TWO ESSAYS:

WOMEN'S STUDIES
AND THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT IN TAIWAN
-and-
LESBIANISM IN MAINSTREAM CINEMA
by
Pei-Ching Chen
B.A., Soochow, 2003
EXTENDED ESSAYS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS
In the Department
of
Women's Studies
0 Pei-Ching Chen 2006
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
Spring 2006
All rights reserved. This work may not be
reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy
or other means, without permission of the author.
Approval
Name: Pei-Ching Chen
Degree: Master of Arts
Titles of Extended Essays: Two Essays:
Women's Studies and the Women's Movement
in Taiwan
-and-
Lesbianism In Mainstream Cinema
Examining Committee:
Chair: Dr. Mary Lynn Stewart
Professor of Women's Studies
Dr. Helen Hok-Sze Leung
Senior Supervisor
Assistant Professor of Women's Studies
Dr. Meredith Kimball
Supervisor
Professor of Women's Studies
Dr. Lara Campbell
External Examiner
Assistant Professor of Women's Studies
Date Approved:
January, 11,2006
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UNIVERSI~I i bra ry
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Abstracts
Women's Studies and the Women's Movement in Taiwan examines the
relationship between women's studies and the women's movement in Taiwan and explain
why and how this relationship has shifted. Specifically, it explores the disconnections and
the bridges between women's studies and the women's movement. Finally, it concludes
with a discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of connecting women's studies
and the women's movement for both academia and activism.
Keywords: Women's Studies, the Women's Movement, Taiwan
Lesbianism in Mainstream Cinema analyzes how lesbianism has been depicted in
mainstream cinema from the 1960s to the 2000s. It traces the historical development of
lesbian films. It also analyzes the dynamic of lesbian representations, such as the
elimination of explicitly lesbian sexuality in film versions of lesbian novels, the
transformation of butch portrayals, the employment of happy, tragic or other endings, the
power relationship between characters, and the lesbian subplot in mainstream cinema.
Keywords: Lesbianism, Mainstream Cinema, Portrayal of Lesbian Representations,
Lesbian themes in motion pictures
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my senior supervisor, Dr. Helen Leung, whose questions guide me
to think and rethink about the issues that I discuss in my essays, and whose supports lead
me to overcome the challenges that I encountered when writing these two essays. I also
thank my second supervisor, Dr. Meredith Kimball, for her inspiration and insight. I am
really grateful to both of my supervisors for being patient with my ESL writing. Their
continuous encouragement and generosity are especially appreciated. I would also like to
thank my sister, Gina Chen, and friends, Caelie Frampton, Marie Genevieve Lane, and
Mandy Kilsby for sharing their extensive knowledge. Thank you very much!
Table of Contents
. .
............................................................................................................................. Approval 11
...
Abstracts ............................................................................................................................ 111
Dedication .................................................................................................................... iv
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. v
............................................................................................................... Table of Contents vi
1 . Introduction ................................................................................................................. 2
2 . Clarification of Translated Terms ................................................................................ 4
3 . The Relationship between Women's Studies (The Women's Research Program)
.............................. and the Women's Movement (Awakening Society) in Taiwan 10
3.1 The Representatives of the Women's Movement and Women's Studies in
............................................................................................................... Taiwan 10
3.2 Two Versions of the history of the Establishment of the WRP ......................... 12
....................................................................................................
3.3 Major Debates 19
3.3.1. The Relationship between Women's Studies and the Women's
.................................................................................................. Movement 20
3.3.2 The Relationship between Women's Studies and Feminist
................................................................................................ Perspectives 25
.......... 3.4 Reconciliation between Women's Studies and the Women's Movement 27
4 . The Taiwanese Feminist Scholars Association .......................................................... 29
5 . Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 35
.................................................................................................................. Bibliography 39
1 . Introduction ............................................................................................................... 43
2 . The Development of Lesbian-Themed Pictures in Mainstream Cinema fiom the
1960s to the 2000s ................................................................................................. 44
3 . The Approaches of Depicting Lesbianism and Lesbian Portrayals in
..............................................................................................
Mainstream Cinema 56
.................................................................................................................
4 . Conclusion 92
.......................................................................................................................
Appendix -97
..................................................................................................................
Bibliography 98
WOMEN'S STUDIES
AND
THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT
IN TAIWAN
1 Introduction
This paper will examine the relationship between women's studies and the
women's movement in Taiwan from the mid-1980s to the present. It will explain why and
how this relationship has shifted by studying three groups. They are the Women's
Research Program (WRP), Awakening Society, and the Taiwanese Feminist Scholars
Association (TFSA). The WRP at National Taiwan University (NTU) is the
representation of women's studies in Taiwan. It is the first and the only academic institute
that is entitled "Women's Studies" in Taiwan. Awakening Society is the head of the
women's movement in Taiwan. It has observed the development of the WRP and
examined the relationship between women's studies and the women's movement with
great care in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. The TFSA signifies the bridge between
women's studies and the women's movement. It aims to link academia and activism
within a group.
The main political changes that have happened in this period of time are that the
Kuomintang lifted martial law in 1987, and ushered in a gradual return to democracy in
the 1990s. The party lost power in 2000 when Shui-bian Chen, the presidential candidate
of Democratic Progressive Party (DDP), captured the presidency on a pro-sovereignty
platform. This essay will also discuss the relationship between Awakening Society and
the TFSA and the Taiwanese state and describe changes that occur in this relationship as
state power shifted between parties in the 2000s.
As a starting point, this essay will investigate the Chinese designations of these
three groups and the context in which these three institutes were formed. In addition, this
article will analyze the proper objects of these groups, i.e., the category of people (such
as women, workers, or youth) or studies (such as women's studies or two genders' studies)
that these organizations would include or explore in their activism or research.
In the next section, this paper will explore the disconnections as well as the
bridges between women's studies and the women's movement. The relationship between
the WRP and Awakening Society will be detailed. Ya-KO Wang (1999) argued that the
viewpoint of activists, especially from Yen-lin Ku, a member of Awakening Society,
dominates the direction and manner of discourses with respect to the women's movement
in the 1980s (p. 100). Therefore, how to read the material from Yen-lin Ku becomes an
important issue in this paper. By considering the purposes, readers and effects of Ku's
discourses, and comparing the documentation of the same event from different sources,
this article aims to construct a more balanced narrative. Specifically, this essay will
inquire how feminist activists criticized scholars in the WRP, how scholars of the WRP
responded to the criticism, how these groups strengthened their arguments, and how they
reconciled in the mid-1 990s.
The TFSA is the leading character in the fourth section. It signifies a bridge
between women's studies and the women's movement. This paper will examine how the
TFSA has dealt with theories and practice, and how the group located itself between
academia and activism. In particular, did the TFSA move between the academic circle
and practical actions or did it emphasize one over the other?
Finally, this paper will examine what kind of bond exists between women's
studies and the women's movement in Taiwan. It will conclude with a discussion about
the advantages and disadvantages of connecting women's studies and the women's
movement for both academia and activism.
2. Clarification of Translated Terms
Both funii and nuxing can be translated as women in English. In order to convey
the connotations of these words in Chinese, I will distinguish these words and examine
the context in which they are used in this section.
Funii and nuxing both mean 'women' in Chinese. Although funii and nuxing are
often used as synonyms, they still have some differences. Tani Barlow (1996) pointed out
that funii signified kinswomen within a discursive economy that circulated power via a
specialized, patrilineal, canonical rhetoric between the mid-Qing dynasty and the 1920s
May Fourth Movement (p.49). The term nuxing (literally, female sex) erupted into
circulation during the 1920s when treaty-port intellectuals overthrew the literary language
of the Confucius canon (p.57). It operated as one half of the Western, exclusionary,
malelfemale binary (p.58). In the 1940s the Chinese Communist Party inherited the
organized women's movement. An alternative, politicized subject known within the CCP
nomenklatura as funii superseded nuxing, which was then redesignated as Westernized
and bourgeois. For Chinese Comminist Party, funii, like other modern state categories
such as worker, youth and proletariat, formed a part of the system of designations.
Through these denominations, party political authorities regulated all important social
relationships. For example, the Women's Federation, Fulian, has sustained funii as a
political category and ensured that gender inscription remained a province of the state
(p.49).Barlow's investigation specifies that the terms-funii and nuxing-not only
literally mean women, but also subtly indicate the discourses about women and the social
context in which these discourses are drawn out.
I will explore the context in which the words, funii or nuxing, are designated in
the three groups that this paper will study and try to provide the possible reasons for their
use. In Chinese, the Women's Research Program literally means funulwomen
yenjiulstudies shila room. Awakening Society indicates funulwomen xinlnew
zhihowledge xiehuilassociation. The Taiwanese Feminist Scholars ~ssociation' denotes
nuxinglwomen xueldiscipline xuehuilassociation. The selection of funii or nuxing in a
certain group's title actually has a connection with its goals and orientations.
In The Whole Story of Naming the Nuxinglwomen Xueldiscipline Yenjiulstudies
Zhongxinlcenter, Yen-lin Ku (1990), a member of Awakening Society, recorded the
process in which the designation of the center was decided (p.19). The nuxing xue yenjiu
zhongxin, held by Awakening Society, is the forerunner of the nuxing xue xuehui (Chang,
2003, p.84 & Wang, 1999, p.218)2. Therefore, reviewing the above-mentioned article
reveals why nuxing but not funii is employed in the title of the nuxing xue xuehuL3
' Chin-fen Chang (2002) mentioned that the members of the association finally decided that the English
designation of the group would be the Taiwanese Feminist Scholars Association (p.22).
2
Hsiao-hung Chang (2003), the first president of the Taiwanese Feminist Scholars Association (TFSA),
stated that the forerunner of the association is the nuxing xue yenjiu zhongxin held by Awakening Society
(p.84). In Ya-KO Wang's (1999) interview, a member of the TFSA also detailed the formation of the
association. Slhe pointed out that the nuxing xue yenjiu zhongxin held by Awakening Society would like to
attract more feminists studying abroad. However, the invitation from Awakening Society to these feminists
was not very successfd. Therefore, Awakening Society decided to form a new group, which is nuxing xue
xuehui (p.218). [Wang did not mention the gender of his interviewee, so I use "slhe" to refer to his
interviewee.]
In the interview held by Ya-KO Wang (1999), a member of the TFSA talked about why the organization
was designated as nuxing xue xuehui. However, the explanation is not as detailed as the account
documented by Yen-lin Ku about the denomination of the nuxing xue yenjiu zhongxin. The interviewee said
The main discussion in regard to the title of the center was whether liangltwo
xinglgenders xueldiscipline, funiilwomen xueldiscipline (employed in China), or
nuxinglwomen xueldiscipline (applied in Japan) yenjiulstudies zhongxinlcenter would be
the appropriate designation. Participants, who supported the title, liangltwo xinglgenders
xueldiscipline yenjiulstudies zhongxinlcenter, argued that liang xing xue indicated the
long-term goal, which aimed to urge the cooperation between two genders, whereas
nuxing xue, which excluded the other gender, might provoke conflicts. Members, who
asserted the appellation, funii or nuxing xueldiscipline yenjiulstudies zhongxinlcenter,
debated that at present nming xue andfinii xue were what the research center would like
to focus on. This focal point should not be hidden under the broader and vague
title--liang xin xue. Otherwise, two genders could only cooperate in the existing
male-dominated framework.
that the designation, nuxing xue xuehui, is steadier and clearer comparing with another proposition,
taolpeach shelassociation. It can draw people's attention and can be accepted by the public (p.201). It is not
clear whether they also discussed the differences of designating as hang xing, funii, or nuxing xue xuehui in
the title. In the website of the TFSA, Chien-ling Su talked about a history of the TFSA. She said that there
were seminars about feminist studies held by the nuxing xue yenjiu zhongxin every month between 199 1
and 1992. After the seminars, participants felt that they needed a group that focuses on feminist studies.
They discussed the designation in the office of Awakening Society. The discussion was about whether
nuxing xue or liang xing me should be the appropriate denomination. Yen-lin Ku presided the meeting. In
1993, participants discussed the formation of a new group in detail. With assistance fiom Awakening
Society, Hsiao-hung Chang was in charge of the initiation of the TFSA (I and the TFSA: Another Narratives
of Historical Writing, 2001). From Su's record, the discussion of designation was only held once. From
Wang's interviewee, the members of the TFSA had another discussion about the denomination. However,
the original title was approved. Therefore, I think the discussion recorded by Ku is the determinant, which
reveals why nuxing but notfitnu or liang xing was designated in the title.
Lan-zhi Bai distinguished funu xue and nuxing xue in the seminar. She stated that
funu xue considered women as a group. Nuxing xue would employ female perspectives
and standpoints in the research. Yuan Hsieh and Mei-nii Yu also discussed the social
connotations of funu and nuxing. In the final vote concerning the group's title, there were
thirteen votes in favor of nuxing xue and three ballots in support of funu xue. Liang xin
xue only received one vote.
With regard to the titles of Taiwanese women's committees in the government,
political parties, private women's foundations and organizations, funii is employed more
frequently than nuxing in designation. In this context, funii refers to a modem state
category rather than kinswomen. Like the Chinese Communist Party, who used Fulian to
ensure that state had control over women (a particular group of people), in the martial law
era, Kuomintang also utilized zhong-yang fu-gong huelcentral women and workers
committee, fuliadwomen union and funii huelwomen committee to assure that women
were mobilized under its manipulation4 (Wang, 1999, p.20). Awakening ~unulwomen
xinlnew zhihowledge zhazhishelmagazine publisher), the precursor of Awakening
4
According to the martial law, within the same district, only one organization of the same nature or the
same level was allowed to be registered (Chiang & Ku, 1985, p.31). Explicitly, it was almost impossible for
any women's organizations other than fu-gong hue, fulian, and funii hue to be founded. For example, in
1970s when Hsiu-lien Lu applied for the establishment of shi dailtimes nuxinglwomen xiehuilassociation,
she was rejected because the government judged that the goals of shi dai nuxing xiehui was similar to funii
hue. Therefore, Lu could join funii hue instead of registering a new association (Chiang & Chou, 1990,
p.84).
Society, and the Women's Research Program (funiilwomen yenjiulstudies shila room)
were founded when Taiwan was still ruled under the martial law. Funii would possibly be
a safer term for designation in that period of time because funii was regarded as a
controllable group for the Kuomintang government.
Why would not liang xing be a less risky compellation for these two groups? In a
seminar held by the Women's Research Program, one participant indicated that gender
studies is too apolitical. Researchers who are engaged in gender studies may deny or may
not admit directly that they are feminists. This situation led her/him5 to doubt what the
political strategy of gender studies is (Luncheon Seminar V, 1992, p.32). From herhis
observation, women's studies was more radical than gender studies. This speech was
made in the early 1990s when women's studies gradually became a prominent field in
Taiwan. However, when the Women's Research Program was initiated in the early and
mid-eighties, only a few people would perceive funiilwomen yenjiulstudies as a field
related to feminism and the women's movement since the title was very ambiguous.
