that the relationshio between sex and power is not characterized by repression, is to risk falling into a sterile paradox. It not only runs counter to a well-accepted argument, it goes agasint the whole economy, and all the discursive 'interests' that underlie this argument." - Foucault, page 8

Those who could have knowledge of homosexual behavior were churches (religious confession), statesmen (law), and doctors. The limiting of speech and openness around sexuality as a whole in previous times promoted honesty and shamefulness. Those who had received the confessions encouraged corrective behaviors and techniques to "help" the individual not engaged in homosexuality behaviors either through advice or punishment by the law.