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Talking about queer life in Hollywood, Russo shared with the readers how a story of a woman who falls in love with another one and decides to leave her life with her husband to live with her lover freely around the world, was strongly condemned; “This defined the plight of countless women discovering their true sexuality and having the courage to face the unknown.” (P.157)

In a recent television program called POSE, situated in the 80s, a scene where this quotation is reflected appears at the beginning of the story but, in this case, a male character is shown. According to many members of the LGBTQ+ community, POSE reflects and visualizes the most accurate struggle that queer people have to overpass. The story of Damon Richard starts when his parents, who were notably homophobic and influenced by the stereotypes that existed at that time, discover his deeper secret and lead him to accept ostracism. Following his dream to be who he truly is, living his sexuality freely, and being a professional dancer, Damon travels to the big city of New York and becomes a survivor; “The necessity to leave behind family, tradition, and comfort, to accept ostracism and disgrace, was devastatingly portrayed. But these were stories of survival, and the message was that gays were survivors.” (p.157) Following the author's denouncement, it could be said that nowadays this is still portrayed on the screen.

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On the other hand, the author expresses; “Sometimes a satiric talent proved that homosexuality could be funny without being offensive”. (p.152) In the current world of cinema,  characters such as “DORIS” (the ugly stepsister, from Shrek movies) can be seen. Differing from Alisha from Lightyear, Doris is accepted and acclaimed by the public. Many analysts of this polemic scene have stated that this travesty character is not a forced representation. However, if we go deeper and analyze it based on Vito´s denounces, we can consider that the LGBTQ+ community is accepted only when queers seem to be funny. The UGLY stepsister apparently is a friendly and pleasant name for a travesty and…Hey! kids can laugh about it and learn that it is not wrong to be queer.

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In the chapter STRUGGLE from the book "The Celluloid Closet", Vitto Russo quotes John Lombardi;

“Every time a minority culture starts to affect the mass sensibility, the mass has to water things down a little bit... gayness is even scarier to people than femaleness or blackness. So it has to be denied now. At least for a while.” (p. 131)

Many years have passed since this declaration, and history has not changed much in that time. In the recent child movie, “Lightyear” society seems to be negatively affected and terrorized by the final scene, which involves a lesbian couple kissing each other. Despite the representation of family diversity that actually exists on the screen, many conservative parents and Disney fans were indignant and the movie received harsh criticism assuming that the representation was extremely forced in animated cinema and not suitable for children.  “...this was the norm, that homosexuality belonged in the sexual ghetto because it was an abnormal manifestation of love” (p.149 )As a consequence of homophobia and the negative amount of comments, the movie was forbidden in fourteen countries since its production did not allow the scene to be removed. This is a great example of what Vito Russo denounces “Gay fiction is now big business, but not one lesbian or gay literary hero has been successfully transferred to the screen” (p.157), which leads us to think that unfortunately, nowadays this is still present in our society and it states how society still believes that homosexual love is an “abnormal manifestation of love”. To sum up, after all of this time, should this “minority culture” still be denied as John Lombardi declared?

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In the chapter of “The Celluloid Closet”, “Frightening the Horses”, there are several characteristics based on the creation of movies related to homosexuality in the 60s and the 70s, that are really different from what cinematography is nowadays.

At the beginning of the ’60s, films were known for not saying the word homosexual, instead, they used “it”. In this matter, there was a Code in the industry for censorship of any film product. Furthermore, Russo mentions: “It soon became clear that while the Code might allow the use of homosexuality as a subject in films made in the United States, it intended to maintain some control over how that subject was used. “Care, discretion, and restraint” meant, essentially, ‘treat it like a dirty secret’” (p.93) and all the relationships that were presented in the main plot had to follow the same exact rules.

Directors, producers, and actors had to show the “closet syndrome”, clearly based on stereotypes to suggest homosexuality. In all the films that were made, the main plot always suggested a tragic ending such as episodes of suicide, or a “magic cure” related to an unexpected heterosexual relationship. However, this is different in recent cinema as the most recognizable pictures show homosexuality freely and without any lock or censure. For instance, Netflix created a variety of series in which the main plot is a healthy homosexual relationship or it is just a characteristic of a character. For instance, “Heartstopper” is a series where Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) and Nick Nelson (Kit Connor), are two teenage boys who start to know each other and eventually fall in love.

