A Comic Struggle: Reinventing the Nuclear Family

Paper Summary:

The reinforcement of a heterosexual paradigm dominant in the first gay films was very much criticised by the media. This criticism failed to recognise that 'Dona Herlinda and Her Son' and 'The Wedding Banquet' are movies situated within the realms of heterosexual norms, but movies such as Gus van Sant's 'My Own Private Idaho' and Jonathan Demme's 'Philadelphia' were radically changing queer filmic representation.

From the Paper:

"Critics are quick to attack the reinforcement of a heterosexual paradigm dominant in early queer films. However, this judgment forgets that while more mainstream films, such as 'Dona Herlinda and Her Son' and 'The Wedding Banquet', were situated within heterosexual norms, a new queer cinema was slowly but surely radically changing queer filmic representation. The success of Gus van Sant's 'My Own Private Idaho' and Jonathan Demme's 'Philadelphia' could be in part attributed to simultaneous comic representations of queer struggles. So, while American culture was preoccupied with a single queer struggle, the AIDS crisis, other cultures explored the impact of homosexuality on the family unit and on reproduction in particular."

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