Why are so many lesbian films set in the past?
Tuesday, September 22, 2020 at 6:00PM by Anna
Ammonite (2020)
With Ammonite's trailer now familiar and the film and Kate Winslet continuing on the festival and press rounds, there's been buzz aplenty for Francis Lee’s follow-up to the excellent God’s Own Country. That said, there are some who have a quibble or two. Jill Gutowitz expressed mild annoyance, asking:
(She followed up by saying she’ll be seeing Ammonite.) It is a good question. And why are so many recent WLW-themed works period pieces?
The Favourite (2018)
Sure, we’ve seen some modern-day queer female films like Disobedience, Hearts Beat Loud, Booksmart, and The Half of It in recent years but overall, most of them arren’t set in this century. Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Summerland, Tell It to the Bees, The Favourite, Vita and Virginia, Carol, The Handmaiden, Elisa & Marcela, Bessie, Wild Nights with Emily, Colette, The Girl King, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, Battle of the Sexes… these are just a handful of WLW-themed period pieces released within the last five years. And that’s not even focusing on television! While Orange is the New Black and Euphoria are set in the present day, most of the television projects aren't. You have the likes of Black Sails, Masters of Sex, Gentleman Jack, Harlots, Dickinson, and the episode “San Junipero” from Black Mirror. Once again, not a single one of those titles is contemporary set.
Why are there so many films set in times of high oppression? Historically female homosexuality wasn’t criminalized with the same severity as male homosexuality was, so perhaps that why there isn’t that overwhelming sense of shame looming over the characters in these titles. Perhaps there’s also an interest in seeing women from earlier time periods bucking the trend of becoming little more than housewives and mothers. Perhaps it’s a way to show that there were in fact queer women throughout history, even if historians try to eschew or outright erase such proof. Even with all those possibilities, they still don’t quite provide a thorough explanation.
High Art (1998)
One would think the legalization of same-sex marriage throughout various parts of the world in recent years would make storytellers more inclined. The current period-piece fascinationg is especially jarring when you look at works from the likes of Rose Troche, Jamie Babbit, Lisa Cholodenko, and Patricia Rozema from the New Queer Cinema of the 1990s and early Aughts, most of which were set in the (then) present day.
There's another current trend in queer media – more so in WLW-themed works – that irks me somewhat: a lack of diversity both in front of and behind the camera. So many of them are about and/or told by white women. If it wasn’t for the likes of Dee Rees, Desiree Akhavan, Alice Wu, and Cheryl Dunye telling such stories over the years (with Akhavan and Dunye starring in theirs, no less), there would be a number of queer women of color feeling seriously underrepresented. (Also, isn’t it strange how very few of the previously mentioned titles actually feature queer actresses?)
And tying this in with the countless period dramas, why are so few of them actually about queer women of color? Lord knows there were many throughout history – Billie Holiday (her bisexuality isn’t mentioned in Lady Sings the Blues), Frida Kahlo, and Bessie Smith have had biopics to name a few famous examples – but why the reluctance to tell other stories? Is it because – in the case of famous queer women – not much is documented about their private lives because of how they identified sexually? Or is it because of a racial bias within the queer community, still (frustratingly) prevalent today.
Bessie (2015)
If I had to take a guess at why period pieces became the norm, I would say that it might have some correlation with novelist Sarah Waters becoming of note during that same time period (and her books’ respective BBC adaptations soon after adds some support to this thought). It also might be the simple desire to show that queer women, both famous and forgotten, have existed throughout the annals of history.
What do you make of this 'depressed women-who-love-women in bonnets' trend?
Reader Comments (21)
I love lesbian vampires movies which except for "The Hunger" are usually set in the past.
It is a curious trend. And Anna thank you for bringing up the 90s and early Aughts because it's true -- it was almost always contemporary films then. It's an interesting shift.
At first, it was to point out at queer women exist. Then to point out that queer women always existed. History is written by winners and unfortunately many of them erased or ignored any LGBTQ stories. In many ways it was worse for women. Men can be unmarried bachelors but an unmarried woman of almost 30? Something must be wrong with her. At best she is being called a spinster at worst a witch the town wanted to get rid of.
Thank you for mentioning Dee Rees. My god that woman can speak film. Smart producers should be throwing money at her so she can make whatever movie she wants.
If I had to guess, my first thought would be Hollywood's investment in queer stories as struggles: coming out, gay bashing, family strife, etc. As legal and social hurdles come down slowly and somewhat surely for LGBTQ folks, are storytellers turning to history to keep that sense of struggle? We haven't made the jump yet to bubbly gay rom-coms as commonplace.
I'm not quite sure what to make of why WLW films more than MLM...
Hans -- that's a great theory actually. Of course there's still rampant homophobia and oppression in the world (and it's getting worse with the deeply conservative governments seizing power all over the place) but, strictly legally and in urban environments it's of course much less of a struggle than it was. So it does make a lot of sense to set things 'in period' when the line of struggle are so much more clearly defined.
a term everyone is using these days is micro-aggressions (usually as applied to race but it works with any systemic oppression), but they're hard to dramatize or even understand or clearly define (since so much about them is subjective.
Wow. The whole Ammonite/Portrait of a Lady on Fire discussion had me wondering about this, but I hadn't realized just how many films in recent years have followed the trend. As with so many things when it comes to the film industry, it wouldn't be so jarring (for me at least) if the movies themselves weren't so overwhelmingly white all of the time. I also happen to be in the middle of (re)watching The Kids Are All Right as I type this, so it's funny timing to be reading this.
