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[–]Innisfree 12 insightful - 2 fun12 insightful - 1 fun13 insightful - 2 fun -  (6 children)

I agree with the other posters that the root is simple misogyny. And my, very, very biased solution to this, is good representation (I love films, ok? :) )

I feel like in popular culture lesbians never really articulated a coherent strong vision for the masses of what our lives are like. What we are about. Sure there have been successful attempts, mostly confined to the community, given women stories in general struggled to appeal to the wider audiences.

But now the culture has shifted, I believe there is an opportunity to make exclusively lesbian stories cool. It can't come from the States in my opinion. Hollywood seems too risk averse, they can't conceive of a lesbian film without any men, if their life depended on it.

And that's what I think we need. A lesbian love story/blockbuster without any men in it. The French did it. It's time for more. Sure most men will find a way to fetishize it, and precisely because of that we need movies that very clearly and resolutely say a big "F off" to male desire.

If I could write, my passion project would be a TV series on lesbians during the witch trials from 1400 to 1600 or so. It ties in rather nicely with the current 'witch hunt'.

[–]lmaonope333 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

portrait of a lady on fire has hardly any male characters, and it was also directed by a woman

[–]Innisfree 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Yep, that's the one I referred to when I said the French did it. Sorry wasn't clear. I really enjoy seeing a lot of dudes praise the movie given it's really a sort of lesbian manifesto that has nothing to do with them :)

[–]lmaonope333 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

!SPOLIER ALERT!

yeah. and I love the fact that it depicts an abortion, it really adds to the depiction of how life was like for women and girls in that time period. you can almost tell that the movie was directed by a woman just by the way the abortion scene was handled

[–]Innisfree 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I absolutely love that detail! Every time I think of that movie I find a little passage and think - that is so much more revolutionary and subversive than I initially realized. It's a treasure that keeps on giving.

[–]Gacho666 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

What do you mean when you say: the French did it?

[–]Innisfree 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

There was this film "Portrait of a Lady on Fire", written and directed by a proudly lesbian French director who at this point has international cult status. It starred her gf of 10 years who is a great actress (also gorgeous). The film went out to be quite the phenomenon internationally. It even brought more fuel to the feminist movement in South Korea.

Check out the movie thread on main, I hope we get to discuss it in a week or so (if it is up-voted enough). Because really it is a film that made a quiet revolution in the art world and in the lives of so many people.