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Movies have not been well-known for portraying LGBT characters very accurately, either in the past or present. Gays have typically been portrayed as bit-part characters, sidekicks to the (straight) hero or played for laughs; lesbians were originally vampires or crazy, psychopathic killers; while female bisexuals have traditionally dominated pornography, since it’s easier to have the same pornstar do both straight and lesbian scenes.
Among bisexual movie characters, no two have had greater impact than Emmanuelle (from the movie of the same name) and Catherine Tramell (from “Basic Instinct”). If anyone mentions “bisexual female character”, these are probably the first two that come to mind.
“Emmanuelle” was originally a book by author Emmanuelle Arsan, a pen-name for a Thai woman who married a French diplomat in the 1950’s and wowed Thai society with sex parties among the diplomatic set in postwar Bangkok. She wrote three books about the character, mirroring her own experiences. While the very first appearance of the character in a movie was made by an Italian actress in 1969, “Emmanuelle” came to international attention with the release of the 1974 movie starring Dutch actress-model Sylvia Kristel. It created a huge media sensation, was the first X-rated movie to be distributed by a major American studio and was a big hit in France and around the world. Kristel reprised the role in the next two movies in 1975 and 1977, completing a trilogy. The third movie, entitled “Goodbye, Emmanuelle”, was supposed to be the last. However, when the original producer bowed out, another man involved in the three movies, Alain Siritsky, bought the rights to the character and spent most of the rest of his life making further movie series featuring the character.
With Siritsky, the series took a decidedly corny, unrealistic turn. The series had always been softcore pornography but at least there had been an attempt to make it look like a realistic tale, with highbrow art direction and a classy, soft-focus style similar to 1970’s fashion magazines. Siritsky ditched that for storylines containing plot devices that would obviously not work in mainstream cinema. Beginning with a return of Sylvia Kristel in “Emmanuelle IV” in 1984, he changed to a younger actress by using the plot device of extensive plastic surgery to reveal a new Emmanuelle played by Mia Nygren. Further actresses played the role in another two movies, before Kristel was reinstated at the age of 38 in the truly dire “Emmanuelle VII” in 1992.
With the original cinematic series over, a precedent of making seven movies in a series was established. Siritsky then turned his attention to TV movies, late-night cable TV and straight-to-video releases. A French TV series of seven movies starring Kristel as “Old Emmanuelle” and Marcela Walerstein as “Young Emmanuelle” was made in 1993, which also featured James Bond actor George Lazenby in a non-sexual role. This series had Emmanuelle going around with a magic perfume bottle or experiencing ancient Egyptian curses or other implausible plot devices to make everybody around her get sexual quickly. This was followed by an American cable TV series starring Krista Allen called “Emmanuelle in Space” (1994), where she teaches humanoid aliens about sex and love. Then came “Emmanuelle 2000” with Holly Sampson accosting people with CIA remote control zappers, “Emmanuelle: The Private Collection” in 2005, where Natasja Vermeer teaches her friends about sex and then finally, “Emmanuelle Through Time” with Brittany Joy in 2011, featuring time travel. Sylvia Kristel died in 2012 and Siritsky in 2013, which could mean the end of the character.
In comparison with all that, “Basic Instinct” was a mere two-movie phenomenon. Starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone, this 1992 erotic thriller pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable to be shown in mainstream cinema. The story of how detective Nick Curran gets involved with bisexual author and maybe serial killer Catherine Tramell created controversy regarding its sex scenes but also its negative portrayal of alternative sexualities. It was followed up by a dull and uninspiring sequel, “Basic Instinct 2”, in 2006, where Stone reprised her role with another actor.
Both in 1992 and still now, the LGBT community criticised “Basic Instinct” for its attitude towards bisexuality and I agree with them. I don’t want to hear any more about how being bisexual means you must be a psychopath or a serial killer just because you like having sex with men AND women.
Where I disagree with contemporary LGBT society is in the dismissal of Emmanuelle as a straight guy’s bisexual fantasy, a softcore pornographic, oversexualised portrayal of bisexuality that is dated and has nothing to say about real-life bisexual women.
1974 was a long time ago — only 5 years after Stonewall, so movies showing alternative sexualities were daring and almost needed to be pornographic to even be made. Fast forward to the 21st. Century and a lot of the stuff that made “Emmanuelle” so super-sexy is absolutely standard-issue. Softcore porn? 50% of men in America watch hardcore on PornHub. A young, beautiful, bisexual 20-year-old woman likes travelling the world to have sexual adventures with handsome, exotic, foreign men and lesbian sex with Asian babes in swimming pools and whirlpool baths? Well, these days I am distinctly aware of an extremely large number of young bisexual women who would like to take a gap year from university to travel the world to stay in swanky 5-star resorts meeting sexy Hispanic waiters in Brazil or lesbians or other bisexuals to “see what happens”. They probably won’t, what with today’s student loan debts but that doesn’t mean they’ve never dreamed of that. So I don’t think that’s too revolutionary a concept any more.
Further, in this new generation of young people, sexuality is dependent on friendships, not the other way round like in previous generations. Young teens and twenty-somethings become friends first and totally disregard whether that person is straight or LGBT. If the friendship becomes close, they can then choose to develop a sexual relationship in whatever way they like, which may include gay, lesbian or straight forms of sexual expression. Then there is the trans element, which adds yet another layer, where you love the person for whom he or she or it is, regardless as to whether that person presents as male or female or somewhere in between or is gender fluid or bigender. Who knows what sexual expression they might choose to show in bed? So Emmanuelle’s super-open-minded attitude seems even more relevant today than it was when Sylvia Kristel first appeared in 1974.
That’s not to say she doesn’t need an update. First of all, let’s rescue Emmanuelle from the world of softcore. Where “Basic Instinct” succeeded is in showing the limit of what was acceptable. Emmanuelle should reach that limit, too but then not go any further, in order to make it a mainstream movie and return her to cinemas. While we’re at it, let’s throw away the ridiculous Egyptian curses, CIA zappers, magic perfume bottles, aliens from outer space, secret Government conspiracies, Pentagon reel-to-reel tapes and other garbage Siritsky introduced and go back to real stories of young, bisexual people that people can believe.
So, no thanks, Catherine, get lost! I don’t want to hear any more about how you’re a serial killer because you’re bisexual. Despite being a 90’s creation, you’re already out of date. Let’s go back then, to the original bisexual movie character and hope someone will be open-minded enough to commission a series of theatrical releases that brings Emmanuelle into the real world and into today’s modern LGBT lifestyles.
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This post was originally published by Medium and is republished with permission from the author.
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Image Credits: Pixabay