However, as in the past happened, there are some difficulties in demonstrating a lesbian couple. In the 60s, lesbianism in films was shown as a “challenge” for heterosexual men as they try to conquer women. The same as this stereotype of “a mental issue” that some movies such as “Lilith (1964)“ suggest and punish this attitude as a response to a psychiatric syndrome. Currently, it keeps happening that shows are being cancelled because there are explicit queer characters or relationships. For example, there is a show called “The Owl House”, the creator, Dana Terrace, mentioned in a post on Reddit that Disney cancelled the show because it “didn’t fit the ‘brand’”. The main character Luz Noceda is bisexual and has a girlfriend called Amity Blight who is a lesbian. In addition to the matter, there was a scene in the second season where the female main character asks another female character to “go out with her” and in a lot of countries, the translation was changed to make them look like it was just a friend's conversation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmvcCkNsnyw (Original version)

So as the subtitle of the chapter said “out of the closet and into the shadows”, this stereotype showed that homosexuality without being “vulgar” is a little bit different these days. Nevertheless, plenty of shows, cartoons, series and films are trying to represent the LGBTQ+ community for better inclusion and equity. However, some prejudices still exist at the time of creating cinema related to who the main film production company is because they do not want to lose big audiences (as in the case of Disney) and keep following heteronormativity.

Garcés Pierina; Nieva Maite

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[READ DESC] The Owl House - "Let's dress up and travel together!" (Taiwanese Mandarin version)

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In the celluloid closet, and more precisely in the chapter "The struggle" Vito Russo portraits how gay community is discriminated and ridiculized in hollywood's cinema.
In the series "Dahmer" it can be observed how discrimination against gay people is profundly rooted in North American society. This becomes evident in the scene were the serial killer is about to be caught by the police, and they refuse to enter his apartment due to the fear to get infected with hiv. To quote from Russo "...gayness is even scarier to people than femalness or blackness".
As a result of this, Dahmer kept on killing several people.
Besides, if the police would have payed attention to the complaints of a black neighbour that denounced Dahmer a number of times, a lot of murders could have been avoided.
On the other hand, Jeffrey Dahmer's father said in an interview that one of the causes of his son's disease could have been to do with the problems to accept his sexuality. That is the reason why he had only male victims. My question is the following: if society would have accepted a gay man like Dahmer;  and if he would have the opportunity to live his sexuality freely; would have he commited all his crimes?

Felipe Pereyra

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As we get deeper into the chapter  “Frightening Horses”, Vito Ruso established his denouncement of how Hollywood portrayed Homosexuality in the movies of that time. To illustrate this, he points out the problem of “America's obsession with defining homosexuality by its third syllable”.

Regardless that Ruso denounces dates almost half a century ago, their implication in modern cinema can be spotted. For instance, in the new Netflix series “Dahmer”,  all homosexual characters are portrayed as men who only spent their time in nightclubs and live a highly sexual life with many one-night encounters. Besides the innate multifaceted present in all these characters, the series's main focus is to highlight their sexual behavior.

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To get a clear analysis on the chapter “The Frightening Horses” will use a few different extracts of the movie “Joe Bell”, which will be explained shortly. To begin with, the church reject gays in its comunnity also try to abasement them because being gay is a sin which is against God’s beliefs. Futhermore, the society consider  all the homosexual people will have open the door to the hell. In the movie this opinion will be watching at 36:01, when  Joe Bell talks with a ex-religious man, who tell him about his experience in the church  being homosexual.Besides, the intitution’s reject usually causes guilt, loneliness and shame on LGTB+ people, as a result this situation could make these people take a decision, be strong or perhaps commit suicide. For instance, at 1:00:30,  Janid felt alone and could not hold on to that horrible situation, then a woman found him without life. Through  the book would be noticed how  homosexual people is  object of predjudices, otherization and hate that is to say  people do not accept them therefore start to invent offensive words to reference to them. Proof of this,on the scene 15:37 some men go into the cafe motel while the television was in the news channel and was showing people asked equality marriage thus men said “  these silly faggot are wherever, would you turn off the TV, darling?” .

In summary, these concepts that the author Vito Russo wrote could be reflected on some modern film’s scenes, showing how almost the middle of the society do not respect their rights yet.

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The media has always been the most important and massive way of communication and so it was the film industry. In every movie, Hollywood tries to protect and share the stereotype of the "American Dream" and the LGBTIQ+ community is not included in this stereotype. Vito Russo talks about this problematic on his book "The celluloid closet: Homosexuality in the movies" where he explains how this Industry hides homosexual people from the screens.

