- 1 year ago
From early cinema to modern television, we explore the controversial history of LGBTQIA representation in media, focusing on the harmful pattern of killing off queer characters. We'll examine how this trope evolved from censorship laws to contemporary storytelling, and why it continues to impact audiences today.
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00:00What you did tonight will haunt you until the end of your days.
00:03Welcome to Miss Mojo, and today we're explaining the bury your gays trope.
00:08Hollywood either ignored homosexuals, or killed them off, or turned them into prancing stereotypes.
00:15Bury your gays refers to the killing of LGBTQIA plus characters in storytelling,
00:20whereas heterosexual characters get to live.
00:23Sometimes a queer character is randomly disposed of, other times their death is treated as a punishment.
00:30Even when portrayed as a tragedy that earns the audience's sympathy,
00:34it can normalize the suffering of gay people, as if their death is a foregone conclusion.
00:38Dead lesbian syndrome also falls under this umbrella,
00:42although this trope goes beyond the first letter in LGBTQIA+.
00:46Did you know that queer female TV characters are much more likely to be killed off than straight characters?
00:50I didn't know that. Fun facts.
00:52Oh, I don't think it's fun.
00:54To understand how the community has been represented in popular media,
00:57we must first explore their societal mistreatment.
01:00While homophobia has existed in many forms over the centuries,
01:04the United Kingdom demonized the community with the Criminal Law Amendment Act in 1885.
01:10It is in this century misunderstood.
01:14So much misunderstood that it may be described as the love that dare not speak its name.
01:20And on account of it, I am placed where I am now.
01:23Although not without some welcome revisions, like raising the age of consent,
01:27gay rights took a massive step backwards.
01:30The act described relations between men, private or public, as gross indecency,
01:35and a punishable offence that could result in up to two years in prison.
01:38Among the most prominent names victimized by this act was author Oscar Wilde.
01:54Best known for writing The Picture of Dorian Gray,
01:57Wilde was accused of committing gross indecency with Lord Alfred Douglas, among other men.
02:02It was clear that the waiting room was full of rent boys who were going to give evidence against Wilde.
02:09So the whole trial turned from being rather majestic entertainment to being a terrifying event.
02:15It was argued that Wilde incorporated gay subtext into his works like Dorian Gray,
02:20in which the character who paints the titular portrait, Basil Hallward,
02:23lusts over its male subject, whose sexuality is ambiguous.
02:27Wilde received the maximum sentence dying shortly after his imprisonment.
02:31Now my life seems to have gone from me. I'm caught in a terrible net.
02:37But so long as I think he is thinking of me, my sweet rose, my delicate flower, my lily of lilies,
02:44it is in prison that I shall test the power of love.
02:47Around this time, a new medium called Moving Pictures broke out.
02:51One of the earliest pictures with perceived gay themes was 1894's and 1895's The Dixon Experimental Sound Film,
02:59in which two men danced together.
03:01From Charlie Chaplin doing drag in The Masquerader,
03:04to Charles Rogers kissing Richard Arlen on the cheek in Wings,
03:07to Clara Bow visiting a gay bar in Call Her Savage,
03:10the dawn of cinema contained more LGBTQIA plus milestones than one might expect.
03:15Do you hate me?
03:17I knew it the second day.
03:18You did?
03:19While many depictions were comedic, leaning heavily into stereotypes,
03:23there were more dignified examples.
03:25In 1933's Queen Christina, the titular monarch kisses another woman.
03:30Although the film doesn't thoroughly explore her sexuality,
03:32the real Queen Christina was theorized to be a lesbian or bisexual,
03:37which this scene acknowledges.
03:38You're surrounded by musty old papers and musty old men and I can't get near you.
03:43Today I'll dispose of them by sundown, I promise you.
03:46And we'll go away for two, three days in the country.
03:48Oh.
03:49Wouldn't you like that?
03:50Oh, I'd love it.
03:51With the rise of the Hays Code and the National Legion of Decency,
03:55any traces of queer characters would be almost entirely erased by the mid-30s.
03:59Yet LGBTQIA plus characters still existed through what's described as queer coding.
04:05It would be very decent of you if you didn't mention this little visit to your revered husband.
04:10He doesn't exactly approve of me.
04:12In the book The Maltese Falcon, the character Joel Cairo is described as queer.
