Themes of Gender Performance, Home and Belonging in the New

Queer Cinema of the 1990s

by Qingxiao Jin

April 2013

Submitted in partial fulfillment of

the requirements for the degree of

B.A. (Hons.) Media and Popular Culture

School of Cultural Studies and Humanities

Faculty of Arts, Environment and Technology

Leeds Metropolitan University

2

CONTENTS

Abstract 3

Acknowledgements 4

Introduction 5

Chapter One: Literature Review 8

Chapter Two: The Social Context of The NEW QUEER CINEMA

in 1990s’ America 14

Chapter Three: The Economic Representation of The New

Queer Cinema 20

Chapter Four: The Expression of Home and Family

Belonging of The New Queer Cinema 25

Conclusion 33

Filmography 35

ABSTRACT

This dissertation focuses on New Queer Cinema in 1990s, and

it was analysed through two films, My Own Private Idaho (dir.

Gus Van Sant, 1991) and a documentary film- Paris Is Burning

(dir. Jennie Livingston, 1990). There are four chapters in my

dissertation; the first chapter is a literature review, which

points out three relevant theories to support this topic that

Judith Butler’s arguments of gender and performance, Richard

Dyer’s suggestions of gays in film and the relationship

between film stars and society, and queer theory of New Queer

Cinema. In Chapter Two, I argued how the social context

influences the queer culture and New Queer Cinema and how Gus

Van Sant and Jennie Livingston present this matter in their

films. Chapter Three takes Debra Boyer’s research of male

prostitution and culture as a key to explore economic

representation in My Own Private Idaho (1991) and Paris Is

Burning (1990). Chapter Four borrows Getino and Solanas’

argument of the Third Cinema and Robert Lang’s ideas of the

home and self-identity to explore the representation of

4

family belonging in both films. Overall, New Queer Cinema as

an important independent film movement not only affected

American cinema deeply, but also reformed the sexual

attitudes of American society in 1990s.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The writing of this dissertation has been the first important

academic challenge I have ever taken before. And this study

would not have been finished without the support, help and

patience of the following people.

5

Firstly, I would like to send my deepest and the most

grateful gratitude to my dissertation supervisor Dr. Zoë

Thompson. Her very professional, helpful and serious guidance

is the foundation of my dissertation. Secondly, I would like

to thank the lecturer of Writing Development, Lisa Samson,

her help and suggestion of academic writing are very

important to an international student as me. Thirdly, I would

like to thank Dr. Neil Washbourne, Dr. Dan Laughey, Dr.

Melanie Chan, Dr. Lisa Taylor and Dr. Peter Mills for their

support and advise of various aspects of this dissertation.

Fourthly, I would like to thank my classmates for their

feedback, sharing experience and friendship. Fifthly, I would

like to thank the Library and the Discover System of Leeds

Metropolitan University, which are the mainly resources of my

academic research. Sixthly, I would like to thank my mother

and I would not study in the UK without her financial and

spiritual support. Finally, I would like to thank Yuan Liang

who is one of the most important people to me. She always

stood by my side and cheered me up through the good times and

bad.

6

INTRODUCTION

‘‘Queer’ should be understood as a theoretical approach to

rethinking human sexuality’ (Benshoff and Griffin, 2004,

p.1). It can be used to describe other sexuality, which is

non-straight (not defined as heterosexual) as gay, lesbian,

bisexual and transsexual. Moreover, the queer theory argues

that sexuality is not only a biological action, but also is

affected by social and cultural contexts. Judith Butler’s

study of the human sexuality, Bodies That Matter: On The Discursive

Limits of “Sex” clearly explores that the ‘sex’ and gender can be

understood as a sexual performativity, which is a result of

daily life choice; in other words, the social or cultural

environment is very important to it. She also says ‘‘sex’ not

only functions as a norm, but is part of a regulatory

practice that produces the bodies it governs, that is, whose

regulatory force is made clear as a kind of productive power,

the power to produce- demarcate, circulate, differentiate-

the bodies it controls’ (Butler, 1993, p.1). Therefore, this

dissertation focuses on how the New Queer Cinema represents

7

the gender problems of queer culture; and analyzes how the

1990s’ American social and culture contexts influence New

Queer Cinema via two films, My Own Private Idaho (dir. Gus Van

Sant, 1991) and Paris Is Burning (dir. Jennie Livingston, 1990).

Film, as a very important media genre, which combines the

culture and social context; that is, queer film also plays a

significant role of structuring and promoting queer culture.

As Ellis Hanson points out in Our Takes: Essays on Queer Theory and

Film ‘the study of film is especially important to questions

of desire, identification, fantasy, representation,

spectatorship, cultural appropriation, performativity, and

mass consumption’ that film is a medium, which examines

people’s understandings of ideology, sexuality, class,

gender, sociology and cultural identity (Benshoff and

Griffin, 2006, p.2). As a result, this is the first reason of

why I choose film as the method of representing queer

culture.

Secondly, the 1990s were a significant decade of both

American society and American cinema. Of course the

historical and social contexts also played an important role

of the development of American film industry, such as the

1960s’ sexual revolution and the

8

ADIS crisis in 1980s. New Queer Cinema, a movement of

homosexual-themed independent films and videos on defined by

B. Ruby Rich at Sight & Sound Magazine in 1992. Actually this

film movement was the first time of openly approaching queer

culture as the film narrative, and it took queer films out of

the underground. On the other hand, the homosexuality became

more and more acceptable in worldwide since late 1980s, even

some Asian countries started to organize the Gay Pride and

built LGBT youth centre for protecting gay people, such as

India Trikone, Israeli LGBT Association and etc.; and they

also could be seen as social encouragement for New Queer

Cinema.

Thirdly, recent queer films (since 2000) pay more attention

to same-sex marriage, coming-out of closet, identifying

queer-identity and so on; they are very different with New

Queer Cinema, which presented a liberal, impressive,

confident and brief attitude for their queer identities and

shared their experiences and understandings about life, world

and people through films. As B. Ruby Rich (Rich, 2004, p.58)

writes ‘There are two ways to dismiss gay film: one is say,

“Oh, it’s just a gay film”; the other, to proclaim, “Oh, it’s

a great film, it just happens to be gay.”’. New Queer Cinema

presented many great films, not only because of the ‘gayness’

but also their revolutionary ideas of culture, gender,

sexuality, class, race, and ideology. In other words, these

queer films have every prerequisite of a great film, like

good stories, beautiful images, wonderful film music and

9

integral representation. Therefore, Compared to New Queer

Cinema, more recent queer films are stereotypical as classic

Hollywood heterosexual films, but in homosexuals.

There are four major chapters in this dissertation. Chapter

One is a literature review that sets out the basic

theoretical support of this study from three aspects. First

theory is engaged in the arguments between gender and sex by

Judith Butler, it argues the fundamental understanding of

sexuality of this study that sex is not gender. Gender can be

seen as a social identity rather than a biological sex, and

the heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality and

transgender all can be defined as performance of gender,

which means gender can be played. Second aspect includes two

theories, which are Richard Dyer’s argument of the connection

between the ‘stardom’ and society, and his fours points of

homosexual representation in film since 1960s. Third theory

is the analysis of New Queer Cinema and the features of queer

culture that is also the root of the whole dissertation.

Chapter Two focuses on the social and cultural contexts of

New Queer Cinema and the biography of two film directors- Gus

Van Sant and Jennie Livingston who are known by New Queer

Cinema. In order to access the American history between 1980s

and 1990s and the social transforms to explore the structure

and characters of New Queer Cinema. On the other hand, the

backgrounds of filmmakers are very important to their films,

10

which is also a good way of analyzing their films in further

two chapters.

Chapter Three introduces the economic representation of New

Queer Cinema, which expresses a strong sense of money such as

young male prostitution in My Own Private Idaho (1991) and drag

performance in Paris Is Burning (1990). Moreover, this chapter

explores how 1990s’ American economy influences New Queer

Cinema, and how these two films reflect the economic contents

on screen. In fact, it is not only the financial problem, but

also engaged in class and race.

