Straight women, were/are you aware that Jodie Foster is gay?

[MNUse]

Been mildly curious about this for a while. I’m a gay woman and my loving well-meaning mother will occasionally make slightly clumsy attempts to bring up gay films or famous gay women that she assumes I must be interested in because they are also gay (e.g. Ellen Page as was). But she has never mentioned Jodie Foster, and although I haven’t tested it I get the impression she isn’t aware, maybe partly because although JF is now ten years married to a woman she has never quite made the big ‘I am gay’ speech.

AIBU to think a lot of straight women still haven’t really noticed that Jodie Foster is gay? And, if I’m wrong, when did you become aware?

YABU - I know, I’ve known for ages, yawn

YANBU - I didn’t know, or didn’t know until very recently, but anyway, yawn

OBVIOUSLY what matters is her acting, but I am mildly curious about what causes someone’s gayness to register/not register with the wider public

She’s quite masculine so I assumed she was a lesbian. I’m a lesbian too so maybe I just sniffed it out!

I don't remember her as being particularly butch. Maybe now she's come out she feels she can be/wants to be more gender-nonconforming.

I think she’s one of those ‘girls who can do both’ as Zendaya says, as in feminine or masculine glamour (or lack of glamour) as the mood takes her. She does imply in this article that she would have liked a bit more freedom to not always be eyelashes and heels (which obviously is a different question to sexual orientation): https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/jan/06/jodie-foster-interview-true-detective

I would imagine that even if she did want to be a "gay icon" she would have been very strongly advised against this course of action (20, 30, 40 years ago, when it actually mattered to her career) It doesnt really matter now because the movie business is finished as the force it once was, late 90s was the start of the end when people were downloading films for free and sharing movies online (you can still get endless free movies on YouTube if you like older stuff) and the real end came when YouTube popped up in 2005, now most people are more focussed on recording and sharing their own image with phones and the internet than they are on Hollywood "icons", that in many ways is a good thing, I heard it described years ago as part of the global "Ascent of Consciousness" where individuals start to realise their own worth and power and ability to create, the internet is right tool right time to allow this change to take place. Allowing for various forms of sexuality and gender identification is also part of this global change in consciousness I think.

https://www.aconsciousrethink.com/4578/signs-shifting-higher-level-consciousness/

Not sure really what the point of that article was TBH, sounded like it was written by a young teenager, and if JF waited 40 years to "come out" (after the career was well over in terms of blockbuster movies) shouldnt she just keep a low profile now about gender/feminist/gay issues? The time to be brave was right after SOTLs, just pop up and say "By the way, I live with a woman", too late now to have much impact.

I don't care.

Yes I knew she was gay. (I'm straight). To all the "who cares" posters, well actually a lot of people do care! For so long the only openly gay woman in Hollywood was Ellen, and then by extension Portia DeRossi when they got married.

I love finding out "so and so" is gay (and married to a woman), because I can point her out to my youngest daughter who is gay. I'm glad she's grown up in a time when it's (slowly) becoming the norm for famous women to just casually be themselves as lesbians.

She’s quite masculine so I assumed she was a lesbian
How is she masculine?! Never got masculine vibes from her at all

Wow.

The plight of the poor straight women being asked about an actress who is gay.

How is this about anything beyond the question in the OP? It's a yes or no question.

Some straight women seem determined to respond with how it doesn't matter.

First of all that's not the question, and second of all check your heterosexual privilege.

I'm not sure if I knew this or not. But I do know that she's wonderful.

I've been aware for a long while now. So long I can't remember.

I mean it’s just something she has been completely open about for years. I think that if people don’t know it might just be because for whatever reason she has not been on their radar, but I really don’t think that this is a commonly unknown thing.

This is not a secret. I've known for many, many years. I read it somewhere

Can’t say I’ve seen much of her since silence of the lambs to be fair. No I didn’t know, but I don’t generally make a point of knowing a person’s sexuality so it hasn’t crossed my radar. The only people who do are those that are in your face campaigning about rights for the LGBTQ+ community. I guess people of my parents’ generation (70+) tend to pick up on these bits of info and find them more curious that most younger people. It’s a bit like my daughter’s generation (current teens) not really making any issues of those friends who seem gender fluid and change their pronouns regularly. I’m still a bit paranoid about the whole pronoun thing. My mum can’t get her head round it all. Whereas my daughter just takes its as it is and nothing to talk about.

I've known for years..but it's nobody's business. Why people have to "come out, is beyond me Straight people don't, and there's no "expectations" for them to.

I don’t tend to think one way or another whether or not a celebrity is gay or straight, unless it’s very obvious (a very camp man). I just don’t find it relevant 🤷‍♀️

I totally get that. I just don’t find it relavant for me.

I can't remember not knowing.

I think of Jodi Foster as a blonde. I just checked and she had brown hair in Silence of the Lambs.

Does it really matter and is it our business?

I do a bit. The way she walks maybe? It's not an insult.

Well she's 'out' so it's not 'not our business'.

I recall her mentioning publicly some years back but she was quite understated about it. Quite right. She doesn't walk the Hollywood treadmill! She's brilliant. Great actress!

I'm almost 40 and feel like I've know forever.

have known for 25 years, through a mutual acquaintance