Future of Lesbian Films1/30/2022 As a screenwriter of documentaries on love, emotions, and sexuality and screenwriter of films besides that I am a philosopher of love and sexuality, an editor and many more I am thrilled to see a new wave of lesbian films, such as Carol, Summertime, Women's Lake, and others but what I still miss is that we haven't seen films that present a truly happy long term lesbian love, love between elder lesbians and spiritual dimensions of lesbian love yet. I have watched many lesbian films over the period of 20 years and I can not remember a single film that has presented, described or talked about lesbian love in a form of spiritual and human evolvement and evolution. I can not remember a film about a happy peaceful long term lesbian love either or a decent portrayal of love between elder lesbians. I saw however a great deal of lousy lesbian films on the part of writing (It is in the Water, Bar Girls, Claire of the Moon ...), imitating heterosexual stereotypes or using lesbians to add a sort of juicy spice to film, i.e. to leading straight/bisexual female role (Femme Fatale, Laurel Canyon, Awol ...), weird films on the part of the presentation (Mango kiss, April's Shower ...), low-cost production films that resulted in bad acting and screening (Goodbye Emma Jo, Thin Ice ...), lesbians preying for their victims and sucking the life out of them or using and domineering them for their pleasure (Hunger, The Vampire Lovers, Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant) and very sad and depressing on the part of how society has perceived the value of lesbian love as something worthless, expendable, abominable and horrible due to societal perception of homosexuality which influenced lesbians themselves (The Children's Hour, Lost and Delirious, Boys don't Cry ...). We are fed up with lesbian love stories that are overly tragic, overly sad and violent. It can be argued it is also because all great love stories, even heterosexual ones, like Rome and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde, Juliet and Saint Preux, are tragic and sad love stories. Well, if that was true for lesbians they would not die at such a high rate in such a violent manner for no noble, higher, spiritual cause. Lesbians in films usually do not die for moral, philosophical, or sacred reasons but mostly for reasons showing how their existence is worthless, forbidden, immoral, sinful, and most of all expendable. Namely, how can be a lesbian love used (and what) for in patriarchal society (in a male and combative competitive ego world where female is usually seen merely as a resourceful means of producing more male combative, competitive egos)? None. Ergo, she is useless thus worth only killing her off as something redundant yet usable for a very short of time for the sake of the story which is clearly seen in the long history of lesbian film character(s). For this reason I as a philosopher of love and sexuality and screenwriter of films and documentaries of the same topics I wish to see a new concept of love presented on a big screen: I truly wish and desire for love stories that present a happy peaceful love; love that has a potential to be a long-term and at the same time successful, fulfilling and happy and also stories of love between adults or elder lesbians not only teenagers and adolescents and very importantly also something with deep, lasting love in the level of sacred and divine. As we can see throughout history, male homosexual love has been endowed with spiritual, holy and noble perceptions of love between two men since the beginnings of times, such as in the epic story of Gilgamesh or even more famous Plato's Symposium and Phaedo, Pindar's Theoxenus ode or Vergil's book 5 of the Aeneid and even immortalized in opera's like Handels opera L'Oreste. Yet lesbian love has never been described in such elevating spiritual or soulful words as for instance Aristotle wrote of love between Alexander the Great and general Hephaestion as“one soul abiding in two bodies.“ And where are lesbian films such as Wang Kar Wai's love films In the Mood for Love and 2046; films that deeply question and explore the notion of human desire and importance of memories, such as Tarkovsky's Stalker, Solaris and Nostalghia, films of a big unrequited love such as Ophulus's Letter from Unknown Woman, films about the human mind and its big, incredible achievements like Apted's Enigma or Howard's Beautiful Mind, films that depicted and unrevealed the landscapes and dynamics of the human psyche such as Bergman's Cries and Whispers, Persona and Silence, Ozu's films, such as Floating Weeds, Late Spring and Good Morning and Kurosava's Dreams and Rashamon to name a few? As I started this essay by stating that I long for brilliant lesbian films that will portray big, long-lasting and sacred lesbian love between two adult women I am adding to this also films that will portray a landscape of woman's desire not only desire for another woman but also as a human desire, for films that would explore the vastness of woman's memories, the complexity of woman's psyche, her dreams, and her brilliant mind, the search for the truth and justice and the importance of woman's vocation and affording life she (and the way she) wishes and to love whom she desires, especially if that includes another woman! It seems that we have a long way to the greatness and entirety of lesbian film making in all areas of woman's and/or lesbian's life but we can achieve that first by depicting what we wish, desire, want, and need and then carrying out that in great film artworks.