Chapter Four analyzes the expression of home and family

belonging in both films. Actually, Bob’s gang and House of

LaBeija are ‘homes’, which are built by friends or non-blood-

related ‘families’ of queer community. And the similar

background, life experience, fantasy of family (because of

the backgrounds of broken families) and queer identity bring

them together to create their own ‘families’. On the other

side, the representation of home and family belong is argued

in gender, sexuality and self-identity. Moreover, Robert

Lang’s ideas of road movie and queer identity and Tinkcom’s

argument of parenting are examined with My Own Private Idaho

(1991) and Paris Is Burning (1990). Consequently, either Chapter

Three or Chapter Four, their arguments all build upon the

gender performance and queer theory of New Queer Cinema,

which theories I will explore in the literature review.

11

CHAPTER ONE

LITERATURE REVIEW

Gender Performance

People are born with a sex, but the sex is not same as the

gender; in other words, a person is a male in the biological

sex but he can identify himself as a female in gender. Sex is

a matter of biology, but gender is a combination of

individual cultures and social contexts. As Butler points out

some women behave as men and men dress themselves as women,

which phenomena is normal in today’s society; the

psychological effects are more important than the biology

(Butler, 1988, p.519). Indeed people’s behaviors of gender

depend on how they identified themselves, like drag queens in

Paris Is Burning (1990) who believe they are women in the male

figures. Moreover, people’s gender choices are deeply

affected by the families, cultures and social environments,

which three aspects play an essential role of the psychology.

For example, if a boy has thought he should be a girl, and

then he would change his social and biological behaviors to

suit his gender of female; because he identifies himself as a

woman in spirit, even if he is in the body of male. On the

other hand, some transsexuals would like to do transgender

surgeries to change the bodies for matching their genders;

and even some of them hate and feel very uncomfortable with

12

the original body shapes, and change the bodies could let

them feel more complete. However, there are still many

transsexuals prefer to keep their biological figures, but

perform in another gender.

Jennie Livingston presents above ideas of gender problems in

her documentary film Paris Is Burning (1990), and Dorian Corey

also says he likes his man body and he likes to dress up as a

woman, too; he does not feel shame by the man body. But Venus

Xtravaganza says he knows he is a ‘girl’ when he was 13, 14

years old, and he wants to do surgery of sex change to make

himself more complete. Psychological and biological aspects

play important roles in distinguishing sex from gender, it

means people do biological transforms to match their

psychological ideas, and they are not just crazy. Butler

(1988, p.525) suggests that gender performance in the theatre

is different with the reality; it can hide

13

behind a convention, which announces that ‘this is only a

play’, but the performance of sexuality is very dangerous in

the reality. On the other hand, gender is a kind of human

acting, which establishes the performance in theatre and the

gender acting cannot be separated from human sexual desire.

Butler also believes that people could play the performance

of sexuality, which might against their original sexual

orientations, for some reasons (Butler, 1990). For instance,

Scott’s sexual representation in My Own Private Idaho (1991)

that he plays a homosexual hustler for money, but Scott is

still a heterosexual. In other words, gay prostitute is

merely a character of making money to Scott; and it is same

as the transsexual performance to the drag queens in Paris Is

Burning (1990).

Butler points out a mistake in feminism theory, which is that

feminists consider questions based on women who are defined

in the traditional and patriarchal system; in the other

words, feminists recognize ‘women’ in sex instead of gender,

it means transsexuals and drag queens are not included in

(Butler, 1990). In a way, feminism is a part of

conversational social theory, which is opposite of supporting

gender freedom, even some feminists are lesbians. Thus,

Butler’s arguments of gender are important to queer theory

rather than other feminists. Benshoff and Griffin (2009,

p.342) explore five main points of queer theory; firstly,

queer theory challenges the dichotomy structure of

homosexuality and heterosexuality, and the ‘normal standards’

14

of the sexual relationship and sexual reproduction. Secondly,

queer theory against the domination of heterosexuality that

define people by sex instead of gender, and reject and

unrespect gender freedom. Thirdly, queer theorists represent

a new form of queer theory, which changes the old-fashion

claims of homosexual identity and encourages the flexible

genders and human sexual desires. Finally, queer theory has

transformed to queer politics that supports gay, lesbian,

transsexual and bisexual people who are marginalized by the

‘mainstream’; and makes sure they would not be rejected by

their sexual experiences. On the other hand, queer theory

provides many good resources for two methods of understanding

and promoting queer culture, which are literature and films.

Gus Van Sant and Jenni Livingston use the queer theory and

some postmodern ideas and film styles to structure their

films My Own Private Idaho (1991) and Paris Is Burning (1990)

(Benshoff and Griffin, 2009, p. 343); and Chapter Three and

Chapter Four will explore the films’ specifics in two

individual themes of economy and family.

Gays in Film and The Stardom

In 1950s, the famous film director Alfred Hitchcock had

sought homosexuality under a ‘normal looking’ in his films

Rope (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1948), it presents two smart and

well-educated gentlemen murder their friend together at home.

This film does not reflect their relationship directly, but

audiences still can feel the metaphor of gayness. Two main

15

theories of Richard Dyer are represented in this section,

which are the Hollywood stardom and the ‘gayness’ in queer

films. Alberoni defines the stars are ‘a remarkable social

phenomenon – an elite, privileged group who yet on the one

hand do not excite envy or resentment (because anyone may

become on) and on the other hand have no access to real

political power.’; he also suggests that stardom ‘a general

social phenomenon and no just with film stardom’ (Dyer, 1998,

p.7). Moreover, Dyer (1998, p.9- 10) expresses the origin of

film stardom in Hollywood is the consumption of the mass

media; and the stars are products of Hollywood. It means the

most important function of film stardom is that promotes or

sells films to the audiences. My Own Private Idaho (1991) is a

good example for Richard Dyer’s arguments of the stardom;

River Phoenix was a heterosexual Hollywood film star in

1980s, and his action of playing a gay hustler in Gus Van

Sant’s picture not only helped the queer film to achieve in

mainstream cinema but also promoted queer culture to American

society through films.

Richard Dyer (1978, p.15) explored four points to discuss the

homosexual representation in film. First, he suggests the

‘gayness should express itself on film’ and he also presents

a term ‘gay sensibility’, which an imaginative image reflects

an awareness that different from the normal (heterosexual)

world, a heightened awareness of human problems or a feeling

of social taboo. And the suppression not only incites

subcultural sensibility, but also provides conditions for the

16

progress of creating new culture and sensibility. Moreover,

it is very difficult to bring a different sensibility (which

objects the heterosexual ideology) in a film, because people

who work on films cannot control them, even the directors. As

My Own Private Idaho (1991) it did not promote as a queer film

at the first place, but gay sensibility changed mainstream

cinema step by step. On the other hand, the mainstream

Hollywood Cinema is commercial and its purpose is profits, so

commercial cinema cannot produce films as underground,

independent and art cinema. For example, the contemporary

French cinema is more personal and more freedom to practice

authors’ ideas than the Hollywood. However, the appearance of

the New Queer Cinema totally reforms the patriarchal

Hollywood, which point will be explored in Chapter Two.

Second, Dyer (1978, p. 15) borrows a ‘common sense’ of gays

are ordinary human beings, to oppose the unrespectable

judgments from heterosexuals to homosexuals; and film could

be a way to promote this point. At the temporal time,

homosexuality had not been accepted by the mainstream

cultures, straight people described gays as monsters and

freaks. So Dyer wants to change the incorrect ideas of queers

and he totally agrees with gay people using film as a method

of propaganda to transform homosexuals’ social position.

Furthermore, queers are not different from heterosexuals,

they do well in relationships, they are intellectual in their

work and they do well for their lives. Queer films show

17

queers’ lives on screen to educate the masses that sexual

orientations should not be the standards to judge people.

Third, Dyer (1978, p.16) presents that ‘realism is the

trickiest word in the whole critical vocabulary’. What is the

realism? It is really hard to explain, because everyone has

his or her own understandings of the world and people are

easily dominated by the mainstream ideology. For example, the

straight people cannot know queers’ lives very clear that

based on their different social and cultural consciousness

and life experiences. That is why I select Paris Is Burning

(1990) as the example to represent queer culture in this

study; it is a documentary film, which interviews drag queen

and records their lives and experiences through the camera.

And all of its images are the ‘evidences’, the natural

contents without artificial changes and dramatic adaptations.

This documentary film just offers the drag queens an

opportunity to talk about themselves, instead of presenting

an educational story.

