Some Movie Stereotypes Die, Others Persist
“In & Out” is unfailingly sympathetic to gays. “G.I. Jane” depicts Arabs mercilessly. The differences explain a lot about why some Hollywood stereotypes persist - and how some others are eventually shattered.
The two films illustrate the constantly shifting boundaries of show business politics, and may speak to broader questions of national prejudices. Both movies are popular hits, and just as “In & Out” has prompted no significant complaints about its evenhanded depiction of gays, “G.I. Jane” has generated only limited outcry for its portrayal of warring Libyans.
Not too long ago, feature films about gays were brutally homophobic (1980’s “Cruising”) or virtually nonexistent. After the commercial failure of 1982’s “Making Love,” a sympathetic portrait of a gay relationship, producers swore off similar stories: They were considered economic suicide. Not until the recent box-office successes of “Longtime Companion,” “Philadelphia” and “The Birdcage” did movie studios alter their thinking.
Yet “In & Out,” a story of a high school English teacher who may or may not be gay, is hardly the calculated result of several preceding box-office hits. It is, in part, the product of a studio system in which gay men increasingly occupy prominent positions of authority - everywhere from the Walt Disney Co. to Warner Bros. to DreamWorks SKG. Fair depictions don’t come until there’s a power base: The reason movies are always partial to young white men is that young white men produce, write, direct and star in most movies.
At the same time, an array of other people - from Arab Americans to Latinos - have little if any representation at the studio decision-making level. Consequently, those minorities are largely voiceless: Not only are there not that many movies about them, but also those few films might not be altogether flattering.
“I don’t think Americans of Arab heritage have enough clout” to bring about change, says Jack Shaheen, a broadcast journalist professor who has studied the stereotyping of Arabs and Muslims in American popular culture. “What leverage do we have? What power do we have? The only leverage we have is to appeal to the human decency of those people producing these images.”
Shaheen is particularly upset about the end sequence in “G.I. Jane,” where star Demi Moore and her Navy Seal buddies storm Libya to rescue a satellite and open fire. “To prove she’s macho, she has to kill Arabs,” Shaheen says. In other movies and television shows, he adds, Arabs are either oil-rich sheiks, terrorists or buffoons. Rarely are Arabs shown to be lawyers, doctors, mothers, dads ordinary people whose ethnicity is irrelevant.
“What Hollywood is saying is it’s patriotic and morally correct to project anti-Semitic images as long as those Semites are Arabs,” Shaheen says.
Yet what is true of Arabs today was also true of gays yesterday. From “Beverly Hills Cop” to “Father of the Bride,” gays were consistently limp-wristed swishers: sexual orientation as comic device. “In & Out” certainly makes fun of stereotypes, too - there’s one running gag about gay men’s fascination with Barbra Streisand - but there’s no question this is a kindhearted telling.
“In & Out” opened last weekend to strong business of $15 million, with the film playing equally well in the heartland and Deep South as in major cities. The undeniable conclusion is that homophobia, while undoubtedly prevalent in many places, is fading. People are going to see “In & Out” because it’s seen as mainstream comedy, not something to be feared.
“You can find plenty of prejudice in New York - and you can find remarkable acceptance in small towns in North Dakota,” says Paul Rudnick, the gay screenwriter of “In & Out.”
Adds Scott Rudin, the film’s producer: “I talked to somebody in Meridian, Miss., and he said people were cheering at the end. Even in the Bible Belt, it’s playing really well. This subject is a lot less verboten than it was five years ago.”
Both said Hollywood is now so comfortable with a gay-themed movie that if an upcoming title failed miserably, it would not kill the genre as “Making Love” did 15 years ago.
The emerging success of films and TV shows incorporating gay and lesbian characters into mass-market storylines is nevertheless the exception to the rule.
The hiring and depictions of other minorities in Hollywood continues to plague the industry. Two of the town’s largest unions, the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America, released studies last week showing frighteningly low employment of women, ethnic minorities and people older than 40.
Blacks made up 14 percent of all SAG roles, a modest increase, while Latinos accounted for 4 percent of all parts, statistically unchanged from two years ago.