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Lara en ik denken aan de onderwerpen van hetero normative culture en toxic monogamy. Bepaalde verwachtingen en uitspraken die wij allebei ervaren naar aanleiding van onze relatievormen en/of seksualiteit. Zo vind ik de vraag: “so you are of the market now?” Heel vreemd. Het duidt erop dat je iemand’s bezit bent en versimpelt een persoon tot een soort product dat ‘availble’ or ‘taken’ is. Maar ook de vraag wat maakt dat iemand aanneemt dat je hetero of bv lesbisch bent.

Representatie van lesbische characters in de media. Erasing of characters/representation.

List of problematic lesbian/bisexual representation in film/series

Lesbian/bisexual deaths in films:
- Lost and Delirious (2001) - Pauline's suicide
- The Children’s Hour (1961) - Lesbian suicide
- Tierra de Lobos (2013) - Cristina's death

Lesbian/bisexual deaths in tv-series:
- The100 (2014-present) - Lexa's death
- Orange is the New Black (2013-2019) - Poussey's death
- Pretty Little Liars (2009-2017) - Maya's death
- The Walking Dead (2010-present) - Denise's death
- The Vampire Diaries (2009-2016) - Nora and Mary Louise's suicides
- True Blood - Tara's death
- Supernatural - Charlie's death
- Los hombres de Paco (2010) - Silvia's death
- Chicago Fire (2014) - Leslie's death
- Arrow (2014) - Sara's death
- Matador (2014) - Reyna's death
- Skins Fire (2013) - Naomi's death
- Lip Service (2012) - Cat's death
- Sons of Anarchy (2010) - June's death
- The L Word (2009) - Jenny and Dana's deaths
- The Magicians (2015) - Julia's suicide
- Lindenstraße (1998) - Sonia's death
- Dark Angel (2001) - Diamond's death
- Smallville (2003) - Tina's death
- Verbotene Liebe (2004) - Hanna's death
- Hinter Gittern (2004) - Ine's death
- Deadwood (2004) - Flora's death
- Queer As Folk (2005) - Dusty's death
- Stritctly Confidential (2006) - Angie's suicide
- Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden (2010) - Isabella's death
- Sons of Anarchy (2010) - Amy's death
- Skins (2010) - Sophia's suicide
- Private Practice (2011) - Susan and her wife's deaths
- Gods of the Arena (2011) - Gaia's death
- Teen Wolf (2013) - Emily's death
- Under the Dome (2015) - Carolyn's death
- Empire (2016) - Camilla's death
- The Exorcist (2016) - Julia's death
- American Horror Story: Cult (2017) - Ivy's death
- You (2018) - Peach's death
- Coronation Street (2019) - Rana's death
- Jane the Virgin (2019) - Rose's death
- Orange is the New Black (2019)- Daddy's death
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Men-resolved plots/male gaze:
- Imagine Me & You [film] (2005) - lesbian affair with her wedding's photographer
- I Can't Think Straight [film] (2008) - leaves her fiancé to have a lesbian affair
- Blue is the Warmest Colour [film] (2013) - unrealistic sex scene, male gaze
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Sources:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BuryYourGays

https://www.thetalko.com/11-reasons-lesbians-hate-lesbian-movies/

https://studybreaks.com/tvfilm/lesbian-representation/

https://www.out.com/news-opinion/2017/7/11/62-lesbian-bisexual-female-characters-killed-over-past-two-television-seasons

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BuryYourGays

https://www.afterellen.com/tv/230295-the-33-most-horrifying-lesbianbi-character-deaths-on-television

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl22caUj-oo

https://www.autostraddle.com/all-65-dead-lesbian-and-bisexual-characters-on-tv-and-how-they-died-312315/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/04/04/tv-keeps-killing-off-lesbian-characters-the-fans-of-one-show-have-revolted/

https://www.thewrap.com/orange-is-the-new-black-fans-angry-over-season-4s-major-death/

Context-awareness

An artistic strategy that inspires you (infiltration/subversion/prank/hoax/parody/etc.)
In order to do so, you’ll need to perform a research on one or several artists that were mentioned during the lectures, or other artists whose practice is of inspiration to you, and produces social commentary in his/her work.

In the series 'The 100' (2014 - now) was Lexa's death a major turning point. This move was criticized as continuing the 'dead lesbian syndrome' or 'bury your gays' trope in film and television. This lead to a big boycot of the series. We wanted to work with this topic because we feel this has a big impact on the image and visibilty of lesbian characters in populair media.

We are mostly driven by our own knowledge and personal interest in this subject. Together we already knew a lot of visual media with dead lesbian syndrome in it. For the medium - a mash-up movie - we were inspired by Fragrance for Her by students of last year. This parady on parfum commercials for women makes the stupidity of the topic painfully clear. In class we saw the way the movie was put togheter gave made the viewers uncomforable but also have a laugh out of it. It is the absurdity here that does the work. Also, Honest Trailers, a channel on YouTube publishes self made trailers wherein they make fun of the real movie and movietrailer. They point out the mistakes and dumb shit of the originals. We do the same in our movie trailer.

In our movie we work with a plot twist that shocks the viewer. The movie starts happy, romantic and cool. Everything is fine until all our lesbian characters die from murder, suicide or accidental death.

Inspiration

Melanie Benajo - Night Soil - Economy of Love
http://www.li-ma.nl/lima/catalogue/art/melanie-bonajo/night-soil-economy-of-love/19896

Zanele Muholi: lesbian activitst who makes South African queer women more visible trough photography

Paradoy on Le Dejeuner by Monet

a) Critically reflect on the subject matter and your motivation; name your issue, the cultural object taken as problematic and the use of a specific strategy to critically respond to it

b) Mention and process relevant sources

c) Articulate, formulate and structure your statement with care

By doing a, b and c together you invest in the expressiveness and scope of your text and in the work itself. Your statement is going to be a textual companion of the work/project. And it will give proof of research, reflection and creative processing in a concentrated, compact way. Based on feedback of the first draft you will develop this draft further towards the next.

Sources for Critical Statement
TV-tropes (1 okt 2019). Bury Your Gays, retrieved from https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BuryYourGays
Big Think (6 juni 2011). Judith Butler: Your Behavior Creates Your Gender. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo7o2LYATDc
Ge, Linda (23 juni 2016). Orange is the New Black fans angry over season 4s major death. Retrieved from https://www.thewrap.com/orange-is-the-new-black-fans-angry-over-season-4s-major-death/
Debasmita Das (23 january 2016. Judith Butler's Theory of Gender Performativity. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEIvFDOdVTs

Adrienne Rich with ’Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence’.