Should we protest against Lesbian Vampire Killers film?
June 12th, 2008
Lesbian Vampire Killers: Two no-hopers. One cursed village. A bus full of foreign female students and an army of salacious lesbian vampires. It’s gonna be one hell of a night!
The film Lesbian Vampire Killers hasn’t been made yet, but it sounds like it’s going to be a load of predictable stereotyping trash. Should we all join a group calling themselves Angry Lesbians to campaign against it, or is it just a bit of harmless fun?
The film will star Matthew Horne and James Cordern from BBC Three comedy Gavin and Stacey, and Lilly Allen is rumoured to be playing one of the lesbian vampires.
It’s safe to assume that Lesbian Vampire Killers is not going to portray a balanced and sensitive vision of lesbian life. For a start, the film is being written by Stewart Williams, who works on Channel 4’s Friday Night Project and Paul Hupfield from Balls of Steel.
‘It feels like a crime’
A petition against the film has been started on the website angrylesbians.biz. Geraldine from the website explains what the protest is about: “With this campaign - knowing the film will be made regardless - we want to make people think twice about attending a film like this.”
“For years lesbians have been used to titillate men, for years women have been used as objects,” she adds. “We were finally moving away a bit from this image and now this happens. It feels like a crime. The worse part is that women desperate for fame will willingly volunteer for this and that women, unaware of what it means will watch it, as fans of the lead actors. They must be aware of how they are portrayed. Women should stand up for themselves, and lesbian love should not be used to cater to men’s fantasies.”
“The film was started when the writers were asked to think up the dumbest but most commercial film title they could think of. The announcements only mention loads of breasts, gore and a campervan full of sexy foreign student girls, besieged by a hungry army of lascivious lesbian vampires. It just really looks like one of those old fashioned stereotypical flicks that have haunted lesbians and a lot of women for a long time. It’s time they disappear!”
Falling into stereotypes
Protesting against unfair portrayals of lesbians in the media is certainly to be applauded, but unfortunately it seems that Angrylesbians.biz is doing more harm that good.
The Sun newspaper, with its insatiable thirst for all things lesbian, picked up on the petition with predictable results: “FURIOUS women at angrylesbians.biz have launched a petition… The Gavin And Stacey duo should look out or there could be a real-life documentary sequel — Lesbian Celebrity Killers.” (Because all angry women become murderers, of course.)
Stupid tabloid twisting aside, the problem with AngryLesbians is that in trying to fight stereotypes, they fall straight into one. The website’s fury is lashed out at anything and everything, from ‘Nicole Kidman playing Dusty … WTF?’ to ‘Naomi getting arrested just after speaking against racism in the fashion industry’ to ‘general abuse of animals’.
The general impression from the website is that lesbians are all angry, militant and reactionary, and it’s perfect ammunition for homophobic newspapers and readers who prefer to think of lesbians as either almost-porn stars or awful man-haters.
“The site isn’t meant to be taken like that,” insists Geraldine. “AngryLesbians is just a name that covers the project like an umbrella. Articles and vents can also be humorous, serious or, of course angry. It isn’t literally, we could have been mildly annoyed lesbians, but that didn’t have the same ring to it.”
What do you think? Do you support what AngryLesbians.biz are doing? Will you be watching Lesbian Vampire Killers?
“Stupid tabloid twisting aside, the problem with AngryLesbians is that in trying to fight stereotypes, they fall straight into one” - I’m afraid this is the crux of the problem.
besides, is it not women in general, ie all women, who need to condemn this sort of sh*te - anyone want to bet me a tenner none of the ‘lesbian vampires’ are played by lesbian actors?
carrie, your token straight girl
Carrie ∼ June 12th, 2008 6:31 pmIt’s a funny take on vampire films.
I certainly don’t take offence to it :)
Loudsavlon ∼ July 2nd, 2008 8:06 am“…the problem with AngryLesbians is that in trying to fight stereotypes, they fall straight into one” - I’d say that Geraldine has a point.
Geets ∼ August 16th, 2008 10:23 pmThe stereotype of the hysterical woman / hateful lesbian exists, but does that mean that being angry is not a valid reaction?
What about the other stereotype where women bend over backwards to keep everyone happy and avoid confrontation? Anyone think that’s a better idea?
Anyone annoyed with a small-minded world should not be deterred by those reactionaries teensy tiny frame of reference (say, where lesbians are either Bilitis extras or man hating pairs of dungarees). Who knows, they may learn some subtlety in dealing with the individuals around them.
