Lesbian Sex in Film

Even though it is great that the LGBTQ+ community is overall more represented on television and in media than say a decade ago, I think there still is lots of room for improvement.

According to GLAAD (a non-profit media monitoring organization for the LGBTQ+ community), gay men make up 46% of the LGBTQ+ representation in the media, whereas the percentage of lesbian characters is only 30%. And if lesbian characters are included in TV shows and movies, they are often stereotypical lipstick lesbians. The character is feminine, attractive and sexualized. Additionally she often engages—though she is not bisexual—in a sexual relationship with men. I would argue, that even if lesbians are portrayed in TV and film, they are created through the male gaze. Especially lesbian sex scenes seem to me to be heavily subjected to the point of views of men.

The movie “Blue is the Warmest Color” for example, shows a more casual sex scene between main character Adèle and a boy—in which Adèle seems rather bored and uninterested.

A later sex scene between Adèle and Emma (the other primary character) however, is portrayed as mystical and as something “pure”. Lesbian sex is depicted as all-consuming, far from being casual.

A comment by Julie Maroh* on the film was: “All I could think as I watched the scenes was that there were not two people fucking because they were desperately, even harmfully, in love. It looked like two women fucking in a way that would be stimulating to a viewer with little expectation for queer intercourse.” Many have referred to the film as borderline pornographic and prioritizing the male gaze. Then again, the film’s director is a man.

The same theme is visible in movies such as “Carol” and “Black Swan”. Unlike “Blue is the Warmest Color”--where Emma is not what would generally be considered a “femme” lesbian-- in these two movies both women are more stereotypically feminine, but the sexual scenes share what I think is the portrayal of lesbianism through the eyes of a man.  

(I cannot include any clips of the films as they often are considered pornographic, and therefore deleted from platforms like YouTube)

I think that this portrayal of lesbianism in TV shows and films is damaging for lesbians as their intimacy is then claimed for men’s pleasure.

* Julie Maroh is a writer and illustrator of graphic novels, including “Blue Angel”, the graphic novel the film “Blue is the Warmest Color” was based on.