BFF FILM & FESTIVAL BLOG
Baring More Than the Soul
A critical analysis of how sex scenes are shot and the way women are depicted on the screen.
Written by Alyssa Cosme
Photo Credit: Jason Laveris via Getty Images
As she promoted her new Netflix film The Last Letter from Your Lover, actress Shailene Woodley discussed her most recent roles with The Hollywood Reporter. She talked about shooting sex scenes, by critisizing the way women are depicted on the screen. Most actors know the ways they must expose their bodies in intimate scenes, but most audience members are unaware, causing some scenes to go over the heads of viewers. It made me think about how sex scenes in television shows and movies have been portrayed over the past few years. Woodley goes on to say that “Oftentimes in movies, you see two people having sex and the woman has her bra on, and in real life, I don't think I ever did that, sex with a bra — or very, very rarely.” It was more important to capture whatever the director envisioned. Woodley described the type of relationship an actor could have to successfully hit the mark when it comes to filming intimate scenes. She shares:
“I always sit down and talk with the director, the other actor. We always have conversations of, ‘Is nudity necessary? Is it going to distract from the scene, add the scene?’ We know exactly what the boundaries are. And I’ve never been in a situation where those things haven’t been honored.”
It is very important for actors to be vocal and honest with their directors, not only because it will make everyone on set more comfortable, it will ultimately convey realistic and organic storytelling. Woodley is no stranger to filming intimate movies. She is well known for her dark projects such as Big Little Lies and White Bird in A Blizzard. Although, Big Little Lies contained sexual violence, the context was important for the narrative in this particular series. I think she is the perfect person to expand upon this topic because she is very open with intimacy in her work. This comes from an actress who had her big break starring as a pregnant teenager in the ABC family drama The Secret Life of the American Teenager, a groundbreaking show when it premiered in 2008.
Photo Credit: Normal People via IMDB
Moreover, I wondered how many other people thought about the ways sex scenes in the media have taken a toll on the overall arc of the narrative. So what purpose do these scenes serve? I realized that audiences enjoy shows on streaming services that leave little to the imagination in their sex scenes, such as Normal People which aired on Hulu and Bridgerton which appeared on Netflix. I found that it was the closeness of these stories that kept the shows engaging and overall fun to watch. And by that, I mean that this kind of content can be impactful for people. It may make them look at themselves differently by how sex is represented and affect them negatively or positively, depending on the subject matter and the person. Overall, it is the way we engage with intimacy. It was the perfect feeling that many people might have felt watching dramas back in the day. It could be the ones that had us at the edge of our seats, waiting to see what happened next week. It could be the reason so many people lined up to see movies like Fifty Shades of Grey. Whatever the reason, there is definitely something to expand upon.
Photo Credit via Netflix
The idea of including sex scenes can be tricky because you wonder if the filmmakers decided upon it because they want to advance the narrative and the potential character development or for the sake of shock factor. Woodley highlights “realism over modesty” when it comes to her roles. Perhaps she wanted to convey that she values how realistic and natural these scenes are and pointing out the fact that wearing bras is just an idea that society is holding back because she says so herself that it is not something that she has done. The fact that we are having these conversations is significant because it is important to mention how realistic intimate scenes can be for actual people. Also, being able to talk about topics like these can be more accepted for mainstream purposes. For so long women were silenced when it came to discussions on sexuality and nudity in the media. And as time has gone on, we have become accustomed to intimate scenes and possible comfort in the relationships we see on screen. In some instances, it seems as though modesty is not an issue. In recent times, baring more than one’s soul is nothing out of the ordinary. It is in fact, very typical in any kind of show or movie. I’ve noticed this level of intimacy in many genres across all media platforms more than ever before. This certain kind of content has continued to to be explored and keeps the conversations open and less restrictive, which I appreciate as an avid movie/tv show watcher.
We can make up our own minds about how much intimacy we want to see, on the big or small screens. Perhaps this can make someone else think about the way they watch films or how they view people in general.
Alyssa is a recent Marymount Manhattan College graduate where she focused on script writing and media studies. She continues to write while residing in NYC.
Common Language: Lingua Franca and Auteurship
Isabel Sandoval is an auteur “staking her claim” in cinema. Sandoval’s control over her work is an important ownership, and in the film Lingua Franca, supports the film's themes of trans identity, addiction and immigration.