Finally, the stereotype is a serious problem to queer films

that they lost in the stable modes, such as the dumb blonde,

the happy nigger, the bull dyke and the camp queen that

people knew since the first time they watching gay films

(Dyer, 1978, p.16). Thus, the most important part is that

breaks the stereotypic producing system of homosexual films

and brings new ideas, new authors and new characters into the

films. Moreover, the narratives of gay films need to consider

18

the social context of the class, race, culture and etc.. New

Queer Cinema is a great example in the social aspect, which

is also the key of Chapter Two. The success of My Own Private

Idaho (1991) proofs it that Gus Van Sant takes the characters

of the Second Cinema (European Cinema or Author Cinema) to

this film, such as the scene of falling down house and the

images of Mike dreams about his mother and family. While, the

new visual pictures and filming ideas can surprise the

spectators and enkindle their passion of queer films.

New Queer Cinema

New Queer Cinema was an important film movement in 1990s,

which introduced independent gay and lesbian films and

videos; it was defined by B. Ruby Rich’s work The New Queer

Cinema in 1992. The raising of queer films started at

Toronto’s Festival of Festivals in 1991, since then New Queer

Cinema was on the way to the mainstream (Rich, 2004, p.53).

Benshoff and Griffin (2006, p. 9-12) express that queer films

can be defined at least in five ways; first, the main

characters of a film are queers. Second, the authorship like

writers, directors and producers are queers, which point is

the centre of the New Queer Cinema. Third way is the

spectatorship; in early stage, the queer films produced and

presented at underground cinema that influenced by social and

political matters at that time, so most of the spectators

were gays and lesbians. A classic Hollywood straight film,

The Wizard of Oz (1939) accords to be a queer film in this

typical pattern of spectatorship. Fourth, some particular

19

film genres are easily thought of as queer, for example the

unconventional films or the films have excessive sexual

scenes. Actually, New Queer Cinema’s films are not exactly

same with the queer films, which are defined by Benshoff and

Griffin. The audiences of New Queer Cinema are not only

homosexuals but also heterosexuals and this transform means

that New Queer Cinema is acceptable in mainstream.

Furthermore, New Queer Cinema shows some new images of

homosexuals to the audiences and it borrows some tough and

controversial subjects as film narratives, such as the AIDS

crisis.

AIDS played a significant role in the New Queer Cinema

because it was seen as a symbol of homosexuals by the effects

of the AIDS crisis in 1980s in United States. AIDS used to be

described as GRID (gay related immune deficiency) in a

medical article of The New York Times in 1981, and then it

was changed to AIDS (acquire immune deficiency syndrome)

soon; however the negative influences of homosexual from AIDS

did not stop after the name change (Benshoff and Griffin,

2006, p.202). During 1980s and 1990s, there were thousands of

people died from AIDS; and it is still one of the most

dangerous diseases in today’s world. At the early stage,

people had poor information and knowledge about AIDS, most of

them affected by incorrect coverage of the mass media, and

they believed that AIDS was a gay disease; as the result,

queers were banned around public places like restaurants,

hospitals, cafes and so on. In 1985, Rock Hudson was a famous

20

Hollywood actor who died from AIDS and it made queers’

situation worse; but this issue attracted more and more

people’s attentions on AIDS, such as the past American

President Ronald Wilson Reagan (Benshoff and Griffin, 2006,

p.204). Turing to 1990s, some young queer filmmakers took an

opportunity of the New Queer Cinema to represent the ‘new

AIDS’ images that how homosexuals faced AIDS and death in

films, for instance The Living End (dir. Gregg Araki, 1992),

Edward II (dir. Derek Jarman, 1991) and Poison (dir. Todd

Haynes, 1991). New Queer Cinema brought AIDS on screen; it

was not only good for queers but also good for people who

were HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) positive, to get more

social and medical supports. On the other hand, these films

played an important role of educating the medical knowledge

of AIDS and eliminating discrimination of the homosexuals and

AIDS victims. As previously explored that the social context

is a major part of structuring New Queer Cinema, therefore

next chapter will analyze it in detail with two films My Own

Private Idaho (1991) and Paris Is Burning (1990).

21

22

CHAPTER TWO

THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF THE NEW QUEER CINEMA IN 1990S’ AMERICA

The nineties of the Twentieth century was a significant and

particular decade in both aspects of history and culture.

Therefore, this chapter will introduce the social context of

American cinema in 1990s, the biology of two great film

directors Gus Van Sant and Jennie Livingston who stand out

from New Queer Cinema, and their films My Own Private Idaho

(1991) and Paris Is Burning (1990); both films will be analysed

in Getino and Solanas’s theory of First, Second and Third

Cinema. Following the fall of Berlin Wall and the dissolution

of the U.S.S.R., United States became the only superpower on

the world stage. In late 1980s, American economy took a

serious stock market crisis; and under the influences of the

Presidential elections of 1990s, the whole society of United

States was totally reformed. The economy has a close

relationship with American cinema (especially New Queer

Cinema in 1990s), which argument will be explored detailed in

Chapter Three. As people see that the social context of

United States was the foundation of its cinema; of course,

New Queer Cinema was also the product of American social

reformations between 1960s and 1990s, instead of the sudden

emergence of queer films. In other words, it took a longtime

process and had been through many social changes, such as the

23

Sexual Revolution in 1960s. Why is it important to represent

directors’ biography in this chapter? Because Gus Van Sant

and Jennie Livingston as queer filmmakers are very special

for the mainstream American cinema; and their backgrounds

play an important role in their films that they not only show

their stories and experiences on screen, but also brought the

representation of homosexuality and underground queer culture

in American Cinema.

Since the mid-20th century, the mainstream American cinema

was controlled by the Big Six (six major film companies),

which were Walt Disney, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures (allied

with Columbia Pictures), Twentieth Century Fox, Universal

Pictures and Paramount Pictures (Holmlund, 2008, p.3-4). But

the Big Six started to pay attention on some quality mini-

major film studios, which mostly focused on independent films

or art films, such as New Line (produced My Own Private Idaho,

1991) and Miramax (produced Paris Is

24

Burning, 1990); furthermore, the Big Six purchased them in

1990s for extending both mainstream and downstream audiences.

Because independent films, art films and some foreign films

became more and more popular and they almost occupied the

whole theatrical exhibitions in the United States; until

1995, the box office of independent, art and foreign cinemas

already caught the domestic cinema (Holmlund, 2008, p.9-10).

While, the Big Six realized it was a growing market and they

could make profits from it as well. As Getino and Solanas

(1967, p. 51) pointed out that First Cinema is a commercial

cinema, whose purpose is making money through films. It means

film is a commercial product to the Hollywood cinema, rather

than a form of art to the Second Cinema (Author Cinema) or a

weapon of anti-capitalism to the Third Cinema. Therefore, the

early popular Hollywood film narratives were all about white,

middle-class, capitalism and hetero patriarchy. These

standards were suitable for the mass audiences’ ideology, and

it was also the only way of making money from the mainstream

spectators for the Big Six.

Following the rise of downstream cinema, there were many top

films stars jumped from independent films (Holmlund, 2008,

p.18), for example John Travolta who plays Vincent Vega in

Pulp Fiction (1994) and Keanu Reeves who plays Mike in My Own

Private Idaho (1991). On the other hand, some new arguments were

presented in the process of social reforms like sexuality,

violence, race, class and etc. that provided many new ideas

for the film narratives to challenge stereotype or mainstream

25

American cinema, such as the appearance of New Queer Cinema.

In addition, the film narratives of New Queer Cinema were not

only about LGTB (lesbian, gay, transsexual, bisexual), but

also included social issues, for example the young male

prostitution in My Own Private Idaho (1991), African and Latino

Americans in Paris Is Burning (1990) and AIDS crisis in The Living

End (1991). In other words, independent films and art films

present something they want to say or they want people to

know, instead of just pleasing the audiences or making money.

And Holmlund (2008, p.19) also says that there were two

groups of film directors are outstanding in the decade of

1990s who were African American directors of 1970s and queer

directors of New Queer Cinema. In fact, the real Hollywood

movies ignored the very tough topics, specifically the AIDS

crisis; so, most queer films were produced independently

(Benshoff and Griffin, 2004, p.11). New Queer Cinema offered

these queer filmmakers a wonderful place to present their

ideas or opinions of homosexuality on screens. On the other

hand, New Queer Cinema was a medium between the social

reforms and the changes of American film industry; it also

leaded queer films into the mainstream, attracted the Big Six

to queer culture and expanded its audiences from homosexuals

to heterosexuals. My Own Private Idaho (1991) is an great

instance of the first queer film presenting at Hollywood and

inviting a ‘straight’ Hollywood film star River Phoenix to

play a queer character Mike; and it is a major reason of this

film’s success. Furthermore, My Own Private Idaho (1991) can be

seen as a symbol of breaking the boundaries between Hollywood

26

films and queer films. Later of this chapter will explore

this film and its director Gus Van Sant.