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My Achievements in 2021 & Wishes for 202212/27/2021 My Achievements In 2021 And Wishes For 2022 In previous years about this time I was writing about others – their achievements but this year I am going to write about myself, my achievements, inspirations in 2021 and wishes for 2022 because no one else would. I ought to say that this is one of the best and happiest years in a long time and I am looking forward to even a happier and successful year in 2022. It started by having published a story in an eminent literary Slovenian online portal for literature in February. I finally published this story after 20 years I first offered it to the editor of another literary magazine. The part of the story was reproduced at the radio program Ars in October this year. In March I had poems reproduced on the radio. In March and May, I got a Slovenian female composer and a Slovenian female director for my (short) lesbian film, still searching for finances. In April I published an article on my philosophical praxis. Then I published my new poems in June. It was the first time in my life that I published poems the same year as I wrote them but I have to mention that it took me 11 years to write them! Then this December I published an article about my concept of love (written in 2020) and got the happy news that the book in which I have my article is going to be published in 2022. Both articles are published abroad. In December I also got the happy news that I am going to become editor-in-chief of a humanist-artistic online portal of some Slovenian magazines in January 2022. And oh girl this year I translated a lot of articles on philosophy and history and they were really great articles. Most of the articles were actually not about the past but many were about the present and the future – I learned a lot from them. Thus the publication of my concept of love beautifully coincides with them because my concept of love is about the present too. Two other good and beautiful things also happened this year – but until those projects are realized I won't publicly mention them, however, I am really looking forward to them in 2022. I also arranged two other new projects starting in January 2022. And not to forget, my new book is going to be published in 2022 as well. This year some people suddenly remembered me, some after 10, some after 4 years with whom we occasionally met a few times but those were people who were always busy and preoccupied with their life. However, the reason they suddenly recalled me has been that their life hasn't been as great as it used it be. But truth to be told they haven't changed a bit and I realized that as soon as their life would get to their old business-private routine they would care less about me and wouldn't find time to get together again, therefore, I dismissed their invitations to meet. I haven't had any real friends since 2009 and truth to be told I don't miss them. Those two I had until 2009 were lousy friends anyway and I don't wish to repeat the old bad pattern where I do most of the callings, inviting and giving gifts. Finally, I've completed the process of changing the environment that I began in October 2017. Namely, I changed toxic people, toxic groups, and toxic organizations I worked for 10, even 20 years. They were people and organizations who didn't appreciate my work, my actions and didn't pay me enough. Now I work only with people and organizations who pay me well and treat me with respect and as an equal. In short, I work with people who take into account what I tell and write them to. And last but not least, since I have been writing about films and tv series all these time I would like to mention two series or rather actresses that positively surprised me, Rosemund Pike and Shiori Kutsuna. If you don't know them, feel free to google them about their achievements. I chose to mention them because they are rare actresses I would actually care to meet them and would like to have a conversation with them 'in reality. Finally, it would be great to meet a new girlfriend in 2022 but I changed in this area as well. Now I am going to put myself first. It is about time! Happy Stories In Films And Newspapers ...11/29/2021 Happy Stories In Films And Newspapers – Are Really So Boring That Nobody Wants To Watch And