Therefore, the progressive and political connotation behind women's studies did not
coexist with funii yenjiu in Taiwanese context in the 1980s.
' I cannot make sure the gender of this speaker because the Women's Research Bulletin only recorded the
participants as spokesperson one, two, three, etc.
3. The Relationship between Women's Studies
(The Women's Research Program) and the Women's Movement
(Awakening Society) in Taiwan
In this section, first, I will relate the process in which Awakening and the
Women's Research Program (WRP) were founded in the attempt to account for why
Awakening and the WRP are chosen as representations of the women's movement and
women's studies in Taiwan. In addition, I will present how feminist activists in
Awakening and women's studies scholars6 in the WRP recorded the history of the
initiation of the WFW and explain why there are two different versions of the same story.
Also, by reviewing the debates between women's studies scholars and feminists outside
the WRP about the appropriate relationship between academia, activism and feminism, I
will explore the reasons why a detached relationship between women's studies and the
women's movement was formed in the late 1980s. Finally, I will recount how scholars
and feminist activists finally reconciled in the mid-1 990s.
3.1 The Representatives of the Women's Movement
and Women's Studies in Taiwan
The head of the women's movement in Taiwan is Awakening Society. In the
1980s, it is not an exaggeration to say that Awakening Society represented the women's
6
Because not all of the scholars in the WRP identified themselves as feminists, I will use the phrase,
women's studies scholars, to refer to them.
movement in Taiwan (Wang, 1999, p.54). In 1982, Yuan-chen Li founded Awakening,
which was registered as a publisher of a magazine due to the martial law, which strictly
restricted the establishment of organizations. After the martial law was lifted in 1987,
Awakening Society was officially established. Awakening Society is the first women's
organization which aims to counteract sexual discrimination. It focused on of all kinds of
gender issues7 (Wang, 1999, p.54). The relationship between women's studies and the
women's movement was one of their concerns.
The representation of women's studies in Taiwan is the WRP at National Taiwan
University (NTU). The program is the first and the only academic institute that is entitled
"Women's Studies" in Taiwan. In 1985, the Asia Foundation fimded the formation of the
program. Without obtaining any substantial support from NTU except a room, the
program has survived on grants from various foundations and the National Science
Council. This is why whether the program is really institutionalized in Taiwan University
is actually an arguable question. The fimction of the program is more like a research
center8, and it did not offer courses until 1998.
' In the magazine distributed by Awakening Society, feminists have discussed how to counteract sexual
discrimination in the Family Law, Constitutional Interpretations, elections, government's policies and
textbooks. In the late-1990s, there are many women's organizations. Each of them is responsible for a
particular issue. This situation forces Awakening Society to adjust its focus.
Lan-hung Chiang, a member of the WRP, pointed out that media usually misreported that the WRP was a
women's association or a women's research center. Actually, it was not because a research center because it
was institutionalized under the Population Studies Center. However, the function of the program is more
3.2 Two Versions of the history of the Establishment of the WRP
The difference in the story about the establishment of the WRP written by the
heads of WRP and Awakening Society is quite trivial at first sight. However, because
there is more than one version of the same event, it is worth detailing both accounts. The
main difference between these two stories is whether Awakening made a contribution to
the initiation of the WRP.
In A Journey Full of Rage and Sorrow, Yuan-chen Li (1991), the head of
Awakening Society in the 1980s, states that a detached relationship between academia
and activism formed at the very beginning due to the elimination of the effort made by
Awakening in the official history about the launch of the WRP. Li indicated that she was
one of the promoters who urged the establishment of Women's Studies in Taiwan. Dr.
Sheldon Severinghaus, the representative of the Asia Foundation in Taiwan, introduced
Lan-hung Chiang to her. Chiang was an executive secretary of the Population Studies
Center and a professor of Geography at NTU. Li stated that she cooperated with Chiang
to strive for a grant from the Asia Foundation in order to found an institute for Women's
Studies. She also specified contributions made by both Chiang and Awakening to the
initiation of a conference on women and the WRP~. Finally, she concluded that it is
like a research center ( I 995, p.30).
9
Li mentioned that Chiang endeavored to persuade the director of the Population Studies Center to consent
12
unquestionable to state that Awakening had exerted its strength to found the first institute
of women's studies in Taiwan. However, in the history of the establishment of the WRP
published by the WRP, Li pointed out that there was not even a word mentioned about the
effort made by Awakening in the initiation of the program. From Li7s article, members of
the WRP seemed to be very reluctant to admit any contributions made by Awakening to
the establishment of the program.
In The Uneasy Marriage between Women's Studies and Feminism in Taiwan,
Yen-lin Ku (1998), a member of Awakening Society, told a similar story. She mentioned
that the Asia Foundation was the key supporter of the first women's studies conference in
1985. Dr. Sheldon Severinghaus personally brought together Yuan-chen Li and Lan-hung
Chiang. Awakening assisted Chiang in organizing the conference and compiling the first
women's studies bibliography in Taiwan. Although it took some persuasion by Taiwan
feminists, the Asia Foundation also funded the formation of the Women's Studies
Program, housed in the Population Studies Center at NTU (pp. 12 1 - 122).
to the launch of a women's research program in the center. She also made an effort in holding a conference,
entitled 'The Role of Women in the National Development Process in Taiwan.' Awakening assisted Chiang
in this event by helping with the preparation of the conference and collecting the related materials for a
book called Bibliography of Literature on Women in Taiwan, 1945-1985. After the conference, with the
support &om Awakening, Chiang established the WRP at NTU (1 99 1, p.7).
In A Personal Thought on Women k Studies in Taiwan, Lan-hung Chiang (1 999),
the chair of the WRP in the late 1980s, offered a different version about the initiation of
the WRP. Chiang said that the Asia Foundation supported a conference on women and the
publication of the proceedings and a bibliography. At the conclusion of the conference,
the participators including Yuan-chen Li (the head of Awakening Society in the late
1980s), Yen-lin Ku (a member of Awakening Society), Esther Li Yao, Phylis Lan Lin and
others suggested that a women's research center in Taiwan was necessary. The director of
the Population Center consented to provide a place for the WRP since the center was not
well-used. The co-founders of the program are Elaine Tsui (a professor at NTU), Bih-er
choulo (a professor at Tunghai University in the early 1980s), Yen-lin Ku (a member of
Awakening Society and a professor at National Chiao Tung University) and Lan-hung
Chiang (a professor at NTU) (pp.23-24). Compared with Yuan-chen Li's account, it is
worth noting that Awakening was totally absent in the launch of the WRP in Chiang's
version.
Based on an interview with Lan-hung Chiang, Ya-ko Wang (1999) detailed the
establishment of the WRP in The Hi st ov of Womenk Liberation Movement in Taiwan.
10
She has worked at National Tsinghua University after 1991.
14
Wang (1999) stated that chiangl' did not ask the Asia Foundation to found the program.
In contrast, the representative of the foundation contacted her and consulted with her
about the initiation of a women's research program. In Wang's interview, Chiang also
said that she felt surprised when she read another version about the establishment of the
WRP. She did not know that Awakening urged the launch of the program. If Awakening
really made an effort in this event, she would like to express her appreciation of what
Awakening had done at a proper moment (pp.97-99). Chiang's quotation revealed the
reason why Chiang did not acknowledge the contribution made by Awakening to the
initiation of the program. Namely, she did not know what Awakening had done in the
establishment of the program.
Ya-ko Wang (1999) mentioned that he also interviewed a person who dealt with
application of grants in the Asia Foundation. According to this person's account, the
representative of the foundation invited Lan-hung Chiang to initiate the WRP. There were
I 1
In Wang's book, he used B2 to refer to Lan-hung Chiang. He might choose to use code names in order to
protect his interviewees because many events that he records are still arguable. However, because he also
wrote down anecdotes of his interviewees, it is easy to speculate the names of his interviewees since the
same stories were published elsewhere. For people who are either involved in or are familiar with the
relationship between academia and activism, the code names actually do not work. It is also worth noting
that he only uses code names in chapters that scholars in universities are involved. In these chapters, he
employs code names to refer to both scholars and activists. I clarify the code names used by Wang in this
paper because I do not want to misunderstand the viewpoints of all related scholars or activists. Indicating
their names provides a chance for others to examine my understanding.
no other people or group involved in the application (p305)12. The quotation fiom this
interviewee seems to confirm Lan-hung Chiang's version.
In Yuan-chen Li's essay, Lan-hung Chiang was the key person while Awakening
and Asia Foundation were the main groups in the establishment of the WRP. Although
Chiang wrote the same event in A Personal Thought on Women b Studies in Taiwan, after
Li's paper was published for about eight years, she actually did not counteract or respond
to the story recorded by Li. Although the incident may seem to be a very trivial one, it
actually plays an important role in the debate about the relationship between women's
studies, the women's movement and feminism. Based on Li's account, a close
relationship between the representative of the women's movement (Awakening) and the
deputy of women's studies (the WRP) was established in the first place. In contrast, in
Chiang's story, the two groups did not have any bonds. Furthermore, by stating that
Awakening helped the initiation of the first Women's Studies Program, Li created a
testimony to prove that women's studies was a result of the women's movement in
Taiwan. On the other hand, in Chiang's version, she did not grant Awakening any credits
in the launch of the WRP.
12
Dr. Sheldon Severinghaus, the representative, is the other person who knows the episode. However,
since Severinghaus went back to work in San Francisco home office in 1989, it is very difficult to confirm
with him about the event.
Why did Chiang not elucidate the event? Did Chiang undermine her version and
strengthen the credibility of Li's explanation because she made no response to Li's article?
What were Chiang's concerns when she decided that she would not argue with Li and Ku
about the Awakening's version of the launch of the WRP? A possible answer to the last
question is that Chiang did not want to deepen public misunderstanding. In 1999, Chiang
wrote that even though she was publicly challenged by feminists a few times, she did not
think it was necessary to retort in harsh terms, as she believed that opposing views should
be tolerated and that misinterpretation by the public can be avoided (p.25).
Ya-ko Wang (1 999) explained why there are two different stories about the same
event through the concept of credit granting. Both scholars in the WRP and activists in
Awakening Society need to strive for limited manpower, money and resource. Therefore,
they have to use different rhetoric and strategies to gather supporters. This is why
emphasizing who makes a contribution and who deserves the glory is very important for
both sides (p.96).
From Wang's (1999) observation, activists seem to be more active in propagating
their ideas and contributions in the press. He argued that the viewpoint fiom activists,
especially from Yen-lin Ku, dominates the direction and manner of discourses with
respect to the women's movement in the 1980s (p.100). Because Yen-lin K U ' ~ has
participated in the women's movement for a long time and has written many articles and
books about the history of the women's movement and theories of women's studies, her
discourses actually have enormous influences on how society comprehends the women's
movement in 1980s (p.305). The unbalanced amount of discourses also reveals that
Yen-lin Ku and other activists in Awakening Society are more aware of the significance
of constructing a narrative of their ownI4. Perhaps, because WRP has a more secure
position as a part of a university, it does not need to include the Awakening Society in
documenting the development of women's studies and the women's movement in Taiwan.
Also, WRP may wish to remain objective; therefore, it does not use the media to
propagate its perception of the proper relationship between academia and activism.
Activists in Awakening Society are also more conscious of the importance of
strengthening their arguments from the experiences of the women's movement in
America. After I introduced the major debates between feminists in Awakening Society
and women's studies scholars in the WRP, it will be more obvious that these feminist
activists had a more coherent standpoint. Therefore, their contentions were very powerful.
l 3 Wang uses NEG to refer to Yen-lin Ku.
14
For example, in How the Sheep 5 Head Was Turned into Dog Meat, Ku states that she would like to leave
her testimonies for the history of women studies in Taiwan before the final judgment was made [by
historians, media, or the masses] (1991, p.4).
In contrast, scholars of the WRP had shifted their arguments because they were still
looking for a proper direction in the early and mid- 1990s.
3.3 Major Debates
Whether women's studies, the women's movement and feminism should have a
connection formed a debate in the early 1990s. Shu-ling Hwang (1991), a feminist
activist, criticized women's studies scholars in Taiwan saying that they betray the goal of
women's studies by trying to separate it fiom feminism and the women's movement. She
stated that women's studies in America is based on the women's movement and is known
for its employment of feminist perspectives in academia. Taiwanese women's studies
scholars only borrowed the label "women's studies" fiom the West, but the historical
roots of women's studies were ignored. These scholars devalued the significance and
achievement of women's studies by infhing anything related to women, children, sex or
even counseling and cosmetology into the field (pp.2-3). Hwang's comment disclosed
that when women's studies was imported to Taiwan, the ambiguity of the title was
revealed. This is why the inseparable relationship between women's studies, the women's
movement and feminism was dissolved.
Hwang's argument exemplified the directions that feminist activists took in the
debate. First, they argued that women's studies scholars separated the field fiom the
19
women's movement. The intention of widening the gap between academia and activism
was wrong according to the development of women's studies and the women's movement
in America. After women's studies was imported to Taiwan, it was unrealistic and
impossible to develop the field in accordance with American experience. Nevertheless, if
feminism was also detached from women's studies, establishing an institute to explore
the area would be a meaningless effort. Feminist activists also detected that their
argument would not be persuasive enough if they only contended that Taiwanese
Women's Studies Program should follow the route in American. This is why they
strengthened their contention by criticizing the disapproval of the employment of
feminist perspectives in women's studies scholars' sector.
3.3.1. The Relationship between Women's Studies
and the Women's Movement
How did women's studies scholars disconnect women's studies and the women's
movement? In How the Sheep b Head Was Turned into Dog Meat, Yen-lin Ku (1991)'
feminist activist of Awakening Society, examined how women's studies scholars in the
WRP eliminated their relationship with activism by revising the Introduction of the WRP
from the first version to the final oneI5. In the first version both local people who cared
15
Ku obtained the first version from Ai-ni Chen's record in a magazine entitled "Family and Women."
Chen got the information from Lan-hung Chiang. In the interview held by Ya-ko Wang (1999), Chiang
mentioned that Ai-ni Chen attended the conference. After the conference, Chen held a seminar and
about the status of women and scholars who were involved in researches on women
dreamed of the establishment of a women's research program. In the final draft, one of
the two subjects 'the local people' was eliminated by Bih-er Chou, the co-founder of the
WRP. Ku argued that the revised version showed an attempt to disconnect feminist
activists from the WRP (p.5). The intention of Ku's analysis was to prove that academia
refused to cooperate with activism at the first place.
How did scholars of the WRP perceive what an appropriate relationship between
women's studies and the women's movement should be? In Women b Movement, Women b
Studies, Lan-hung Chiang (1995) stated that rather than an outcome of the women's
movement, women's studies was born of socio-economic changes of which the role of
women plays an important part (p.156). The strategy that Chiang applied to deal with
feminists' criticisms was to alienate the causal relation between academia and activism in
Taiwan. She seemed to imply that because the relationship between women's studies and
the women's movement was not similar to the American experience, women's studies in
Taiwan could develop in a different way.
