Seriously. Fuck off.
The same thing could be said about furries, but I don’t see a section for THEM on Netflix (although Muppets Take Manhattan would probably be towards the top of that list)
Are you also saying that Chuck E. Cheese counts as a furries’ restaurant? 
I wouldn’t eat there, otherwise. The pizza is like cardboard. 
Just minor ones?
Why would you feel weird about watching a movie that some database has tagged “gay”? Why would it make any possible difference to you?
I agree. Many of us do like to see ourselves in movies, books, music etc, aside from just one badly-written token character off in the margins. We don’t do it exclusively, but it is nice once in awhile.
This Gay and Lesbian film section is tearing us apart!
It’s a marketing scheme, just like labeling a movie “horror” or “science fiction” or “mystery” or “film noir” or “MST3K-worthy”. The advantage of a virtual directory is that a movie can be cross-referenced indefinately, you don’t have find one spot to put a movie…a movie can be searched by actor, director, plot elements, themes, country of origin, key grips, year released, awards won, whatever.
It just so happens that there are a lot of confirmed bachelors and women who might be pretty if only they’d wear a little makeup out there, and it just so happens that those folks sometimes happen to find themselves looking for movies to add to their netflix queues. If letting confirmed bachelors know that a particular movie is likely to feature hot sweaty throbbing man-on-man action is wrong, I don’t want to be right. Of course, I, er, don’t care for it myself, but if THEY like it, well…
Of course, some of us women who actually do wear a bit of makeup might not be offended by naughty boys at play!
Sometimes an “argument” is so inane that it doesn’t warrant anything more than a smiley.
stpauler’s observation is completely, 100% valid, and so I repeat it here in its non-diluted, completely clear form, bolding mine:
Which is a statement that someone would have to be just looking to be offended to find anything wrong with. And it’s a completely accurate assessment of some people. Like the guy I went out with several months ago, who broke out Sordid Lives on our first date as a “hilarious must-see” movie. And the rest of his video collection looked like he just used the Gay & Lesbian section of Netflix as a checklist, and then threw in a copy of each of the Star Trek movies for “balance.”
Maybe because it suddenly means that some shallow person somewhere has tried to attach greater significance to the movie than it deserves. And suddenly you can’t say, “Well, you know, Philadelphia was kind of boring” without having a bunch of screaming queens in your face saying that you’re a homophobe and probably a latent homo yourself.
Taken out of context, you’d be quite right. But look at the context of stpauler’s reply. It answered the OP with a statement beginning “Because.”
That’s restrictive – it leaves no room for those of us who like to watch queer film in addition to other films. It supplies a blanket answer that only takes one group of people into account as an explanation for the OP’s query. It does not take effort to be offended at that.
Frankly, I thought stpauler’s first reply to be deliberately inflammatory. To me, the “some people” refers not to “some people who use this database” – it refers to “all people who use this database” who in turn are a sub-section (“some people”) of the queer community.
Deliberately inflammatory? To whom? To the sad, sad, subsection of people that live solely in their rainbow colored basements afraid of catching “the straight”? Yeah, to them. I’ll openly and honestly admit I have no respect for that type of person that lives so tightly in his/her enclave. Of course my word “Some” meant actually “some” and not ALL and my word “Because” meant “Because” because it was referring to the “some”.
If I can’t think Philadelphia was boring without being labeled a homophobe then I don’t want to live any more.
I don’t see how slapping a “gay” label on a film becuase it has gay characters or plots is “attaching significance” to it.
A dozen umarried pastel colored characters walk through Greenwich Village while having fists up their bums… how much gayer do you get?
You’re right; it is about context. But honestly, I can’t think of a context in which saying “There are a lot of people out there who are all wrapped up in the gay” is offensive, exclusionary, or undue stereotyping. Except maybe the context of “I’m suddenly feeling defensive because I just realized I have all the episodes of ‘Queer as Folk’, Longtime Companion, and four Pedro Almodovar movies in my Netflix queue.”