Gus Van Sant is a famous American film director,

screenwriter, producer and film editor. 24th July, 1952, Van

Sant was born in a middle-class family in Louisville,

Kentucky, United States; his father was a travelling salesman

and because of his job, Gus Van Sant spent his childhood in

continuously moving with his family (Baseline and AMG, 2010).

He was interested in painting and super-8 filmmaking, which

led to study design in Rhode Island School in 1970s (Baseline

and AMG, 2010). However, Gus Van Sant did not continue his

career as a fashion designer, but became a film director. In

American film industry, Gus Van Sant is one of few successful

film directors who achieved successful in both independent

cinema and Hollywood Cinema; in other words, he breaks the

rules of mainstream film’s narratives and raises the

acceptance of independent films (queer films) by the masses.

Gus Van Sant’s pictures deliver a strong sense of European

(Author) Cinema, which perhaps was influenced by his working

experiences in Europe; after that, he went to Los Angles to

build his utopia of film in 1976 (Baseline and AMG, 2010).

Actually, Gus Van Sant started his career from directing

television advertisements; and after a few years’ efforts, he

eventually got an opportunity to direct his debut Mala Noche

(1985), which presenting a love story between a gay liquor

store clerk and a Mexican immigration. It gained a huge

27

success in 1980s’ American filmdom and L.A. Time named it as

the year’s best independent film (Baseline and AMG, 2010).

Based on the prosperity of Mala Noche (1985), Gus Van Sant

attracted attentions of Hollywood film company- Universal

Picture, but they did not cooperate well that an important

matter was about his new ideas of films, Drugstore Cowboy

(1989) and My Own Private Idaho (1991) (Baseline and AMG,

2010). Both films present the people who fluctuate the social

fringes, such as the young male prostitutes in My Own Private

Idaho (1991); these film narratives were very tough to

Hollywood mainstream film audiences. On the other hand, the

peripheral issues about homosexuality and art filming modes

already became Gus Van Sant’s personal signatures, which were

also the keys to achieve his independent films’ successes

during 1989 to 1995; and that is why he is so important to

the New Queer Cinema. The Oscar’s nomination of Good Will

Hunting (1997) brought Gus Van Sant to a new level, which is

the most popular Hollywood film directors, and then he

directed two more films, Finding Forrester (2000) and Psycho

(1998) that remarked from Alfred Hitchcock. Since 2003, Gus

Van Sant chose to return the independent arthouse cinema; and

he won his first significant film director award by right of

Palme d'Or’s winner Elephant (2003) in the Cannes Film

Festival.

As Getino and Solanas (1976, p.48) defined that First Cinema

is the Hollywood Cinema, which is under the control of

American capitalism and produces films within American models

28

or the bourgeois world-view. For example Gus Van Sant’s

picture Good Will Hunting (1997) is a classic heterosexual film,

which expresses the mainstream and capitalism view through

the camera to pleases the mass spectators. However, he is

very successful in Second Cinema as well, which is also

called Author Cinema or Europe Cinema that “the film-maker or

director be free to express himself in non-standard language

and inasmuch as it was an attempt at cultural decolonisation”

(Getino and Solanas, 1976, p.48). Such as Gus Van Sant’s

early films Drugstore Cowboy (1989) and My Own Private Idaho (1991)

that he was so free to present what he wants to say: the gay

culture and the people who live at the bottom of society. As

the result, Gus Van Sant is a major figure of First Cinema

and Second Cinema, which are structured by the same root of

the capitalism. And he makes his own space between two

cinemas and jumps from one to the other easily. For the Third

Cinema, Getino and Solanas (1976, p.52) describes it as an

absolutely liberal cinema, which openly and directly sets out

to against the System of American imperialism and capitalism

in the film industry, which idea will be discussed with

Jennie Livingston’s queer documentary Paris Is Burning (1990)

further in this chapter.

Jennie Livingston was born on 24th February, 1962 in Dallas

Texas, United States; and grew up in Los Angles. She studied

at Beverly Hills High School and got her first degree at Yale

University in 1983. Actually, Jennie Livingston was a student

of photography, drawing, painting and English Literature, but

29

she becomes a filmmaker after her graduated. Her aunt Alan J.

Pakula was a film director and she was the person who took

Jennie to the filmmaking (New York Time, 2010). Livingston

was known for her first documentary film Paris Is Burning (1990),

which won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize in 1991; at the same

time, a few major mass media institutions, like Los Angles

Times, Time Magazine, Washington Post and etc. named this

documentary film as one of year’s best pictures. Moreover,

New York Magazine selected Paris Is Burning (1990) in its 40th

Anniversary Special Edition and complimented it as a great

film in cultural and social aspect. On the other hand, Paris Is

Burning (1990) was a significant part of the foundation of

Miramax Film Company early success, and also helped it to

stand out in Hollywood filmdom. Jennie Livingston made this

film through a documentary method to explore a group of black

and Latino homosexuals and transsexuals’ understandings,

feelings and status of their lives based on organizing a drag

ball in New York City (Green, 1993). Indeed, documentary is

more subjective than other film forms and its representations

totally depend on the director’s point of view, but it still

reflects the truth of its object. As Jennie Livingston did

that she picked the angle of drag queens and expresses their

behaviors via homosexual identities and lets the audiences

can see from queers eyes. Although there were some

connections between New Queer Cinema and Third Cinema, but

New Queer Cinema was not Third Cinema.

As B. Ruby Rich suggest that even New Queer Cinema was

involved with Hollywood, which does not mean New Queer Cinema

30

lost its roots of independent spirits and radical impulses of

queer social and culture contents (Leung, 2004, p.155).

Actually, New Queer Cinema used the financial support of

First Cinema to produce the films, which kept the natures and

spirits of the Second and Third Cinema; and Jennie Livingston

took a more gentle presenting method in her documentary film,

instead of a forceful and intense mode, which was expressed

in The Battle of Algiers (dir. Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966) or La Hora De

Los Hornos (dir. Octavio Getino and Fernando Solanas, 1968).

On the other hand, associating with Hollywood played an

essential role of New Queer Cinema’s success in 1990s, such

as Hollywood starts play queer characters in queer films,

which phenomena was called ‘niche market’ by B. Ruby Rich. In

fact, there are some connections between New Queer Cinema and

Third Cinema, which as in Pairs Is Burning (1990) presents a new

idea of human philosophical sensibility in American society,

which is absolutely oppositional to capitalism; and this

documentary film tries to explore the things hiding in these

drag queen’s hearts (deeply), to show their ‘underground’

emotions to the spectators. In other words, the film genre of

documentary and the film narrative of queer culture in Paris Is

Burning (1990) basically matched the contents of Third Cinema;

even so they still have a fundamental difference, which is

totally anti-capitalism. Therefore, Leung (2004, p.156) says

New Queer Cinema and Third Cinema learned from each other,

rather than the Third Cinema took over the New Queer Cinema.

Furthermore, the films of the New Queer Cinema can be seen a

combination, which possesses the commercialisation of

31

mainstream and the film features of the Third Cinema (Leung,

2004, p.163). This is also why New Queer Cinema could be

victorious in both independent cinema and mainstream cinema.

32

33

CHAPTER THREE

THE ECONMIC REPRESENTATION IN THE NEW QUEER CINEMA

The fiction film My Own Private Idaho (1991) and the non-fiction

film Paris Is Burning (1990) both present a strong sense of money

that a kind of human desire to break out of poverty through a

way of selling themselves. Not only the male prostitution but

also the drag queens’ performance, which can be seen as an

indirect form of showing their bodies for pay. Compared with

Twenty-first century’s queer cinema focuses on gay equal

rights and same-sex marriage, New Queer Cinema prefers to

expresses the sexual freedom and spiritual liberty of

homosexuals; in other words, it seeks and presents a

different lifestyle and cultural respect. Why would people

choose that way of making money and living? Who actually were

they? This chapter will answer these questions and analyze

the economic representation of the male prostitution and

transgender performance within social and cultural contexts.

