The past weekend had me sitting at the Goethe Institute watching films being screened, created mostly by African film makers, from an event dubbed the OUT Film Festival. You can imagine my excitement seeing as I love films and this once a year event was screening films for people just like me...or so I thought...
By the time the third film was being screened, I began to notice a worrying trend. Where are the lesbian, bisexual and queer women films. The films were...excuse my French...a fucking cock fest. This got me thinking, that is, after I was done being pissed off...who is telling our story?
I casually asked the friend I went for the screening with,"what do you think of the lack of queer women films?" She casually answers, "Gay men struggle more than queer women ever will and so that's why film makers endevour to show the world that gay men are human too..." Eeeeeeeeeeeermmmmm!!!! Of course that answer bothered me to my core. Of course I was jilted by the fact that women who have sex with women are viewed as having it easy. Our struggle, is not a struggle enough. Who the fuck is telling our story?
I do not for one second blame my friend, after all it is a man's world.Gay men still enjoy male privilege.
Even as queer women we have been deluded into believing that to be lesbian, bi or queer is "not that bad." Why though? Is it a silencing mechanism like the way we have been silenced as women over the years. Is the badge of "no struggle" one to look at with pride or are we put in this position because to be a woman who has sex with women not considered real? Is the term "the struggle is not as bad" an indicator that we have won the fight against discrimination and homophobia or is it that women are simply viewed as less of...
Lesbians, bi and queer women, have so many things we struggle with every single day. From violence, to corrective rape, to social conformity to sexual health issues to getting babies by men we have no intention of ever loving to being labelled to being harassed for being queer to generally not being take seriously for being queer. For our struggle to be branded less than automatically means that we will never be given air play. It means that we will never be featured in films because the world views us as sexual objects only good for girl on girl, past that nobody really gives a shit about what we go through;who we are as women.
Why is it that film makers are going out of their way to "normalize"gay? Is their story more interesting? Are they flamboyant and we are boring? Are we victims of a world plagued by patriarchy? For how long will our story be branded as "other" "not that bad" "less struggle". For how long will queer women be silent...silenced!!!!
Who is telling our story?
By the time the third film was being screened, I began to notice a worrying trend. Where are the lesbian, bisexual and queer women films. The films were...excuse my French...a fucking cock fest. This got me thinking, that is, after I was done being pissed off...who is telling our story?
I casually asked the friend I went for the screening with,"what do you think of the lack of queer women films?" She casually answers, "Gay men struggle more than queer women ever will and so that's why film makers endevour to show the world that gay men are human too..." Eeeeeeeeeeeermmmmm!!!! Of course that answer bothered me to my core. Of course I was jilted by the fact that women who have sex with women are viewed as having it easy. Our struggle, is not a struggle enough. Who the fuck is telling our story?
I do not for one second blame my friend, after all it is a man's world.Gay men still enjoy male privilege.
Even as queer women we have been deluded into believing that to be lesbian, bi or queer is "not that bad." Why though? Is it a silencing mechanism like the way we have been silenced as women over the years. Is the badge of "no struggle" one to look at with pride or are we put in this position because to be a woman who has sex with women not considered real? Is the term "the struggle is not as bad" an indicator that we have won the fight against discrimination and homophobia or is it that women are simply viewed as less of...
Lesbians, bi and queer women, have so many things we struggle with every single day. From violence, to corrective rape, to social conformity to sexual health issues to getting babies by men we have no intention of ever loving to being labelled to being harassed for being queer to generally not being take seriously for being queer. For our struggle to be branded less than automatically means that we will never be given air play. It means that we will never be featured in films because the world views us as sexual objects only good for girl on girl, past that nobody really gives a shit about what we go through;who we are as women.
Why is it that film makers are going out of their way to "normalize"gay? Is their story more interesting? Are they flamboyant and we are boring? Are we victims of a world plagued by patriarchy? For how long will our story be branded as "other" "not that bad" "less struggle". For how long will queer women be silent...silenced!!!!
Who is telling our story?
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