A great example to explain what Vito Russo states in his book is the movie "High School Musical". In this movie we can see multiple situations, characters and scenes where homosexuality is evident but in certain point is also hid. For instance, the character of Ryan (Sharpay's brother) who is presented as a heterosexual teenager but with some characteristics and behaviors that make the audience imply that he may be part of the LGBTIQ+ community. The way he dresses, his interests and mainly the difference between the representation of this character and the other male characters in the movie lead the audience to think about Ryan's sexuality. Besides, the director of the movie confirmed the theory of Ryan being a queer character but said that Disney was not prepared to "cross that line" and present Ryan's real identity. This is the perfect example of what Vito Russo points out, not only the film industry hiding homosexual characters from the screens but also presenting them always as secondary characters, never protagonists. "The need for invisibility is reflected in the very character of the American experience: heroes may certainly not be homosexual." (P.50). Another thing that it can be said about Ryan is the evident attraction between him and Chad. The producers hid this by placing Ryan in a romantic relationship with a girl and presenting Ryan and Chad as "buddies".

On the other hand, the movie "High School Musical" is full of situations where the gender roles that the American Dream expects, are reaffirmed. For example Troy-the main character-plays basketball and refuses to be part of the theater group. Once he starts singing and acting, he discovers a new passion for performing arts but decides to hide this from his dad and friends because it is not what is expected from a "masculine" man.

To summarize, it can be said that all these examples from the movie "High School musical" demonstrate that the film industry is still trying to protect the old stereotype of the "American Dream" and hiding homosexuality from the screens, just as Vito Russo explains.

Martina Abregú

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A good example of what Vito Russo denounces in “The Celluloid Closet”, and more specifically, in the chapter, “Taking the Game Away from Hollywood”, is Green Book, a film inspired in a true story about an Italo-American character, named Tony Lip, interpreted by Vigo Mortensen, who was a bouncer in a nightclub and, surprisingly, becomes unemployed. At this moment, is when Mahershala Ali’s character appears, Dr. Don Shirley, a black, queer jazz musician and Tony´s new employer, who needs to start an eight-week concert tour in the deep south of United States, and solicited someone who takes care of a few things: being the personal driver, organizing schedules and, basically, to be a bodyguard of a sophisticated black musician in places where he will not be welcome. The plot of the movie is centered in the relationship between these two characters during those long and complicated months of touring.

At the beginning, Tony is shown as a bigmouth, a man who makes honor of his nickname, “The Lip”, and also shows his ability for being a tough guy who solves problems in an old fashion way, using his masculinity and violence if necessary. In addition, he is racist, even though he lives in a multicultural place like New York, and also suffers discrimination for being part of an Italian family. So, to accept this job, he must break this way of thinking and change his attitude as the story progresses. Meanwhile, Don Shirley begins to suffer discrimination and violence for being black and homosexual in such an unfavorable context.

In the middle of the film, Shirley is arrested in Memphis because a police officer caught him having sex with a man and until that scene was shown, there had been no indication that he was gay. To solve this, Tony had to pay the policeman to liberate and save him of a beating. After this, and with Don Sherley ashamed and frustrated, the movie does not touch this problem in a profound way; starts and finishes right there. The treatment of homosexuality issue continues without commitment and full of shyness.

Homosexuality is seen by the eyes of a straight, white man that “takes care” of Don Shirley during that journey, almost as if Don had to feel grateful for being accepted by a guy who is predisposed to protect him. So rather than telling the story from the point of view of a queer person, the film stands from perspective of a straight white man. Basically, Green Book tells the story of how a white heterosexual man who helps and protects a black homosexual man, making him see life with different eyes and even making him feel privileged. Reproducing the myth of the “white savior”. It’s not that Green Book ought to elaborate presumptions about Shirley’s sexuality, but his character’s point of view remains entirely absent and we hear nothing more of Shirley’s relationship with his sexuality for the rest of the film. It did not deepen into what it means to be a black man attracted to men in 1960s America.

According to Russo´s words in “Taking the Game Away from Hollywood”, the mainstreams productions historically fail representing the oppression of gays and usually gives us “oppressed characters without a cultural context”. (Russo, V., 1981, p.213). In his book, Russo exposes his discontent on how Hollywood and his production shows superficial ideas about homosexuality, losing all the intentions of being inclusive and reaching a cold and distant treatment.

“If you're going to make mainstream gay films, you stress that gays are basically just like straights. Yet this is a false premise that never works. You can't plead tolerance for gays by saying that they're just like everyone else. Tolerance is something we should extend to people who are not like everyone else. If gays weren't different, there wouldn't be a problem, and there certainly is a problem”. (Russo, V., 1981, p.188).

In Russo´s line, this way of producing movies is a trap, with the intention to reach a mass audience which in the end looses  all the commitment with the topic. Unfortunately, this means that a good opportunity of creating something significant, ends up with an unreal and estranged representation of homosexuality.