New Queer Cinema started in the late 1980s and raised to top

in the 1990s; like other films movements, New Queer Cinema

had been through a long process since 1960s’ American sexual

revolution and the development of gays and lesbians urban

underground culture in America (Moon, 1998, p.117). In this

progress, sexual revolution broke the traditional and

patriarchal codes of sexuality that provided an advance

34

foundation to sexual multeity, especially homosexuality.

Under the challenges of 1960s’ sexual revolution to American

society, the masses extended their acceptability of different

sexual morality with the mainstream (monogamy and

heterosexuality) (Smith, 1990, p.415).

American sexual revolution began with the birth control pills

going to market in early 1960s; and it was also a very

essential social movement to the United States, which

reformed people’s values and sexual attitudes (Cohen, 2012).

Some new understandings of sexuality as Playboy Philosophy,

the love and sex freedom, pornography and etc. were pointed

out from this revolution. Smith (1990, p.416-418) summaries

seven trends of sexual attitude from Sexual Revolution, which

are premarital sex, extramarital sex, homosexuality,

pornography, sex education, birth control and other sexual

matters; and he

35

also suggests that the mass media plays an important role of

the sexual revolution, especially the magazines and films.

Indeed, the new sexual understanding were the symbols of

1960s’ American cinema and its new ideas of sexuality

achieved many great films like The Hustler (dir. Robert Rossen,

1961) and Midnight Cowboy (dir. John Schlesinger, 1969), which

X-rate film won the Best Picture in Forty-second (1969)

Academy Awards; this phenomenon proved the influences of the

1960s’ sexual revolution on American mainstream cinema (Moon,

1998, p.118). On the other hand, these films not only send a

message of male prostitution but only deliver a sense of

homosexuality; for instance the first male customer of Joe

Buck, and the complex relationship between two main

characters in Midnight Cowboy (1969). However their homosexual

senses are under a cover of male prostitution. By the effects

of American sexual revolution, people started to change their

traditional thoughts of sexuality; at the same time, its new

sexual attitudes perhaps provide people a new job of selling

sex, particularly for the young generation.

In fact, until 1978 there were 300,000 young boys chose male

prostitutes as their jobs, just like Mike and Scott in My Own

Private Idaho (1991) (Boyer, 1986, p.1). Debra Boyer did a

research of developing the connection between male

prostitution and culture. And she (1986, p.1) says male

street sex work becomes more visible and it can be found in

every major city of the United States. Irrefrangibly, the

sexual revolution affects the male prostitution in America

36

deeply. Going to New Queer Cinema in 1990s, some queer films

represent male prostitution as well, but they more focus on

homosexual emotional connection rather than sexual

relationship. In My Own Private Idaho (1991), Mike shows a

powerful emotion to Scott instead of sexual actions. In some

stances, the attractions transform from physical to spiritual

can be seen as a upgrade, which means that male prostitutes

get out of the pure sexual desire into the emotional

relationship. As Mike’s performance in film, he does not lose

the feelings of love because of being a hustler who sells sex

for money; this idea will be explored with the campfire scene

in Chapter Four.

After the appearance of subculture, the underground culture

of street-corner man prostitution attracted attention from

some scholars. As Boyer reports that young man prostitutes

exist in every single big city of America and most of them

are between 13 to 22 years old (Boyer, 1986, p.1). They share

the same streets with the mental ill, the criminal, the

social rejected, the homeless and the passerby, but they

still organize their own ‘families’ to distinguish themselves

from other street groups. What bring these boys together? And

who belong to these ‘families’? Boyer interviews some young

male prostitutes and she summaries that a big part of them

have similar backgrounds of broken families, bad

relationships with parents and some of these boys even do not

have homes; but they all possess an intense desire of money

and support the new sexual attitudes of 1960s’ sexual

37

revolution. As Dorian says in Paris Is Burning (1990) that he

wants to be rich, very rich, then he will share his money

with his ‘families’ to take them out of the poverty. Truly,

male hustlers and drag queen communities are deeply

influenced by subcultural ideas, which break the patriarchal

social standards and live on their own ideas of life, even if

they are unacceptable by the mass. In Paris Is Burning (1990), the

same sexual orientation of transgender brings them together,

they create their own ‘Oscar’ ball performance to show and

encourage themselves, the drag ball presents that drag queens

do the performance not only for cash, but also for finding or

enjoying the ‘real themselves’. They feel uncomfortable as

‘normal’ men dressed up, and this drag ball gives them a

chance to do anything they like. On the other hand, the

groups can provide hustlers and queens a place to build their

fantasy or utopia, which cannot takes place in the real

society.

As a result of the interviews of young man prostitutes in

Boyer’s report and drag queens in documentary film-Pairs Is

Burning (1990) that they are always talking about money, which

is also the centre of their lives and their life choices.

Honestly, money is important to everyone in this world, but

most of them would not sell their bodies for paying. What

made them choose this way for living? Back to the decades of

the 1980s and 1990s, I realize that the economic environment

played an important role of this phenomenon. The date of 19th

October 1987 was called Black Monday of stock market crisis

38

in the worldwide. It started in Hong Kong then extended to

Europe and also attacked the United States and Canada; the

Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 508 points, which

number refreshed the record of 1929’s financial crash.

Furthermore, American economy had fallen down to the bottom

and a lot of people lost their jobs, of course, it also

caused social instability. The Crime increased, families

broke, and people lost homes and felt very unsafe. In the

scene of Bob and Scott’s conversation, Scott says hatchet man

should be Bob’s job, and then Bobs shows a bitter smile and

says: ‘at least my little friend offers a job, that’s so good

to me.’ Actually, Scott does not mean to offer Bob a job and

it is only a joke. But, Bob is more sensitive to this world

than Scott; he just sighs his life that never has a real job,

even if he knows Scott is playing him.

This crisis directly affected the young generation’s life or

perhaps totally broke their dreams of future. Many young boys

had to give up their studies without government and parents’

financial supports and young men lost themselves in this

economic crash as well; therefore, the idea of finding an

easy way of making money occupied their whole lives. On the

other hand, the male prostitutes have quite limited working

experiences and skills; even some of them have criminal

records and bused drugs and alcohol (Morse and others, 1999,

p.92). The scene of Bob’s gang people discussing to rob a

band, Bob says: ‘stealing is my location’ and Mike says: ‘the

robbery will be fun’. That is, they think it is merely a way

39

of getting money as selling sex instead of the crime. When

Mike and Scott need money to buy fight tickets to Rome, they

sell their bodies to the German guy- Hunt for pay, which is

the only one job they can do and Mike and Scott are quite

enjoyable. Young men, who like them are definitely out of

lists of formal employees, so the prostitution seems the only

way left. In My Own Private Idaho (1991), Mike’s life background

is a good example of reflecting this bad financial

environment that he only remembers few things about his

mother and the scene of Mike’s childhood also shows he was

very little, even cannot walk; it means Mike might left home

when he was just a kid, then his memories of the family just

stop there. In addition, a boy as Mike’s age who should study

in the high school or collage instead of selling sex on the

streets, but the fact is he has been work as a hustler for

few years. Mike is different with Scott that Scott chooses to

be a prostitute and he can do whatever he wants, because he

would eventually get supports from his middle-class family.

Scott performs very confident in this film; for example the

scene of older woman’s house: he sits there to read

newspapers and have some drinks naturally, just like the

house owner, but Mike acts very nervous and scared. Scott’s

confidence comes from his family or the consciousness of

class, and he also can be read from the concept of The

Flâneur, which is a French word to describe a ‘gentleman’ who

spends most of time walking in the streets or siting in cafes

and restaurants to watch the cityscape (Wilson, 1992, p.4-5).

The young male prostitutes can be seen as a symbol of the

40

modern urban life in 1980s, as the flâneur did in the

Nineteenth century (Coverley, 2006, p.58). Furthermore, the

way of Scott walks, the way of Scott talks to people and the

way of Scott solves problems all reflect his positive and

confident attitudes of life, which perhaps are the

‘requirements’ of ‘the flâneur- the ‘hero’ of the modern city’

(Coverley, 2006, p.58).

