zhuoqunzhang-ben-blog

[zhuoqunzhang-ben-blog]

This film provides a good reference material on the choices the people will face when personal identity conflicts with ideology or other non-external factors. I very much hope that you will take a look at the movie reviews I have written, which is also talking about this problem. The difference is that my discussion is about the conflict between family responsibility and homosexuality, and the question of continuing the offspring. And your article discusses the conflict between personal beliefs and gay identity. At the same time, I agree with you: which is why although its a step in the right direction it isn't as good for queer audiences. In fact, the film demonizes Mormonism and opposes it, thus avoiding the contradiction of the protagonist. Affirming homosexual identity by recognizing that religion is a bad side. But real life is far from it. First of all, not all religions are as extreme as Mormonism. Mormon, its real name is "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints", the sect allows polygamy, avoiding abortion, homosexuality. In fact, most religions are not as "evil" as Mormons. When faced with such problems, it is difficult for us to think about Aaron's method in the film. In addition, this conflict of identity and belief should be more reflected in the characters' deep heart rather than outside. Usually accompanied by a tangled heart, self-contradictory, self-doubt and so on. And these are not shown in the film. This conveys a bad theme for the audience: either you choose homosexuality or choose faith.

Only Two Ways To Be Gay

by:Antonio Castaneda

(Latter Days movie cover)

This film revolves around Elder Aaron and Christian as they seek to find a piece of themselves, they never thought they’d have as one seeks finding himself the other falls in love. Elder Aaron holds a high ranking and is serving his mission in Los Angeles and believes in the word of the lord and has never questioned it till he meets Christian. Christian is an out and proud individual that takes no shame in who he is, since he is always sleeping around with curious guys and other gay guys. He makes a bet that he can sleep with Aaron yet falls for him and eventually only gets a kiss from him, without knowing that the brothers of his congregation saw it. This sends Aaron back home as he is dis-communicated yet now seeks the approval of his parents, he soon faces suicidal thoughts as he is shunned. Christian searches for him only to find his parents who tell him that he’s taken his own life because of what he did to him, when he’s actually been placed in a conversion therapy camp.  Aaron is placed through torture and one night listens to a song that moves him to leave and find Christian, while Christian has been unable to forget Aaron touch.The film deals with the coming out narrative as well as the set up of opposite sides of masculine/feminine gays, while also trying to create a good image of what every gay wants.

When introduced to Christian one might notice that he takes the form of what it is to be a stereotypical gay as he embodies characteristics of the opposite sex. He dresses in short shorts and doesn’t care if he seen as macho as his own roommate considers him almost like one of the girls. He is un-apologetically himself because one realizes in the film that his parents rejected him when he came out and left him to fend for himself. He takes on these stereotypes and is challenged by a closeted gay to be more than the superficial man he’s been. This is a perfect example of an over exaggerated representation of a gay man as he starts off flamboyant without a care for who he sleeps with and this only feeds into the negative ideas that gay men only seek sexual contact. The film feeds into negative portrayals as well as centers around this idea that gay men seek to change straight men and its almost like a game to them.

(Moment in which Aaron and Christian kiss)

Aaron is a great representation of the queer narrative and coming out. He is sent home in exile and is forced to confront his family and searches for approval from his congregation. He forced himself to be one thing to be accepted by his family and searches for their approval as he returns home. In one scene he even asks his mother to look at him and he realizes that she will never love what he has become, which in her eyes is nothing. “that the most important personal relationships a gay or lesbian character has are those he has with heterosexuals (Dow,pg. 10)).” This is proven when Aaron chooses to attempt to take his life and put himself out of this shame, he only takes their views in consideration and forgets that Christian fell and cared for him. Although he is unsuccessful and is sent to conversation therapy, he starts to accept himself and moves away from the seeking acceptance. “‘the internal ruse of confession’’:  the assumption that’ ‘confessions free, but power reduces one to silence; truth does not belong to an order of power but shares an original affinity with free-dom’’ (p. 60). (Dow, pg4).”

