gay and lesbian movies
The Blockbuster near where I live has a surprisingly large selection of movies with gay and lesbian main characters. Recently they decided to put in a Gay/Lesbian section, even adding small rainbow stickers to the sides of all of the videos in this “genre.” I was fairly horrified. I had loved the fact that movies with gay and lesbian characters were assimilated with the genre that the movie fell into: comedy, drama, horror…and I couldn’t understand why now the fact that a movie had gay and lesbian content somehow transcended the actual genre of the movie itself.
I can see how by having a separate section, the Blockbuster is trying to advertise the fact that they have a large selection of movies with gay and lesbian characters, that this isn’t necessarily a negative thing. But I couldn’t help but feel that by segregating the movies with gay and lesbian content, they were making it easier for people to avoid, as though this content might be something inappropriate for a family browsing through the comedy section to find.
I also found it interesting which movies fell into the Gay/Lesbian section, such as “The Birdcage” and “Boys Don’t Cry” while “But I’m a Cheerleader” was still in comedy, and “The Crying Game” was in drama. Perhaps they just haven’t figured out yet which of all their movies have gay and lesbian content. But that’s kind of the point. I feel like it shouldn’t matter.
Anyone have any opinion?