Men prostitutes could earn $200- $1400 per day and it was a

very high income in the 1980s’ American society (Boyer, 1986,

p.12). But, most of their money was spent on alcohol, drugs

and clothes; a very small number of sex workers could stay

away from substance abuse and a high percentage of male

prostitutes shared drugs with their customers during the sex

work, which conduct placed them at an increased risk of the

AIDS (Morse and others, 1999, p.92). A young male sex worker

said in Boyer’s interview that he bought new clothes, took

showers and made him looking better merely for getting more

customers, instead of changing his prostitute life; as a

vicious cycle, he could not leave this ‘street business’,

even if he made some money from it. Moreover, a high percent

of male prostitutes and their customers were gays, but

homosexuality was not very acceptable in 1980s’ America under

the effects of the AIDS crisis; perhaps, they had sex with

men not only for money but also for sexual desires. Boyer

explores that some young male hustlers build the stable

relationships with ‘sugar daddies’, a group of older

homosexual men who have steady incomes; they provide

41

prostitutes financial and material supports, and also give

them a pseudo-family for companionships and sex (Boyer, 1986,

p.7). As the result of Boyer’s reports that these young male

hustlers do not hate their jobs, because the male

prostitution becomes more acceptable in America and this kind

of street life can offer them a psychological security, which

is a feeling of family belonging (Boyer, 1986, p.8, p.15);

this idea will be analyzed with My Own Private Idaho (1990) in

Chapter Four. In the hustler groups, the similar backgrounds,

same sexual orientations and same jobs bring them together;

and they also believe that their tight relations can protect

them from the dangerous reality. On the other hand, some male

prostitutes are not homosexual and they just have sex with

men for money, like the character- Scott in My Own Private Idaho

(1991). As Chapter Two presents that his behavior can be

understood as gender performance of playing homosexuality

what is same as drag ball performance in Paris Is Burning (1990)

but in different forms. Next chapter will focus on how the

New Queer Cinema represents the senses of home and family

belonging through the camera.

42

43

CHAPTER FOUR

THE EXPRESSION OF HOME AND FAMILY BELONGING IN THE NEW QUEERCINEMA

The representation of home and family belonging plays a

significant role in these two films, My Own Private Idaho (1991)

and Paris Is Burning (1990), but they express this idea in very

different way. For an instance, Gus Van Sant sets the sense

of researching home as an important role of the plot of My

Own Private Idaho (1991); it is a road movie on surface, but the

‘road’ actually is the process of Mike finding and

identifying himself. In Paris Is Burning (1990), Dorian Corey,

Venus Xtravaganza and other drag queens say that they leave

home because their ‘special’ genders cannot be understood or

accepted from the families who had blood relations, and they

feel very embarrassed to live with transsexuals. As Chapter

Three points out that the same backgrounds of broken family

bring those young men together; in their group, everyone is

same and they would not need to feel awarded about their

gender problems or sexual orientations. The group provides

drag queens with a warm and safe place to present themselves,

and it is also the key of making their relations intimate, or

closing to each other. While, this chapter will explore how

Gus Van Sant and Jennifer Livingston represent the concept of

home and family belonging in their films.

44

In My Own Private Idaho (1991), Gus Van Sant explores some scenes

in the metaphorical presenting method, such as at the

beginning of the film, there a house crushes down on a road,

which reflects the unsuccessful result of Mike’s journey at

the end of the film (Lang, 1997, p.339). Moreover, at the

last scene of the road, Mike goes back to the same road and

says: ‘This road will never end, it probably goes around the

world.’ (Taubin, 1991-2), it symbolizes that Mike’s trip of

seeking his family and himself would never end too. While he

knows he falls in love with Scott but Scott let him down, so

he needs to find another man who can make him feel secure and

attest that he really is a homosexual. Why Mike still wants

to start the trip of looking for his mother, even if he knows

that he might not succeed at the first place. In other words,

Mike is identifying himself instead of finding his home or

his mother. He loses himself in life and he dose not know who

he is, a street

45

hustler, a queer who crushes on Scott, a little brother of

his father, or a son of his brother; he needs a way to find

out, that is Mike’s journey in film (Lang, 1997, p.337). This

argument can be seen from some scenes of My Private Idaho (1991)

that Mike’s trip starts in Portland through Seattle, Idaho,

Italy and finally back to Portland. In fact, he leaves his

hometown to find the ‘home’ of his utopia; if he really needs

a safe place to stay, he would not go away from Portland to

find a nonexistent home. Moreover, Mike has such little

information about his mother and his expectation is

impossible to take place. Then, what makes him to continue?

It could be a feeling, which is warm and safe that he wants

to be needed, loved and cared. After Mike arrives in Italy,

he thinks he might live there with Scott and give up his

journey, although he has not found his mother yet. Because he

already found himself, a queer prostitute who falls in love

with Scott (Roman, 1994). In other wards, if the objective of

Mike’s journey is only for his mother, then he would not stop

until he finds her. Therefore, the real ‘home’ for Mike is

not a house or a place to stay, it is the love (Benshoff and

Griffin, 2006, p.231).

The scenes of Mike’s narcolepsy always take place when he

sees or feels something relating to his mother or home, which

can be understood as the sense of déjà vu; and the symbolism

of ‘the sleep’ as another way of representing home. As we

know, sleep is the most quite, peaceful and comfortable time

to a person and people feel secure and stable from it. So,

46

Gus Van Sant sets the narcolepsy as the time for Mike

recalling his family. On the other hand, dream means

something dose not exist in the real life, which is a good

method to reflects Mike’s home, because all images of his

mother and family come from his childhood memory and Mike

even cannot tell the difference between the fantasy and the

reality; in addition, sleep is an only possible way of seeing

and staying with his mother. In biological aspect, babies are

in sleep when they growing up in mothers’ uterus, where could

be comprehended as the first home of people. And Mike thinks

his mother is home, it is another reason of leaving Portland

to find his mother instead of staying in America to wait for

her back. In some stances, the female characters of My Own

Private Idaho (1991) are closely related to Mike’s dreams;

sometimes, they even play roles of breaking his dreams. For

example, when Mike waits for the traffic lights, he sees a

women who looks like his mother standing opposite, it causes

his narcolepsy in the street; when his female client (the

older rich women) takes him home and her house remains his

memory of home, then he passes out again; in Italy,

Carmella’s emergence breaks Mike’s utopia of settling down

and spending his life with Scott; but that is a powerful

contrast between the real life and Mike’s imaginations; in

other words, he comes to much harm in reality, so he only can

put all wonderful things into a fantasy.

By contrast, the representation of family belonging in Jennie

Livingston’s documentary film- Paris Is Burning (1990) is

47

explored on drag queens’ communities, which they called ‘The

House’ and ‘mother business.’ For example, drag queens in

this film rename themselves in the same family names, like

LaBeija, Ninja, Pendavis, Saint Laurent and Xtravaganza.

Pepper says when his mother knows he likes to dress up as a

girl, and then she chooses to break his heart that burn his

woman cloths down, instead of trying to understand him and

supporting him. Eventually, Pepper leaves his blood relations

and stays with friends who are same like him. In their

community, they live together like a real family and support

each other unconditionally. Freddie and Kim have been living

in a same apartment for a long time. They go to the drag

ball together and share their lives together; when Kim spends

an hour of making cloth for the ball, Freddie just sits for

Kim’s company. He also says: ‘it helps out when somebody else

is there in your corner, at your side to say, “ Yeah, you can

do it. You’re gonna be fine. Just go out there and do what

you usually do.”’ Drag queens would not judge their friends

as their blood relations did, because they understand each

other. They feel safe and happy in their community, which

makes up for what they lose from their real families. As

Boyer points out the effects of broken homes on young male

prostitutes and delinquent controls (Boyer, 1996, p.15),

which argument can be analyzed drag queen community as well,

but in individual definitions of broken home. Young male

hustlers’ broken families normally means poor relationship

with parents, families are broke by some accidents, or even

do not have a family at all, like Mike of My Own Private Idaho

48

(1991). For the drag queens, broken homes refers to parents

or siblings do not understand or encourage their sexual

identities, as Pepper LaBaija and Venus Xtravaganza of Paris is

Burning (1990).