Read Them? Yet again I was told that my happy lesbian film love story is not interesting enough to get money. I was told it is cliche. Everybody wants to watch drama, conflict, pain, and argument. I am so shocked that our civilization still holds to 2000 years old Aristotelian concept of tragedy as the motto of nowadays art (film, theatre, multimedia). For this reason, I share an attitude of Argentian philosophers Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and Déborah Danowski who claim in their chapter the »Past is Yet to Come« (2017) that we still live in the so-called 'axial period' or as they write: »The Origin and Goal of History is the title of the famous book in which Karl Jaspers advances the concept of an 'Axial Age,' the period after which the human species would begin to have not only a common history but also a single destiny. With this term, Jaspers referred to the period between 800 and 200 BCE, during which Eurasia saw the rise of Confucius, Lao-Tse, Buddha, and Zoroaster, the great Hebrew prophets, and the Greek poets, historians, and philosophers …« and continue »there is no greater intellectual crime than to address with the equipment of an older period the challenges of the present one … concept of the Anthropocene reveals the terminal obsolescence of the theological-philosophical equipment bequeathed by the Axial Age«. Isn't time we move forward to a different epoche, more positively oriented? Epoche where we are eager to watch and read good and happy news, where love is about good communication, tender kissing, and passionate sex, where two great minds meet and exchange their world-views or where two great artists or makers meet and create something together, where they wish to be together and they learn and grow together not because they suffer but because they enjoy and have a good time together. Of course, not everything is great and harmonical all the time but in general, their relationship does not go through pain and turmoil to get better, to communicate better, to change for the better. Why would they if the relationship is okay? Ergo, their relationship communicates what is it about: happiness! My love story does not wish to interpret human behavior nor change it. Their relationship is about a working everyday relationship, it is not about a relationship that is not going to result in break up, cheating, accident, or death. But that is exactly what Slovenian film directors and producers want. Let me demonstrate by example what I was told by Slovenian female directors Polona Sepe, Barbara Zemljič, Katarina Murano – we are not interested in happy love stories but stories with conflicts, arguments, and tragedy. I was told the same by two Slovenian producers, Boštjan Virc and Luka Dragičević. Well, Slovenian films directors and producers why not do your wishes come through in your real life and when you experience what you wish to show, let us meet again and share what you learned, how you changed and grew up, and if your wishes were correct, was it worth? I bet not because I am speaking from my own numerous experiences. I especially ask this for director Barbara Zemljič who told me that there are already numerous happy love stories in reality or at least that is how her relationship is and there she doesn't want to direct another one. I replied, is that really so? Mine was not and when I told her my love story she told me why not write about that and that she would rather direct my real-life experience. My second reply, what I learned from my experience is that I would rather have a happy love story and not a tragedy that I experienced. Here is the answer to why I wrote a happy love story. Another one is that lesbian films usually have tragic love stories and happy love stories are rare to find. Their second claim is that they judge the screenplay according to its quality and mine is supposedly full of cliches and doesn't appear to be good enough. Well, my reply to this is: are their films really so excellent that they can tell me that? Have their films become world film classics, even Slovenian film classics? NO. Nobody knows about their films, even Slovenians don't know what films they did and what they are about. At least my film shares a positive and optimistic message while their films are just a mess. What are in my opinion the real motives behind tragic love stories? Judging from the axial period it is all about the concept of immanence and transcendence. Castro and Danowski cite from the book Unearthly Powers which takes as its starting point the dichotomy between two forms of religiosity, »immanentism« and »transcendentalism« that directly derive from the axial period. Authors don't dwell on the specific problem of the monograph namely, »the interaction between political and religious factors that led to the worldwide expansion of some major transcendentalist religions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism). For Jaspers and most axialists the