Why We Don’t Need Anymore ‘Beach Rats’
We need to talk about films like Beach Rats.
We need to talk about them because, quite frankly, this little English gayer is fed up to the back teeth of seeing them. This one popped up on the Gay and Lesbian section of UK Netflix and suddenly I’m inundated with them. That section is choc-full of them, and it does my head in.
I’ll tell you for why, because these forms of ‘queer cinema’ that have been around for decades always seem to portray the gay experience and the gay lifestyle as something dirty, something to be ashamed of and devoid of any real tangible emotion. Even Oscar nominee films such as Call Me by Your Name and Moonlight provide stories of secrets, shame, inappropriate relationships, promiscuity and often a world that is outside of that of the average family.
Why? Why, why, why??
What confuses me a little is that we are trying so hard to prove that we are just people like anyone else, and that our lives are no different to Mr and Mrs Smith next door, but the images we provide to the world are these? Images of going into woods or toilets to find sex, or promiscuity and drug use. Doesn’t this provide the world with a very skewed portrayal of what gay life is like? Whilst I know that this is what life is like for many people, it shouldn’t be the majority of what the world is shown. There are much more realistic portrayals within TV shows, and ‘queer cinema’ has its place but sweet Jesus, where is the hope?
So, just to give you some context here, Beach Rats is a New York set story of a teen boy struggling to come to terms with his sexuality in an environment that is oppressively heterosexual. To satisfy his desires he goes online and meets guys for random sex. It’s like cottaging for the millennial. As is always the case this doesn’t go well, and he and his friends end up beating the shit out of a guy he meets for sex when they rob him for his weed.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I completely agree that these kinds of stories have had their place in the past, and yes, people need to understand how difficult it can be to really find your true identity, and to them embrace that in an inhospitable environment. I also understand that this shit happens with heterosexuals, and there are films that depict the darker sides of that life too. But people, PLEASE, where are the LGBTQ stories of hope, of success, of happiness? Where are the films that inspire and give the teen gayer something to look forward to?
I’ve made no secret of my adoration of Love, Simon and a lot of that adoration I because it offers that hope. We have had them before, Beautiful Thing springing to mind, but they feel like they are in the very distinct minority.
Haven’t already proven that its hard? That coming out and being a young LGBTQ individual is an obstacle course of pain that needs to be traversed? Can we not now give our little chickens something to cling onto, a glimmer of gold at the end of the rainbow?
Actually, I take that back. We do need more authentic stories of the transsexual journey, if only to educate the ignorant and provide a greater understanding. But from my own little corner of the LGBTQ clubhouse I am screaming for positivity in coming out stories. Or at least stories of aspects of LGBTQ life that are under-represented.
Let’s stop scaring the bejesus out of our youngers and let them know #ItGetsBetter.
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