In My Own Private Idaho (1991), Mike and Scott present two

individual worlds; Scott’s one is the cold, traditional and

patriarchal, and Mike’s one is warm, free and challenging

heterosexual world. To be a male hustler is Scott’s choice,

but he just can do the sexual relationships with men rather

than emotional (Devilliers 2007). It explores Scott still a

member of the patriarchal society, although he has

experiences of male prostitution. In the funeral scene, two

funerals reflect a powerful contrast. Scott’s father’s

funeral is absolutely traditional and serious, but there is

no one cries and people cannot feel any sadness from it. In

Bob’s funeral, there is not a priest, flowers or black suits,

and it seems very informal. However there are full of people

who really love him and miss him and they use a free and

special way to express their emotions to him. Even if they

only shout his name ‘Bob’, but we still can feel the strong

bond between Bob and his friends. In fact, Bob’s funeral is

more like a family than Scott’s father in emotional aspect,

instead of external aspect. And Scott cannot stop looking at

Mike’s side, it perhaps mean that he still misses the

freedom, or he still has some kinds of feeling to Mike. But

he cannot do anything, because of the ‘responsibilities’ of

his family and the society. Mike understands Scott, so he

49

would not push Scott to do anything, just keeps him in his

fantasy and goes back to the old way (a homeless prostitute).

As the end of this film, Mike returns to the same road where

he began (Lang, 1997).

The role of ‘mother’ of Paris Is Burning (1990) like Pepper

LaBeija who is the leader of the drag queen group or ‘The

House’ as same as Bob’s position in his gang. In other words,

Bob’s gang offers an alternative ‘queer’ family for Mike and

others, which is similar as the relationship between

‘mothers’ and other drag queens in Paris Is Burning (1990).

Pepper says: “ I am Pepper LaBeija, the legendary mother of

the House of Labeija. Not the founder, Crystal was the

founder. I just rule it now, with a soft glove. And it’s

important to me to be the mother, cause there’re so many

little kids that I have to look out for. Although they don’t

listen to me and they buck my authority, I still think I rule

it pretty well. They like me. I’m one of more popular ones,

and I’ve been around for two decades…” Actually, Pepper and

‘his kids’ (young drag queens) do not have any connections

before, and they might just know each other in the street or

in the House of LaBeija. But, Pepper thinks he responds to

them like their ‘mother’ who is not only a role of in charge

the groups but also takes care them. As Tinkcom argues that

parents’ behaviors would influence their children deeply,

especially in sexual (gender) aspect (Tinkcom, 2005, p.240).

In this case, when Pepper LaBeija talks about his experiences

of becoming a drag queen, he always mentions his mother

50

instead of his father. Pepper says: ‘She still loves me, but

the nagging and the…’ Therefore, the image of mother grows up

in his head and it plays an important role of Pepper being

the mother of the House of LaBeija. On the other hand, what

his mother did to him or to his women clothes totally

breaking his heart. Thus, when he rules the house he would

like use a sensitive and careful way to manage it, which he

calls as ‘a soft glove’.

The figure of mother is significant to My Own Private Idaho

(1991) and the expression of father is very important as

well. The image of Mike’s mother, like the Virgin Mary and

she says: “Don’t worry, everything’s going to be all right. I

know, it’s okay… I know…” in a warm and soft feminine voice

(Lang, 1997). It delivers a particular female sensitive

emotion to the spectators, as same as Pepper LaBeija’s

‘mother’ figures. In the campfire scene, Mike confesses his

love to Scott: ‘I love you and you don’t pay me… and I really

wanna kiss you, man… Good night… I do love you… I do love

you.’ In fact, money seems like the only dimension of

everything to a young man prostitute; and Mike would like to

give up his most significant thing (the money) for exchanging

Scott’s love, it shows how Scott is important to him. Even if

Scott rejects Mike’s love, but he still hug Mike to sleep,

like his mother. While these scenes of both films reflect

that queer themed films always emerge a strong bond with

their mothers (Tinkcom, 2005, p.236). To some extent, a

traditional and hetero patriarchal family includes a mother,

51

a father and children. In Mike’s world, mother is the centre;

but on Scott side, the relationships with ‘fathers’ who are

Scott’s real father- Mayer of Portland and Bob as the key

elements of his life. In the café scene, Mike says: ‘He

taught me better than school. I love Bob more than my father…

Bob more than my mother and my father.’ However he betrays

Bob in the end, just like he betrays his father at the

beginning of film. The role of ‘father’ is merely a symbol,

which presents the rules of patriarchy to Scott. When he

wants the freedom, the ‘father’ becomes a fetter of the way;

and when he wants back to the real family and Bob becomes the

barrier too. So he has to break and challenge the blocks over

and over again. In the other works, Scott changes to the

‘father’ by the end of the film by slotting into his father’s

role (head of the business) and he does not need another

‘father’- Bob to control him. Consequently, no matter for the

queers of My Own Private Idaho (1991) or the drag queens of Paris

Is Burning (1990), their ‘family’ provides them a place to

identify themselves, enjoy the freedom of being a man or a

woman and show themselves briefly. As Dorian Corey says in

the end of Paris Is Burning (1990): ‘Everybody wants to leave

something behind them, some impression, some mark upon the

world. Then they think, you’ve left a mark on the world… If

you just get through it… and a few of people remember your

name. Then you left the mark. You don’t have to bend the

whole world. I think it’s better to just enjoy it. Pay your

dues… and enjoy it. If you shot an arrow, and it goes real

high… hooray for you.’

52

53

CONCLUSION

In the late decades of the Nineteenth century, the American

society was deeply affected by the historical issues,

cultural events, social reforms and economic environment,

such as the American sexual revolution in the 1960s, the

Second Wave of Feminism during the 1960s to the 1980s, the

world wide economic crisis of stock market in the 1980s and

New Queer Cinema in 1990s and. Benshoff and Griffin summary

‘films are cultural artifacts that are intricately connected

to our understanding of (among other things) gender,

sexuality, history and identity’ (Benshoff and Griffin, 2006,

p.2). In other words, every social, historical and cultural

movement plays an essential role of American film industry;

and cinema is reciprocity of forcing and reforming culture

and society of the United States. Indeed, the appearance of

New Queer Cinema totally changed the American mainstream

cinema in 1990s; it not only brought the queer films out of

underground, but also presented many great films, which just

themed as queer; that is also why I chose New Queer Cinema to

discuss in this dissertation. On the other hand, New Queer

Cinema expressed homosexuals’ lives and experiences to the

mainstream audiences through film, which was a good method of

promoting queer culture to the masses; and the influences of

New Queer Cinema also structured the foundation of further

54

issues of gay people such as same-sex marriage, LGTB equal

rights and etc..

This study explores the specifics and influences of New Queer

Cinema to 1990s’ American Cinema via two individual films,

My Own Private Idaho (1991) and Paris Is Burning (1990). Chapter

One- Literature Review summary three major theories to

structure this dissertation and the first one is Judie

Butler’s idea of gender performance; she argues gender is a

cultural or social identity and people can choose to be men

or women, even if it is opposite as their biological sex as

the drag queen of Paris Is Burning (1990). On the other side,

gender can be understood as a kind of performance that people

might ‘play’ as homosexuals or heterosexuals for some reasons

(e.g. money), such as Scott plays a queer prostitute for pay,

although he is a straight in the reality. Second theory is

Richard Dyer’s four points of gays in film and an argument of

Hollywood ‘stardom’. In a way, it is an important factor of

the success of New Queer Cinema that brings the heterosexual

55

Hollywood stars into queer films to play the homosexual

character; indeed, it is an influential and successful way of

attracting the mainstream spectators and breaking the hetero

patriarchal Hollywood. Final theoretical support is the

theory of New Queer Cinema, it delivers the keys of queer

culture as the AID crisis, liberal sexual attitudes and

educational gender problems that the foundation of producing

queer-themed films.

Chapter Two analyzes that the 1990s’ American society

influenced New Queer Cinema from three major aspects, which

are the First Cinema (Hollywood Cinema) involvements, the

rising of queer culture and the contrasts between First,

Second and Third Cinema (which film theory is defined by

Getino and Solanas). And the chapter also explores the

biography of Gus Van Sant and Jennie Livingston who are the

directors of My Own Private Idaho (1991) and Paris Is Burning

(1990). As the Introduction examines that film is a kind of

cultural artifact, which also relate to the social context

tightly. Therefor, New Queer Cinema was not only a product of

social and cultural reforms, but also a medium for reflecting

on their changes. On the other hand, film directors usually

put their experiences in their films and their lives affect

their work deeply, which perhaps become the trademarks. Under

Getino and Solanas’s definitions of First, Second and Third

Cinema, New Queer Cinema can be seen as a combination of

these three cinema that it borrowed the financial supports of

Hollywood to produce the films, which have the characters of

56

Second Cinema and Third Cinema. In other words, New Queer

Cinema provided a chance of amalgamating the advantages of

three cinemas.