I support angry lesbians, they have a right to be angry at this stereotyping of lesbians and catering to male fantasied. I don’t expect this film to be anything more than glorified soft porn. You would expect this sort of stuff back in the 1970’s but not today. It is pathetic. I wonder if the person responsible for this will make a sequal about male gay vampires?
Susan Maria Gavaghan ∼ December 21st, 2008 6:52 pmLighten up will you?
Anything that can’t stand up to a bit of ‘taking the piss,’ isn’t worth standing up for.
What? Are you afraid people are going to suddenly stop being lesbian because they saw a spoof horror movie? What are you afraid of exactly?
I bet you are the same people who laughed at Monty Python’s The Search For The Holy Grail but don’t see why religious people got so upset about it…
Aindriu ∼ January 7th, 2009 12:05 pmI suggest you see the film before campaigning against it!
Simon ∼ January 7th, 2009 5:18 pmI understand the point that’s being made, but to be quite honest there are a lot of other things I’d protest against first - like all those covers of Nuts/Zoo that are displayed at the height of a one year old child in my local WH Smiths. The film sounds jsut like a standard not very funny brit flick.
However, can we please stop the victim blaming? If the media are determined to either stereotype lesbians as Millie tant figures or pornified lust figures for men, the Sun’s reaction is not the fault of this website. It’s the fault of the Sun. Let’s put blame where it belongs.
polly styrene ∼ January 8th, 2009 11:12 amAt the end of the day it’s just a film, not a true life fly on the wall documentary. if people want to see they will, if not they won’t. I can’t see it changing squat about how lesbians are seen.
monkeygirl ∼ January 8th, 2009 1:16 pmIs Millie tant an intentional typo?
Faith ∼ January 8th, 2009 3:44 pmBut what about the actual lesbian vampires? They’re actually the ones being stereotyped; someone should ask them how they feel.
Faith ∼ January 8th, 2009 3:46 pmI’m sure the lesbian vampires would like a chance to get they’re teeth into a good debate!!!! lol Just to get the point across. he he
monkeygirl ∼ January 8th, 2009 5:17 pmI got so upset when I saw the advert for this movie! Like we don’t have already enough to put up with (!!!) This movies ‘allows’ and promotes homophobia in the title itself… i said to my friends I wonder if this movie would be allowed if it were called ‘Pakistani Vampire Killers’, ‘Israeli Vampire Killers’, ‘Christian Vampire Killers’, ‘Gay Vampire Killers’… It’s always easy to pick on the ‘easy targets’; us lesbians (!) No we won’t ever be watching this.
rainfly ∼ April 11th, 2009 6:52 pmI like rainfly’s point, “Christian vampire killers,” “Pakistani Vampire Killers,”… if you take away the ‘Vampire’ you just get, “Lesbian Killers,” and in the end however satirical, the point is that lesbians, made into a mythic being, are all killed.
It’s very easy to put the person behind the title or steriotype into a non-human persona and therefore make it ok to obliterate them. Isn;t this how people have been justifying killing the ‘other’ whether its been whites against blacks, christians against ‘witches’.
Why this is offensive is because it wasn;t that long ago, less than 30 years in N.Z, that being gay or lesbian was illegal and we’d be put in a straight-jacket,or electricuted.
SO HA HA how funny, a movie where all the LESBIAN vampires (i.e abnormal) are killed, and the heros are surprise, surprise.. white straight,: therefore ‘normal’ men.
girl ∼ May 23rd, 2009 6:35 amI think this is a textbook example of having an opinion without trying to understand the reason. This movie is part of the ‘grindhouse’ movement, intentional ‘B’ films that take the themes of the insensitive past and hold them up for ridicule.
I personally didn’t see it because it looked like a crap film, not because it appeared to be bashing lesbians. We know: because you’re a man, I can hear some of you replying - No, because I believe that kneejerk reactions to a media product is the best way to get ignored. If anyone wants to alter the way the media portrays a minority (for lack of a better word), they have to be assertive, not aggressive.
That’s my opinion, anyway.
The Lone Male ∼ July 24th, 2009 1:25 amThis is such a homophobic film. Very sad to watch Lesbian Vampires, in this times… From Barcelona, Spain , we want another kind of movies with lesbians inside.
Vita ∼ March 31st, 2010 12:21 pm