Pablo Vidal

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Will Byers, Season 4 of Stranger Things, read note*

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In the chapter, "The Way We Weren't" Vito Russo talks about how the characters take attitudes that indicate that they belong to the LGBTQ+ community but are never confirmed as such.
In the first season of the series Stranger Things, when Will Byers gets lost, his mom describes him and tells that “ He’s not like most” and that the kids “call him names, laugh at him and his clothes” she also mentions that “he’s a sensitive kid” and Lonnie (his dad) “used to say he was queer, called him a fag”. This can be related to a quote by Russo: "America's ostentatious fascination with the difference between masculine and feminine behavior and society's absolute terror of queerness, especially in men, continued to be served by the requisite yardstick sissy." (p.51)
In the series Will's sexuality is never confirmed, however, the character's queer code throughout the 4 seasons indicates that he is part of the LGBTQ+ community, and also in love with his friend Mike Wheeler.
Some of these behaviors are shown negatively, having conflicts with the main character Eleven (girlfriend of Mike)
Mike's indifference to Will's attitude, make him feel and see like a third wheel, and he is sad and angry most of the time he is around him.

*Note: Queer code (not mentioned in the series) Will Byers holding his "hero" project based on Alan Turing, currently considered one of the fathers of computer science. In 1939 he created Bombe, a machine created to decrypt the messages of the German army. He was condemned in 1952 because he was homosexual.

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Homosexuality represented on japanese audiovisual content

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Homosexuality represented on japanese audiovisual content

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In Vito russo’s book “the celluloid closet: homosexuality in movies”, specifically in the chapter called “taking the game away from Hollywood”, Russo expresses his concern on how homosexual characters are presented in Hollywood films, often being the villains of the story, the weakest, the dumbest, or even sexual offenders.

Even though Hollywood is the most well known sector on introducing these stereotypes, ¿What happens in other countries?
in Japan, for example, this also happens. In Dragon Ball “Buu’s Reincarnation”, a gay fighter appears after Trunks says “they all see kind of normal”, and Goten, after looking at him, says “well, there’s one of them that’s not so normal”

This fighter turns out to be one of the weakest, his name (Otokosuki) translated to english means “man lover”, and in one ocassion he touches Trunk’s shoulder without his consent.

This is not a Hollywood example, but fits perfectly with this quotation from Vito Russo’s book: “Homosexuals are powerless by virtue of their unwillingness to be publicly identified. This makes them fair game. Scores of films use fag jokes and gay villains in venomous and gratuitous ways”

For anyone who wants to see this scene, here’s the link of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTW-WMD6jFg

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In this episode Amanda Bing is not considered a trans woman but a drag man. Therefore, the scene is about her being mocked and ridiculed at her transition, failing to recognize her as a woman; when Monica addresses her as “Mr. Bing”, when Chandler calls her “dad” and when Monica refers to her as  “He is the man in the black dress” with emphasizing “man”, “dad”  the purpose of the director was to make the audience laugh at this. A similar situation to what Vito Russo described in The Celluloid Closet talking about the drag humor of Milton Berle "in which the joke lies in the very appearance of a man dressed up as a woman" (page 12). Why should it be funny? As we have seen before, it lets us understand that there is otherization from a social group that is “normal” “superior” and “civilized”, which has the authority to point and ridicule those who are not like them, reducing and simplifying diversity. Needless to say,  this representation in a show of huge audiences like Friends is disrespectful to the LGBTQ+ community, even more considering that they casted a woman to play the role and not a transgender actress. After years, Kathleen Turner, the director of the sitcom, regretted not using the appropriate pronoun to refer to Amanda and the fact that the sitcom lacked LGBTQ+representation.

Anabel Legato
Gloria González

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However, when things go ‘back to normal’ and Natalie encounters Donny again, he is quite the opposite of his parody version: he is slobby, gruff, unsociable as he used to be at the beginning of the movie. Only this time, a man comes out of his apartment and kisses him, surprising Natalie who thought he was still trapped in the fantasy because he was gay now, when in reality he was gay all along. Thus, Natalie prejudged Donny at at least two accounts: the way he looked, and the many girls she saw coming and going from his apartment. Regarding these factors, a couple of misinterpretations derive from this:

Donny doesn´t look gay

There's no other reason for girls to come and go from Donny's apartment other that he is a womanizer

Therefore, her conclusion was that Donny was straight, and a player, and it is why she is surprised of finding out he actually was gay.

Whatever the outcome of the relationship between Donny and Natalie, the reason behind the depiction of this contrast in the movie is to bring forth that there is a representation of male homosexuality that has run it's course: the comic relief, the high-pitched, bubbly, bitchy queen with snarky remarks.

