The Celluloid Closet

• In 100 years of film homosexuals are there as something to laugh at or pity. And in some cases something to fear.
• The whole group is not represented- Whoopi Goldberg
• Edison Experimental Film 1895
• The stereotypes are a fire source of humour.
• We learn from movies what is means to be a man , women and also sexuality- Richard Dyer.
• Movies provide us with history of what society thought homosexuals were at the time that they were made.

• 'The Sissy' was Hollywood's first gay stock character- didn't seem to have a sexuality.
• They were cliche-Arthur Laurents.
• Visibility at all costs, rather have negative than nothing.
• Sissy characters in movies were always a joke. No sin like being a woman. 
• Man dresses as women= laughs. Woman dresses as man= no laughs.
• Queen Cristina- Story of Swedish monarch who was a lesbian, but Hollywood changed the story.

• Catholic Church/ Protestants complain about the movies and the inclusion of homosexuality and in general sexuality.
• William Hayes- early censorship
• Hayes code- series of rules
• Didn't erase homosexuals from screen just made them harder to find- turned them into cold blooded villains
• Murderous Lovers- Alfred Hitchcock
• Movies were a warning to just watch and get back to the kitchen-1950
• Masculinity ruled
• seeming gay was almost as bad as being gay
• rebel without a cause
• being gay in homophobic society has to be killed- Richard Dyer
• Doris Day- man poses as gay in order to get the women into bed