(Aaron confronts his mother 1:43-4:41)

“Homosexuals want the same thing: to be open in this society, to live a life without fear of reprisal from being homosexual- to live a life of respect. (Gross, pg. 45).” This explains something the characters in the film attempt to create towards the end which is a good relationship in which they even have a sexual scene. They embody some positive characteristics, but this is only for the last 15 minuets of the film, where there is isn’t any real growth from the characters. This part of the film is a positive outlook yet doesn’t last and although it is a good view it lacks detail or any idea of them having a happy ending. There is also a song that is played by a straight actress and she takes Christians feelings and places them in the song. It is similar to the idea of queerness in music and not actually being represented, since she sings about him calling to heaven for him, yet nobody is there to represent these two guys as one. The film also has a moment where the radio talks about her song actually being about her and not about the man she wrote it about.

(The end to their story)

The ways this affected me as I did watch this film when I was 18 and it gave me an insight into what many would expect me to be, especially considering that I was active in the congregation of my church. This film made it hard for me to want to come out because I didn’t want to lose my family or be pushed out of the church. These representations create these negative experience’s which are a reality but also exaggerates the only other option that exists when one isn’t closeted which is half a man. These representations can damage the ways in which younger generations choose to come out and or the ways in which they create an identity for themselves.  One strength to the film is that it does allow the audience to see the two characters have intercourse and sleep together, yet the lighting is adjusted so that their bodies can be confused for a heterosexual couple, especially since Christian has long hair and Aaron’s body cover his when he isn’t covering Aaron’s. “From the OTS and the long shot to camera distance and framing, cinematographers often use their art to give gay viewers just enough to placate them, so they cannot launch Facebook campaigns decrying the ways a show romantically treats its gay characters (Martin, https://www.flowjournal.org/2012/09/it%E2%80%99s-not-in-his-kiss-gay/).” These methods are used to make gay relationships non-offensive to straight audiences, which is why although its a step in the right direction it ins’t as good for queer audiences. 

The song from the film:

References:

Bonnie Dow (2001) Ellen, Television, and the Politics of Gay and LesbianVisibility, Critical Studies in Media Communication, 18:2, 123-140, DOI: 10.1080/07393180128077

Gross, Larry (2001). “Ch 2: Coming Out and Coming Together” and “Ch 3: Stonewall and Beyond” in Up from Invisibility: Lesbians, Gay Men, and the Media in America, 21-55. 

It’s (Not) In His Kiss: Gay Kisses, Narrative Strategies, and Camera Angles in Post-Network Television Comedy Alfred L. Martin, Jr. / The University of Texas at Austin. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.flowjournal.org/2012/09/it’s-not-in-his-kiss-gay/

J. (2011, October 06). Latter Days -Last Scene. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt5Z97LR9Q8

M. (2011, January 22). Latter Days, Steve Sandvoss, He loved me (mormon persecution of gays). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoLKb7KuS-w

Releasing, T. (2011, July 13). Latter Days - Gay Movie Official HD Trailer - TLA Releasing. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5K0RLg3c0w

B. (2009, October 17). Tuesday 3 a m. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AnuT3-VZXk

[zhuoqunzhang-ben-blog]

I think your film example is pretty good, especially I so interested in your discussion of the process of establishing Alex's gay identity. This reminds me of what I learn from other class about the irreversible damage to men caused by masculinity and over-emphasis on masculinity in the mainstream. In this issue, there is an existing conflict of both homophobia and homosexual experience at the same time. Men are considered to have masculinity, one of which is attractive to women, and have sex with women is one of them. The performance in the movie is that there are two motivations to drive Alex to choose to have sex with Claire. One is to avoid being recognized as homosexual by others - if you are not willing to have sex with a woman, then you must be gay. The other is to hope for the recognition of same-sex, such as Alex in the film eager to get recognition from his best friend, Dell, and this behavior can be considered part of gay identity, which seeks approbate through same-sex rather than through different-sex. In the film, when Alex found that he could not avoid being considered homosexual by others, and also he can not get satisfied with the sex will female, which is most important. That is, he could not overcome the homophobia, he chose to embrace it. That's why Alex in this film always trying his best to avoid others think he is gay, but in the end, he accepts that he is gay.

