Eva Longoria's lesbian kiss is a big turn off
Far be it for me to object when Eva Longoria kisses another woman, but her new project with photographer Olivier Ciappa, where straight celebrities are shown in same sex relationships, isn't exactly the step towards equality she or he thinks it is. Called 'Imaginary Love', it features straight celebrities in fake same sex relationships to show just how normal us queers really are. It's not as though LGBT actors are coming out every day, that a US talk show host and a TV actress are in a very public ratings smash of a marriage, that there are millions of gay and bi couples who could have been photographed, right? No, it's only edgy if it's not real.
But why do my relationships have to be legitimised by a straight person explaining how alike we all are? Why does someone faking it for attention make my marriage more socially acceptable?
Those of us who don't live our life in artfully shot soft focus might find things aren't quite as perfect as the exhibition implies, full of kisses and passionate - but not too passionate. As far as I know, none of the 'relationships' photographed include doing the weekly supermarket shop or arguing because one of us forgot to take out the recycling (it was me, this is a public apology).
The project sensationalises LGBT existence, as though our lives were constantly about the struggle for acceptance. Shows like The L Word and Queer as Folk, while tubthumping at times, at least managed to show their characters having lives and jobs and emotions that just happened to take place in the context of queer relationships.
Sir Ian McKellan has noted that countless straight actors have been given Oscars for 'playing gay', but no openly gay man has won one for any role. And now the trans community is being made over Hollywood style .The Danish Girl is a cisgender account of a trans woman's life, riddled with inaccuracies and cliche. Of course it makes sense that a male actor (Eddie Redmayne) was cast for a role that centres around Lili Elbe's transition - because that's what's sexy and exciting to mainstream audiences.
Because this media isn't made for us or by us, we're at worst exoticised; see the gay man in his natural habitat! Or our normality is fetished - lesbians, they're just like us!
Film and TV are full of characters who just happen to be straight, white and able-bodied. Even when the characters aren't, the actors invariably will be - and will rack up the awards for how convincing they were in a wheelchair or a dress or another woman's bed.
Give me a superheroine who doesn't only keep a cape in her closet; a princess turned-military-leader still in love with her space cowgirl ex. Give me complex queer characters with lives that go beyond their sexuality and let LGBT actors play them. My existence as a lesbian is not your rite of passage to be taken seriously as an actor or ally. When I see my life reflected on screen, I want a version I recognise, not a fun house mirror written by the right on in hope of accolades.
And Eva, if you want to try kissing a woman for real - call me.
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