I don't have an answer nor do I care because as long as they're just amazing films. What is there to complain about?
I wonder if "Xena" was an influence? Truth be told, I think it's the same preoccupation that makes all costume dramas a staple for actresses. We love the costumes, we love the period design, it's all so seductive and romantic. If "Room with a View" appeals to straight and gays, why not try a gay version? Modern life is never as romantic as our vision of the past.
Lesbians are less threatening to the patriarchal gaze. And period pieces with white women are standard prestige fare so combining the two feels long overdue. Also, can we be honest? Gay men don't live the mirrored lives of their female counterparts. Gay women pair gay men don't. Which is why there's more dysfunction and dissatisfaction there. Doing contemporary stories of the vapid whoring that goes on between gay men doesn't empower the community for the young nor encourage outsiders to embrace us.
/3rtful -- wow, someone's judgmental of their fellow queers ;) I think the marriage rates would disagree with you that gay men don't pair up.
Disobedience, Blue is the Warmest Color, Freeheld, Pariah, The Kids Are All Right, Grandma, can You Ever Forgive me? and Thelma beg to differ
Speaking of retro, why no full name on your reviews Anna? It's almost like we're back to the old days of pseudonyms in "Variety" like "Herm" and "Mosk."
@NATHANIEL R It's just a strange shift in narrative.
@Tom G Ooh, that's a very good point. Heaven forbid a woman that's capable of bearing children still be unwed at the ripe old of 25.
@Hans There does seem to be some correlation with the "gayngst" trope and the various period pieces it shows up in. But yeah, it certainly wouldn't hurt to have a few more queer rom-coms every now and then. Why not have a gay storyline be every sense of the word?
@thefilmjunkie It's like, there are in fact queer women of color working in Hollywood today as we speak. The very least you could do is let them tell their stories.
@thevoid99 Uh, a lack of representation if most of them are blindingly white?
@LadyEdith Mm, I wouldn't say so. It was fantasy, not straight-up historical television.
@/3rtful I mean, there's truth in that queer women are less threatening to the patriarchal gaze (hence my beef with the outright fetishization of the sex scenes in The Handmaiden and Disobedience), and I agree that period pieces with white women are standard prestige fare but I don't agree with the rest of your comment.
@cal roth Not to be a stickler but Can You Ever Forgive Me? was set in the '90s, and Freeheld the mid-2000s, hence somewhat porinvg my point. But other than that, yes, you're right.
@Geoff Marks I like the semi-anonymity.
3rtfull- I know plenty of gay men who have been in long lasting relationship/marriages. Getting back on track I do wish there were more gay films set in the past - like the first half of "The Man in the Orange Sweater" which had the lovers meet as soldiers in WW II. Gays have always existed in and we need more films set in the past to recapture our history
Maybe it's because of even more "forbidden" tensions, in times where women mostly had less rights than today. Plus more (beautiful) gowns. ;)
Favorite lesbian movie ever: Fucking Amal
I'll argue the last decade has better films about lesbians than gay movies. Portrait of a Lady on Fire, The Favourite, Carol, The Handmaiden, are you kidding me? 3 of those 4 were my favorite film of their year. Also I know the ratio is not the same, and it's not the point, but Moonlight, CMBYN and 120 BPM are the most famous gay films of the last 5 years and neither is a contemporary movie, per se.
I live in Guatemala, we don't have a gay history here, I'm always reading about the gay movement in the States from the 60's to the 90's, Germany in the 20's and 30's, French aristocrats, Romans, Greeks, I have seen thousands of pictures of gay couples from the beginning of the 20th Century... It's like our gay history started in 1985, you will be amazed how little we know before that year. I'm always intrigued when an older gay man tells me something than happened in a party here in the 60's or 70's. It makes me feel like I belong, of course I know hundreds of gays in my town, but history is important, to understand you are part of something, that you have a link to a place or a time, it's powerful. I guess in the globalization of knowledge we suffered in the last decade a lot of writers recognize that need, to tell more lesbian stories in the LGBTQ+ history. Inspiration is personal and I think as humans we tent to appreciate the epicness of the past more than the dullness of our everyday life, so probably that's another reason why.
I know it's easy to complain, but for now the quality is great, obviously this will pass and morph into another trend. Next step, we should ask for a lesbian alien rom-com n.n I would love to watch one of those.
One thing that is not mentioned here in this post or in the comments (probably because it's actually a different topic) is the fact that there is a lot of internet chatter about the fact that mostly straight actors/actresses have been cast in the most high profile/high performing of these films and TV shows. I saw Nathaniel's recent tweet about the new film with Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth. And I'm also thinking about Love is Strange with Alfred Molina and John Lithgow, Carol with Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, CMBYN with Chalamet and Hammer, Gentleman Jack with Suranne Jones and Sophie Rundle, etc.
I have no opinions either way, but as a straight white woman, I'm just glad there are more diverse voices and storytelling in the world.
Luiserghio: You know that in Latino culture even now gay history is never mentioned but I'm sure that if you look it's there and I do agree with you we need more gay history films
@ Pam: It actually was mentioned in the original post, albeit briefly and parenthetically:
Jaragon: Thanks! I will definitely try to find more when public government institutions are open again.