Although Chiang did not explain in detail why the women's movement was not
the determinant of women's studies and how socio-economic changes caused the birth of
concluded that there should be a women's studies program in Taiwan (98).
women's studies, her statement is still a reasonable one because it is based on Chiang's
experience and the atmosphere in the early 1980s Taiwan. As an illustration, in Chiang's
version of the establishment of women's studies, Chiang did not strive for the launch of
the WRP. The representative of Asia Foundation was the initiator who actively offered the
opportunity to found such a program because to assist social change through improving
the status of women was one of the goals in the foundation. At that point, the foundation
analyzed the development of Taiwanese society and made a decision to establish a
women's studies program. In addition, before 1987, Taiwan was still ruled by martial law.
Organizing social movements was illegal in that period of time. This is why Taiwanese
women's movement apparently could not be a catalytic agent in the establishment of
women's studies. Therefore, Chiang did not acknowledge that the formation of the WRP
was the outcome of the women's movement, which supposedly did not exist.
Whether the women's movement existed under martial law, and whether
Awakening, a publisher of a magazine, could be regarded as a form of women's
movement depends on what the definition of the women's movement is. In The Women h
Liberation Movement in Taiwan, Ya-KO Wang (1999) said that he used a very broad
definition when he referred to "the women's liberation movement." His interpretation of
the phrase was that a group of people consciously organizes activities with the intention
to improve women's status quo and change ordinary people's notions and thoughts about
women (p.20). According to his definition, the women's movement existed and
Awakening was certainly involved in the movementI6 even in the era of martial law.
From Yuan-chen Li's (1991) article, A Journey Full of Rage and Sorrow, it is
clear that Li also perceived Awakening as a group participating in the women's
movement. She said that reviewing the global history of women, the inequity between
male and female often leads to the emergence of the women's movement, which then
advances women's studies. In Taiwan, the story is the same. The injustice between male
and female brought about neo-feminism advocated by Hsiu-lien Lu in the 1970s and
activities held by Awakening in the early 1980s. Then, in 1985, the WRP was founded
with Awakening's assistance (p.9).
In Awakening's version about the launch of women's studies, it is obvious that
Yuan-chen Li and Yen-lin Ku made an attempt to link the formation of women's studies
(the WRP) with the women's movement (the effort made by Awakening). Why did they
connect the birth of the WRP with Awakening in their version? Could the causal relation
l6 Yuan-chen Li talked about the difficulties that she encountered in the first five years (1982-1987). Her
experience uncovered what Awakening was doing in that period of time. She said that the status quo of
female workers and prostitutions were discussed in Awakening. This discussion was criticized by public as
complaints fiom the middle class women (Wang, 1999, p.67). This event shows that members of
Awakening tried to change ordinary people's thoughts although their attempt was not a successful one.
(However, Wang's definition did not mention whether the activity should be a successful one.)
tied by Li and Ku help them strengthen their standpoint that there should be a close bond
between women's studies, the women's movement and feminism?
On the other hand, would the viewpoint that women's studies in Taiwan is not an
outcome of the women's movement be fortified if Lan-hung Chiang questioned
Yuan-chen Li's account of the initiation of the WRP? If Chiang strengthened her
standpoint, would she be able to detach women's studies and the women's movement in
the Taiwanese context and counteract Li's universal discourse more successfully?
In fact, Chiang did not theorize her point after she stated that women's studies
was not an outcome of the women's movement in Taiwan. Instead, she applied another
strategy to deal with the issue. In The Development of Womenk Studies in Taiwan,
Lan-hung Chiang (1995) stated that women's studies, which did not emphasize women's
liberation movement or feminist perspectives, would be accepted by most people
(including male and female). Ordinary people (including scholars) repelled women's
right movement due to stereotypes. The purpose of doing women's studies was to
understand the role of women and two genders at the moment of social change. Arousing
emotion was not the goal of women's studies (p.27). Chiang's major concern was the
reception and acceptability of women's studies in the public, which was the determinant
of the development of women's studies in the fbture. She actually did not pay too much
attention to strengthening her own point of view.
3.3.2 The Relationship between Women's Studies
and Feminist Perspectives
Whether women's studies should adopt feminist perspectives or whether women's
studies should follow the academic standards of objectivity and neutrality was the other
issue that feminist activists raised. Yuan-chen Li (1991) argued that a scholar should
assume a neutral and objective attitude in examining data, in articulating hisher
viewpoint, and in being aware of the strengths and limitations of hisher theories and
methodology, but all researchers could not assert that their research was objective and
neutral. Li continued to contend that women's studies is an academic field for the
development of feminist theories and methodologies. Without the foundation of feminism,
women's studies would not exist. Without challenging male dominance, women's studies
would not offer new perspectives and would not make a contribution to scholarship (p.8).
Yen-lin Ku (1998)' a member of Awakening Society, added that to assume the
"objective and neutral" attitude and pursue "the collective interest" in a male-dominated
society differed little fiom taking the male standpoint and upholding the male interest.
Doing research on women in this manner had a good chance to earn grants for
researchers, but it served to consolidate the system that oppressed women (p. 127).
In The Experience of Taiwanese Women b Movement at Present, Lan-hung Chiang
and Bih-er Chou (1990), two of the co-founders of the WRP, introduced women's studies
in Taiwan by saying that women studies, obviously, would have a long-term influence on
the women's movement. Because the scholars in the WRP employed a neutral and
objective attitude towards researches on women, their studies would be accepted without
doubt and it would be worthwhile for the government to fund the program (p.88). In A
personal Thought on Women's Studies in Taiwan, Lan-hung Chiang (1999) stated that
establishing women's studies as serious scholarship was a top priority for her in the
competitive academic world (p.25). It is clear that Chiang employed the same strategy in
the argument of neutrality and objectivity. The acceptability and credibility of women's
studies in academic circle were her major concern. Chueh Chang, another member of the
WRP, also asserted what her colleagues believed. she17 argued that women's studies
" I tried to find an article written by Chuech Chang about the debate of neutrality and objectivity. However,
I could not find one. I only find a paragraph, in which Chang used an graph to illustrate that women's
studies, the women's movement and feminism were three circular regions that were only partially
overlapping (1992, Luncheon Seminar on the Categories and Changes of Women's Studies, Feminism, and
the Women's Movement, p.15). Quoting Yen-lin Ku's article to show Chuech Chang's arguments is not the
best way. However, since in Ku's essay and Ya-KO Wang's interview, Chuech Chang's viewpoint is
coherent, the fact shows that Ku did not misinterpret Chang's idea. Therefore, I still used a quotation about
Chang 's idea from Ku's article.
scholars should be free from doing research on women or from women's perspectives.
They did not need to be feminists in nature (Ku, 1998, p. 127).
3.4 Reconciliation between Women's Studies
and the Women's Movement
In Women Change the World, Yen-lin Ku (1995), feminist activist of Awakening
Society, indicated that reconciliation between women's studies and the women's
movement was settled. In the 1990s, feminism was not a taboo for women's studies
scholars anymore. She ascribed the change to the fame of women's studies in the
international academic circle, the acceptance of local women's movement in the public,
and the participation of young feminist scholars in women's studies.
In Women/Gender, Taiwanh99.5, Bih-er Chou (1996), a member of the WRP in
the late 1980s, also stated that scholars dedicated to women's studies and feminists
devoted to the women's movement finally reconciled with each other after women and
gender studies developed in a hostile environment for ten years. She credited both
scholars and activists with promoting women and gender studies in Taiwan. Women's
studies in Taiwan moved from studies on women to studies with a women's standpoint.
However, women's studies was still a marginal group in academia. In such an unfriendly
environment, it was very difficult to declare that one is a feminist or one supports
women's studies. Recently, Chou said that she saw some young scholars devoted to
women's studies proclaim without hesitation that they were feminists. She really felt
moved (pp. 12-1 3).
Both Yen-lin Ku, a member of Awakening Society, and Bih-er Chou, the
co-founder of the WRP, perceive that the employment of feminist perspectives or the
application of women's standpoints in women's studies signifies reconciliation between
academia and activism. However, did reconciliation mean that the direction advocated by
activists finally won in the debate?
In Ya-ko Wang7s (1999) interview, Chueh Chang (the chair of the WRP in the
early 1990s) said that there are so many feminisms. One should not presuppose that there
is merely one kind of feminism. Feminism is not an ideology, which claims that it is the
only creed. If it asserts itself as the only belief, then it becomes hegemony (p. 110).
When Lan-hung Chiang, Elaine Tsui and Chueh Chang, the members of the WRP,
talked about the arguments between academia and activism in the past ten years, they
expressed that they could accept all kinds of opinions. They said that respecting
differences was very important1* (Wang, 1 999, p. 1 09).
Is Wang also recorded an example in his book. Lan-hung Chiang said that Elaine Tsui would never admit
that her studies was a feminist one. Chiang felt that Tsui's choice should be respected. Everyone could have
2 8
Although women's studies scholars in the WRP employed feminist perspectives in
their researches, they also acknowledged other point of views. Feminist standpoints were
not the only direction for them. They actually moved from alienating feminist viewpoints
to embracing all kinds of angles in the researches of women's studies.
How did scholars of the WRP deal with feminist activists' request of bonding
women's studies and the women's movement? In Ya-ko Wang's (1999) interview, Chueh
Chang stated that women's studies and the women's movement were developed
independently in Taiwan. Sometimes, they were connected, but sometimes, they were
separated. She thinks this is a good way to advance both women's studies and the
women's movement (p. 1 1 0).
4. The Taiwanese Feminist Scholars Association
The mission of connecting women's studies and the women's movement
practically fell on another group, the Taiwanese Feminist Scholars Association (TFSA).
Although some members of the TFSA are also researchers of the WRP or participators of
Awakening Society, the association is not involved in the conflicts between the WRP and
Awakening Society.
hidher belief. She and Tsui believed in gender equality, but Tsui had the right to express herself in her own
way (p. 109). (Elaine Tsui is one of the four co-founders of the WRP.)
29
The forerunner of the association was the Awakening Society. In 1993, it
reorganized as an independent institute in order to attract feminist scholars' participation.
Openly claiming to be the academic arm of the women's movement, the TFSA drew its
members primarily fiom feminist scholars within universities. The goal of the TFSA
declares a close relationship between academia and activism. It points out that
establishing network for women's studies scholars, developing the women's movement
on campus, and discussing social issues in order to ensure women's rights are the major
concerns within the association (Chang, 2003, p.84).
The activities held by the TFSA can be classified as two categories. The first one
is to criticize social institutions through research. The second one is to express their
viewpoints about gender-related events to the public by holding press conferences, public
hearing and protest marches (Wang, 1999, p.203). The academic positions of its members
endow the TFS A with a media privilege not enjoyed by other women's groups (Ku, 1 998,
p.130)'9.
How did TFSA connect academia and activism practically? The first collective
action that the TFSA took was to reform the gendered university curriculum that required
19
In Wang Ya-KO's interview, Hsiao-hung Chang also admitted that Taiwanese society values scholars'
viewpoints. Therefore, female scholars should grasp the right to speak (p.201).
men to take military education and women to take nursing courses. Strongly criticizing
the gender stereotypes that these courses reproduced, the TFSA proposed to the Ministry
of Education and testified in the legislature that both courses be made elective and open
to students of either sex (Ku, 1998, p.130). The theoretical base of the criticism evoked
by the TFSA in this case was a research done by Chung-tung Liu three years ago2'
(Wang, 1999, pp.204-205). The event shows the effort that the TFSA made to develop the
women's movement on campus based on academic research.
The other activity that exemplifies how the TFSA connected academia and
activism is the publication of The White Book of Taiwanese Women b Status. In the
preface of the book, Yu-hsiu Liu (1995) said that the TFSA would like to be a group
which contributed to the women's movement and the society through analyzing
Taiwanese women's status and providing suggestions. The book was written by thirteen
members of the TFSA, with the hope that their analyses could provide a precise direction
for the women's movement (p.3). The TFSA also held many speeches and public hearings
which focused on issues related to the women's movement when the book has been
written. The completion of both the book and activities reveals that the TFSA not only
pursues the employment of feminist perspectives, but also aspired to put feminist
20 Ya-KO Wang used a code name, D10, to refer to Chung-tung Liu.
3 1
standpoints into practice (pp.5-6). Liu's last statement shows an intention to prove that
the TFSA participated in academic activities and practical events at the same time.
Recently, the main focus in the TFSA was to foster the establishment of the
Gender Equality Council in Executive Yuan because after members of the TFSA
examined the Association for Promoting the Rights of Women (APRW) founded by the
Kuomintang governrnent in the late 1990s, they concluded that the association is
dysfimctional since it was not powerfid enough to implement policy to other ministries2'.
This is another example of connecting academic analyses and activist actions within the
TFSA. In this project, the TFSA cooperated with Awakening Society and the National
Union of Taiwan Women Association (NUTWA).
State power shifted between the Kuomintang and the DDP actually advanced the
relationship between the state and the above-mentioned feminist groups. As an
illustration, due to its close relationship with the social movements, the DDP invited
some feminist activists to join the government. These activists included Yuan-chen Li
(the chair of Awakening Society in the late 1980s), Fang-mei Lin (the director of
21 The Association for Promoting the Rights of Women (APRW) belongs to Ministry of Health and Social
Security in Executive Yuan. The ministry manages affairs about health, family, and the welfare of children,
teens and women. Feminist activists propose the establishment of the Gender Equality Council, which will
directly belong to the Executive Yuan because they think that to avoid marginalizing women's issues, it is
necessary to found a specialized institute in order to develop and implement policy about women and
gender.
Awakening Society and the chair of the TFSA in the mid-1990s) and Chia-Li Wu (the
chair of Awakening Society in the mid-1990s)~~. They were the bridge between the
government and the women's movement. Also, in the process of launching the Gender
Equality Council, the fact that Yuan Shyi-kun Yu, Premier of the Executive, became the
convener of the Association for Promoting the Rights of Women in order to implement
policy more effectively and the reality that more than half of the members in APRW were
activists or experts (while more than half of the members in APRW were members of the
Kuomintang before the shift of state power) show that the DPP was more willing to
accept and cooperate with activists (2004, Yang, pp.134-142).
Whether the association is both political and academic enough is often discussed
within the TFSA. Chin-fen Chang (2002) said that as an academic group, it is necessary
for the TFSA to hold a conference every year (p.20). Her statement shows that the TFSA
has an anxiety about being disqualified as an academic association. However, in the
forum on the website of the TFSA, Chin-fen Chang (2001) also mentioned that although
some members thought that academic development should be the priority of the
association, the viewpoint did not become a mainstream idea in the TFSA. Activism is
22 Currently, Yuan-chen Li is the National Policy Adviser, Fang-mei Lin is the member of National Youth
Commission in Executive Yuan, and Chia-Li Wu is the member of Examination Yuan. They resigned kom
their positions in the women's organizations after they became officers in the government. Nevertheless,
they still have close relationship with feminist activist groups.
what the TFSA emphasizes. Her utterance uncovers that devotion to the movement is the
main concern within the TFSA.
