Key Terms
Richard Dyer
The "by, for, and about" category for LGBTQ+ film "frays at the edges." Clean lines don't hold.
Judith Mayne on Dorothy Arzner
Arzner's films have no overtly lesbian characters, yet they give "constant and deliberate attention to how women dress a
Form
How a story is told — editing, cinematography, wardrobe, framing.
Content
The substance of a story — narrative, characters, dialogue.
Trope
A pattern, phrase, rhetorical device, or plot point used so often it can be categorized and anticipated. When overused,
Motion Picture Production Code (Hays Code)
Established in the 1930s. Set moral guidelines prohibiting or restricting profanity, drug trafficking, religious effront
Before the Code
Films like The Broadway Melody (1929) and The Sign of the Cross (1932) contained homosexual content. Pre-Code depictions
Inversion
The prevailing sexological theory that queerness meant a feminine soul in a male body (or vice versa). Richard von Kraff
Context for the ban
The Great Depression drove filmmakers toward shock- value tactics (violence, "perversion") to lure audiences. The ban wa
Later additions
PG (parental guidance), PG-13 (parental guidance for under 13), NC-17 (replacing X; under 17 not admitted).
Significance
Productions with LGBTQ+ content could no longer be automatically labeled pornography, even if they violated Comstock law
Andy Warhol
Blow Job (1964) — a single long take of a man's face implying another man is performing oral sex on him. Obscenity was i
Kenneth Anger
Worked with sexologist Alfred Kinsey. Made experimental films with homoerotic content.
Barbara Hammer
Lesbian filmmaker who rejected the mainstream.
Camp
An aesthetic privileging poor taste, shock value, and irony; challenges high art conventions. Characterized by showiness