Same-sex writing in mainstream gender norms
Introduction: All men are created equal, and we all have the right to love and be loved.
In recent years, films on gay themes have attracted widespread attention and achieved good results in the international community, from the 89th Academy Award for Best Picture "Moonlight Boy", the 90th Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay "Please Call Me by Your Name", to this year's Oscar for Best Picture "Green Book", the theme of these films is based on the gay community of gay gay men, examining the survival dilemma of the gay community in modern society and their self-identity. Directed by Grieg Beranty, "Love You, Simon" turns its perspective to the campus we are familiar with, focusing on the plight of the marginalized "gay community" in the face of love, life, and how they get out of the predicament to face their true selves. The film shows the hormones of love that exude from american high school students who are adolescents under mainstream values, and the love between men and women under the mainstream gender norms is what everyone yearns for and pursues, and the pure love between the same sex and non-mainstream gender norms is also worthy of everyone's respect. In the traditional cultural morality, only heterosexuality will have rationality, is in line with the ethics and morality of society, and the emotional expression of homosexuality that violates the ethical and moral order of society is inconsistent with mainstream values, gay films as a film genre, expressing gay culture at the same time deeply analyze the inner world of the gay community, so that more people pay attention to their living conditions, and promote the rationality of homosexual existence.
In the film, Simon tells his story in the first person, and at the beginning, the director uses several continuous shots to explain that Simon has a particularly happy family and several good friends, just as the male protagonist said: I am like you, my life is normal, which also lays the groundwork for the end of the film. But the male protagonist Simon hides a shocking secret in his heart, and the film also revolves around this secret, which arouses the audience's interest and casts a layer of mystery on the film, waiting for the audience to unveil this veil step by step. In terms of character shaping, the male protagonist Simon, as a deep closet teenager, is a person with the same temperament as a normal man in learning and life, not that homosexuality in people's traditional concept is very feminine, he is more like the perfect image of heterosexuality, and the other same-sex Ethan portrayed in the film is a little feminine in terms of behavior and the male protagonist forms a strong contrast, highlighting the theme expressed in the film. At the beginning of the film, the director did not directly explain to the audience that the male protagonist was a gay man, nor did he explain that this was a same-sex movie, but only showed that the male protagonist had a good feeling for the boy in a peeping way.
In the film, the director's way of narrating the story is very hidden, there are many things he wants to express, and he is afraid that if these things are nakedly displayed to the audience, it will cause discomfort to some viewers, so the director deliberately transforms these things into a symbolic image in front of the audience, for example: for the explanation of the theme of the film, the director ostensibly did not directly show the audience that the male protagonist belongs to the gay group, but with the poster on the door (zombie and geisha mix image singer), the conversation between friends ("Goodbye Berlin") The novel is an autobiographical author who is gay), a discussion between parents (an American reality show), and the music love me in the car (the band the 1975 is known as bringing alternative rock into the mainstream) these imagery are fused in the film to show that the male protagonist's identity is inconsistent with the mainstream values of society. So that at the end of the film, the male protagonist kisses on the Ferris wheel symbolizing love after coming out to show the true love between them, and the director has a little romantic atmosphere in the picture processing. Unlike the traditional same-sex movies that emphasize same-sex love, such as "Spring Break", "Leave Me, Remember Me", "Brokeback Mountain" in which the director deals with the relationship between the male protagonists, often uses the flesh between them to intertwine to express lust, naked in front of the audience.
The biggest feature of "Love You, Simon" is that the director only presents the pure love between the two protagonists in the story, which is not very different from the general American campus romance, but the growth issue of this film is "sexual orientation". In the family environment where the male protagonist Simon is located, his parents are full of ridicule for the gay community, so he disguises himself, and the pain in his heart has nowhere to tell, and he can only anonymously post to alumni code-named Blue in the virtual internet century to confide in each other's own hardships as a same-sex person. On the one hand, when the director expresses the feelings between the current same sex, he uses the way of letter exchange as a guide, which bluntly shows the living conditions of the gay group on the margins of society and their inner world, which not only implicitly explains the love between the two protagonists to the audience, but also promotes the development of the plot. On the other hand, the characters in the film are in a social environment that is acceptable to homosexuality, as Simon said in his reply to Blue: his parents are very enlightened, the outgoing guys who live in the creek are all good, and Ethan is encouraged when he comes out. The appearance of the male number three Martin further promotes the development of the plot, but also paves the way for the male protagonist to come out, simon sacrifices friendship in exchange for love, which is not in line with the convention. Just as the male number three Martin dressed as a bear (bear refers to the obvious masculinity of homosexuality or bisexuality) at the opening ceremony of the Games to interrupt everyone to sing the national anthem, confessing to Abby, both expressing the importance of love than the national anthem, but also expressing the rebellion of the gay community against the authority system.
In the end, Simon bravely stood up and admitted that he was of the same sex, and on the Ferris wheel Bram also admitted that he was black and Jewish, and that he had the support and tolerance of his family, school teachers, and friends, and this pure love across races and genders was worthy of everyone's respect, and they completed the transition from self-knowledge to self-redemption, which was also a new growth for them. From the perspective of the film's ontology, when the director portrays the inner heart of the character, Simon's fantasy is also a highlight of the film, the speculation of blue identity, the encounter after the gay comes out, and the yearning for homosexual tolerance, this fantasy is more like a true portrayal of the protagonist's heart, in order to call on people to pay attention to the gay group living outside the mainstream group of society. As Foucault said: "As a way of life and form of existence, as a culture, homosexuality should not be subject to any restrictions, but rather, the choice of homosexuality should be regarded as a creation of its own way of being.". With the development of the times and the emancipation of ideas, one day this discrimination and prejudice will gradually dissolve, and every comrade will have a beautiful love.
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Public account team: Drama and Film Studies, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology
Final South Film Talk Film Group