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Play-by-gay lines by Brandon Scott Jones in Isn't it Romantic movie

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In 'Frightening the horses', Vito Russo explains: "... stereotypes lose their charm when they are examined too closely and their mythic foundations are challenged." An example of this statement can be seen in 'Isn't it romantic' (2019). In the movie, Natalie (Rebel Wilson) has an accident and wakes up into a parody, where all the cheesy clichés of romantic comedies are real.
In this alternate world, Donny, the ladies man neighbour, played by Brandon Scott Jones, is that snarky villainy queen, always tidy, who is "cheerily interested in everyone else's business" we have seen many times over as the gay best friend of the rom-com protagonist: seemingly without a job, without a partner, every single slot of his time, economic resource, and attention available to be of service to his friend and neighbour's love dilemmas. Moreover, it includes the promiscuous dimension that separates gays from romantic love, reserved for homosexuals; almost as if love or a conventional relationship wasn't fitting for this character, it also makes him depositary of his friend's sex life's sassy details.

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The chapter “Struggle” in Vito Russo’s book “The Celluloid Closet” mentions how homosexual people are portrayed in movies and how society takes this as absolute truth. At the same time it shows how cinema strucks to stereotypes. The characterization of such characters establishes the feelings, attitudes and relationships they have as opposed to those of straight people. They are characterized as lonely, suffering and ashamed of who they are. Otherwise, heterosexual people can always be whoever they want to be, since they all have different feelings, personalities and relationships. Undoubtedly, cinema generates certain beliefs in society, making it define what is right and can be done, and what is wrong and cannot be done. “Hollywood has always been the principal cheerleader for heterosexual role playing as the inevitable norm. Everything else is queer. Homosexuals cannot be real men, and real men cannot be homosexuals. We all have been taught this, and the movies have reinforced it as the truth." (RUSSO, V.). This statement in the book expresses the difference in how heterosexuality and homosexuality are shown.

To illustrate, in the movie "Brokeback Mountain" there are two principal characters who fall in love with each other but they are conditioned by the society in which they live. Given that it is a story set in the 1960s, the position of the two main characters is really understandable: they do not want to be in love with a man because they do not want to break with their imposed masculinity. Throughout the story they keep a secret love relationship and at the same time they marry women and have children to maintain their status. Clearly this need to have a public life as heterosexual people was born as a product of all the discrimination and hatred that homosexuals received. All these strategies had to be maintained in order not to be excluded by all the people who reproduced what was or was not shown in the media.As a consequence, the cinema is an important link in the chain of stereotypes and prejudices that society has about homosexual people and life.

Uribe, Camila.
Sanchez, Gonzalo.

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Patrick from The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) playing  Dr. Frank-N-Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show

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In Vito Russo’s “The Celluloid Closet”, the author explores the concept of “Sissy” as a pejorative moniker, retelling how nobody likes a man who behaves like a woman. Russo further explains that the nickname Sissy is deeply rooted to sexist ideas while strictly obeying the established gender roles. Therefore, a sissy represents an effeminate man whose traits are far away from being the traits of a “real man”, implying that anything similar to feminine behavior is not compatible with manhood. Quoting the author, “Real men were strong, silent and ostentatiously unemotional. (...) In short, they did not behave like women”(p. 9). Moreover, it is referenced that sissy-men were considered “mama’s boys, reflections of an overabundance of female influence”.

This characteristics are reflected in Eric Effiong from the Netflix series Sex Education (2019), who is openly gay, fun and bright, with a liking for eccentric fashion, make up and poetry and influenced by a large amount of women in his family. He is constantly harassed and called all kinds of nicknames for these qualities, even being assaulted after wearing a costume of Hedwig Robinson from Hedwig and the Angry Inch. This shows how society finds a disliking in men projecting effeminate qualities (and being okay with it).

Similarly, Patrick from the film The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) follows the same guidelines, with Ezra Miller portraying a sensitive, closeted teenager whose close friendships are mainly his step-sister and his girl friends. In the film, there are particular scenes where Patrick and his friends perform The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) at the theater, with him interpreting Dr. Frank-N-Furter from said movie, who is an alien transvestite, and wearing a corset, stockings and heels. Frank-N-Furter in Rocky Horror is the perfect example of what Russo explains follows the narrative of “the homosexual monster”, dealing with a major gay character who has to end in suicide or in a violent death. It strictly links homosexuality with horror: “Gay as predatory, twilight creatures” (p. 38)

Lastly, the author mentions how the image of the sissy discredited values of authority and strength and how a men impersonating a woman - dressed in women’s clothes- only followed a comedic purpose, as: “The use of female garb by male comics became just another device for one-scene joke”. In Despicable Me 2 (2013), we see this when Gru dresses up as a fairy princess in terms of entertaining the audience with his “terrible” impersonation of a woman.