Alex Not-So-Truelove

Demi Roets

Alex Strangelove is a 2018 romcom that follows Alex Truelove, a young man who is exploring his sexuality. Alex has a girlfriend named Claire, who is trying to ‘de-virgin-ize’ him, but little does she know he has his eyes on someone else. Alex and Claire have been best friends since freshman year of high school and they start dating junior year. Alex thinks he loves Claire, he tries very hard to be into her and at first, he succeeds with making himself believe he is into her, but that all changes once he meets Elliot. Alex goes to the typical high school party and meets a guy by the name of Elliot, who is gay and intriguing to him, yet he does not understand how or why. We follow this very twisted love triangle that spirals out of control once Alex realizes his lust for Elliot, but he eventually accepts his new gay identity. This film tries to enhance a coming out story, but I believe that it sells the feeling short because it does not fully grasp the emotions and shows a very stereotypical love story about a gay man realizing he is gay because he fails to sex with a woman.

Alex is constantly terrorized throughout the film by his friends because he has not lost his virginity. He defends himself by saying he is waiting for the right moment and time for when it is supposed to happen. The film begins to take a turn for a not-so-funny type of humor. Alex’s best friend Dell attacks his sexuality and likes to call him gay for not wanting to have sex with Claire. This scene highlights high school humor and how it tries to demonize homosexuality among teenagers. Teenagers often taunt each other by name calling, in hopes to make the other person feel bad or rethink a decision they have made. In Treichler’s article AIDS, Homophobia, and Biomedical Discourse we see how heterosexual people and the media once portrayed homosexuals as these horrible, disease-spreading, human beings. Dell’s humor supports the heteronormative humor towards homosexuals that is trying to cast them out for their sexuality.

This film becomes more problematic with Alex’s ‘coming out’ scene to his best friend Dell. Alex begins trying to say how he may be bisexual, due to his crush on Elliot. Dell cannot accept this and starts to make fun of non-binary people who happen to be standing 20 feet away from him. Dell starts to compare Alex’s proclaiming sexual identity to a group of people who are causing them no harm in any way. The person they call upon is non-binary and is pansexual, Dell starts to make jokes about them and tells Alex that he cannot be bisexual, but he only has a man crush. Alex agrees with Dell thinking that the solution he was looking for was that he is in fact only crushing on a man who happens to be gay. This scene was saddening because Alex was simply hoping that coming out to Dell may help him make sense to his situation, but it worsened it. According to Dow, “Acknowledged or not, then, the confession ritual demands an audience, for ‘‘one does not confess without the presence (or virtual presence) of a partner’’ (Foucault 1978, p.  61),” so Alex was merely needing support from his picked audience and his audience did not take the ritual very well (Dow, 127). Alex then feels better for a little while after coming out to Dell, but he soon notices that it was not just a man crush.

Throughout the movie, Claire and Alex plan on booking a hotel room for Alex to lose his virginity, but this ends very badly for the both of them. Alex tries his hardest to make the night pleasurable and romantic for Claire, but it all comes to an end during intercourse. As they are making love Alex says that having sex with his best friend is a little weird, not knowing how it affected Claire, she comments back “I’m your girlfriend Alex,” which quickly ends the love session. Alex soon says he has feelings for someone else, Elliot, which breaks Claire’s heart. Alex is confused and frustrated, so his male friends insist on going to a party to clear his head. At this party, Alex almost has sex with another female while he is heavily intoxicated, and quickly is thrown out on the street. He wanders off to a nearby pool and this is where he has a foreshadowing dream about his sexuality. He then pulls himself out of the pool to find Claire by his side asking if he is okay. He looks at Claire and says he is gay. This was my favorite moment in the movie because it felt very raw and lacked the bad humor.

Towards the end of this movie, all of Alex’s friends are aware of his new sexuality. Prom night is happening, and Claire happens to bring Elliot to this party so him and Alex can finally be together. Alex is finally given the chance and opportunity to make a move on the person who has been clouding his thoughts for months now. For a brief moment, Alex leaves the dance floor and heads to the bathroom because he felt nervous with his peers watching him. Elliot follows and is upset and wants to leave, due to the embarrassment that Alex caused him. They eventually stop playing tag and finally kiss for everyone to see. I loved this part of the movie since it does not follow the norm for queer movies. Alex does end up with the person he loves, and he gets a happy ending. Claire and Alex made up and became best friends once again, along with Alex’s friend group being support and loving towards his new identity. Benshoff and Griffin’s article Queer Cinema reads, “When queer characters were depicted, they were usually relegated to minor parts and/or were the butt of the jokes…” (Benshoff and Griffin, p. 6).  I think this film goes a great portrayal having the main character be gay and not over ‘feminized’ but fails at steering away from following the hetero-normative plot that casts queerness into humor.

