«I JUST READ EVERYTHING»

As we've been discussing, gay men have a well-deserved reputation as fanatic cinephiles. The in-the-closet Joan Crawford worshippers of the pre-1960s gave way to the neurotic, dog-at-a-bone "positive representation" chorus line of the 1970s, which picketed the set of Cruising and was exemplified by Vito Russo and his Celluloid Closet. These days, it's all about whether or not Tom Cruise is gay and, of course, Brokeback Mountain. Oliver Stone once said that every gay man thinks they're a film critic, and Quentin Crisp said that he went to the movies "incessantly and reverently." Yet, as far as I know there's no particularly deep relationship between cinema and lesbian culture. How would you account for this? 

I noticed this odd phenomenon while I was still in college. I had a community of response to film with gay men but virtually zero with lesbians. It's partly why my dating life was such a frustrating blank. My theory is that gay men, unlike lesbians, have an innate, hyper-acute visual sense. It's related to what I have speculated to be the genesis of much (but not all) male homosexuality: an artistic gene that ends up isolating sensitive young boys and interfering at a crucial moment with the harsh dynamics of schoolyard male bonding.

-Camille Paglia