Festival-goers examine gay subtext in films
“X2: X-Men United” offered an arena Wednesday night for some serious discussion about gay subtext in films.
Cy Martz, public relations representative for Pride! Alliance at Utah State University, mediated a discussion after the film was shown in the Taggart Student Center Auditorium.
“The theme of PrideFest this year is ‘Something Queer in Everything I See,'” Martz announced at the beginning of the film viewing.
For the fifth year, PrideFest is offering a “diverse array of documentaries … and films celebrating the [gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered] community,” according to the announcements.
“X-Men United,” Martz said, is directed by an openly gay man, Bryan Singer, and the gay subtexts are intentional in the film.
“We’re going to look at this through a queer lens tonight,” he said.
Singer directed another film, “Apt Pupil,” which also has many homosexual implications and subtexts, Martz said.
The show was attended by about 16 people and a lot of laughter during key parts in the movie, including one where a young character admits to his parents that he is a mutant and has been attending a school for mutants rather than a prep school they were under the impression he had enrolled in.
“The coming out scene was so typical of most homosexuals’ experience,” said Anne Thomas, a graduate student in the College of Natural Resources. “[Like] the part where the mom says, ‘well, haven’t you tried to not be a mutant?'”
Thomas attended the film with her partner Elisha Dillon, studying for her second bachelor’s degree in history, who added that one of the main blocks in acceptance is the fear people have of homosexuality. Thomas explained they live a normal life, own a home together, dogs, vehicles and the only visible difference is that they are two women.
Mutant unity was very apparent in the film and the unity of many Pride! Alliance members was as well. Thomas and Dillon said it was hard when they moved from Texas to Logan this past year, but Thomas especially feels the community has been mature about things, including PrideFest.
“My main reason for coming tonight is to support the festival,” she said.
Dillon added that she had watched “X2” before and wanted to see the take that would be discussed after.
Following the film, Martz led a dialogue of the obvious and not-so-obvious gay subtexts in the movie “X2.” He also started discussions about the presence of homosexuals in TV and other movies.
Tim Keller, a Pride! Alliance board member, said he had told a friend about the film showing last night and his friend had responded with a lot of anger.
“He got really upset and said we’re trying to take his films away from him,” he said.
They were never his, Keller said.
Television and film are consistently showing more and more gays and lesbians with side parts and Thomas is pleased with the exposure and said she thinks they are on their way.
“We are now the token [in media],” she said.
Shows were mentioned including “The Simpsons,” “Will and Grace” and “Seinfeld,” as well as films like “Rebel Without A Cause” and “Chasing Amy,” where gay subtexts, characters and story lines are present. One argument included the lack of character development in films like these, where “the token gay person” is comedic and only labeled by their sexual orientation.
“It’d be nice for a movie to develop the character more so viewers are invested in them already,” Thomas said. “Then they can learn they are gay.”
Other ideas brought out during the discussion included the hold the government tried to put on the mutants in “X2,” requiring them to register, or just killing them.
“It reminded me of the Holocaust,” Thomas said. “We were not a large group targeted in that, but we were targeted.”
Other parallels identified include: Mutants in the movie view their status not as a disease but as an identity they cannot control or cure, there are parades of human citizens protesting the freedom of mutants and no one understands the mutants or knows anything true about them.
“Fear and ignorance create hatred,” Thomas said.
Finally, a key parallel brought up by Martz is a scene in which Nightcrawler asks Mystique (a fellow mutant who can morph into anyone) why if she has that power doesn’t she use it every day to appear normal. Mystique responds with, “I shouldn’t have to.”
“We are here to stay,” Martz said. “And we shouldn’t have to pretend.”
Although he does. He said he has to change the way he dresses, talks and acts in classes to feel accepted.
Thursday was Blue Jeans Day, when people are asked to wear blue jeans if they support gay marriage. Many USU students have questioned the reasons behind this and Martz is well aware of the arguments.
“I wake up every day with a laundry list of behaviors I have to change so I appear normal to other people,” he said.
Blue Jeans Day is not a trick on straight students, Martz added, nor do Pride! Alliance members walk around campus taking counts of who has blue jeans on and who does not.
“It turns the table on straight people,” Thomas said. “So one day out of the year they have to consciously think about an action as I have to every day. They have to ask themselves, do I wear blue jeans today or khakis?”
“X2” and Pride! Alliance offered an open discussion of the media’s representation of the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered community in the nation and at USU. Dillon and Thomas feel it was an adjustment to move to Logan: It has an “interesting climate, and I’m not talking about the weather,” Thomas said, but they have been pleased with USU’s commitments to diversity and the allowance of events like PrideFest.
Dillon added that it’s about showing people the normalcy of her life, as in the end of “X2” where the X-Men confront the president and let him know they are a good group of citizens and not going anywhere. Martz said at the end of the discussion that the mutants want to be recognized as people with characteristics independent of their special powers. The same is for homosexuals, he said.
Thomas said she was enlightened by the gay subtexts and implications in “X2.” She didn’t grasp them all the first time she watched the movie because she doesn’t think of herself as only a lesbian.
“If people come up to me and ask, what are you? I say, I’m Anne. I’m not just a lesbian,” she said.
The thoughts expressed during and after “X2” will continue into Saturday when PrideFest ends with guest speaker, Frank DeCaro, in the TSC Auditorium at 8:30 p.m.
-ireneh@cc.usu.edu