References:

Benshoff, H., & Griffin, S. (2010). Queer cinema the film reader. New York, NY: Routledge. Taylor & Francis Group.

Bonnie Dow (2001) Ellen, Television, and the Politics of Gay and Lesbian Visibility, Critical Studies in Media Communication, 18:2, 123-140, DOI: 10.1080/07393180128077

Triechler, P. (n.d.). AIDS, Homophobia, and Biomedical Discourse: An Epidemic of Signification (Vol. 43).

[zhuoqunzhang-ben-blog]

The Wedding Banquet

When we talk about Ang Lee, many people will think about his famous gay movie " Brokeback Mountain ", but few people know that Brokeback Mountain is only the Ang Lee's second queer movie. And what I want to talk about is the queer movie "The Wedding Banquet" which directed by Ang Lee in 1993. This is the first queer movie that he directed in his career, and this film also paved the way for his later movie "Brokeback Mountain ".

The general drama of the story is: Gao Weitong (Chinese) cohabited with his American boyfriend, Simon, for many years, but he was constantly urged by his parents in Taiwan to marry a woman and built a new family. Simon proposed that Gao Weitong pretend to marry the mainland female painter Gu Weiwei, which would not only enable Weiwei to obtain a legal status as a US citizen (green card), but also to cope with his parents. But Gao Weitong’s parents suddenly came to the United States. And his father wants to take the Asian tradition and lively wedding banquet. After the wedding banquet, Wei Tong had sex with Weiwei and made her pregnant. Simon, therefore, have a conflict with Weitong. The secret of Gao Weitong’s homosexuality was also known to his parents, causing conflicts between families. At the end of the film, Gao Weitong finally got the understanding of his parents and Gu Weiwei and formed a new happy family with Simon and Gu Weiwei.

Ang Lee made this film, undoubtedly to show conflict: the conflict between the East and the West; the 5,000 years heavy history and the fashion of modernization; the conflict between homosexuality and heterosexuality and absolute patriarchal with children's desire for freedom. The value of the "The Wedding Banquet" lies in the fact that Ang Lee expounds this new and old conflict with a bright rhythm and a witty atmosphere; in the narrative of the plot, he tries to reflect on the nature of this traditional ethics and customs; Solve and express as much as possible the main ideas and attitudes towards this contradiction ("Mom, dad, I didn't do wrong!", 2018). But unlike other people who want to put these issues in a social or higher dimension to discuss, Ang Lee puts these issues in a small family and presents them in a banquet. Take Ang Lee as the example for a kind of director, their films are more concerned with how individuals and families face these conflicts. This is the main feature of their films. Similar films include: "The Gua Sha treatment "Siao Yu" "Full Moon in New York" and more. In the film, Ang Lee shows his positive attitude towards these conflicts by depicting the family's experiences. Especially, in the end, the good ending he arranged for this family proves this.

Although compared with the content about cultural conflicts, queer content does not seem to be worth mentioning in this film, and can even be understood as part of a cultural conflict. But we still have enough reason to classify it as a great queer movie. Ang Lee uses resistance as a way and methods of expressing queer. This resistance is not only a simple rebellion against heterosexual ideology but also a rebellion against patriarchal power, Chinese traditional family view and so on. At the same time, Ang Lee not only used resistance but also included many compromises. These compromises can be seen as a kind of obedience, which contrasts with the resistance behavior and better highlights the meaning and identity of the queer content of resistance process. For example, the bare body is part of it. The representation of the body is a source of power, which is visual symbolism aims to appeal for constructing homosexuality as a way of resistance against heterosexual domination (Tian, 2014). In the film, Simon maintains the image of the naked body. We can often see his strong muscles through his open clothes. On the contrary, Gao Weitong is relatively conservative in the film, we can see that he wears well most of the time. But Gao Weitong not always does this. At the beginning of the film, we can see the body exposed by Gao Weitong while exercising in the gym. The movie also has several close-ups here. At the same time, Gao Weitong also had several short time naked bodies in the film, and most of them were intimately interacting with Simon. It is easy for us to see in Gao Weitong that the naked body is a sign of resistance, a struggle for rights, and a desire for expression. Relatively well-dressed is a compromise to patriarchy and heterosexual ideology. The state of resistance and compromise coexistence is the expression of Gao Weitong queer identity. The multiple representations of the homosexual body and desire in the film establish the authority of homosexuality and displace heterosexuality from the central position in gender politics (Tian, 2014).