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Hollywood is filled with examples of what Vito Russo denounces in The Celluloid Closet, and the TV series Friends is one of them. The chapter Struggle focuses on the way cinema is constantly stereotiping the LGBTQ comunity, instead of just representing  the complexity every individual has. For instance, Russo mentioned that "homosexuals were either flamboyantly outrageous in public or married with two children and passing for straight (except for weekends in the city)." (Russo, V., 1981, p.135). To exemplify that point, the next fragment of a Friend episode, shows a friend of one of the starrings, pretending to be a straight girl who has a boyfriend, when she actually  is a lesbian. Melisa not only is afraid of being rejected by Rachel, but also is afraid of being rejected by society. To summarize, Vito Russo ends the chapter Struggle by inviting the LGBTQ community, in particular, not to support Hollywood's idea of homosexuality, with the following message: “Invisibility is the great enemy. It has prevented the truth from being heard, and it will continue to do so as long as the celluloid closet is inhabited by lesbians and gay men who serve Hollywood's idea of homosexuality.” (Russo, V., 1981, p.135).

Romina Rosendi

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The chapter speaks about ‘Homosexual Subtext’, or also called ‘Queercoding’ in more modern media. The act of queercoding depicts the hinting of a character being queer by giving them characteristics associated with queerness but never actively acting on it or confirming it verbally/physically, such as Ben-Hur’s Messala, usually due to repercussions or restrictions at the time. Russo describes it briefly with the following quote: “Gay sensibility is largely a product of oppression, of the necessity to hide so well for so long. It is a ghetto sensibility, born of the need to develop and use a second sight that will translate silently what the world sees and what the actuality may be.”

A modern example of queercoding in the movies is in animated feature films, especially in villains, such as Ursula from The Little Mermaid (who was made to the likeness of drag queen “Divine”) or Scar from The Lion King. For example, when Scar is taking care of his claws at the beginning, or when in ‘Be Prepared’ he sways his head back and looks back at the viewer seductively, and other choreographic movements in the song. Plus, his character design, authored by gay animator Andreas Deja, is slick and ‘feminine’, in stark comparison with the stout Mufasa and his son Simba.

To quote Russo, in pg. 67 and 72 he says, “Comics and buffoons could get away with transvestism, double entendre and sexual ambiguity, but the heroes could not.” and “The suppression of homosexuality, or the incorporation of it as something alien and sinister,[...] influenced homoerotic ideas and longings that achieved expression on the screen.”, reflecting the position queer people were put in in the media: villains, self-humilliating sidekicks, or nothing. Main characters could never allow their heterosexuality to be doubted, so a high-contrast villain was utilized to serve the purpose of saying “This is not what we mean”.

Although these characters as villains are obviously put in a negative light, there are positive examples of queercoded characters that aren’t villains in even more modern media, such as Rose and Pearl from Steven Universe. They never explicitly kiss, or say ‘I love you’, but there is a clear subtext in their every interaction, Pearl’s extreme adoration of Rose (beyond being her servant and follower) and their ‘fusion scenes’ being a telltale sign of homosexual subtext in the show.

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The show that is going to be analyze is ´Sex Education´ (2019) by Laurie Nunn. This show counts with many LGBTQ+ characters, and a wild of interesting topics that affect many teenagers portraited in a light-hearted way; but this writing is going to focalize on Otis and Eric friendship. Otis is a straight teenager whose mom is a sex therapist, so he has a more clear idea of what sexual education is than most guys of his age; and Eric, his best friend, is a gay teenager from Nigeria that is comfortable showing who he really is and is in good terms with his sexuality, but also struggles with his family and school peers not accepting him. These two characters are a good representation of how relationship between men can be. Eric is an eccentric character who doesn´t care to be more ´feminine´ and openly gay, and has a really close friendship with Otis. In the show they are constantly hugging and crying with each other, and showing their ´weak´ side, without this having a negative connotation, which is something that is not portraited a lot in media.

Russo criticizes this type of behaviors in his book ´The Celluloid Closet´ by saying “Crucially at issue always was the connection between feminine behavior and inferiority. The conclusive message was that quiet souls could be real men—but not if they displayed qualities that properly belonged to women” (pg. 17). He complains that, for society, showing emotions is something only for women, and how in media gay characters are always portraited in a more feminine way, which is not something inherently wrong, but is always display as an awful thing or something that has to be made fun of. In the show it is demonstrated that you can be a man and still be open and sentimental with your feelings, without this meaning that you are inferior. Showing this type of dynamic on male friendship helps to break stereotypes on what ´masculinity´ should be like and how man can and cannot behave.