Nevertheless, Chung-tung Liu (2001), in the same forum, pointed out that the
TFSA cared about all kinds of issues related to women at first. Then, many women's
organizations emerged. Each of them dealt with a particular issue. Also, the TFSA was
involved in some controversies. These situations are the reasons why the members of the
TFSA believe that academic deliberation will be a final solution for many problems that
they encountered. There are so many female scholars in the TFSA. Undertaking
theoretical framework is the responsibility of the TFSA. Therefore, strengthening the
academic focus and not dealing with all issues will be the new directions within the
TFSA.
The frequently changing voices fiom members of the TFSA uncover that the
TFSA has often adjusted its position in order to perform its mission. The modification
reveals that to find a permanent balance between academic and activist works is very
difficult.
5. Conclusion
In this section, I will conclude what kind of bond exists between women's studies
and the women's movement and how this tie has changed overtime in Taiwan. I will also
explore the advantages and disadvantages of this connection for both academia and
activism.
In the late eighties and early nineties, the representation of the women's
movement in Taiwan, Awakening Society, conveyed that feminist activists would like to
have a close link with women's studies scholars several times. Nevertheless, what did
feminist activists regard as an intimate bond between academia and activism? Should
scholars protest on the street in order to ensure their goals? Should they do research based
on activists' need23? Feminist activists in Awakening Society actually have not specified
what activism means. They also have not proposed a concrete blueprint that shows how
to join academia and activism practically. The two sectors are loosely connected under a
common consensus that feminist perspectives or women's standpoints should be
23 Chueh Chang said that some women's organizations only used scholars as their tools. They just wanted
to put scholars' names in their proposals, but scholars could not see the final result. Lan-hung Chiang also
stated an unhappy experience of cooperation. A group designed a questionnaire and would like to put the
title of the WRP in the end. Chiang examined the questionnaire and thought it was really bad. She did not
want to ruin the fame of the WRP, so she rehsed the group. This is why members of the WRP decided that
they would not join any protests and marches since they also did not have enough manpower to devote into
the movement. They would also not sign in any petitions as a group. Members could join these activities
individually if they wanted (Wang, pp.105-108). These examples reveal that the way that activists would
like to cooperate was not the way that scholars appreciated. However, scholars also did not present an
interest in finding a better way to collaborate.
employed in research on women. This is why the bond between women's studies and the
women's movement in Taiwan seems to be a very weak one. The formation of the TFSA
actually strengthened this fiagile connection. However, can the bridge between academia
and activism only be built within an association but not between groups? Analyzing the
advantages and disadvantages of linking women's studies and the women's movement
may provide an explanation.
From the standpoint of academia, a bond between women's studies and the
women's movement provides scholars with an opportunity to examine both contradiction
and convergence between their theories and practice. However, the tie is a double-edged
one for scholars. If they become too involved in the movement, they may be considered
too political by their colleagues especially in a conservative academic circle. In addition,
how to cooperate with activists is also a practical issue for scholars. To balance the
expectations of activists and the academic standards is also a challenge. On the other
hand, from the viewpoint of activism, the connection offers activists a sharp weapon to
strengthen their actions. Nevertheless, whether theories can exactly respond to their
demand is still an unknown state. Moreover, which sector will lead the direction of the
women's movement is also an arguable issue. Connecting academia and activism within a
group actually solves these difficulties.
Bonnie Zimmerman (2002) points out that the relationship between academia and
activism was undoubtedly an inextricable and mutually rewarding one in 1970s America.
However, the model that was taken for granted may need rethinking and reformulating
after changes in social relations, including the nature of women's movement and feminist
politics, have been made (p.186). The Taiwanese experience shows that after women's
studies was imported to Taiwan, the bond between academic circle and practical actions
also needed reconsidering and refiaming. Expecting that the close relationship between
academia and activism in America was also a transferable one was proved merely to be a
noble dream. The most significant achievement made by Taiwanese feminist activists in
the above-mentioned event was to foster the application of feminist perspectives in
women's studies. This accomplishment uncovers that women's studies was in fact not the
academic arm of the women's movement. In contrast, feminist activists in Awakening
Society actually instructed the politically correct methodology to women's studies
scholars in the WRP. The emergence of the TFSA reveals that many feminists still wanted
to create a bridge between academia and activism. Furthermore, it also shows scholars'
ambition to play a decisive role in the women's movement through the establishment of
an activist group. The case of the TFSA exemplifies an alternative way of integrating
since bonding theories and practices in a group was proved to be a more realistic attempt
in Taiwan.
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Wave Reader in Institutional Change (pp. 183- 190). Durham: Duke University.
LESBIANISM
IN MAINSTREAM CINEMA
1. Introduction
This paper will explore how lesbianism has been depicted in mainstream cinema
from the 1960s to the 2000s. First, this essay will study the development of lesbian films
and trace the influences on this progress, such as the implementation of the Production
Code, the replacement of the rating system, police repression of gay people, the
commercial viability of gay-themed films, the development of feminist politics and the
gay liberation movement, and the flowering of New Queer Cinema. Also, the paper will
analyze contemporary film reviews about portrayals of lesbianism in mainstream press.
Secondly, the essay will analyze the approaches of depicting lesbianism in
mainstream cinema. It will probe the elimination of explicitly lesbian sexuality in film
versions of lesbian novels, the transformation of butch representations, the employment
of happy, tragic, or celibate endings, the power relationship between lesbian figures and
other characters, and the lesbian subplot.
Finally, this article will argue that the progress of lesbian pictures is mainly made
by independent filmmakers who obtain a mainstream distribution of their pictures. It will
also note that although studio productions have a larger market, their portrayals of
lesbianism are not paradigmatic depictions since the effort made by independent sector
offers audiences a diversity of lesbian representations.
2. The Development of Lesbian-Themed Pictures
in Mainstream Cinema from the 1960s to the 2000s.
In this section, I will trace institutions, events and factorsZ4 that have effected the
development of lesbian-themed pictures in mainstream cinema. In addition, because
contemporary film reviews in the mainstream press such as Time, New York Times,
Newsweek, Variety and Films in Review not only uncover the personal viewpoint of a
particular critic, but also have an influence on mainstream readers, I will also analyze
them.
Lesbian films or films with lesbian representationsZS were gradually permitted to
be released in the early and mid 1960s, by which time the Production Code had lost its
power and effectiveness. The Production Code is an American industry self-governing
regulatory body which, beginning in the early 1930s, sought to "reflect" the "norm" of
24
Institutions include the Production Code and the rating system. Events are police repression of gay
people, gay liberation movement and feminist politics. Factors are the commercial viability of gay-themed
pictures and the flowering of New Queer Cinema.
*' Lesbian films refer to pictures that centre on lesbian relationship. Lianna (1983), Desert Heart (1985),
Go Fish (1994), Better than Chocolate (1998), and Lost and Delirious (2000) are examples. Films with
lesbian representations include pictures that have lesbian figures as supporting characters Girlfriend (1977),
Silkwood (1983), Dr T d the Women (2000), and Bridge Jones: The Edge ofReason (2004) are cases. They
also contain films that have lesbian subplots. In this kind of films, lesbian representatives may be main
characters; nevertheless, lesbian relationships are not the main theme in the films. Basic Instinct (1992),
MId Things (1 998) and The Hours (2002) are examples.
"decent" society (Parish, 1993, p. xvi). Richard Maltby (2003) points out that the main
purpose of the Production Code was to protect the industry from attacks by powerful
sections of the community, such as church or social welfare groups and politicians
(pp.62-63). In the late 1950s and early 1960s, due to the impact of European films and
thanks to the challenge to the code from major studios, a few major producers began to
openly challenge the Code. James Robert Parish (1 993) points out that films from Europe
(especially in Germany, France, and England) have long dealt with homosexuality far
more candidly and casually than American motion pictures, and the distribution of these
imports in the United States has had an important effect in introducing American
filmgoers to a broader tolerance of the subject (Parish, 1993, xv). Sensing that films with
homosexual subject matter were profitable, producers were willing to confront the
Production Code. By threatening to release gay-themed films or films with homosexual
subplots26 even without the code seals27, United Artists (UA), the producing and
releasing company of The Children's Hour (1 96 l), pressed the censors to initiate steps for
an amendment to the code. Its persistence was rewarded on October 3, 1961, when the
26
United Artists was contemplating several films in which the subject of homosexuality was prominent.
These pictures were Advice and Consent (1 962) and The Best Man (1 964) (Gardner, 1987, p 193).
27
Studios would not be subject to charge even if they produced films without seals because legal action
such as local protests and prosecutions on the exhibition of particular movies was directed at theater owners
rather than at the distributors (Maltby, 2003, p. 177).
Production Code was modified to approve sex aberration when dealt with care, discretion,
and restraint (Gardner, 1 987, pp. 1 92- 1 93).
Reviews of The Childrenk Hour in mainstream magazines such as Films in
Review, New York Emes and Eme exposed reactions to the portrayal of lesbianism in the
1960s. The article in Films in Review presented the most conservative viewpoint on
lesbianism among these three magazines. The reviewer criticized The Children b Hour for
its implicit approval of homosexuality as a practice. The main character Martha Dobie's
(Shirley MacLaine) lines, "I couldn't help the way I am," was seen as promoting a
congenital explanation of homosexuality. The critic also complained that in the film, one
teacher informed the other about the accusation brought against them "with no shock.. .as
though sexual relations between women were normal" ("The Children's Hour," 1962,
p.237). Bosley Crowther (New York Emes) concentrated on examining holes in the fabric
of the plot28 and the performance of the actress. He commented that Shirley MacLaine
did not act her character Martha Dobie too well. She inclined to be too kittenish in some
scenes and did too much vocal hand-wringing toward the end (Crowther, 1962, p.28).
Ironically, the critic in Erne magazine adopted an opposite opinion. She stated that
28
He criticizes the film's assumption of human credulity. He states that the film asks viewers to believe the
grandmother would have been convinced by what she hears from her 12-year-old granddaughter, and, most
provokingly, it asks audience to imagine that an American court of law would not protect the innocent
victims of such a slander when all the evidence it had to go upon was the word of two children and the
failure of a key witness to appear (Crowther, 1962, p.28).
Shirley MacLaine, all forlorn, gave the best performance of her career as the teacher who
was sickened to find that she was partly homosexual. Actress MacLaine gave viewers a
touching and indelible lesson in what cinema acting was all about, and finally in despair
she hanged herself. From herhis analysis of the last scene, it is more evident that the
reviewer in Erne embraced a more sympathetic attitude toward lesbianism. Sh e
condemned that by spilling a great surge of it's-really-all-right music, an "implied happy
ending" was set up. Sihe commented, "It was really not all right; it was not all right at all
("That Kind of Love," 1962)." In short, the acceptability of the depiction of lesbianism in
film was mixed in the beginning of the 1960s.
The reviewer in Time magazine expressed herihis sympathy for Martha's fate in
The Children 's Hour. Herhis critique revealed that films with lesbian representations
were not totally denied. There was limited room for lesbian portrayals in the early 1960s.
A comparison between the scripts of The Children 's Hour and The Group (1 966) showed
that the criterion of a carefully, prudent, and restrained portrayal of homosexuality had
been gradually loosened. It also uncovered that there was more space for more explicitly
lesbian depictions in the mid 1960s. In The Children's Hour, the words such as lesbian
and homosexuality are never spoken out. The lesbian character Martha Dobie (Shirley
MacLaine) uses "it" to refer to lesbianism. On the contrary, in The Group, the
47
conversation between Kay's (Joanna Pettet) husband Harold Peterson (Larry Hagman)
and Lackey Eastlake (Candice Bergen) articulate previously unnamed terms such as
Sapphic, lesbo and lesbian in their way back from Kay's funeral although Harold actually
utters the words in a despicable manner.
In 1968, the Production Code was replaced by the rating system in the attempt to
rescue Hollywood film industry because films made in Hollywood could not compete in
the marketplace with non-censorship-controlled European films, which were becoming
increasingly popular in distribution (Parish, 1993, xxii & Lewis, 2000, p.135). Inheriting
the standard of the 1961 amendment to the Production Code, The Code and Rating
System of 1968 declared that restraint and care shall be exercised in presentations dealing
with sex aberrations. The progress made after the implementation of the rating system is
that any films-regardless of theme or treatment-uld be produced. However, film
scripts and final cuts would be examined and be granted one of four ratings: G (general
audiences), M (mature young children and adults), R (children under sixteen required an
accompanying adults), and X (no one under sixteen admitted).
The most contentious issue presented by classification was the commercial
viability of the "X" category. Apparently, an X-rated film was at risk of losing children,
early-teen and the family audiences. Moreover, Movies classified " X were not given a
seal and were therefore not covered by the MPAA's (the Motion Picture Association of
America) commitment to provide legal support to all movies under the seal (Maltby, 2003,
p. 177). By the end of 1969, forty-seven percent of exhibitors declared that they would not
play an X-rated film and several newspapers refuses to advertise them (Farber, 1972,
p.47).
The Killing of Sister George (1968) suffered from the stigma attached to the
X-rating and did badly at the box-office. James Robert Parish (1993) and Vito Russo
(1981) argue that the X was based on the film's homosexual subject matter alone. Parish
reveals that in some states, including Connecticut and Massachusetts, the offensive sex
scene was cut by state censors, although the X rating remained in force (1993, p.124).
Russo also points out that director Robert Aldrich decided to cut the controversial scene
of seduction for an R rating after a disastrous screening in New York at the Ziegfeld
Theater; however, Jack Valenti, the president of MPAA, told Aldrich that the film would
get an X no matter what he would do to it (1981, pp.173-174). These two incidents
expose that the film's lesbian theme per se, not its explicit depiction of sexual interplay,
was the cause of its X rating.
Nevertheless, not all lesbian films would receive an X rating in the late 1960s.
The fact that another lesbian-themed film The Fox (1968) got an R rating in the same
year shows that the rating X was not directed exclusively against homosexual-themed
pictures. It actually reveals that the boundary between "R" and " X was variable and
inconsistent. Jon Lewis (2000) indicates that Variety examined the rating of two films,
The Fox and Birds in Peru (1968) in the attempt to observe how the rating system took
effect. The conclusion is that although The Fox featured extensive above-the-waist nudity
and a female masturbation scene, the film was rated an "R" because it looked more like a
studio film, with regard to its quality of production. In contrast, even though there was
little onscreen nudity in Birds in Peru, the film received an " X because it was a
low-budget picture with significantly less professional production values (p. 172).
While MPAA did not ascertain how to rate films with homosexual themes and sex
scenes, audiences seemed to be more tolerant about gay subject matters. Two mainstream
magazines, Erne and Variety, observed the popularity of gay films in the late 1960s.
