filmmakers continue to struggle to make—and evade—queer eroticism palatable to a mass audience

Derek Jarman

onscreen moments through all of cinematic history that might be read as queer

Yet such scenes and visual formulae need not be merely commanded by the dominance of that male gaze, which Laura Mulvey (1975) famously defined as hegemonic in cinema.

the display of children as wounded combatants is deeply disturbing.

Because of its freedom with utter fantasy, unrealistic social situations, and outrageous narrative components and visual effects, cult cinema has the option to be in open rebellion against the sex and gender order.

yet despite the violent subject matter, the film is considered both auteur and mainstream.

women as victims of violence turning into perpetrators of unbridled violence

matter-of-fact treatment of lesbian passion.

auteur

mostly from the horror or science-fiction genres

post-Sadean

genre clone

Subject to any combination of attack, censorship, contempt, criticism, ostracism, rejection, and ridicule, they can paradoxically become the object of attention from critics and academics and adoration from a part of the public

art films

painful explorations of difficult topics

axi Driver

After World War II

The filmmakers could therefore take the kinds of chances in style and content necessary to their artistic expression.

avant-garde experimentalists began working independently with film as a way to express different, less realist practices such as cubism, dada, and expressionism

surrealism, popular culture, and commercial horror films

Laura Mulvey

The sexual revolution of the 1960s in the United States, the advent of underground cinema by artists such as Andy Warhol, the ease of production with 16-millimeter cameras, and the availability of European "art house" cinema changed not only the erotic content of films being made in the United States but also the viewing habits of mainstream American audiences.

underground cinema

even childbirth

responsible for spiritual or moral progress, for higher types of social life, and for much correct thinking

insolently smoking cigarettes

"vamps"

offered spectators the voyeuristic pleasure

late 1920s"

nature of images that are considered erotic.

Feminist media scholarship has also emphasized the importance of designing studies that incorporate both textual- and audience-based methods

would be strengthened with critical qualitative audience studies.

men find themselves in an unfamiliar world where male worth is measured only by participation in a celebrity-driven consumer culture and awarded by lady luck

We found that participants were drawn to a fantasy version of a powerful, dominant masculinity and felt less favorably about characters who exhibited forms of masculinity that incorporated attitudes and behaviors deemed feminine.

Teenagers assumed their right to a sexual life with whomever they pleased, and bathers fought to be topless or nude at beaches.

the 'sexual revolution' would be an instance of a conservative force masquerading under the guise of liberation

assumptions of women as inferior appendage to man, and her consequent social and psychological role

the first oral contraceptives, popularly known as "the Pill."

men started having more choices when it came to magazines.

Lynn Hunt points out that early modern "pornography" (18th century) is marked by a "preponderance of female narrators", that the women were portrayed as independent, determined, financially successful

the advent of public and hardcore pornography.[38]

sex symbol

He would also encourage his research team to do the same, and encouraged them to engage in intercourse with him, too.

two weeks

the sexual freedom experienced by the adolescents actually permitted them an easy transition from childhood to adulthood

The idea of children having their parents as their early sexual targets were particularly shocking to Victorian and early 20th-century society.

found expression through other cultural outlets

Divorce rates were dramatically increasing

non-traditional sex

counterculture

changing mores were both stimulated by and reflected in literature and films

began to rise dramatically in the mid to late 1950s.

the subculture of the flapper girl included pre-marital sex and "petting parties".

as libertine

rise of urban police forces helped distinguish crime from sin

female chastity was required for respectable women

as masculinity was maintained

regulating sexuality

Victorian morality lost its universal appeal

The Sexual Revolution: Being a Rather Complete Survey of the Entire Sexual Scene

acceptance of sex outside of traditional heterosexual, monogamous relationships

1960s to the 1970s

sexual liberation