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Lesbian fiction and film

Books and films are an important part of our world. Sometimes they represent the true heart and feelings about what is going on during a certain time in history. In the beginning, lesbians and gay men were usually portrayed as emotionally sick and full of self-loathing in both books and film. Today, books have gone past that image, although most mainstream films are still lagging behind.

I’m not talking about the wonderful independent films that are winning awards at film festivals across the world and being viewed in arty film houses. What I am talking about are the films featuring lesbians as main characters done by big Hollywood studios. Almost all of these still portray lesbians as drug addicts, killers, thieves, suicidal, or confused women who, after some hot love scene with a lesbian, come to their senses and fall into the first straight man’s arms they can find. I can only think of one mainstream film, with well-known actors, where the two women literally went off into the sunset on a bus. Of course they went off with a bunch of illegal money from a laundering scam, but hey, that’s better than them dying tragic deaths like most of the others.

It is time for a change--for us to be viewed as we really are. Not as some desperate sex-crazed dykes who would kill you in a second for money or drugs. Maybe it is because our lives are so normal that it just doesn’t make good fiction, but I don’t believe that. For homophobia to decrease, people need to realize that we are pretty much just the same as anyone else. Working hard, paying bills, and living day to day. If we are viewed as the scourge of society, it gives that same society a reason to believe all the false stereotypes that they have been fed for years.

Now I know that there are huge financial reasons for having high drama on the lesbian prairie. I realized this hard fact when my partner and I went to see “Philadelphia” and half the people in the theatre walked out when the two guys kissed. The good thing is I do see a change eventually happening. With the increase of somewhat normal lesbian characters on TV featured on shows like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "ER," more people will be exposed to the fact that we are not all sick pervs trying to seduce straight guys’ wives or children.

Some of the top lesbian films
The link below will take you to a list of some of the best films which deal with lesbianism. Most have been compiled by Raymond Murray, author of Images in the Dark: An Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Film and Video. Mr. Murray is also the founder and president of TLA Video, a wonderful company which features “hip, foreign, alternative movies;” among these are hundreds of movies featuring gay women and men. TLA has six stores and a huge Website where you can buy these great movies without the hassle of ordering from a local, sometimes homophobic, video store (see the index for more info or click on the banner to check out TLA). Thanks to Mr. Murray for giving me permission to use his great reviews...

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