Historic Lesbian and Gay books, art and films for teens

[WandsOut]

Any recommendations on these?
Poetry, novels, films, art... fashion designers etc

Ideally non captured of course!

My dd loved Gentleman Jack. She wears men's clothes but more for practical reasons. She isn't pretending to be a man.

I liked her expectation that she could do as she pleased like men at the time could. She wanted to travel, so she travelled. She wanted to go and vist someone so off she went.

For classics, The Charioteer by Mary Renault is very romantic from 1953. Maurice by EM Forster is rather more bitchy and cynical, and a bit earlier. Brideshead Revisited and A Room with a View both have gay characters, but a teenager might not notice.

I've recently listened to the audio book of Malinda Lo's Last Night at the Telegraph Club (2021) about two young women (17ish) falling in love. It's set in San Francisco's Chinatown in the mid-1950s during McCarthyism. It puts female independence from men, Chinese culture, cross-dressing, butch-femme relationships - where they existed - into a lesbian (rather than TQ etc+) context and I thought the political back-drop and the 1950s setting, including the lesbian bar scenes were handled very well. I hadn't been expecting to enjoy it so much but it was sweet and fun, alongside the obviously much more serious social and political oppressive stuff.

This is such a fantastic resource of things to look at! Thank you so much!

☺️

Philidelphia. I know that some people don't like the fact that Tom Hanks and Antonio Bandaras don't kiss, but I didn't think that their relationship was badly handled when I watched it. Their love is shown in other ways through the film and I definitely know that awful feeling when someone you love is ill/in hospital and Antonio acted that so well.

Spartacus. You will need the restored version of this, which of course brings up the talking point about why the bath scene (Laurence Olivier and Tony Curtis) was one of the removed scenes that was then later restored.

Did you watch the TV series? there was an awful lot of striding around in shiny boots and wearing flash waistcoats, wasn't there?

Anne Lister's actual diaries were rediscovered as recently as the 1980s, it caused a huge stir at the time and there were even some suggestions that they were a hoax! I think some of the kerfuffle was because it was academically
fashionable at the time to say that 'gay' identity was a recent construct, and 'lesbian' identity didn't really exist at all in the past...

Tell that to Anne Lister, 1791-1840!

My Beautiful Laundrette? It’s a 15 certificate.

Mary Renault's Alexander trilogy.

There is a complication with the second volume, in that the Persian Boy has been raped and trafficked before ending up in a humane relationship with Alexander. But the relationship between Alexander and Hephaestion (who is his husband in all but name) is beautiful and so resonant of the husband-husband relationships that have finally now become more or less accepted in our own society.

Even the relationship between Alexander and the Persian Boy is beautiful, because Renault so successfully idealises Alexander in her portrayal of him that it becomes possible to believe that the boy's history, and the imbalance of power between them, is co-existing with a genuinely consensual and loving partnership.

Also, they are just brilliantly exciting books.

I've just watched this documentary about The Ladies of Llangollen from TG4, the Irish TV channel. It's mostly in Gaelic but you can switch on English subtitles if you need them. It's very gentle and romantic, no sex but a discussion towards the end about whether or not it matters if Sarah and Eleanor's relationship was sexual. There's also some nice footage of Plas Newydd which is still on my list of places to visit. I thought the whole thing was looking very positive in terms of not being captured but, at the end, people started talking about the usual alphabet soup and 'queering' the history. It sounds so ludicrous in the context of the Ladies' story so might be quite useful as a discussion point in itself.
https://www.tg4.ie/ga/player/seinn/?pid=6337016013112&title=Eleanor%20Butler%20&%20Sarah%20Ponsonby&series=Sc%C3%A9alta%20Gr%C3%A1%20na%20h%C3%89ireann&genre=Faisneis&pcode=645439

[I feel so offended by the word 'queer'. I just hate it. So much good and useful material is being contaminated by its use. I can't think of a better word than contaminated right now.]

Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden.

Seconding Emma Donoghue, 'specially her contemporary novels Hood - which is about grief following a closeted relationship - and Stir Fry, which is about university-aged women.

MetaFilter has had a few threads of refs for lesbian fiction, here, here and here. (Second link is queer literature generally.)

Oh, and Alison Bechdel's comic Dykes to Watch Out For. You can get it in collected form. Definitely a picture of a particular time and place.

Desert Hearts! Made in the 80s but set in 1959 USA. A proper romance.

Film - Blue Jean. There is a bit of sex but not at all graphic or gratuitous. Main character is a lesbian teacher at the time of Thatcher's Section 28. Low key and really well acted. Not quite what you asked for as the film was released in the last few years but on a limited release and deserves a bigger audience.

Already mentioned but I remember Well Of Loneliness having a big impact on me as a teen and it's important for it's legal battles and social impact.

What about Ballet Shoes? Yes, it's for younger readers. But the Doctors are so obviously in relationship. If your child enjoys Noel Streatfeild she might also want to read a biography of her, which would lead nicely to Well of Loneliness!

Totally recommend 'Tales of the City' books they are a lovely introduction to the idea that people love people. They were serialised in a California newspaper so are v clean and subtle.

Also suggest My Policeman, recent film with Harry Styles. Intense but eyeopening.

We've done both of these and they were great talking points - including about how cinema showed gay relationships at the time.

Brilliant idea!

Adding a few more
Documentary
A Secret Love after 70 years in the closet a couple have to come out of the closet since they were leaving the home they share to go into a nursing home.
The Celluloid Closet - great documentary on how censorship of homosexual relationships was implemented and also the work arounds.

Memoir and Biography
Brian Masters Life of EF Benson of the Mapp and Lucia novels. Wow his family was so gay.
Claire Harman, Sylvia Townsend Warner: A Life. Kids think they invented situationships and throuples. Think again.
Ben Nicholson Portrait of a Marriage. Same thing how messy things get when feelings are involved. The affair of Vita Sackville West and Violet Trefusis much of it in their own words.
Penelope Fitzgerald, Charlotte Mew and her friends. Amazing poet tragic life.
Hermione Lee, Virginia Woolf. Definitive bio on her.
Andrew Wilson, Beautiful Shadow Patricia Highsmith. Worth learning early not to put your favourite authors on a pedestal.

The above picks because while all the subjects are LBG the biographers are also superb writers and explorers of their subjects while maintaining even handedness in their portrayals of their flaws. It can get the teens to discuss how to separate the individuals from their works. Sorely needed in the current climate.

I just listened to a play about the making of the film Victim and the influence it had on changing the law. It was very good. Available on BBC Sounds under Drama on 3

Also the incredibly gay and very funny actual novels of E.F.Benson. My username is a tribute to them!

The Love Songs of Sappho

The Bloomsbury Group
(historic)
www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Squares-DVD-James-Norton/dp/B00X7HEK5Y

Our Three Selves: The Life of Radclyffe Hall
www.amazon.co.uk/Our-Three-Selves-Life-Radclyffe/dp/0688043852

Maurice, both the novel by Forster and the beautiful film. Watched it with my Dad when I was a very naive 15 and I had a lot of questions which my Dad thankfully answered very well. I had no idea about how difficult life could be as a gay person before that.

[I feel so offended by the word 'queer'. I just hate it. So much good and useful material is being contaminated by its use. I can't think of a better word than contaminated right now.]

I agree, curator types love it though.

And my blood boils over ‘LGBTQA +’ especially as so many of the historic figures were highly sensitive and intelligent while that umbrella term is meaningless and stupid, especially when used as the LGBTQI+ community by newscasters and the like.