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In the chapter “Who´s a Sissy? is expounded how homosexuals were portrayed as a threat, unacceptable and a synonym of female in movies. All of those representations were reflected in the movie “Danish girl”. That movie showed how Einer started discovering his real identity because he wondered if he was a man or woman.

To begin with, as Russo said, “Heterosexual society has a vested interest in keeping homosexual relationships untenable and mystical because, made real, they are seen as a threat to family living.” (page 34) This can be also seen in the movie Danish girl, at the moment Gerda realised Einer was not joking about his transition. For this reason, she took him to a hospital to “recover” him in view of the fact that she and doctors thought he was mentally ill.

In addition, Russo mention “The only condition under which homosexuality has ever been socially acceptable has been on the occasion of its voluntary invisibility, when homosexuals were willing to pass for heterosexuals.” (page 35) That quotation is related when Einer transform into Lili in order to hide his sexual orientation to be accepted in a romantic way by men.

Furthermore, Mae West hold “female impersonation to be synonymous with homosexuality”. (page 42). The character Einer only felt as Lili when he dressed up as a woman, he refused to be called “Einer” because he is not him anymore. From his perspective, he is Lili and no more Einer.

To sum up, it can be taken for granted the point of view of Ruso about homosexuality due to at all times they were seen as no real man. This can be exemplified in the movie chosen, Danish girl, in which Eitan, the main character, is carried to identify himself as she because of his sexual preference.

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Ursula from The Little Mermaid (1989) and 'Divine', a drag queen who served as the inspiration for Ursula's design. (The Way We Weren't)

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Rose and Pearl from Steven Universe (The Way We Weren't)

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Homosexuality on screen has been portrayed in male terms. At the early stages of cinema, sissies were put into films just for comic relief, and in more recent times it has also been a recurring strategy. There’s the example in the series “Will and Grace” (1998-2020) were the secondary character Jack is portrayed as an stereotypical gay character, he is loud, he is flamboyant and very dramatic, he’s the laughing stock of the show along with Karen, representing the both the typical friendship between a woman and her gay friend. On the other hand, there are the main characters, Will and Grace, who are also friends, being Will the gay friend but portrayed in a more non stereotyped way, he’s more masculine and more straight acting in this idea that “It is supposed to be an insult to call a man effeminate, for it means he is like a woman and therefore not as valuable as a “real” man” (the Celluloide Closet page 8). Even though this series can be criticized by reinforcing stereotypes, it also tore them down at that time (1998), but in today’s world it shows a limited view of the lgbtqi+ community as it lacks this representation.

Despite being criticized it should be noted that it can also pass the “Vito Russo Test” of inclusive movies (or shows in this case) because:

-          There is a gay character

-          Their sexual identity is not the main characteristic defying them

-          They are main characters and vital to the plot.

Oliva Cortez

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Queer characters who are integrated into a story without condescension, explanation or self-consciousness of any kind are important in both media that center around LGBTQ+ topics and media that does not. According to Russo in Taking the Game Away from Hollywood: “Hollywood films, content with easy laughs and cheap social comment, have perpetuated a lazy, stereotyped idea of homosexuals in the place of realistic characters who happen to be gay”.

Following Russo’s line of thought, in police procedural comedy television series Brooklyn 99, Captain Raymond Holt is a clear example of what a good queer character represents. Him being a middle aged, happily married, black gay man is an important part of his character yet it is not a defining factor. His character does not focus around his sexuality but, nonetheless, the show makes it clear that he has faced racist and homophobic discrimination trough his career as a cop. Furthermore, the episodes that do delve into this part of him are comedic in nature because, at the end of the day, Brooklyn 99 is a comedy show. Adding to this, the fact that he is able to live an unapologetically happy life with his husband is a breath of fresh air, considering how often queer characters are struct by dramatic or tragic events to further advance a plot.

Characters like Captain Holt are of utmost importance in today’s mainstream media because he is proof that queer people can exist without being entirely defined by their sexuality or brushed off by saying that they are just like heterosexuals. Like Russo expressed: “A good story is universal and sexuality doesn't matter if one creates real people instead of stereotypes”

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Marsha P. Johnson
LGBT Liberation Movement activist.