There are people who embrace the stereotypes and have absolutely nothing more to contribute to the world than the fact that they’re Gay Homosexual People Who Are Gay. And there are people who are desperate to distance themselves as far as possible from the stereotypes and deny that it has any relevance to them whatever. And then there are the majority of us who are somewhere in between, muddling through trying to figure out how significant it really is in day-to-day life and how much attention it really warrants.
That’s kind of the whole point of the OP, though. If you’re on Netflix and you’re clicking on the “Gay & Lesbian” section, it means that you want to watch a movie about the whole “gay experience,” whatever that entails. And are you going to get that from Go or The Talented Mr. Ripley? (Personally, when I’m in the mood to watch a “gay movie,” I don’t mean Love! Valor! Compassion!, and they don’t carry those movies on Netflix).
You could say that having gay characters in a movie is just incidental to the movie as a whole, has no significance, and would be appealing to anyone no matter if they’re interested in “the gay stuff.” If that’s the case, why the need for a separate section? Well, then that implies that this is the section for movies about Gay People Talking About Gay Things And How They Affect Them As Gay People. And if that’s the case, then… well, how much is there to say, really? You’re gay, and yeah, it’s difficult sometimes. What else you got?
But that’s you putting that spin on the label. Do you really think Netflix, when designating a film “gay,” is attempting to indicate that the movie is “about the whole ‘gay experience’”? Isn’t it more likely that “gay” to Netflix means “gay characters” or “gay plotlines”?
Ease of use? Convenience to the customer who knows that, say, “Go” has gay themes but doesn’t know whether it’s a comedy or drama?
You need to realize that many of us have read far too many denunciations to the effect that the only reason a person could be interested in Queer culture is if they were one of those chimerical people in rainbow-coloured basements care about.
As your statement read, it certainly sounded as though that’s what you meant. Even accepting that you meant that only one of the reasons for the category’s existence are these hermetically-queered people the community is supposedly beset with, the statement is still pretty skeevy.
I mean, I’ve been accused of “living in a tight enclave” on occasion; what the accusation usually means is that I unrepentantly exhibit interest in (or even believe in the concept of) Queer culture and history, occasionally frequent businesses that cater to gays and lesbians, discuss the political implications of my sexuality, and do charity work with a view to preventing Queer youth suicide. Quel horreur.
You can understand, then, why I’m suspicious of the whole idea that there are scads of fags living in a bubble, and that this category is set up for them. Blaming those scary ghetto queers is, fairly often, a convenient, easy-to-swallow manner to deny that Queers have a history or a culture, or indeed that we exist altogether.
A history? A culture? A community? A set of experiences we often share? A way to learn about different experiences that those like us face in other parts of the world?
I’m not talking about the Netflix Agenda, though, I’m talking about what a person is looking for when he starts browsing the “Gay & Lesbian” section. It means that “Gay characters” and “gay plotlines” are significant to him for whatever reason. Ergo, he’s looking for movies like Bound not because they’re modern noir crime capers, but because it’s got two chicks doin’ it.
So is that the answer? It’s included to cater to people who are shallow enough that the fact that Go has gay people somewhere in it is more significant than what it’s actually saying, and whether it’s funny or sad? And is too lazy to type “Go” into a search field? Is The Talented Mr. Ripley a movie about a homosexual, or is it about a sociopath who happens to be homosexual?
Actually, the question has already been answered by Hamish and others, and the rest is just bickering. Some people want to see movies (at certain times, not at the exclusion of other forms of entertainment or other subject matter, offer void where not applicable, your mileage may vary) that have insight or a different spin on what it means to be gay. That’s not saying that’s all the movie has to offer, and that’s not saying that’s all the person is interested in.
Well… yeah. And sometimes I want to read The Edible Woman or Bonheur d’occasion not because they’re a feminist satire/a wrenching tale of poverty, but because they’re CanLit - they come out of, and speak to, and were seminal within, a particular culture: mine.
Furthermore, I spend so much time being bombarded with images of straight people - not that there’s anything wrong with that - that sometimes I might like to see a piece of culture that has to do with my reality. It doesn’t mean I’m hermetically sealed; but it means that I am, in fact, not straight, and yet I occasionally like having my existence mentioned. I can relate to two boys or two girls in luff in a way that is different, more intimate, than the way I relate to a heterosexual love story.