LECTURE EIGHT

Terms:

Homosexual/Gay: Terms indicating sexual orientation. Again there is an indication of a biological commitment vs. a life style. The term basically indicates an orientation or eroticism of people of the same sex. Kinsey denied people were homosexual or heterosexual but argued there were degrees.

Homophobic: A fear of people attracted to people of the same sex

S/M; S&M Sado-masochism: A sexual orientation in which people eroticize the giving or taking of pain. A distinction is generally drawn between people who are in a relationship of S&M as opposed to people who are simply sadistic or masochistic without regard for the other person.

Sadist/masochist; Top/bottom: Traditionally sadists are people who derive sexual satisfaction from inflicting pain; masochists derive sexual satisfaction from receiving pain. In the distinction made earlier, sadomasochism is the involvement of two or more people in acts which are consensual, often rather elaborate fantasy situations complete with code words and so on. In these cases, the terms “top” and “bottom” are used rather than “sadist” and masochist”

Prejudice: Basically “pre-judging”- using a concept about a group, and applying it to individual members of the group. We have talked about this before in 2 contexts: (a) the nature of culture and that cultures are not rigid with everyone behaving the same, but that there are diversities in behavior in any culture and (b) the questions that arose with the Charlie Chan movies and other ethnic minorities where the idea of “prejudice” occurs in assigning roles and so on.

Discrimination: Originally a word to show a person had “taste” and wouldn’t accept just anything. Later it indicated a negative trait in the idea that one didn’t choose people because of the membership in certain “biologically determined” groups (sex, race, sexual orientation).

Cruising: Walking around looking for someone to have sex with. Also what police do in patrol cars.

Film deals with gay SM - a rather small, but vocal and symbolically obvious minority. Whips, chains and leather are the markers of the group.

Caused riots in NY when being made among the gay population. Probably based on the problems of (a) whether film would lead people to believe that all gays were into SM and (b) that there is a question about the sexual orientation of the killer and (c) there was a question whether thi film might not spark a set of gay killings (a kind of copy cat killer). Depiction of police leads one to wonder that the police didn’t riot over the film.

Similar things happened with Silence of the Lambs with which this film has many parallels. Demme was attacked for making a film in which his serial killer “Buffalo Bill” a gay guy. The pressure was so great that in atonement he made Philadelphia. The atonement should have been for making a lousy picture in “Silence of the Lambs”. Although it is hard to know whether yet another “feel good” (this time pro gay) movie with Tom Hanks (Philadelphia) should count as “atonement” or another crime.

Both films were taken as homophobic.

What does that mean?

Several years ago the American Psychiatric Association said in effect “homosexuality is not deviant”. Nowhere in the decision did they decide what “deviant” meant. “Homophobic” is likewise, a word thrown around with much PC. Much of PC is a kind of “phatic communion” a kind of speech in which people say things that are already known and agreed to. It is the act of saying things that is important, rather than what one says.

Depictions of minorities in film – whether ethnic, sexual (or God forbid) political always raises some social problems. Southern sheriffs are not all rednecks and children are rarely if ever smarter than their parents, although films would have most of us believe otherwise. The discussion and sanitizing of social problems arrives as early as silents like Intolerance and Broken Blossoms and continues through films like Gentlemen’s Agreement and Guess Who is Coming to Dinner.

The depiction of gays was relegated to either comic parts or doomed people. Not until the late 50’s early 60’s did sexual minorities (except possibly in Europe with M) become a topic of film discussion. (see The Celluloid Closet) Hence a totally ignored group like SM was likely to have been wary of the problems of the depiction of the group, although large numbers of NY’ gay SM community participated in the making of the film. The Bar (Mineshaft) opted out of the film and one was recreated for the film.

There is some attempt in the film to “educate and inform” the audience about some aspects of SM, although the life style is pretty much left to the viewers imagination.

Title comes from the concept of “cruising” tricks or pick-ups, but the film is far more sinister.

The film is complexly “noir”. Noir films are marked by a number of events:

Normal people lead astray by chance,
Femme fatales
Dangerous city

It is also typified by duplicity, high key lighting, shadows, mirrors and reflections in mirrors, frames within frames, bars across people – especially faces. Cruising is in color; hence some of the style of the black and white film is gone. As any genre develops, there are twists and turns in the route. Original noirs which were called that when seen by the French after WWII where a certain bleakness and cynicism appear from what was thought to be the land of the Busby Berkely musicals. Of course, the French (as usual) must have missed a lot of earlier films because many o these are bleak and rather foreboding in nature. Most however, do not have the feeling of doom, the dark city and the specific lighting associated with noir films

Early noirs have young femme fatales, but these yield to older women in films like Sunset Blvd. Here noir is stood on its head and the femme fatale becomes male, as does the victim. This film has been called “homophobic and inaccurate”. Is it?

Does disliking something make you “afraid” of it (i.e. phobic)? Is the case here one of simple “dislike”? Is it reasonable to assume that the only reason that people disapprove of homosexuality is because they fear that underneath they are homosexual? That is nonsense.

Most people have little knowledge of who is and who isn’t gay, and less about the life style. SM is even less well known and gay SM even less. One wonders about how anyone knows whether the film is inaccurate! Especially given the number of actual gay SM participants are in the film.

The classification of people by some characteristic is not automatic. B&D (bondage and discipline) for example is arguably a part of SM or something different. Classifications are always open to debate.

There is however, a darker side to the film that is rooted in another problem about homophobia.

S/M is typified by scenes and role playing in which "tops" interact with "bottoms". In general scenes are highly structured and it is usually held that the "bottom" controls the scene, not the "top". The "bottom" decides what they would like to have happen and the "tops" do that for them. There are code words which are used if the bottom feels things are moving away from the direction they would like and the "tops" dutifully either pull back or stop the scene. Good tops are occasionally held to be thopse who recognize the fact that when a predetermined limit has been reached, it is possible that for the bottom to actually want to go further, and the top then "expands the limits' of the bottom. The important part in the scene is that it is all consentual.

There is a great deal of symbolism involved in S/M as well. the right side of the body is used to mark a person looking for some specific behavior, while the left marks a person interested in doing it. Hence handcuffs worn on the right side indicate someone is a bottom, while those worn on the left indicate they are "tops". Color coding a strips of leather and in handkerchiefs indicates specific interest. Gray for example indicates an interest in bondage. So a gray key fob worn on the right indicates someone who likes to be tied up, while one worn on the left indicates someone who wants to ies someone up.

S/M is often related to symbols of power and hence uniforms are often involved. In addition, masks, leather, rubber, and denim also play a part.

The S/M particiapnts (especially gay S/M) have been described as reasonably well educated and in a higher income bracket.

Much of S/M as a result has a theatrical feel to it Notes on CRUISING