04:17The 1941 film adaptation removes this line,
04:20but Peter Lorre's portrayal still indulges stereotypical queer traits.
04:25But I certainly wish you would have invented a more reasonable story.
04:28I felt distinctly like an idiot repeating it.
04:31Don't worry about the story's goofiness.
04:32A sensible one would have had us all in the cooler.
04:35Perceived queer coding was especially common among villains,
04:38from universal monster movies like Dracula's Daughter,
04:41to Hitchcockian thrillers like Rebecca, Strangers on a Train, and Rope.
04:45These characters would all be punished by the credits, sometimes lethally.
04:49Even empathetic queer-coded characters like Plato in Rebel Without a Cause
04:53weren't safe from the bury your gays trope.
04:56Those are not my friends.
04:58Make them go away.
05:00Are you all right?
05:00You want me to make them go away?
05:04By the 60s, there was more pushback against censorship and anti-gay laws,
05:08allowing filmmakers to more openly explore LGBTQIA plus life.
05:131961 gave us at least two notable examples.
05:16Goodbye and thanks.
05:18What, for a measly 20 quid?
05:20No, for knowing me all these years.
05:22Still being a friend.
05:24Well, it used to be witches.
05:26At least they don't burn you.
05:27The victim revolves around a young gay man who takes his own life amid being blackmailed.
05:32While this ties into the bury your gays trope,
05:34it also presents an LGBTQIA plus protagonist in a heroic light.
05:39I expected at least one question.
05:43Don't you have any?
05:44I've believed in your integrity for 10 years, sir.
05:49I can see no reason to question it now.
05:52Melville Farr, who had an affair with the victim, pursues justice for his late lover.
05:56Farr succeeds, although it comes at the expense of his reputation and marriage,
06:00suggesting that gay characters must be punished to some degree.
06:03Across the pond, William Wyler directed The Children's Hour,
06:07in which a lying child claims that her two female teachers are lovers,
06:11causing them to be ostracized.
06:12What else did you hear? What did you see?
06:15I don't know.
06:17They were just things.
06:19What things?
06:21I don't know.
06:22She doesn't know.
06:23The film was based on a 1934 play.
06:26Although New York had outlawed LGBTQIA plus themes on stage,
06:30The Children's Hour got a pass thanks to positive reviews.
06:33While I previously adapted the play with 1936's These Three,
06:37but due to the code, the central conflict was heterosexualized.
06:41With the 1961 remake, Wyler wanted to honor the source material.
06:45It would be criminally foolish for you to brazen it out in public.
06:48Oh, it's already quite public, Mrs. Tilford.
06:51Five hours ago, we had our lives decently to ourselves.
06:54Now we have nothing left but the dirt you made of us.
06:58Like in the play, Karen and Martha's lives are torn apart by a lie.
07:01However, Martha finds some truth to that lie,
07:04confessing she loves Karen as more than a friend.
07:06I resented your plans to marry.
07:09Maybe because I wanted you.
07:11Maybe I've wanted you all these years.
07:14I couldn't call it by name before,
07:16but maybe it's been there since I first knew you.
07:20Unsure how to confront the feelings that she's been repressing,
07:22Martha takes her own life.
07:24As groundbreaking and important as The Children's Hour was,
07:27Shirley MacLaine later expressed regret about Martha's fate,
07:30feeling it sent the wrong message.
07:32To have Martha play that scene,
07:35and no one questioned what that meant
07:38or what the alternatives could have been underneath the dialogue,
07:42it's mind-boggling.
07:45The burial gaze trope persisted with 1962's Advise and Consent
07:49and 1968's The Detective,
07:52but there was also more uplifting portrayals of LGBTQIA plus life.
07:56It's the geriatrics rockettes.
07:59Put them up there, man!
08:00Don't dream this, Ari!
08:05It's the sensational menstruation!
08:081970's The Boys in the Band not only featured a group of gay characters,
08:12but they all survived.
08:13Movies like this remained a rarity, however.
08:16According to Vito Russo's 1981 book,
08:18The Celluloid Closet,
08:2028 films released between 1962 and 1978 dealt with gay themes.
08:25In 22 of them, a major gay character died on screen.
08:28Even William Friedkin, who directed The Boys in the Band,
08:44went on to make 1980's Cruising,
08:46centering on a serial killer targeting gay men.
08:49Where the gay community protested Cruising,
08:511982's Making Love was seen as a potential turning point
08:55thanks to its progressive portrayal of gay characters.