Written by Lex Young
Photo Credit via Lingua Franca trailer on Youtube
Isabel Sandoval is an auteur who has been creating her own home in cinema. Lingua Franca, which she wrote, directed, edited, starred in and produced, is a film where this control supports its trans identity and immigration themes. Each character is in conversation with their autonomy, home, and family. The control Sandoval exhibits over the film and its narrative is empowering, solidifying her importance in modern cinema and the vital need for trans folks and immigrants to have authorship over their narrative in cinema and life.
In Lingua Franca, each character grapples with control. The film begins with Olga, an elderly Russian immigrant who struggles with her memory. We see her in a kitchen, reminiscent of Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, women who meander through routine, domestic ritual, finding comfort in this routine, but not happiness, a forced expectation of femininity. Odes to Akerman can be seen throughout the lonely landscapes of New York beautifully captured by Sandoval. This is a marker of Akerman’s cinema as well, emphasizing a separation between self, identity and place. Two women who are looking for themselves in a vast and crowded city, a struggle to find home.
The character of Olivia, played by Sandoval herself, is bound in constraints of care, a duty to her family, her job as a caretaker for Olga, and someone she paid to marry her for a green card. Throughout the film, she speaks with a faceless mother, whose voice we only hear through the phone, and she is seen preparing care packages for her family back in the Philippines. This faceless mother is a striking absence of an image, just a distant voice, emphasizing the separation between two homes and family.
Insecurity can be found in the character of Alex, the grandson of Olga, his own identity wrought with the instabilities of addiction and toxic masculinity. This is shown by Sandoval, through the character of Olivia, displays Alex and his toxicities with an empathy that comes from desire. Sandoval plays with this idea of a savior. Alex is someone who desired Olivia without knowing her fears of deportation, her status as an immigrant, her loss of a green card marriage, and her trans identity. When he does find out it’s through deception and influence from his friends who spew transmisogynist slurs. Sandoval beautifully depicts the ongoing and never ending fight with policy, violence and fear that plague immigrants and trans folk alike.
Lingua Franca ends with Olivia’s rejection of Alex’s marriage proposal, and Olga once again struggling to remember herself and routine. It’s an open ending, not exactly a conclusion but a cycle; we’re empowered all the same with the knowledge of Olivia’s choice of a new beginning. Olivia speaks on the phone to her mother of another job and that she met someone new. Yet we’re left alone with Olga, in her bleak kitchen, wondering about our place in the world. It’s a nod to the continuous journey of finding comfort in one’s own identity, and the continuous struggles of trans folks and immigrants.
Isabel Sandoval highlights the importance of trans folk and immigrants controlling one’s narrative. Her auteurship is vital in her work, and to the empowerment of trans and immigrant voices, a pedestal formed with her own hands.
Lingua Franca
Director: Isabel Sandoval
Year: 2019
Streaming on Netflix
Lex Young is currently watching movies, writing and making things in New York. Catch more of their work on Instagram
The Power of Positive Media Representation for Trans Youth
Media has played a large role in reshaping public perception of the LGBTQ+ community, creating a more accurate and positive representation that lead to advancements in civil rights. As an anti-trans youth bill sweeps through state legislatures in 2021, progress must be made in the media to advance the representation of trans people.
It’s been 52 years since the Stonewall Uprising snatched the media’s attention and thrust the gay rights movement into the public eye, allowing millions of people to witness the injustices experienced by the LGBTQ+ community on a daily basis. Thanks to the diligent work of activists over the decades, depictions of gays and lesbians in the media became more positive, leading the culture to shift favorably towards gay rights — anti-discrimination laws have been passed to protect LGBTQ+ people, who can now serve openly in the military without punishment and whose right to marriage equality is now federally protected under the law. Considering the progressive strides made in recent years, it’s all too easy to accept the status quo, to forget how society became as accepting of the LGBTQ+ community as it is today, and to ignore the continued legislative backlash currently targeting transgender youth. Without persistent awareness and continued activism, however, progress will halt or even reverse course.
Before the gay rights movement making its foothold in pop culture, the public perception of the gay lifestyle was widely one of fear and ignorance. If homosexuality was mentioned in the media at all it was painted as sick or perverted, a deviant way of life led by villainous criminals or the pitifully weak, both deserving of terrible fates. Think of the cross-dressing serial killer in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) or The Children’s Hour (1961), a story centered around two school teachers who are accused of lesbianism that ends with one of them committing suicide because she is so appalled by her homosexual longings. These damaging stereotypes persisted throughout most of film and media until GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) was formed by a group of journalists and writers in 1985. GLAAD started as a response to defamatory news coverage of the HIV/AIDS crisis that disproportionately affected the gay community. What began as a protest outside of The New York Post’s office building grew into a national effort to reshape the media’s derogatory narrative on homosexuality.
Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn in The Children’s Hour (1961) - ALAMY
By 1990, as GLAAD grew in size and influence, the organization began hosting its own media awards ceremony honoring fair and inclusive representations of LBGTQ+ issues. They launched several successful ad campaigns casting gay people in a better light and convinced industry giants to change editorial policy to use more appropriate and respectful terms in their media coverage. GLAAD was becoming a media watchdog that fought defamation while simultaneously advocating for visibility. From the late 1990s through the 2000s, shows like Ellen, Will & Grace, and Modern Family— accompanied by other popular programs that prominently featured dynamic gay characters— helped normalize same-sex couples in the mind of the average American viewer who otherwise didn’t know any “out” LGBTQ+ people. Human beings are typically compelled by good storytelling and are more likely to show compassion towards gay issues if they feel a bond with a gay person, or even a gay character. A 2017 study at Pepperdine University “Changing Media and Changing Minds: Media Exposure and Viewer Attitudes Towards Homosexuality” found that, “people with more exposure to media with more positive representations of homosexual people and the issue of homosexuality will have higher acceptability for the issue and willingness to learn more about the issue.”
In today’s world, with wireless internet and countless media sources, the LGBTQ+ community is more positively viewed by the public than ever before, and yet transgendered people, particularly black trans women, are murdered at disproportionately higher rates. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) reports, “Sadly, 2020 has already seen at least 44 transgender or gender non-conforming people fatally shot or killed by other violent means, the majority of which were Black and Latinx transgender women. We say at least because too often these stories go unreported -- or misreported.” Alongside increased violence against trans people, HRC published an article on anti-LGBTQ bills currently sweeping through local and state legislature entitled, “2021 Officially Becomes Worst Year in Recent History for LGBTQ State Legislative Attacks as Unprecedented Number of States Enact Record-Shattering Number of Anti-LGBTQ Measures Into Law.” Most of the proposed bills target trans youth, aiming to restrict their ability to participate in sports or receive gender-affirming health care. In April of 2021, Arkansas passed HB1570, making it illegal for healthcare practitioners to provide puberty blockers or hormone therapy for transgender minors, prohibiting them from transitioning. According to The Advocate, the new law has sparked a rash of suicide attempts among trans youth, an at-risk group that already has statistically higher rates of suicide. How the media represents transgender people matters now more than ever before, but when it comes to accurate or positive trans visibility in the mainstream, the media still has work to do.
Cast of Pose clockwise from top: Angelica Ross, MJ Rodriguez, Hailie Sahar, Dominique Jackson, Indya Moore Photo credit: Bethany Wade
GLAAD published findings from a recent Pew Poll estimating, “nearly 90% of Americans say they personally know someone who is lesbian, gay, or bisexual. However, multiple polls show that approximately 20% of Americans say they personally know someone who is transgender. Given this reality, most Americans learn about transgender people through the media.” The problem lies in the continued use of defamatory stereotypes for trans characters, if they are present at all, and the casting of cisgendered actors to play trans roles. In Disclosure, a documentary about trans representation in the media available on Netflix, the various transgender tropes are broken down to reveal not only the harmful effects they have on public perception of the transgender community, but also the negative impact they have on trans people’s perceptions of themselves. More often than not, trans people are still cast as either victims or villains who are disposable one-dimensional characters, and their gender is often used as a plot twist or the butt of a joke. Even an exceptional performance of a cisgender actor playing a trans role sends the wrong message to audiences, a message that in some way trans people are just pretending. There is a dire need for stories inclusive of the trans perspective without trans identity at the center, stories that show trans characters thriving and not at odds with themselves or society. If most Americans derive their understanding of transgender people through the media, the media must give them trans characters they can identify with— and root for. In recent years, breakthrough shows like Transparent, which featured many trans actors, and Pose, the first show to star mostly trans women of color, proved there is an appetite for more nuanced and positive portrayals of trans life. A more fair and accurate representation of transgender people is not only more entertaining, but it also endears the audience to trans characters and informs them of trans issues.
The entertainment and news media play an important role in shaping society’s viewpoint on the LGBTQ+ community, but in truth, it is up to all of us to analyze the content we consume and do our part to unlearn our socialized prejudices. Even as anti-LGBTQ bills pass through state legislatures, the public outcry against such discrimination offers hope to trans youth currently living in states like Arkansas that people do care about them. Their lives, and the telling of their stories, can help stir compassion in and win hearts. They can help change minds.
