But that requires a mainstream audience to come in to see those representations. Contemporary LGBTI emancipation has changed that, and clearly that emancipation is fuelled by greater understanding and openness, which can be helped by screen representations. I argue that there remains a challenge in addressing the issue of diversity in contemporary screen production-persuading audiences to not simply look in a mirror at a reflection of themselves, but rather to look through a window at others-and I report on one recent initiative which might be beginning to address that issue.Īs Vito Russo made so clear in The Celluloid Closet (1987), the representation of gay men on the screen was, until the late 20th century, almost entirely negative or, at best hidden or coded. So do I make a niche film which will easily attract a gay audience but “preach to the converted”? Do I tone it down to make it more palatable to the mainstream, or, conversely, do I exaggerate and “exoticise” it, both of which risk rendering it inauthentic?
My intention is to offer a mainstream audience an authentic insight into a gay world, but the story involves aspects of gay behaviour which might alienate such an audience. I have written a contemporary, gay, screen version of Madame Butterfly which I would like to put into production. But these are, arguably, equally inauthentic.
I also look at two recent British TV dramas, Cucumber and London Spy that have taken a different approach, offering an “exotic otherness” in the world they present, making gay men seem somehow exciting in their difference. In the case of these two films, they are also seen to have reassured those audiences because, although sympathetically told, both stories end with the death of one of the lovers, subtly reinforcing a homophobic message. In this paper I look at how, in the past, films on gay themes that have appealed to the mainstream, for example Philadelphia and Brokeback Mountain, have tended not to feel entirely authentic in their representation, seeming “watered-down” or “heterosexualised” to make them acceptable to mass audiences. But all too often gay-themed films attract only gay audiences, and so tend to “preach to the converted” rather than supporting that emancipation by attracting mainstream, heterosexual audiences. Here are eight movies on Netflix which explore sexuality in all its explicit glory (while avoiding the glory holes, but we can leave that to It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.As 21st century LGBTI emancipation continues apace, screen representations are following suit. Perhaps it's a sign of how far we've come that such a mainstream platform for online entertainment boasts a number of films which feature unsimulated sex, while at the same time having something more to say about sexuality and the human relationships surrounding it.
There aren't an abundance of sexually explicit movies available (in fact, there's very little besides the films listed here) but what there is covers some impressive ground: sexual infidelity, youthful experimentation, sex addiction and even arousal through self-mutilation are all intimately explored. While Netflix don't do "porn", it's refreshing that the majority of the films on this list stand on their merits as impressive works of cinema, avoiding sensationalism and offering far more than crude titillation.
It's hardly a surprising reaction, given that sex is one of the primary drives of human nature. Whether it's admitted or not, people are inherently drawn to the rude and lurid, their libidinal impulses triggered by the sight of curving bodies pressing up against one another. There is always going to be a degree of salacious appeal in an article examining "sexually explicit" movies.