More importantly, this film provides a lot of references for us to study queer from the perspective of globalization and localization. Caution must be taken to avoid imposing the worldview of researchers on the sense-making of participants whether under the guise of academic imperialism, gay imperialism, or the Western gaze (Goltz, Zingsheim, Mastin, & Murphy, 2016). This also represents the study of the queer problem in Asian countries, which represented by China, we must have a general understanding of their culture. Ideally, surveys must be based on ethnographic methods, rather than observations and inferences with subjective opinions. For example, the family issues highlighted in the film. The Chinese family is based on the absolute patriarchal rule and Confucian ideology, which also means that male members of the family will have more responsibilities in their lives, and the inheritance of the family as the greatest responsibility. This duty of responsibility is a serious influence on the expression of the queer identity of Chinese men. These performances in the film are that Gao Weitong's parents rushed to the United States, urged him to marry, and repeatedly expressed his desire for next generations: for example, discussing Gu Weiwei's fertility, directly expressing the desire to want a son, and Before the Banquet, Gu Weiwei was fed a special porridge to strengthen her fertility. At the same time, Gao Wei’s performance in the film conflicts with his queer identity, such as fake marriage, the original motivation is the family responsibility he must bear. Gayness, as a sexual and social identity, is seen to interfere "with the ability to perform one's role in the family", thus becoming a family matter (Cho, 2009). To understand this family problem, we must have a certain understanding of Chinese culture.

Queer is not just about sexual/gender identities, but the process of cultural identification, expression (Doty, 1997). This film undoubtedly provides a great reference for us to study the queer problem in the Asian cultural background. But if we do research based entirely on this film, it will cause many problems. After all, this is the early film of Ang Lee before he formed his personal style. It can be said that this film was created to cater to the market, that is, the American market. The film also exaggerates a lot of Confucian values, patriarchy, and the characteristics of some Chinese. The best description of the status quo of China and most Asian countries should be: tradition and modernization coexist, advanced ideas and old ideas combine. The description of Ang Lee in the film can be seen as a stereotyping. It is based on his own understanding of culture and then processed into what Americans think or want to see. Similar problems also appear in “black movies”: blacks are described as victims, full of violence, and good at music. The excellent queer films in recent years, such as Moonlight breaks down these assumptions in often conflicting ways and succeeds in foregrounding how black queer youth are often criminalized when they attempt to express themselves and/or defend against bullying and harassment (Sikivu, 2017). They pay more attention is paid to breaking the traditional image and thus shaping a new identity. And this is where Ang Lee didn’t do it.

References  

Cho, J. (. (2009). The Wedding Banquet Revisited: "Contract Marriages" Between Korean Gays and Lesbians. Anthropological Quarterly, 82(2), 401-422. doi:10.1353/anq.0.0069

Doty, A. (1997). Making things perfectly queer: Interpreting mass culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

G. (2018, January 08). Mom, dad, I didn't do wrong! Retrieved November 4, 2018, from https://movie.douban.com/review/9054451/

Goltz, D. B., Zingsheim, J., Mastin, T., & Murphy, A. G. (2016). Discursive negotiations of Kenyan LGBTI identities: Cautions in cultural humility. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 9(2), 104-121. doi:10.1080/17513057.2016.1154182

Sikivu, H. (2017, March 06). Moonlight, Black Boy and Teachable Moments Retrieved November 4, 2018, from https://www.thefeministwire.com/2017/03/moonlight-black-boy-teachable-moments/

Tian, M. (2014). Representing Gender, Power and Body in The Wedding Banquet. Asia Pacific World, 5(1), 110-119. doi:10.3167/apw.2014.050108