invention of transcendence and everything that followed is part of the necessary progress of humanity, the unfolding of the potentials that distinguish it within nature as a whole. All converge, however, in the realization ... that there is no continuous linear advance from original immanence to final (or terminal) transcendence, but that post-axial history shows a certain alternating rhythm, as the innovative impulses of transcendentalism are gradually neutralized by immanentist inertia … which require periodic efforts in reform, asceticism, and purification, the old idea of starting anew«. Castro and Danowski continue to show that dialectics between transcendence and immanence revealed by the axial epoch took the canonical form, in modernity, of the distinction between Nature and Culture (Society). »Now Culture was the new name for human transcendence (the soul of divine origin modernized and internalized as the practical reason or as the order of the Symbolic) and Nature that of its immanence (the congenital animality of the species, from the instinctive to the cognitive plane). Now Culture was the domain of immanence (openness to the world, history as the history of freedom, the heroism of the denial of the Given) and Nature that of transcendence (the exteriority and intangibility of physical and biological legality, history as the mechanical evolution of the cosmos) … The hierarchy between temporality and spatiality established by the Axial Age and hyper-transcendentalized by the Christian eschatology infused in Western philosophies of history ... is being empirically challenged by the extensive (imperial) and intensive (extractivist) closure of the earth’s frontier«. Let us conclude this short philosophical discourse and say in plain words: what films directors and producers want is that their characters suffer in order their suffering will glorify and reward them in a transcendent or non-terrestrial world. I wonder how does this makes any sense since we can never really know that their suffering paid them to be better off in another world? As far as the second motive, that suffering will change the main character (for better or worse) I can say only that - does someone really believe that people change? As far as I can remember people keep telling me that nobody changes and that is why the human species hasn't progressed for the past two-three thousand years (speaking in terms of ethics and human psychology). Why than not use the patterns of human relationships that work and make people happy and satisfied? Rating Countries According To Lesbian Representation Whatever we may think of lesbian represenation in far east Japan is still country where lesbians are fairly represented on television. Their lesbian characters kiss and have sex on screen. I remember TV series Giri-Haiji (2020) having a lesbian character (I made its review in april 2020) and recently in Invasion (2021) where we have a lesbian couple, Mitsuki (Shioli Kutsuna) and Hinata (Rinko Kikuchi) working at the Japan space station by having the main female lead crew flaying off to a space mission. Hinata is an astronaut who has just traveled to the international space station; her partner Mitsuki (Shioli Kutsuna), their relationship a secret to many, sits in mission control and is a wizard with communications. The Invasion series keep us happy with Mitsuki being one of the main characters, in fact it seems that she is the one who can save humanity. It is certainly better from some European countries as Slovenia where lesbian characters are non-exsistent on television. You can't get lesbian characters in any TV genre be it comedy, crime or thriller. This Slovenia, this European country is even far more conservative then as South Korea is who at least represent lesbians although they almost never kiss and even less have sex on screen but at least they are represented (Hello Dracula 2020, Mine and Nevertheless 2021) whereas in Slovenia lesbian characters are absent like we literally don't exist. To add to this more personal touch I can confirm this by personal experiences where I was sincerly frequently told by the main television editors and producers that nobody would invest money in shows and films with lesbian characters! Thus I have been trying to get my lesbian film done for ten years. This is the other side of European representation. It took me almost ten years to make a documentary on different sexual orientations for national broadcasting television and my tender for a comedy series with a lesbian couple was turned down. I can also tell that I was searching for a gay couple for several months which is indicator that Slovenia is still homophobic and people think whether being shown in public as a gay or lesbian would damage my professional and private life or not. I have been trying to make another documentary on history of lesbianism for several years without success and just a few days ago (26. October 2021) I got the same negative