Russo states that in June 1968, Erne announced that the "third sex" was making a
determined bid for first place at the box oflice. In 1969, a Variety headline proclaimed,
"Homo 'n' Lesbo Films at Peak, Deviate Theme Now Box Ofice." Coinciding with the
rebirth of the gay activist movement in America, the explosion of "gay" films culminated
5 0
in 1970 (1981, p.163). Parish also indicates that there was an onslaught of gay-themed
pictures in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These films geared to gain box office attention
by their treatment of a daring subject29 (mi).
However, soon enough there was a revival of the closet syndrome in both
commercial and independent films in the 1970s. Russo suggests that the repression from
the police toward the gay community might have been one of the reasons for this
backlash (1 98 1, Russo, pp. 163- 164). Parish proposes the other explanation: the lack of
automatic commercial success led Hollywood to exploit other minorities such as Black
people (1993, xvi). Because gay characters were often represented as dangerous, violent,
or murderous at this time, another expansive interpretation of the lack of profitability is
that films with abnormal homosexual representations might not be an attraction for gay
audience, the most possible consumers of gay films.
The portrayals of abnormal lesbian characters were absent when the mainstream
femme films flourished in the 1980s. These pictures integrated female fiiendship and
lesbian sexuality by coupling two feminine women in the attempt to be popular with both
heterosexual and lesbian audiences. Personal Best (1 982), Lianna (1983), Desert Hearts
--
29
These films are The Fox 1968; The Gay Deceivers, 1969; The Boys in the Band, 1970; Fortune and
Men's Eyes, 1971 andSomeofMy Best Friends Are ..., 1973.
(1 985), and Fried Green ~ o ma t o e s ~ ~ (1 99 1) were four examples. Holmlund asserted that
these films were a hybrid subgenre of the woman's film31, which bore the traces of
feminist struggles, in the 1970s (1991, p. 145 & Brunsdon, 1986, p. 119). Alison A.
Grounds indicates that these films were also influenced by the gay rights movement of
the 1970s which increased the visibility of homosexuals and contributed to discussions
about homosexual issues (p.73). In terms of the depiction of couples, the progress made
by femme films was limited because the kind of film avoided exploring other parings
such as a butch-femme or a trans-lesbian couple. However, the emergence of the femme
films was a good start because by managing to appeal to both straight and gay viewers,
they introduced lesbian themes and issues to wide audience.
Compared with the reviews of The Children b Hour, critiques of femme films in
the 1980s demonstrate that the mainstream press gradually adopted a more liberal stance
on the depiction of lesbianism. The liberalization may be a result of feminist politics and
the gay liberation movement. The critiques in Variety and New York Times respond to the
lesbian attachment in Personal Best in totally different ways. Variety describes the lesbian
relationship as a surface distraction while New York 7 h e s criticized the voyeuristic
30 Although Fried Green Tomatoes was released in 1991, its stylishness is similar to the mainstream femme
films in the 1980s.
3 1 Julia (1977) and Girlfn'ends (1978) were two of these female buddy movies.
portrayal of lesbian affair in the film32. Both fime magazine and New York Emes praise
the portrayal of lesbianism in Lianna as real is ti^)^. Desert Hearts also received positive
reviews in the mainstream press. In Newsweek, David Ansen (1 986) writes that in Desert
Hearts, homosexuality is not an "issue". . .but a fact of life. In New York limes, Vincent
Canby (1986) states that Desert Hearts is so earnest and sincere that it deserves an "A"
for deportment. The lesbian relationship in Fried Green Tomatoes, nonetheless, is
criticized by the reviewer of Variety because the portrayal is not direct enough34. The
critique shows that the acceptability of lesbianism in the mainstream press exceeds the
limitations circumscribed by the filmmakers.
In the above-mentioned femme films, only Personal Best was a studio production.
Lianna was made by independent filmmaker John Sayles, but the film managed to have
mainstream distribution (Hollinger, p.148). Lesbian director Donna Deitch raised money
primarily from the gay and lesbian community in order to shot Desert Hearts (Stacey,
1995, p.94). Once the film was completed, however, Deitch sold the film to Samuel
32 The critic of Variety states that at his best, Towne handily overcomes the surface distractions of a lesbian
relationship between two track stars ("Personal Best," 1982). The reviewer of New York Emes argues that
director Robert Towne treats the story of the lesbian love affair with something that passes so far beyond
understanding that it begins to look like undisguised voyeurism (Canby, 1982).
33 In Eme, Richard Corliss (1983) praises Lianna as an intimate realistic portrait. In New York Emes,
Vincent Canby(l983) indicates that though Lianna is about a subject that only yesterday was called
explosive, and that even now is not all that commonplace, director John Sayles has made the film in an
anti-dramatic but not banal way.
34 The critic asserts that since Mary Stuart Masterson's character Idgie is clearly in love with Mary-Louise
Parker's character Ruth, it's annoying that the film skates over the question of Idgie's sexuality ("Fried
Green Tomatoes," 199 1).
Goldwyn ~r oduct i ons ~~ in the attempt to obtain mainstream distribution. Fried Green
Tomatoes, similarly, was not a studio production. It was a small Hollywood film financed
by the fledgling all-woman production company Electric Shadows Productions (Hollinger,
p.158). However, they can all be considered mainstream films because of the fact that
they were widely distributed, and were valued by mainstream reviewers (Holmlund, 199 1,
p. 149).
In the early 1990s, Hollywood began to take much notice of the independent
queer filmdom (2000, Rich, p.23). New Queer was fast being absorbed into the
mainstream. Go Fish (1 994) was one of the independent queer films that were discovered
on the festival circuit and merchandised by distributors to at least a limited mainstream
distribution. The film's success not only confirmed the existence of a specifically lesbian
market, but the possible appeal of lesbian movies to a heterosexual public. A flurry of
lesbian movies soon followed suit. These films include Bound (1996), Chasing Amy
(1996), Better than Chocolate (1 998), and But, I'm a Cheerleader (1998) (Pick, 2004,
p. 1 16).
" The Samuel Goldwyn Company has made a name for itself by sending relatively "controversial" or
financially risky movies to mainstream theaters.
36
The term New Queer Cinema was coined by film critic B. Ruby Rich to identify and categorize the
larger-than-usual number of independent queer films circulating in the US film festival circuit during
199 1-92 (Cunningham, 2003, p10).
Cunningham (2003) points out that numerous New Queer filmmakers had
abandoned strict queer criteria or simply opted for a more mainstream market in the latter
part of the 1990s (p10). This is why critic B. Ruby Rich (2000) womes that the New
Queer Cinema became just another niche market, another product line for one particular
type of discerning consumer. Soon enough the surplus of queer product would begin to be
blamed by distributors for the receding box office (pp.24-25). On the other hand,
Cunningham is more optimistic in considering the meltdown of New Queer Cinema into
mainstream. He argues that the commercialization of Queer Cinema finally makes queer
film digestible and less obsessed with avant-garde attempts to trash the rules of both
identity and cinematic form (p.13). When queer films manage to obtain mainstream
distribution, a larger audience will have access and will pay attention to queer issues. To
worry that the excess of queer genre in mainstream market will end with the decline in
the box office is too pessimistic. The argument undervalues other factors that also
influence the box office. These elements include the elaboration of the storyline, the
provocativeness of the subject matter, the quality of production, and the cast and critique
of the film.
The aura of a queer fashion created by independent queer filmmakers and their
mainstream distributors invigorates the visibility of lesbian sexuality. The redeeming
55
quality of lesbian sex scenes speaks to the continued power of the femme-chic trend in
mainstream film. This is why lesbian supporting characters and woman-woman sexual
encounters become a vogue in recent studio films such as Wld Things (1998), DK T & the
Women (2000), The Hours (2002), Wld Things 2: The Glades (2003), Bridget Jones: The
Edge of Reason (2004), and Wld Things: Diamonds in the Rough (2005)~'. However,
does the surplus of lesbian representations and lesbian love scenes indicate that lesbian
lifestyle or sexuality is accepted or encouraged? In the above-mentioned films, the facts
that lesbian supporting characters are employed as functional settings such as the
supposed enemy, partnership, or rival in love, and lesbian love scenes are shot in a
voyeuristic manner and used as eye candy reveal that the excess of lesbianism can hardly
be viewed as a progressive development.
3. The Approaches of Depicting Lesbianism
and Lesbian Portrayals in Mainstream Cinema
In this section, I will analyze the approaches of depicting lesbianism and lesbian
portrayals in mainstream cinema. I will investigate the acceptability of lesbian
representations by exploring how explicitly lesbian sexuality is eliminated in film
37 Mld Things 2: The Glades and Mld Things: Diamonds in the Rough are made for the small screen.
However, they represents how lesbian sexual encounter is utilized as their first serual, Wild Things, which
has a big screen distribution.
versions of lesbian novels, how butch characters are presented, and why happy, tragic or
other endings are employed. In addition, I will present how lesbianism is portrayed by
examining the transformation of butch figures, the relationship between the employment
of a certain kind of lesbian couple (such as a butch-femme or a femme-femme lover) and
the application of a particular kind of ending, the power dynamic between lesbian
protagonists and other characters, and the casting of lesbian supporting representatives.
Karen Hollinger (1998) differentiates lesbian films into two categories. They are
the explicit and the ambiguous lesbian motion pictures (p.139). The explicitly lesbian
films have an obvious lesbian content while the ambiguous lesbian pictures eliminate
lesbianism. The eradication of lesbian themes, relationships or characters is much more
evident in films which were adapted from memoirs or novels because the original sources
usually did not try to evade lesbianism. The missing lesbian contents in these films
(compared with the original texts) indicate the unacceptable images or inappropriate
scenario in mainstream cinema. Examining both the absent and the present plot in these
films reveals the techniques that mainstream filmmakers employed to redefine tolerable
lesbian relationships or construct proper lesbian figures (for the supposed target
audiencestraight people). Both the original and filmic versions of Julia (1977), The
Color Purple (1985), and Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) will be analyzed in order to
explore the approaches of depicting lesbianism in mainstream cinema.
Directed by Fred Zinnemann, Julia was clearly intended as a major studio effort.
It was adapted by a male screenwriter, Alvin Sargent, from a story in Pentimento, the
memoir of the respected playwright Lillian Hellman (Hollinger, 1998, p.43). The film
portrays Lillian Hellman's (Jane Fonda) close relationship with her childhood fiiend,
Julia (Vanessa Redgrave). The relationship leads Lillian to undertake a dangerous
antifascist mission.
Several critics such as Claudette Charbonneau and Lucy Winer (1981) have
commented on the film's curious attempts first to associate Lillian and Julia's fiiendship
with lesbianism, and then to denounce this connection. Initially, Zinneman allows, indeed
he stresses, mildly erotic feelings between Lillian and Julia (p.25). For example Lillian
and Julia are always situated in close proximity and are demonstrably affectionate. They
also frequently are shown in close-up exchanging fond looks. The gaze between them
seems highly coded for eroticism, especially in comparison to that exchanged between
Lillian and her mentor Dash Hammett (Jason Robards), who rarely are seen close to each
other or even exchanging glances. Lillian's gaze at Julia, on the other hand, is long,
lingering, and loving (Hollinger, 1998, p.50).
The controvertible scene that critics view as the disavowal of lesbianism depicts
an incident that happens between Lillian and an intoxicated male acquaintance, Sammy
(John Glover). At first, Sammy tries to ask Lillian to marry his brother. Then, he talks
about the incestuous relationship between him and his sister. Later He said, "The whole
world knows about you and Julia." Lillian asked, "What does the whole world know?"
Sammy replied, "Everybody understands the sex urge of the adolescent girl. . . ." Lillian
responds violently by slapping Sammy and overturning the table at which they are seated.
Charbonneau and Winer view this scene as homophobic. Other critics such as
Annette Kuhn (1986) and Karen Hollinger (1998) assert that the incident can be
interpreted by audience in two contradictory ways. First, Lillian's response can be seen as
homophobic. Her outrage can be read as a defence of the purity of her ideal relationship
with Julia since the accusation of lesbianism is a slur on the relationship. In this case,
viewers are authorized to enjoy safely the erotic implications of the suggested attraction
between Lillian and Julia because these hints are finally disavowed by Lillian's seeming
rejection of lesbianism. On the other hand, Lillian's anger can also be understood as a
resistance of the slur on lesbianism or a confrontation of the comparison between
lesbianism and incest. In this way, spectators can read the scene as confirming the erotic
interchanges between the two women that the filmmaker intentionally set up (Kuhn, 1986,
p. 128 & Hollinger, 1998, p.5 1).
A comparison between Pentimento and the script of Julia shows how filmmaker
tends to let his audience read the above-mentioned scene in a homophobic way since he
deliberately prevents adult Lillian from expressing her love to ~ul i a~' . In Pentimento,
Hellman only writes that "perhaps because I made a sound, he [Sammy] said who the hell
was I to talk, everybody knew about Julia and me [Lillian] (1 973, p. 120)." Sargent, the
screenwriter, added one more quotation: "everybody understands the sex urge of the
adolescent girl." The lines actually comes from another paragraph:
In those years, and the years after Julia's death, I have had plenty of time
to think about the love I had for her, too strong and too complicated to be
defined as only the sexual yearnings of one girl for another. And yet
certainly that was there. I don't know, I never cared, and it is now an
aimless guessing game. It doesn't prove much that we never kissed each
other (p. 114).
38 There is a scene in which Lillian said, "I love you, Julia." However, because Lillian expresses her love
when she is a teenager, and Lillian and Julia just hug each other and laugh after the expression, the
relationship between Lillian and Julia in the scene can be viewed both as a lesbian attachment or a profound
adolescent fiendship. The effect of the quote will be wholly different, if adult Lillian says the lines.
After Sargent subjoined the paragraph in the filmic version, the lesbian
relationship between Lillian and Julia actually is more explicit than the original text.
Nevertheless, the relationship is exposed in a derisive manner because Sargent uses
Sammy's lines to reveal the attachment between Lillian and Julia, but not let Lillian
express her own emotion. Therefore, the affectionate tone in Hellman's memoir
disappears. If Lillian said the whole paragraph on voiceover before the incident happened
(as the sequence in Pentimento), the effect would be totally different. In that case,
because she reveals directly her erotic feelings for Julia, her outrage toward Sammy can
not be read as homophobic. The emotion, in contrast, can be interpreted as a
confrontation toward the insulting charge, which stigmatizes Lillian's love. Since mature
Lillian does not have a chance to candidly express her affection toward Julia, the
potential lesbianism is diluted. Thus, the filmmaker can avoid alienating any part of his
audience.
Another tactic that the filmmaker utilizes to mitigate the lesbian attachment is
through the character, Dash Hammett. Compared with the chapter Julia in Pentimento, it
is obvious that the relationship between Lillian and Dash is overemphasized in the film.
In the novel, Hellman did not describe Dash as her mentor as the filmic version indicates.
