Taboos, stereotypes, social conflicts, religion in the perspective of the presence of LGBT motifs in contemporary cinema after the 1969 Stonewall revolution in morals

Abstract

Modern culture has a unique ability to intervene with the reality around us, reacting with all that is often difficult to explain with “commonplace definitions.” Film has become a powerful medium of information, allowing us to reach often closed areas of sensitivity and dialogue on a completely different level. This article gives an extended analysis of the phenomenon of the presence of LGBT motifs in contemporary cinema after the 1969 Stonewall revolution in morality. Observing how the socio-political discourse towards the aforementioned group has changed over the years, it is noticeable how great a role culture – especially cinematography – has played in the process of breaking down fears and prejudices nurtured for years. For years, a popular view was that described by Yukimo Mishima in The Golden Pagoda regarding the LGBT community: “Since my only pride was that people didn’t understand me, I never felt the need to try to explain to others how I felt. I thought that fate had denied me the ability to see what others saw.” The bold break from social “conventions” undertaken by successive film directors made it possible to set new directions in culture, which unequivocally proved that it was not “fate denied me/us the ability to see what others saw” but the fear, present in people, of stepping outside what we now call the “comfort zone.”