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Not too long ago, I started Grad School.
Eek. At the request of a few buddies, and considering the fact that
this is also sort of a movies blog, I now present a paper I wrote now some time ago. Notes and citations are near the bottom.
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Side note:
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Life is a
Masquerade:
Exploring the Unmasking
of Gender Conformity and
Fostering of Acceptance
of the Trans* Community Through
the Exploitation of
Scopophilic Pleasure in Queens at Heart
(1967)
Little production information remains about the short 1960’s documentary Queens at Heart, and what is accessible only raises more questions. Information on the company named in the Queens at Heart credits, Southeastern Pictures Company, is monolithic compared to that of the film’s host, Jay Martin, of which there is practically none (OpenCorporates 2014, OutFest 2009, Queensatheart.Blogspot.com 2013). Likely released in 1967, its name appearing as an additional feature for another Southeastern Pictures Company film, She-Man: A Story of Fixation (1976) (Fullmoonstreaming.com 2014), the relative lack of information about not only the host and the trans* individuals interviewed in the film, but information regarding its production, is not surprising given the political environment in which this film was released. Until the landmark Lawrence v. Texas Supreme Court Case in 2003, homosexual acts, deemed “sodomy,” were illegal in many states (Painter 2008). Until the 70’s, there was only one state which didn’t actively restrict homosexual acts, Illinois, which was the first to remove the ban in 1962 (Painter 2008). Filmed in this pre-Stonewall-riot environment, where public knowledge of homosexual acts could provide grounds for imprisonment or the citation of hefty fines, as well as provide illegal but socially sanctioned acts of hate-encouraged violence, keeping anonymous the names and identities of the trans* individuals would conceivably have been paramount to their being involved in its production.
Archival restorations by The Outfest Legacy Project have provided an opportunity to hear the stories of these trans* individuals first hand (OutFest 2009). The film itself provides for analysis an early attempt to promote understanding and acceptance of this subjugated cross section of humanity. Through a formal analysis of the film, combined with a discussion of the relationship between both male and female scopophilia and film, Queens at Heart ironically succeeds in exposing and thereby promoting tolerance and acceptance of trans* people in the United States.
Archival restorations by The Outfest Legacy Project have provided an opportunity to hear the stories of these trans* individuals first hand (OutFest 2009). The film itself provides for analysis an early attempt to promote understanding and acceptance of this subjugated cross section of humanity. Through a formal analysis of the film, combined with a discussion of the relationship between both male and female scopophilia and film, Queens at Heart ironically succeeds in exposing and thereby promoting tolerance and acceptance of trans* people in the United States.