In addition, she merely mentioned Dash about four times in the chapter because some of
6 1
the stories between her and Julia had happened when she was living with him (Hellman,
1973, pp. 120- 123, p. 144). However, in the film, the basic scenario becomes how Lillian's
relationships with Julia and Dash had influenced on her life.
By highlighting the relationship between Lillian and Dash, obviously, the
underlying lesbian relationship between Lillian and Julia is veiled since Lillian has a
close male companion, whose support is as important as Julia's. In addition, because
Hellman did not depict Dash too much in the chapter Julia, it is reasonable to state that
the great stress of this character in the film is a strategy used to comfort audience's latent
anxiety about the lesbian affection between Lillian and Julia.
In The Color Purple (1985), the filmmaker used another strategy to mask
lesbianism. Based on Afiican American author Alice Walker's novel, directed by Steven
Spielberg, The Color Purple details an Afiican American woman's struggle in America's
south. Spanning a period of forty years, the film tells how Celie is mistreated by her
stepfather and husband for fifteen years until a blues signer, Shug, enters her life and her
real self begins to emerge. However, by directly omitting the continuing sexual
relationship between Celie (Whoppi Goldberg) and Shug (Margaret Avery), the
filmmaker sterilized the lesbian content of the novel. In the novel, Alice Walker describes
a continuing lesbian contact between Celie and Shug. (1 982, pp.70, 93, 97, 124, 22 1, 226
etc.).
The lesbian attachment actually serves as a significant turning point in the novel.
As critics such as Marcia Pally (1987), Michelle Wallace (1986), and Shameem Kabir
(1998) have pointed out, Walker portrays Celie's sexual relationship with Shug as a
crucial juncture for Celie in developing a sense of self-love. This relationship indeed
signifies a powerfbl affirmation for Celie (p.24, p.36 & pp.125-126). By eliminating the
explicitly lesbian desire, the empowering nature of this lesbian relationship can hardly be
recognized in the film.
In an Omnibus programme on her work, Alice Walker said that Steven Spielberg
was 'embarrassed' by the lesbian content (Kabir, 1998, p.114). Perhaps, this is why the
most intimate moment-a kissing scenebetween Celie and Shug in the film is
diminished. The incident happens after Shug sings a song publicly dedicated to Celie.
Later, in the dressing room, Shug dresses Celie in her costume. Celie is shy about smiling,
and covers her face with her hands in nervousness. Later, Shug tells Celie that she is
beautifid and kisses her cheek and forehead. Celie smiles without trying to hide her face.
Followed by another kiss from Shug, Celie smiles broadly, and then ventures a quick
peck back. Soon after, they kiss each other's lips and touch each other's shoulders. Then,
by panning the camera to wind chimes and poppy fields, whether they have further sexual
contact is unknown. In the novel, Alice Walker uses Celie's and her sister's journals and
letters to develop the storyline. AAer Shug sings to Celie, in the next journal, Celie tells
Shug that her husband beats her. Shug kisses Celie's shoulder, and promises that she will
protect her. Then, in the following diary, Celie writes that Shug teaches her how to touch
and love herself (1 982, pp.65-70). This part is diminished in the film.
In her interviews with black female viewers, Jacqueline Bobo found that they did
not even perceive the relationship between Celie and Shug in the film as necessarily a
lesbian one (1995, p.115). From this survey, it is evident that for some spectators, the
lesbian attachment is totally invisible. Nevertheless, the scene can also be read as a clear
hint of further intimacy for the lesbian audience who are good at interpreting potential
lesbian affection through clues such as the exchange of look or the chemistry between the
two characters. By setting up some implications of lesbianism and then interrupting
further suggestions, Spielberg let straight audience enjoy watching a film about female
friendship. On the other hand, since the hints of lesbian affection are not totally
eliminated, lesbian audience can choose to imagine that the two characters have further
sexual contact after the camera pans away.
64
In Fried Green Tomatoes (1 991), the filmmaker employs the other approaches to
diminish the lesbian content. Fried Green Tomatoes was adapted by Fannie Flagg and
Carol Sobieski with the assistance of producer and director Jon Avnet from Flagg's novel
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafk. The film depicts the relationship between
two pairs of women, one in the present day and the other in the 1930s. Evelyn Couch
(Kathy Bates) meets the elderly Ninny Treadgoode (Jessica Tandy) who tells her of the
relationship between Idgie Treadgoode (Mary Stuart Masterson) and Ruth Jamison
(Mary-Louise Parker).
The book Fried Green Tomatoes portrays clearly a butcWfernme (Idgiemuth)
lesbian marriage (Hollinger, 1998, p.162). However, in the film version, by feminizing
the attire of Idgie and combining two characters into one, the filmmaker transferred the
lesbian relationship into "the deepest bond of Judith Halberstam (1998)
argues that Fried Green Tomatoes earns its positive credit at the expense of the butchness
of its main character. The director completely makes over the butch mannish Idgie into a
straight-looking feminine heroine. For example, in the novel, Idgie has been a tomboy
with bobbed hair. She, in addition, constantly wears white shirt, men's trousers, and
overalls (Flagg, 1987, p.20, p.34 & p.80). Perhaps, this is why Idgie is ofien mistaken for
39 "The deepest bond of friendship" between a "young maverick unrefined by etiquette and untamed by
men" and a "God-fearing woman" is the sentence fiom the film's press material.
65
a man. In one episode of the book, When Idgie finds out that Ruth's husband has been
beating Ruth, she threatens to kill him in the barbershop. The barber is stunned. Then, he
said, "That boy must be crazy (1987, p.189)." In contrast, in the film, with long hair or
sometimes medium curly hair, Idgie is not able to pass as a man. The film erases Idgie's
fundamental masculinity and does so precisely because her butchness would have
suggested the lesbian nature of the relationship between her and Ruth (pp. 184-1 85).
Hollinger also indicates that the erotic implications of Idgie and Ruth's exchange of looks
are strongly disavowed by the film's ending, which identifies Idgie with heretofore
decidedly heterosexual Ninny, who previously regaled Evelyn with stories of her
long-term happy mamage to her now deceased husband and her motherly devotion to her
mentally handicapped son (p.163). By revising Idgie and Ninny into one character, the
filmmaker repudiated completely the lesbian relationship between Idgie and Ruth in the
novel. Nonetheless, it is still arguable whether the disguise of Idgie's gayness is effective
for lesbian audience. For them, Idgie and Ruth's exchange of gaze and Idgie's longing
look are strong enough that Idgie's gayness cannot be hidden. Also, Idgie's heterosexual
marriage can be read as a sign which shows how unpredictable and fluid sexuality is.
The omission of lesbian desire in the transition from the text to the screen shows
that mainstream cinema has been slow to acknowledge the impact of lesbian identity
66
(Kabir, 1997, p. 1 14). Since in mainstream culture, lesbian relationships are visible
through butch figures because with their feminine outfits, femme representations can
easily pass as straight women, examining the portrayals of butch characters is the other
approach to explore the degree in which explicitly lesbian relationship is accepted in
mainstream cinema.
The butch images in The Killing of Sister George (1968), Personal Best (1982),
Lianna (1983), Desert Hearts (1985), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Go Fish (1994),
Bound (1996), Better than Chocolate (1 998), and the second segment of I f These Walls
Could Talk 2 (2002)~' will be studied. Roughly, the butch characters in these films can be
divided into barely and overtly butches. All of the four films shot in the 1980s and early
1990s depict barely butch characters while the other six motion pictures portray openly
butch characters.
In barely butch films, butch characters are usually feminized. The difference
between butch and femme figures in this type of motion pictures is that the butches are
more active while the femmes are more passive in their relationships. For example, in
Personal Best (1 982), Tory is definitely recognizable as a woman. With middle long hair,
40 I f These Walls Could Talk 2 is a film made for small screen. Neverthelss, it follows the trend of
butch-femme code and the trendecy of butch portrayal in its period.
she often wears a necklace, a wristlet and earrings, which enhance her femininity. The
only two hints of Tory's masculinity are that she is an athlete and she is the seducer. In
Lianna (1983), the barely butch is the short hair Ruth who wears makeup and femme
earrings, the traces of her femaleness. Her masculinity is based on the fact that she is a
tempter and a heartbreaker, the roles considered to be traditionally male (Halberstam,
1998, p.2 18). In these two films, the integration of femininity and masculinity reduces the
representatives' butchness. Both Desert Hearts (1 985) and Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)
are adapted from novels. In the novels on which these films are based, both butch
characters are constantly mistaken for men. However, the director Donna Deitch
transforms the adorable butch Ann from the novel into the model-like Cay in Desert
Hearts. The fate of Idgie in Fried Green Tomatoes is quite similar. All traces of Idgie'
masculinity disappear in the film. Halberstam describes the filmic grown-up Idgie as a
rumpled Playboy model, a kind of Madonna look-alike (1 998, pp.2 18-221). In these two
films, explicit butches were turned into barely butch characters. Meanwhile,
butch-femme stories were developed into femme-femme coupling films.
Why did the four films shot in the 1980s and early 1990s all have feminine
butches or femme-femme paring? Halberstam explains that there was a considerable
backlash within white lesbian feminist communities against butch-femme imagery in the
68
1980s. The rejection of so-call role-playing lesbians was duplicated in lesbian cinema by
the depiction of lesbian desire through the modality of sameness, namely, the
femme-femme representation (1 998, pp.2 1 8-2 19). Christine Holmlund interprets
femme-femme coupling as a strategy used to foster a diversity of audiences' responses
because these films managed to be popular with heterosexual and lesbian audiences alike.
Heterosexuals who may be threatened by lesbianism could reassure or comfort
themselves by viewing the female characters on the screen as just fiends. They could
also find voyeuristic satisfaction in watching two beautifbl women together. Lesbians too
could take pleasure in looking at and fantasizing about female representatives they saw as
lovers, not just as fiends (199 1, p.145). From Halberstam's and Holmlund's explanations,
the explicitly butch-femme portrayals were doomed to be invisible because they could
not appeal to both lesbian and straight audiences in the 1980s. Since lesbian communities,
who fought against male supremacy, perceived any sexual practice that marked itself in
any way as a relation of dominant and submissive as reproducing the oppressive relations
of patriarchy, butch-femme depiction certainly would not be an attraction to these lesbian
feminists, given its apparent participation in the patterns of heterosexual domination
(Roof, 1998, p.28). In contrast, femme-femme portrayal, which presented a total absence
of dominant/submissive formations, would be more appreciated for lesbian audience in
69
the 1980s. In addition, for straight audience, femme-femme image could release their
anxieties about lesbianism because the representations of femme-femme couples could
easily pass as the depictions of female friends. These are the reasons why most butch
figures were feminized in the 1980s.
Most predatory butches roamed the screen during the era of the Hollywood
Production Code. Parish explains that by using caricature and by viewers reacting with
"Oh, these people and situations could not be real," filmmakers could make it easier for
the audience to deal with once, or still taboo subject-lesbianism (1993, p.203). Shot
under the old Code system and completed under the new rating system, The Killing of the
Sister George portrays the story of a predatory butch, a mature lesbian who seeks out a
nahe young woman for sexual companionship (Halberstam, 1998, pp. 193-1 94 & p. 197).
Kabir describes Sister George as a self-defeating, self-destructive, disruptive, antisocial
and aggressive character (1997, pp.47-48). Caroline Sheldon depicts George as a
revolting, outrageous and often sadistic butch (1 984, p. 12). By constructing George as an
offensive, nasty and domineering character, her dispossession of her job and partner is
easily justified.
However, current cinematic tendency do not portray butches as predators. From
the late 1990s to the early 2000s, there are more and more butch characters who are
created to be audiences' heart-throbs. For examples, in Better than Chocolate (1998),
Christina Cox exudes naturally the kind of sweetly swaggering butch allure (Stuart, 1999,
p.60). In I f These Walls Could Talk 2 (2002), Chloe Sevigny stars as the sweet and
incredibly sexy butch, Amy. The filmmaker Martha Coolidge said that she wanted to
make Chloe as sexy and appealing as possible because of the prejudice toward butches
(Rosenblum, 2000, p. 28). Amy is the most well equipped butch figure, who wears a shirt,
a necktie and a man's suit, wraps a bandage over her breasts, and rides a motorcycle. Her
masculinity actually is the source of her glamour. The most significant difference
between the above-mentioned butch representatives and barely butch figures is that they
are less reluctant to present their masculinity. However, because they are depicted in a
highly charming manner, they are still not the kind of character that will be mistaken for
man.
In Bound (1996), Andy and Larry Wachowski create another kind of butch, who is
hard-boiled but not accessible. Gina Gershon stars as Corky, a professional thief just
released from prison, is doing repairs for a Chicago apartment building. She has lots of
tattoos and is usually very greasy from her work unclogging drains. She often wears a
7 1
vest, a male brief and a boot. She drives a twenty-year-old truck with lots of maintenance
tools. These accouterments are all signifiers of her toughness and masculinity.
Nevertheless, by choosing good-looking Gina Gershon as Corky, the butch figure seems
to be presented as a conventional sexy symbol because Gershon is known for playing a
feminine character in her previous film, Showgirl (1995). Kelly Kessler (2003) points out
that Bound utilizes lesbian visual coding (a clear portrayal of butch and femme roles) as
well as male fantasy (towards two hot women) to appeal to both lesbian and heterosexual
audiences (p.17). In other words, the Wachowski brothers construct Gershon's
masculinity and butchness and employ her former feminine image as a heterosexual ideal
of beauty and eroticism to avoid alienating both lesbian and straight audiences.
The only butch representative in the above-mentioned films that is unattractive is
Ely in Go Fish (1994). The femme character Max in the film describes the hippie looking
Ely with long hair to be ugly at first glance. David Ansen points out that casting the
androgynous and homely V. S. Brodie may be the film's most radical stroke. It is a rebuke
to Hollywood romantic conditioning, in which audience used to embrace highly sexy and
glamorous lesbian images (1994, p.53). Moreover, Ely's personality is also diametrically
opposed to the conventional butch figures. Her shyness contradicts the bold butch heroes
in most mainstream films. From reviewing the latest openly butch characters in the
72
aforementioned films, it is evident that there is a trend of the butch-femme pairing in
relationships in contemporary film. The development coincides with the progress of
lesbian theory, which disentangles sex from gender. By separating biological sex, gender
performativity and sexual practice, butch-femme becomes a kind of gender play rather
than a sell-out reproduction of dominance and submission. In addition, by changing the
object of queer politics from the correction of gender oppression to the enlargement of
political freedoms in relation to personal choices, butch-femme is no longer an anathema
in the 1990s (Roof, 1998, p.33 & 35).
Another way to explore the acceptance of lesbianism in mainstream cinema is to
examine the destinies of lesbians in the end of films. Based on the fates of lesbian
characters in the end, films can be divided into three groups. In a tragic-ending film, a
lesbian protagonist or her partner may commit suicide, lose everything, or die due to an
illness. In a happy-ending film, lesbian characters are paired in the end. There is a third
kind of ending, in which lesbian heroine is not coupled with anyone. What kind of paring
will lead to a tragic, happy, or celibate ending will be analyzed.
