GNDR 300F - These Films Are So Gay!

Institution:

Westminster College (Salt Lake City)

Subject:

Gender Studies

Description:

I watch soap operas. I bake brownies. Normalcy is coursing through my veins. Jackie-O, Mark Waters's House of Yes One of the earliest representations of non-normative gender performances in film is The Dickinson Experimental Sound Film of 1894/5. Lasting only 17 seconds, the film captures a man playing a violin into a large recording horn while two men danced "cheek to cheek". The dancing men perhaps were an after thought for William Kennedy Dickson, the Scottish inventor who recorded the film, or as Vito Russo insists, in The Celluloid Closet (1981), as a direct representation of homoerotic affection between men. Nevertheless this film demonstrates the power found in questioning heteronormative constructs of gender identities and sexuality and raises questions of how films both represent, either by accident or design, non-normative sexual desire that ultimately become part of cultural identities. In this course we will explore representative films of queer cinema not only for their aesthetic value but also for their political meaning and historical legacy. Some of the themes and films we will explore are: problematic yet impressive explorations of gender identities of the pre-code era such as Sidney Drew's A Florida Enchantment (1914) and George Cukor's Sylvia Scarlett (1935); homoerotic desire in films such as Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948) and Kenneth Anger's short films; iconic camp films such as Robert Aldrich's Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and Frank Perry's Mommie Dearest (1975); boundary and taste pushing films in the aftermath of Stonewall such as John Waters's Pink Flamingos (1972); and contemporary films where the pretense of "suggestive" homoerotic love interests are dropped and fully explored such as Sean S. Baker's Tangerine (2015) and Cline Sciamma's Girlhood (2014) .

Credits:

2.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.westminstercollege.edu

Phone Number:

(801) 484-7651

Regional Accreditation:

Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities

Calendar System:

Four-one-four plan

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