Why It is Simpler To Fail With What Defines Soft Lesbian Content Than You May Suppose

It’s of little surprise to most sapphic movie buffs that Hollywood doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to positive lesbian representation. From the widespread trope of "bury your gays" to the equally widespread phenomenon of gay-baiting, it can turn out to be tough out there for a motion picture enjoying dyke.



Hays Code
A lot of the problems with gay cinema started all the way back in 1934, with the adoption of the Hays Signal. The Hays Code was a list of 36 rules that filmmakers had to follow in order to get their movies made. The guidelines involved bans on points like increased depictions and assault of lustful strike, but the record as well forbidden the interpretation of "erectile perversion." Homosexual love, desire, and sex fell under the definition of "perversion" in the Hays Program code.


The Hays code existed to please the more conservative and religious movie-goers of the ’30s. The more progressive views of 1920s Hollywood led conservatives to fight for government sanctioned censorship in film, bringing about the code, which lasted until 1968. Films of the 1920s, including a film with the first on-screen kiss between two men, Wings (1927), were considerably more friendly in their depictions of LGBT folks.


Wings was an anomaly in its portrayal of homosexual love as something serious. Despite it being of a tragedy somewhat, the main characters of Wings expressed gay love in a sober way. The couple’s romance has been treated with the same gravity as a straight one, unlike gay films that came before it.


However, with the adoption of the Hays Code, movies had to present homosexuality in a "morally upright" way: either eliminating explicit depictions altogether (which was more frequent) or by making gay characters tragic figures to show the "lonely and tragic" life of a homosexual if they were to "choose" the lifestyle.