A tragic ending may be employed to show that lesbian desire is unhealthy.
Therefore, lesbian characters should be punished. Nevertheless, it may also be utilized to
elicit sympathy or to express an oppressive situation. The reasons why a mournhl ending
is adopted in films such as The Children k Hour (1961), The Killing of Sister George
(1 968), Fried Green Tomatoes (1 991), Boys on the Side (1 995), and Lost and Delirious
(2000) will be examined. In addition, what kind of lesbian couple suffered from a tragic
ending will be studied.
Vito Russo indicates that Martha Dobie (Shirley MacLaine), the lesbian
representative in The Children5 Hour, as the first in a long series of suicides of
homosexual screen characters (1 98 1, p. 139). James Robert Parish describes Martha as an
ineffectual and repressed character. She suffers angst because she is so "abnormal" in her
corrupting of "decent" human beings (1993, xiv). The anxiety, originating from the
discovery of her lesbianism, finally leads Martha to commit suicide4'. Martha's death can
be interpreted into two ways. Her loss of life may be utilized as an antidote, which
represses the bbpoisonous" lesbianism before anything more than coming-out happens. It
may also be employed to draw out sympathy because Martha actually does not do
41 In the stage version, following her confession of her lesbian nature, Martha shot herself, whereas in the
film, after her declaration of guilt, there are three more scenes before Martha hangs herself. This is why
Parish argues that in the movie, the impact of lie rather than the discovery of her lesbianism causes Martha
kills herself (1993, p.90). Nevertheless, I would contend that Martha hangs herself not because of the false
accusation but due to her self-revelation of her lesbianism. After Martha's confession, in the next scene,
Mrs. Amelia Tilford comes to ask for forgiveness because she just knows that she was fooled by her
granddaughter. She even promises that she will post a public apology on newspaper. Both Karen and
Martha are presented in the scene. Therefore, it is more reasonable to ascribe Martha's death to her
discovery of her lesbian nature since the threat of the lie is lifted.
anything except self-revelation. Her death shows that there are not many activities that
lesbians can do on the big screen.
The Killing of Sister George (1968) delineates the story of an ageing lesbian
actress, June "George" Buckeridge (Beryl Reid), who is in the process of losing both her
baby-doll lover, Alice "Childie" McNaught (Susannah York), and her job on a popular
television soap opera. Russo asserts that the "killing" in the film was not the death of
homosexuality but the death of its visibility (1 98 1, p. 170). At first glance, the castration
of the character George seems to be a penalty for her lesbianism. However, the fact that
another predatory lesbian, Mercy Croft, gets Childie in the end suggests that George's
desire is doomed to be castrated not only due to her lesbian nature but also because of her
loud and unconventional behavior and personality. In other words, what is castigated in
the film actually is the reluctantly closeted lesbian lifestyle.
In Fried Green Tomatoes, the friendship or latent lesbian relationship between
Idgie and Ruth ends with Ruth's death due to cancer. Ruth's passing makes it possible for
screenwriters Fannie Flagg and Carol Sobieski to mix Idgie and Ninny into one character
and assign Idgie (or Ninny, the name she uses when she tells Evelyn about her past) a
new heterosexual relationship after she loses Ruth. Thus, Ruth's terminal illness becomes
an approach to dilute Idgie's gayness and her lesbian attachment to Ruth.
In Boys on the Side, there is a platonic crush between a black lesbian and a white
straight woman with AIDS. The film ends with Robin's death from AIDS and Jane's
reminiscences of Robin. Starring Whoopie Goldberg as Jane and Mary-Louise Parker as
Robin, Boys on the Side attracted a mixed audience. Lesbians and bisexual women were
anxious to see a major star play "gay," while heterosexual women of varied racial and
cultural identifications were drawn to the topic of AIDS and to the women's bonding
theme (2002, Hogan, p.91). Katie Hogan argues that the multiple anxieties associated
with the epidemic are eased through a non-threatening, desexualized, maternal, African
American lesbian character, who serves as a moral compass and role model to an
AIDS-phobic audience and society (2002, p.89 & p.96). Indeed, Jane's actual physicality
is totally stripped (since viewers can only realize her sexual identity through her lines and
her sexual life is void) and her character is successfully molded as a mammy or caretaker.
By castrating Jane's desire and emphasizing Robin's struggle of her incurable decease,
Boys on the Side indeed devotes more energy in enriching the female friendship subject
matter. Since Robin's illness is fatal and Jane's longing is not the focal point in the film,
Robin has to die and Jane has to lose her lover in the end.
76
Located in a boarding school, Lost and Delirious depicts the romance between
Paulie Oster (Piper Perabo) and Tory Moller (Jessica Pare). After their relationship is
exposed, Tory cannot handle the stigma of being branded a lesbian. Finally, due to
continual rejections of her love from Tory, Paulie commits suicide. Paulie's tragic fate
actually undertakes a great mission. Director Lea Pool views Paulie's painful awakening
as an opportunity to raise audiences' awareness or even to change spectators' mentalities.
She thinks that it is important to open the minds of other people with this kind of subject.
Even if it is easier for many people, it is still difficult for a lot of people (Lori, 2001,
pp.53-54).
From the review of the transformation of butch characters and the analyses of the
destinies of lesbian couples in tragic ending films, it is clear that filmmakers are not
interested in choosing a particular kind of couple as their victims. In brief, lesbian figures
who are in love with straight women (e.g., The Children b Hour and Boys on the Side),
butch-femme couples (e.g., The Killing of Sister George and Lost and Delirious), and
femme-femme lovers ( e g , Fried Green Tomatoes) are all possible sufferers in tragic
ending films.
In Desert Hearts (1985), Go Fish (1994), Bound (1996), Better than Chocolate
(1998), and But, I' m a Cheerleader (1998) lesbian representatives are all coupled in the
end. I will study why filmmakers utilize a happy ending or a comedic genre in these films.
In addition, I will explore what kind of lesbian couple is most popular in films with
happy ending.
Because the adoption of a tragic ending is the convention of the celluloid closet4*,
lesbian films, which adopt a happy ending or a comedic scenario, may be regarded as a
challenge to previous lesbian motion pictures. Rex Reed (New York Post) reported that
Desert Hearts is a far cry from the anguished, suicidal case studies of lesbians the screen
has offered in the past (1993, Parish, p.110). Indeed, in terms of the ending, Desert
Hearts breaks the tradition of lesbian fatalities in prior decades. Nevertheless, a
comparison with the original text Desert of the Heart reveals that the progress is achieved
at the expense of the gay representatives in the attempt to attract heterosexual audience.
For example, the openly butch Ann in the novel becomes the barely butch Cay. Also, the
gay character Silver is turned into a heterosexual figure. The sexual relationship between
Ann and Silver is adapted into a platonic friendship. Meanwhile, Silver's relationship
42
The phrase comes f?om Vito Russo's book The Celluloid Closet, which studies the history of how
motion pictures, especially Hollywood films, had portrayed gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
characters.
with her fianct Joe is purified in order to parallel the lesbian romance and decrease the
potential threat of the lesbian affair to heterosexual audience (Hollinger, pp. 150- 152).
In the pre-production step of Go Fish, Rose Troche and her partner Guinevere
Turner showed the aspiration to depart from a tragic or excruciating scenario. Troche said
that they wanted to make something they would want to go out and see. Turner expressed
that they wanted to just for once have a movie that would be plain old tra-la-la (Amen,
1994, p.53). Peggy Thompson, the screenwriter of Better than Chocolate, also had the
same ambition. She indicated that a lesbian romantic comedy was not so much the
concept of a lesbian film because the tradition of lesbian films was not necessarily
comedy. This was why she had a hard time getting the funding of the film in the first
place (Kulchinsky, 2000, p.11). For Thompson, filming a lesbian comedy was itself an
innovation in the development of lesbian motion pictures. Jamie Babbit and Brian Wayne
Peterson, the director and screenwriter of But, I ' m a Cheerleader, also employed comedy
as a subversive device. Instead of preaching, they presented the ludicrousness of
changing someone's sexuality in a comedic way by making fun of stereotypes (such as
sissies and butches) and challenging the so-called politically correct homosexual vision
asserting by older generation of gay people. They identified themselves as a new
generation of gay people, who were able to poke fun at their own community (Stacie,
Except But, I'm a Cheerleader, most of the aforesaid happy-ending films shot in
the 1990s and 2000s have a butch-femme couple, This is why Judith Halberstam states
that the butch-femme narrative has become a kind of dominant code of contemporary
lesbian cinema (1998, p.224). Go Fish, the second segment of IfThese Walls Could Talk,
Better than Chocolate, and Bound are examples. Halberstam observes that in Go Fish,
although the characters Max and Ely agree that butch-femme is outdated in their
discussion, the film works against this notion of an antiquated butch-femme system by
coding the other couple Kia and Evie as butch and femme role models and dressing up
Max and Ely in a clearly gendered aesthetics after a consummation of love between the
two protagonists43 (1998, p.225).
In the second segment of If These Walls Could Talk 11, the butch-femme
role-playing is set up in the attempt to show the atmosphere in the 1970s. In the gay bar
scene, butch and femme characters' dress and behavior are so distinctive that viewers can
hardly mistake a butch figure for a femme one. In contrast, the butch and femme
43 Halberstam points out that Max finally removes her baseball cap and lets her hair down, and Ely has the
well-shaven head and a rather handsome shirt and seems emboldened by her new image in the end (1998,
p.225).
80
characters in Better than Chocolate are more casual with respect to their attires or
manners. The butch and femme representatives actually are visible through the lesbian
attachment between them rather than the outfits of just one of them.
In Bound, the Wachowski brothers also portray the lead characters as
butch-femme lovers. The two women play a game of double cross with the mob and win
in the end. Nevertheless, to avoid alienating or frightening the viewers of the dominate
group, the lesbian couple only gains the triumph in a world that can be considered as
somewhat farcical due to the incompetence and ridiculousness of the male characters,
who are put in a position to be killed because of their ideologically problematic status:
the mafia (2003, Kessler, p. 18 & p.21).
In But, I'm a Cheerleader, a femme-femme couple is employed to challenge the
conventional butch-femme lover. Director Jamie Babbit said that most of the films are
about butch women who get the femme and ride off into the sunset. She wanted to
express that a lesbian is not necessarily a butch. This is why in But, I'm a Cheerleader,
the central story is about a femme girl who comes out, stays femme, and uses her
cheerleading to get the other girl (Rosenblum, 2000, p.34).
Not all lesbian characters meet their true love in the end of the films. Sometimes
they are left by their partners. I will categorize this kind of film as the celibate ending
pictures. Compared with tragic ending films, in celibate ending pictures, there is still an
expectant future ahead of the lesbian characters. Personal Best (1982) and Lianna (1983)
are two examples. In Personal Best, Tory Skinner (Patrice Donnelly) loses Chris Cahill
(Marie1 Hemingway) to a man in the midst of the film. This is why Allison Grounds
argues that the film depicts lesbian experience as a passing phase of sexual development
that will inevitably lead to a more legitimate heterosexual relationship (1 997, p.67). In the
end, the film restores the relationship between Tory and Chris by transforming their
lesbian attachment into female friendship. Hollinger contends that because female
fiiendship can be shown to temper male dominance and even to reform it, but lesbianism
is simply going too far, it is not surprising that the picture concludes at the expense of
lesbianism (Hollinger, 1998, p. 145). Nonetheless, unlike the dispossessed George in The
Killing of Sister George, the film, at least, allows Tory to be consoled by female
fiiendship.
In Lianna (1983), the heroine Lianna (Linda Griffiths) rejects her marriage to
have a lesbian relationship with Ruth (Jane Hallaren). In the midst of the film, Lianna
loses Ruth to another woman. Rather than consolidating the lesbian attachment or turning
82
the relationship into female friendship, the film ends with a reaffirmation of female
friendship between Lianna and her closest female friend Sandy (Jo Henderson), who
works through her homophobia, and comforts Lianna in the last scene. Parish mentions
that the female friendship helps Lianna to face her future with surety (1993, p.219).
Shameem Kabir also points out that viewers can read into the ending that Lianna will
work through the trauma of her first rejection, and that she will move to a position of
triumph as her lesbian desire is received by partners more worthy of her love (1998,
p. 145). Both these two critics perceive that the ending of Lianna shows that there may be
opportunities for Lianna in the future.
Examining the power relationship between the lesbian characters and the other
male or female supporting characters is also an approach to analyze how lesbian
representatives are depicted in mainstream cinema. How can power be presented?
Carolyn Heilbrun indicates anger as an open admission of the desire for power and
control over one's life, and it inevitably means accepting some degree of power and
control over other lives. To exercise power and control, the entrance and expression of
anger is essential (1 988, p. 13 & p. 17). One scene in The Color Purple exemplifies how
the access to anger changes the power dynamics between two characters. The
victim-abuser relationship between Celie (Woopie Goldberg) and Albert (Danny Glover)
8 3
is challenged when Celie is able to express her anger against Albert's mistreatment on the
dining table. Although the film transforms the source of Celie's courage to articulate her
feeling from her lesbian attachment with Shug to her female friendship with Shug, it is
still true that Celie's ire leads her out of an abusive relationship.
Judith Halberstam argues that rage is a political space opened up by the
representation in art, in poetry, in narrative, in popular film, of unsanctioned violences
committed by subordinate groups upon the dominate one (1 993, p. 187). Violence,
originating from rage, is also an entrke of power and control. In Basic Instinct (1992), by
portraying lesbians as unmotivated and obscure killers and by depicting police as
vulnerable and impotent detectives, the filmmaker gives lesbians access to power and
control. Moreover, by mixing the relationship between reality and representation, the
filmmaker locates the character Catherine (Sharon Stone) in the place of great power.
Since her previous novels mirror perfectly her life and its violences, her on-going
narrative is authorized to determine Nick's (Michael Douglas) destiny.
Basic Instinct has provoked outrage in the gay community due to its portrayal of
homosexual women as man-hating and psychotic murders (Simpson, 1992). Nevertheless,
the means (anger and violence) in which lesbian characters in The Color Purple and
Basic Instinct exercise to obtain power and control exemplify the other possibility of
lesbian depictions. In such portrayals, lesbian figures are able to confront with an
oppressive situation or a dominate group.
There are also some films in which lesbian figures are not protagonists, or lesbian
relationships are subplots. How lesbianism is portrayed and why lesbian characters or
lesbian relationships are included in films such as The Group (1966), Girlfriends (1978),
Silkwood (1983), Chasing Amy (1997), Dr: T & the Women (2000), The Hours (2002),
Mld Things 2: The Glades (2003), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), and Wld
Things: Diamonds in the Rough (2005) will be explored.