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Vito Russo wrote in his book "The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in movies", specifically in his chapter entitled "Taking the Game Away from Hollywood", reflects the frustration and dissatisfaction he feels about how Hollywood and movies in general shows us a modified and unreal version when creating homosexual characters for his films. One of the main points in the chapter is that the biggest problem with this was the audience itself, since they were not uncomfortable watching a movie where homosexuals appeared because they knew they were heterosexual actors; knowing that they wouldn't react the same way if they saw a similar scene in real life. In fact, Vito Russo used in his play a phrase said by an actor who had played homosexual roles before, which reads "As for playing gay characters, Reeve simply says, "I think the problem is with other people. I've been used to straights playing gays and vice versa all my life so it seems pretty ordinary to me. People aren't freaked out by homosexual characters on the stage or the screen if they emerge as compelling, real people that the audience can identify with on other levels." (Page 202) Using this phrase as a reference, for this work we decided to choose the film called "Secret in the mountain", which takes place in the year 1963. Briefly, it is about two men named Jack and Ennis who meet when they were both looking for summer work. Both are hired to work on a mountain taking care of sheep and after a certain time they end up forming a casual relationship where although there was a lot of love, they could not show themselves like that in public, since in fact one of them was about to marry and homosexuality was not something well seen. They saw each other from time to time with the excuse of going fishing together or that they would go to the mountain for a few days, by this time a long time had passed and both were already married and had children. After some time, they stop seeing each other completely and the film ends when Jack is presumptuously killed by a tire that exploded in his face, although Ennis has the faithful suspicion that it was a murder due to homophobia. In addition, this movie shows how the actors demonstrate the hidden life of Jack and Ennis, with reference to the chosen quote, it is public knowledge that heterosexual actors like Heat Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal played roles of homosexual characters, and for this reason the audience was surprised at how heterosexual actors could do scenes where they are shown having casual encounters. Vito Russo used to say that gay and lesbian actors rarely played roles about their orientation, but instead played roles about heterosexuals as in the movie called “The accused”, in which the main character is interpreted by a homosexual woman who plays a heterosexual roll.

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In many occasions, when we read about how homosexuality and how it used to be treated and presented to the world, we tend to be shocked by how mankind lacked of empathy and principles, but, at the same time, it does not really surprise us at all, since gay repression is “a tale as old as time”. In “Frightening the Horses”, a chapter from Vito Russo’s book, “The Celluloid Closet”, I came across a lot of concepts that, although they were not new to me, they did not cease to surprise me. The concept that impacted me the most was the perception of homosexuality and the feelings involved, which was shown in the following quotation: “It is an old stereotype, that homosexuality has to do only with sex while heterosexuality is multifaceted and embraces love and romance”. When I first read this line, I instantly thought of a movie which I saw last year, called “Bohemian Rhapsody”, which tells the story of Freddie Mercury, a famous singer who was judged and harassed by society due to his personality and the way in which he expressed his true identity. At the beginning of the movie, we can see a young man in his early years, who is deeply in love with a girl, who he defines as the “love of his life” and shows a lot of feelings and sensations towards her. But, as the movie goes on and Freddie discovers his true sexual interests, we can appreciate how his image starts to change and he is shown as a gay man who only cares about parties, sex and drugs, and shows no true feelings, contrary to what was shown at the beginning of the movie, when he was in a relationship with a woman. This and many other prejudices and misconceptions were shown in the film towards this character’s evolution, but this one was definitely the one that caught my attention the most, since I particularly consider this to be a complete coincidence, rather than a true fact of what homosexual relationships are truly like.

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The beauty and the beast

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Peakly

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Hook

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The chef

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Cousin/ primo Camilo

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The Genie

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Bugs

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Mulan

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When you read the chapter “Who´s a sissy?”, from book The celluloid closet of Vitto Russo, you might understand the role of characters though the plot of some movies, specially Disney´s productions.The author said that “weakness in men rather than strength in women has consistently been seen as the connection between sex role behavior and deviant sexuality (…) crucially at issue always was the connection between feminine behavior and inferiority”. There are examples in Mulan, when warriors dressed up like geishas or even the song “I'll Make A Man Out Of You”.Also, some references about seven Dwarf´s behaviour from the movie Snow White.

In addition to this, Russo explained that “the use of female garb by male comics became just another device for a one-scene joke”, some example were when Timon danced hula-hula in The Lion King,  or the Genie with his phrases and outfits in Aladdin.

“Jokes about men who behave like women have never ceased to be funny”, think about the movie Bugs, the officer Benjamin Claws in Zootopia, El primo Camilo from Encanto, the chef from the Little Mermaid, or the scene of the battle in the Beauty and the Beast, when the closet caught a men and then released him screaming and dressed like a lady.  Although “homosexual characters have often been drawn as darkly alien and monsterlike in a twilight world of horror and dread. As an outlet for unspeakable ideas, then, the sissy often became a monster or an outlaw” said Russo, and you could think about Hook from Peter Pan, Lefou from the Beauty and the Beast again, the wanted man singin in the bar of the Tangled and Peakley from Leelo y Stich indeed.