Gays in Film

Written by Richard Dyer

From: Jump Cut, no. 18, August 1978, pp. 15-16 

''Since the gay movement began we have insisted on the centrality of the media as a carrier, reinforcher or shaper of our oppression''
- backs up the ideology that the representation of gays in film being stereotypical shapes the way that people view homosexuals in society. 

''A very common stance of straight critics, and alas of many within the gay movement, is that films should show that gay people are just ordinary human beings''
- homosexuals should be represented as themselves and the way they are shown should not just reinforce stereotypes, it should represent themselves. The way they act and behave should be they way they would do in every day life, not in the way that the audience would expect a typical gay to act in a film. 

''There is no real difference between being gay and being straight''
-Self explanatory. 

''We are right to be angry about the succession of pathetic, ridiculous and grotesque figures that are supposed to be up there on the screen''
- I entirely agree. The way gays are stereotyped is ridiculous and pathetic. The representation is wholly wrong and inaccurate. 

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