In The Group (1966), Lakey Eastlake (Candice Bergen), the group's chief
embarks on a European sojourn. When the group reunites to greet Lackey upon her return
from Europe, Lackey is accompanied by Baroness (Lidia Prochnicka). The sudden
appearance of mannish Baroness (a hint of lesbianism) accounts for why Lackey has
remained on the sophisticated Continent for so long44. Perhaps, because of her sexuality,
the character Lakey only has a few scenes at the beginning and the end, and most
portrayals of Lakey's life are off-stage.
44
Russo points out that Lakey ran off to Europe to be a lesbian, maybe because attitudes towards
homosexuality in European films were less relentlessly chilling and less grim (198 1 , p. 146).
In Girlfriends (1978), after the protagonist Susan Weinblatt's (Melanie Mayron)
roommate Anne Munroe (Anita Skinner) gets married, a gay representative Ceil (Amy
Wright) was cast as a new roomer for several purposes: to make the urban mix realistic,
to add mild titillation, and to clarify for viewers that the heroine who wants a career and
love is quite heterosexual (Parish, 1993, p.94). The way that Susan deals with Ceil's
lesbian attachment not only shows an urgent anxiety for Susan to elucidate her
heterosexuality, but also plays an important role in desexualizing the female friendship
between Susan and Anne. In the scene, beginning with an unsuccessful seduction initiated
by Ceil, Susan declares seriously that Anne is only her roommate but not her lover when
she rejects to have further physical contact with Ceil. After, agitated by her own problem,
Susan asks Ceil to leave.
Ceil is not the only lesbian character suffered from the denial of her affection. In
Silkwood, a subplot dealt with the straight heroine Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep) and
her lesbian housemate Dolly Pelliker (Cher). Dolly is in love with Karen throughout the
film. For a brief time, Dolly has a mortuary beautician girlfriend Angela (Diana Scarwid)
who moves into the house. However, the relationship does not last and the center of
attention returns to Dolly's unrequited love for Karen. Unlike the lesbian subordinate plot
in GirIfiend in which the lesbian figure's affection is absolutely rebuffed, Karen's subtle
86
rejection actually strengthens her friendship with Dolly. When Dolly says that she loves
Karen, Karen responds that she loves her too. Dolly clarifies her real feeling by saying
that she doesn't mean she loves Karen too. Karen replies that she knows that's not what
Dolly means, but it's what she means. Without a doubt, Karen shows a clear
comprehension of Dolly's affection.
Chasing Amy (1996) is about a lesbian, Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams), falling in
love with Holden (Ben Affleck). Director Kevin Smith assigns the lesbian character a
new mission: to experiment with a wide diversity of sexual appetite and to show the
fluidness of sexuality. Anat Pick (2004) points out that despite its straight ending, the film
asserts the singularity of love and the unpredictability of desire--both of which are very
much in keeping with queer theory's understanding of the dynamic nature of sexuality, of
b
identity, and of the veritable anarchism of desire (p. 108).
In Dr: T & the Women (2000), as the title suggests, gynecologist Dr. Sullivan
Travis (Richard Gere) is literally surrounded by women. The lesbian characters in the
film are his daughter Dee Dee (Kate Hudson) and her lover Marilyn (Liv Tyler). Dee
Dee's wedding is approaching, despite the fact that she is a lesbian. In addition, Marilyn
is invited as her maid of honor. The inclusion of the lesbian couple prevents Dr. Travis
from having any male family members since his son-in-law is replaced by a
daughter-in-law in the midst of the film.
Michael Giltz argues that The Hours (2002) is not about lesbians through history.
It is about the desperate need everyone has to control their own destiny, about being open
to all possibilities, even those that may defy traditional notions of sexual identity (2003,
p.43). The apparent lesbian elements in The Hours are three scenes of woman-to-woman
kisses and a portrayal of a lesbian couple. Playwright David Hare considers gay and
straight as fantastically old-fashioned categorizations. He defines the three kisses in the
film as neither sexual kisses nor un-sexual kisses. These kisses are Virginia Woolf's
(Nicole Kidman) hungry kiss of her sister, Laura Brown's (Julianne Moore) caring kiss of
her stunning neighbor, and Clarissa Vaughan's (Meryl Streep) reciprocal kiss of her
long-term lover. The woman-to-woman kisses (and perhaps its connotation of lesbianism)
console the three protagonists, but the fleeting intimacy proves insufficient to lend
meaning to their lives (Schickel, 2002). These three kisses actually create a hopeless
rather than an erotic feeling. The lasting lesbian relationship is also presented in a
desperate way. The lesbian attachment between Clarissa and Sally seems to be very
fragile when Clarissa confesses that she only feels she is living when she is with her ex
Richard Brown (Jack Rovello). This is why Ruby Jeannie (2003) argues that the film
8 8
portrays Clarissa's lesbian relationship of ten years as empty and hollow while the real
meaning in her life is caring for an ungrateful gay man dying of AIDS (p.63). Gayness
seems to be used to complicate the character Clarissa and the storyline. By assigning
Clarissa a male ex and a female partner, her sexuality becomes more diverse. In addition,
by giving Richard a male ex, the relationship between these four people and their stories
become more mysterious and intricate.
In Rde Things, Rl d Things 2: The Glades (2003) and Rl d Things: Diamonds in
the Rough (2005), doubtful lipstick lesbian representatives are involved in the criminal
conspiracy. Audience can only recognize these unconvinced lesbian characters' gayness
from hot female-to-female kisses or love scenes but not through their commitment to
each other or their lifestyles. In addition, the fact that none of these figures is exclusively
interested in women and homosexual lifestyle also watered-downs their lesbianism. They
are actually cast in the attempt to titillate audience and to complicate the double-guessing
scenario. Therefore, it is not a surprise that these films ended with the breakdown of the
lesbian relationship. Lesbianism actually is utilized to capitalize on the femme-chi trend
in these films.
In Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), the lesbian character Rebecca
(Jacinda Barrett) becomes the supposed rival in love. By re-editing the shots that depict
the exchange of looks between Rebecca and the heroine Bridget Jones (Renee Zellweger),
the filmmaker tries to convince the audience that Rebecca is actually interested in Bridget
but not her boyfriend Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). The lesbian character is included to twist
the plot, to bolster the heroine's popularity and to clarify that the protagonist is definitely
a straight person.
In short, from the review of lesbian subplots, it is obvious that lesbian supporting
characters not only are out of the closet but also become functional settings in
mainstream cinema. In addition, it is apparent that lesbian characters are femme-femme
representations in studio productions. Because femme figures can easily pass as straight
women in mainstream culture, they seem to have both straight and gay characteristics
(with straight appearance and gay identity). This may be the reason why their sexualities
or identities often portrayed fluidly rather than inflexibly in films. Also, they are depicted
as love interests for both male and female characters in films. Nevertheless, studio and
independent filmmakers focus on different aspects of femme representations' traits.
Studio filmmakers often concentrate on femme characters' attractive physical appearance
for straight titillation. Therefore, hot woman-to-woman kisses, female-to-female sex
90
scenes and threesome scenes rather than femme-femme relationship and femme
characters' lifestyles are the focal points in studio films. In contrast, independent
filmmakers tend to show specifically how femme figures struggle with their lesbian
identity, sexual desires and love affairs. Thus, femme characters' sexual fluidity becomes
the center of some independent films.
Most lesbian characters are open and unapologetic gays in both studio and
independent films in the late 1990s and the 2000s. The fact that ambiguous depictions of
lesbian relationships are not the recent hits shows the growing acceptance of lesbianism
in mainstream cinema. This is the biggest progress in the development of lesbian motion
pictures. However, in terms of variety of lesbian portrayals, most efforts are made in the
independent sector. Explicitly butch and transsexual lesbian characters45 are only visible
in independent films. In addition, femme-femme representations that express queer
fluidity are also only observable in the independent sector. On the contrary, in studio
productions, lesbian representations are mostly femmes who are included as eye candy
for straight titillation.
45
For example, there is a portrayal of transsexual lesbian in Better than Chocolate (1998).
9 1
4. Conclusion
The visibility of lesbian portrayals in mainstream cinema has been increased after
the removal of the Production Code. It should be noted, however, that the progress has
been made primarily from the influx of independent sector into mainstream distribution.
There are only a few studio films with lesbian main characters or with lesbian
themes. These films include The Children S Hour (1961), Personal Best (1982), and Boys
on the Side (1995). None of these films allows the accomplishment of lesbian desire.
Most studio productions are either pictures with ambiguous lesbian relationships such as
Julia (1977) and The Color Purple (1985), or films with lesbian subplots or lesbian
supporting characters such as The Group (1 966), Silkwood (1 983), Kid Things (1 998),
DK T & the Women (2000), The Hours (2002), Mid Things 2: The Glades (2003), Bridget
Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), and Mid Things: Diamonds in the Rough (2005). To
clarify main heroine's straightness and to add titillation are the top two tasks for these
lesbian supporting figures.
In contrast, in the independent sector, there are all kinds of explorations of lesbian
portrayals. For example, in terms of the depiction of butch character, the shy and ugly Ely
in Go Fish (1994) is so refreshing that she subverts the image of butch figures in most
lesbian pictures. In respect to the endings, the directors and screenwriters of Go Fish,
Better than Chocolate (1 998) and But, I'm a Cheerleader (1 998) employ happy-endings
to confront the tradition of celluloid closet. The director of Lost and Delirious uses a
totally different means to surpass the convention of lesbian films. She applies a tragic
ending in the attempt to raise audiences' awareness and even change their mentalities. In
relation to paring, in the 1980s and early 1990s, the backlash against butch-femme
imagery in lesbian feminist communities and the attempt to appeal to both homosexual
and heterosexual audiences lead a trend of femme-femme films such as Lianna (1983),
Desert Hearts (1985) and Fried Green Tomatoes (1991). Soon enough, the prevailing of
femme-femme depiction cannot satisfy the ambition of independent filmmakers, and the
butch-femme narrative becomes the next dominant code in films such as Go Fish (1 994),
Bound (1 996), and Better than Chocolate (1 998). Nevertheless, director and screenwriter
of But, I'm a Cheerleader insist to portrait a femme-femme couple in the attempt to
challenge the overwhelming butch-femme lovers on the screen.
In the independent queer filmdom, multidimensional experimentation of lesbian
images is presented. With the mainstream distribution of these independent lesbian films,
these lesbian portrayals become much easily available for audiences. However, because
studio productions of lesbian depictions are much more widely distributed, and most
93
studio films with lesbian subplots or supporting characters utilize woman-to-woman
sexual encounters to gain box office, a crisis of appropriation is provoked. Then, what
kind of portrayals of lesbianism is politically correct becomes an inevitable issue that
needs to be explored.
Ellis Hanson (1999) points out that in the 1980s and 1990s, a number of
independent and Hollywood films were eager to challenge earlier bad-gay cliches with a
few good gay cliches of their own. In this decade, there has been a promising backlash
against this preoccupation with positive images and accurate gay representations. From
Hanson7s perspective, the demand of positive gay figures looks like an anxious request
for a compliment. The call for accuracy in homosexual representations evokes even more
questions. For example, what is the truth of homosexuality? Whose experience is genuine
and whose is merely stereotype? Does the reality of gay people's lives necessarily make
for good cinema (pp.8-1 l)? Both claims of positive and negative homosexual images
limit filmmakers from creating multidimensional queer characters. However, the request
of authentic gay representations does not make the same restriction. Without the support
of real gay experience, no matter the experience is a positive or negative one, the
portrayal of homosexual characters will be a hollow and empty one since real gay lives
are the fundamental base which can be dramatized and fictionalized into films. To
94
differentiate which homosexual characters represent authentic gay experience and which
gay figures are stereotype is doomed to be a fruitless work since representations are both
real and fictional.
It seems to be ineffective to claim that independent depictions of lesbianism are
more authentic than the studio ones since both of them are merely representations. More
efficient approaches to examine the dynamic of lesbian portrayals are through analyzing
what kind of lesbian character is included, why lesbianism is presented, and the
availability and popularity of lesbian pictures. In studio films, most lesbian characters are
femmes who are not going to be a threat to heterosexual audience. In addition, they are
ofien used to clarify the main heroine's straightness or to add titillation. Because studio
productions occupy a larger market, their portrayals of lesbianism influence a larger
audience. Nevertheless, the fact that independent sector also has its domain in
mainstream cinema, and therefore it has an arena for multidimensional lesbian depictions
reveals that the studio portrayals of lesbianism are not the only paradigm. The box office
of recent independent lesbian films such as Go Fish (1 994), Bound (1996), Chasing Amy
(1996), Better than Chocolate (1999), But, I'm a Cheerleader ( 1999) ~~ also shows that
46
The box office of above-mentioned films is presented in Appendix on page 92. These films earned more
than million dollars. Chasing Amy even made more than ten million dollars.
the prospects of various lesbian depictions are optimistic and brightening. The marginal
representations of lesbianism may become the central one in the near future.
Appendix
year / ~ i l m Title (country
1961 I~hildren's Hour, The ]USA
Box Office
19661~rou~, The ~USA I l ~ni t ed Artists Film I
Rating Production Company
United Artists Film
138 Drama
11 5 Drama
t
1968
1977
1 8 , 0 0 0 ( ~ ~ l ~ar ner Bros. Inc I
Killing of Sister George, The
Julia 20,714,400
1982 Personal Best USA
1983 Lianna USA
UK
USA
R
PG
35,615,6091~ (~wentieth Century Fox ~ i l ml
Cinerama Releasing
Twentieth Century Fox Film
5,672,311
1,530,839
19851~olor Purple, The ~USA ~ r a ma
Drama
R
R
Warner Bros. Inc.
United Artists Classics
Drama
Thriller
98,467,863
2,492,088
Hallmark Home
2,405,2851R I Entertainment
PG13
R
82,418,501
117,727,224
Comed)
Warner Bros. Inc
Samuel Goldwyn Company
1995 Boys on the Side
PG13
R
Warner Bros., A Division Of
23,440,188lR 1 Time Warner Ent. Co
Universal City Studios, Inc
Tri-star Pictures
Drama
I I
3,802,6201~ IBound Productions. Inc.
1996 Chasing Amy USA
1998 Wild Things USA
Comed)
Thriller
12,021,217
30,147,739
98 Comed)
85 t Comedl
1999
1999
2,015,406)~ l~rimark Pictures I
R
R
2,205,6271~ ( ~ i n e Line Features I
Miramax Films
Columbia Pictures
Better than Chocolate
But, I'm a Cheerleader
Germany
2000 Dr. T & The Women
IUS A
Canada
USA
13,113,041 R Artisan Pictures Inc
I I
2000llf ~hes e Walls Could Talk2 ~USA
2000 Lost and Delirious Canada
2002 The Hours USA
Drama
Drama
2003 Wild Things 2: The Glades USA
I
Columbia Tristar Home
Entertainment
Thriller
20041
Bridget Jones:
The Edge of Reason
Drama 40,226,2151~ luniversal Studios
I
20051
Wild Things 3:
Diamonds in the Rough
Nu+ 1
Sony Pictures Home
Entertainment
Thriller
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