08:58Well, they'll quote the words of a well-traveled visionary.
09:01You don't get points for playing by the rules.
09:03Oh boy, talk about visionaries.
09:05Of course, few saw Making Love.
09:07Meanwhile, the HIV-AIDS crisis would define the 80s.
09:10Now, in addition to hate crimes and self-inflicted means,
09:13writers had another method to bury gay characters.
09:16Correct, I was sabotaged.
09:22I don't buy it, counsellor.
09:26That's very disappointing.
09:28To be fair, hundreds of thousands died from the disease,
09:31many of them gay men.
09:32The phrase, gay plague, was even tossed around,
09:35increasing the spread of misinformation and anti-gay sentiments.
09:43It would have been disingenuous and harmful for popular media
09:50to imply AIDS wasn't a death sentence for some.
09:53Projects like Philadelphia and Rent
09:55left audiences more informed and accepting.
09:58However, when almost every gay character
09:59is either a comedic stereotype or victim,
10:02it narrows how others perceive them.
10:04The same goes for black-led projects
10:06primarily focusing on slavery,
10:07segregation and gang violence.
10:09It might surprise you,
10:12but I don't use my fist to solve problems.
10:15The outlet Autostraddle conducted a study
10:18examining 1,779 shows
10:21released between 1976 to 2016.
10:24Of the 11% that included bisexual,
10:26female or lesbian characters,
10:28only 16% got happy endings,
10:30while 35% died.
10:32One of the most infamous examples
10:34was Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
10:36I think she was afraid of the look
10:37you'd get on your face.
10:38Kind of like the one you're wearing now.
10:42Oh no, I'm not...
10:44I'm just trying to understand.
10:47Despite the show's supernatural elements,
10:49the relationship between Willow and Terra
10:51was praised for its sincerity and realism.
10:54In season 6,
10:55creator Joss Whedon decided to kill off Terra,
10:58feeling it was necessary for Willow's arc.
11:00What?
11:01What crappy news?
11:03Like, how do you think that's exciting for me?
11:07Fans were furious,
11:09feeling Terra was treated like a porn.
11:12More than a decade later,
11:13history repeated itself in The 100,
11:15when fan-favorite Lexa died
11:17in a random act of gun violence
11:19shortly after consummating
11:20her relationship with Clark.
11:22I swear...
11:24Well, no.
11:26I am not letting you die.
11:31There's nothing you can do now.
11:33Before we continue,
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11:47Lexa's controversial death
11:50loomed over the show's legacy.
11:52The 100 became synonymous
11:53with Bury Your Gaze,
11:55arguably bringing the term
11:56into mainstream consciousness.
11:57You were right, Clark.
12:03Life is about more than just surviving.
12:06As a result,
12:06it seems filmmakers and showrunners
12:08are moving away from this trope.
12:10Heartstopper,
12:10Love, Simon,
12:11Bros,
12:12Schitt's Creek
12:13and Fire Island
12:14have explored the struggles
12:15LGBTQIA plus people
12:17commonly face
12:18without resorting to burying them.
12:20What happens now?
12:21How he goes back to SF,
12:22the Pines Bubble bursts,
12:24then six months from now,
12:26they'll probably just be
12:26in love.
12:29Maybe even happy.
12:34Yeah.
12:35Yeah, you're probably right.
12:37The Bury Your Gaze trope
12:38still exists
12:39and likely always will
12:40to some extent.
12:41We're not saying
12:42gay characters
12:42should be immune to death,
12:43especially if it's integral
12:45to the story,
12:45be it fictional
12:46like Brokeback Mountain
12:47or inspired by real life
12:49like The Normal Heart.
12:50However,
12:51we're glad to see more variety
12:52and optimism in gay cinema,
12:54providing hope
12:55at the end of the rainbow.
12:56It's not been an easy road for me,
12:58but knowing that you will
13:00always be there for me
13:01at the end of it
13:02makes everything okay.
13:03What are your thoughts
13:05on the Bury Your Gaze trope?
13:06Let us know in the comments.
13:08The movies could be
13:09making us laugh a lot more
13:10and cry a lot more
13:11if they would actually
13:13acknowledge the true diversity
13:14of humanity.
13:16The Bury Herbic
13:31and the Bury Your Gaze trope
13:31of humanity.
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