Chapter Three takes the economy as the centre to summary the

differences and similarities of the economic representation

in two individual films based on Debra Boyer’s research of

male prostitution. For the similarities, both My Own Private

Idaho (1991) and Paris Is Burning (1990) both represent a strong

sense of a human desire for money; either young male

prostitutes or drag queens sell their bodies for pay, but in

different forms one is biological body, another is body

performance. Moreover, the poor economic environment played

an essential role for the phenomenon of prostitution in

1980s’ America; and the street hustler seems like the only

way left for those homeless, uneducated and unskilled boys.

For the differences, Paris Is Burning (1990) selects the

documentary as its method of presenting, which just records

drag queens’ everyday lives and gives them an opportunity to

express their understandings of the world, life, money and

family. But My Own Private Idaho (1991) uses a contrasting way

to reflect the class that Scott shows very confident in the

film, and his confidents come from his rich and upper-class

family. And Mike presents a group of people who live at the

bottom of society; they are free and powerful in emotional

but weak in physical.

57

Chapter Four examines the representation of home and family

belonging in My Own Private Idaho (1991) and Paris Is Burning

(1990). In fact, the ‘family’ here means the people who see

each other as family members but non-blood-related. In these

two films, Bob’s gang and House of LaBeija are not only the

places where they stay, but also the ‘families’ they belong

to. In other words, the members of Bob’s gang or House of

LaBeija are their identities, which they supposed get from

their original blood families. On the other hand, the broken

family backgrounds control these two films; either Mike or

drag queen present an intense desire to find ‘family’ or

construct ‘family’, actually, they just identify themselves

instead of seeking homes, because ‘home’ is merely a symbol

of sense of belonging.

‘All engaged in the beginnings of a new queer historiography,

capable of transforming this decade, if only the door stays

open long enough. For him, for her, for all of us’ (Rich,

2004, p.59). In personally, I think New Queer Cinema was a

cultural product of the 1990s, only one particular decade.

And its strong sense of the freedom of human sexual desire

was unique. After twenty years, the recent queer films focus

on the same-sex marriage, coming out of the closet, romantic

queer love story and so forth; and the narratives of queer

films tend to peaceful, happy and comfy, rather than the

strong, wild and heavy senses of New Queer Cinema. Times have

changed, and queer films have changed too. Therefore, New

Queer Cinema is unparalleled.

58

59

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baseline and AMG. (2010) Gus Van Sant- About This Person- Movies & TV [Internet]. Available from: <www.nytimes.com> [Accessed 18 April 2013].

Baseline and AMG (2010) Jennie Livingston- About This Person- Movies & TV [Internet]. Available from: <www.nytimes.com> [Accessed 18 April 2013].

Benshoff, H. and Griffin, S. (2004) ‘Introduction.’ In Benshoff, H. and Griffin, S. (ed.) Queer Cinema, The Film Reader. New York: Routledge, pp.1- 16.

Benshoff, H. and Griffin, S. (2006) Queer Images: A History ofGay and Lesbian Film in America. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

Benshoff, H. and Griffin, S. (2nd ed., 2009) America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at The Movies. Maldon: Wiley-Blackwell, pp.329-355.

Boyer, D. (1986) ‘Male Prostitution: A Cultural Expression of Male Homosexuality.’ A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of Washington, pp. 1-312.

Butler, J. (1988) ‘Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory.’ Theatre Journal 40 (4), pp.519-531.

Butler, J. (2011) Gender Trouble: Feminism and Subversion of Identity [Kindle DX e-book]. New York: Routledge. Available from: <www.amazon.co.uk> [Accessed 11 March 2013].

Cohen, N. (2012) Delirium: How the Sexual Counterrevolution Is Polarizing America [Kindle DX e-book]. Barkley: Counterpoint Press. Available from: <www.amazon.co.uk> [Accessed 13 March 2013].

Coverley, M. (2006) Pyschogeography. Harpenden: Pocket Essentials.

Decilliers, N. (2007) How Much Does It Cost for Cinema to Tell the Truth of Sex? Sexualities, 10 (3), pp. 341-361.

60

Dyer, R. (1978) ‘Gays in Film.’ Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media [Internet] No.18, August. <www.ejumpcut.org> [Accessed 18 April 2013].

Dyer, R. (New ed., 1998) Stars. London: B.F.I. Publishing.

Gentinao, O. and Solanas, F. (1976) ‘Towards a Third Cinema.’ In Nichols, B. (ed.) Movies and Methods: An Anthology. Los Angles: University of California Press, pp.44- 64.

Green, J. (1993) Paris Has Burned. [Internet]. Available from: <www.nytimes.com> [Accessed 18 April 2013].

Holmlund, H. (2008) ‘Introduction: Movies and the 1990s.’ In Holmlund, C. (ed.) American Cinema and the 1990s: Themes and Variations. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, pp.1- 23.

Lang, R. (1997) ‘My Own Private Idaho and the New Queer Road Movies In Cohan, S, and Rae Hark, I. (ed.) The Road Movie Book. London, Routledge, pp.330- 348.

61

Leung, H. (2004) ‘New Queer Cinema and Third Cinema.’ InAaron, M (ed.) New Queer Cinema: A Critical Reader. Edinburg: Edinburg University Press, pp.155-171.

Moon, M. (1998) A Small Boy and Others: Imitation and Initiation in American Culture from Henry James to Andy Warhol. Duke: Duke University Press.

Morse, E., Simon, P. and Burchfiel, K. (1999) ‘Social Environment and Male Sex Work in the United States.’ In Aggleton, P. (ed.) Men Who Sell Sex. London: UCL Press, pp.83-102.

Rich, B. R. (2004) ‘The New Queer Cinema.’ In Benshoff, H. and Griffin, S. (ed.) Queer Cinema: The Film Reader. New York: Routledge, pp.53- 60.

Roman, D. (1994) Shakespeare Cut in Portland: Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho, Homoneurotics and Boy Actors. In Siegal, C. and Kibbey, A. (ed.) Eroticism and Containment: Notes From the Flood Plain. New York, New York University Press, pp.331- 334.

Taubin, A. (1991-2) Objects of Desire. Sight and Sound, 1 (9), pp.8-13.

Tinkcom, M. (2005) Out West: Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho and the Lost Mother. In Pomerance, M. and Gatewards, F. (ed.) Where the Boys Are: Cinema of Masculinity and Youth. Detroit, Wayne State University Press, pp.233- 235.

Smith, T. (1990) ‘The Polls- The Report: The Sexual Revolution?’ The Public Opinion Quarterly 54 (3), pp.415-435.

Wilson, E. (1992) ‘The Invisible Flâneur’ New Left Review 191 (1), pp.1-20.

62

63

FILMGRAPHY

Aldrich, R. (1975) The Hustler. Paramount Pictures [DVD]. Araki, G. (1992) The Living End. Strand Releasing [DVD]. Fleming, V. (1939) The Wizard of Oz. Loew’s [DVD]. Getino, O. and Solanas, F. (1968) La Hora De Los Hornos.

Trigon-Film [DVD]. Livingston, J. (1990) Paris Is Burning. Miramax Films [DVD]. Pontecorro, G. (1966) La Battaglia Di Algeri. Rizzoli and

Rialto Pictures [DVD]. Schlesinger, J. (1969) Midnight Cowboy. United Artists

[DVD]. Tarantino, Q. (1994) Pulp Fiction. Miramax Films [DVD]. Van Sant, G. (1985) Mala Noche. Janus Films [DVD]. Van Sant, G. (1989) Drugstore Cowboy. International Video

Entertainment and Avenue Pictures [DVD]. Van Sant, G. (1991) My Own Private Idaho. New Line Cinema

[DVD]. Van Sant, G. (1997) Good Will Hunting. Miramax Films [DVD]. Van Sant, G. (1998) Psycho. Universal Pictures [DVD]. Van Sant, G. (2003) Elephant. Fine Line Features [DVD].

64

65