Shot by straight male directors, lesbian sex scenes are all too often pornographic fantasy. But now film-makers are portraying a more realistic experience
Google “sexiest movie lesbian scenes” and you will find a lot of tawdry thrillers. Cruel Intentions, Wild Things, Basic Instinct … hot stuff, maybe, but not the most realistic or responsible depiction of what women actually do in bed together. Think two feminine women posing for the camera, tongues visible and hands brushing over breasts, only occasionally digits going lower (eg Bound). The visual focus is usually on the women’s bodies, rather than the pleasure they are getting from each other. Even arthouse hits such as Blue is the Warmest Colour have divided audiences: many gay women complained that the seven-minute scene in the film was unrealistic, directed by a man according to his own fantasies – something the lead actors backed up.
“Historically, lesbian sex scenes have predominantly been directed by men, and have a male gaze, the male fantasy of ‘girl on girl action’, much like that found in pornography,” says Ita O’Brien, who consults on film sets as an intimacy coordinator and movement director. Chanya Button, who is directing the upcoming Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West biopic, Vita and Virginia, starring Gemma Arterton and Eva Green, says: “We’ve seen many sex scenes over the years that are really a functional punctuation point at the end of a sequence of scenes. They’re about seduction, and focused around male pleasure. This does not give a true depiction of the quality and focus of lesbian sexual expression.”
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