reply by the main editor in the educational programme section. I was told also by other LGBT-people working for national broadcasting television that their wishes to work on LGBT topics were met with conservativism and distrust. How can young or old lesbian women in Slovenia have their authentic roles models if there are noone on Slovenian television? And then people try to convince me that they are not homophobic and that we don't live in a homophobic country despite having laws protecting us and same sex marriage is legalized? Also there has been no lesbian filmaker, a lesbian actress, a lesbian television anchor or an eminent lesbian journalist in Slovenia. Regarding public and media representation we are non-exsistent and that is a fact! Also country such as France have often only a minor lesbian representation and even their representation of a female is often grim. I've noticed that French screenwriters like the idea of a strong women but only as a fiction and for a certain period of time because after a while all their strong female characters die, it happened in Baron Noir (2016-2020), Mafiosa (2006-2014), Le Bureau des Légendes (2015-2020) and even in Engrenages (2005-2020) they softened and changed one of the strongest female characters Joséphine Karlsson (Audrey Fleurot). In Baron Noir there has been a minor representation of a lesbian in the character of Salomé Rickwaert (Lubna Gourion) whom we see kisses another woman only once in all three seasons and the main female character Amélie Dorendeu (Anna Mouglais) dies. In Engrenages one of the most intriguing and strong female character Joséphine once kisses a woman and in Mafiosa we get that main character Sandra Paoli (Hélène Fillières) becomes attracted to another woman at the end of the series while daying on top of that in the end. And in Call My Agent (2016-) Andrea and Colette call it quits in the end. I was also shocked to learn that Dutch lesbian web series Anne+ (2018-) was the first lesbian series in Netherlands. Namely, Netherlands seems to be one of the main lesbian friendly countries in the world. The second season of Anne+ was then picked as a television series. I made an interview with the actress Eline Van Gils (4.9.2019) playing character Lily, Anne's first girlfriend who appears also in season 2. and we were talking about all sorts of things related to being lesbian in Netherlands today. In Sweden, Norway and Denmark there haven't been any TV series exclusively for and about lesbians and as far as I know there has been only one lesbian couple as one of the main characters shown in Norwegian TV series Aldri Voksen (2020-) (in the Occupied we learned that Russian ambasador was a lesbian only in the last season) and there was only one lesbian couple as contenstans in The Farm reality show. I made an interview with The Farm winner Tonje Frøystad Garvik (28.8.2019) who talked about being a lesbian in Norway. Although Sweden has frequently shown us lesbian couples they are usually in crime series and part of the investigation, such as Broen (2011-2018) (once a girlfriend of the lesbian couple was murdered and another time a wife of a lesbian married couple was murdered), Modus (2015-2017) (a lesbian couple is targeted by religous USA group as a hate crime), The Truth Will Out (2018-) (pathologist as a lesbian). Danish TV series The Sommerdahl Murders (2020-) investigated the murder of the lesbian teacher in one of the Helsingør High Schools. The best lesbian representation is done by UK and USA. USA had The L Word (2004-2009) and The L word Generation Q (2020-), The Fosters (2013-2018) and UK The Lip Service (2010-2012), Last Tango in Halifax (2013-2016), Dates (Kate and Erica 2013) and there are frequent lesbians and lesbian couples in many TV shows (naming the latest The Morning Show, Vigil, Station 19 and many many more ...). Australia has had series Janet King (2017-2019), a spin off of Crownies (2016). Sure there are things that could be better done as I talked on numerous ocassions in my other articles but still lesbian representation is frequent and more and more female celebrities are willing to play lesbians and tell our story of oppression, invisibility, unemployment and poverty. Words Best Describing Love Philosophical and Cinematic Approach Lately, I have been thinking about how people would remember me regarding my intellectual endeavors. I have never had similar thoughts before but it really got me thinking – it is important in the sense what my innovative contribution to the notions of love is. I have always thought that it is easier to criticize than to offer an affirmative notion thus I never criticized but instead talked and wrote about solutions and alternatives. For instance, I never shared thoughts on psychoanalysis, instead of criticizing it, I have encouraged readers about my 'simple' concept of a happy peaceful love, and before I invented my concept of love I presented notions of Martha C. Nussbaum's according to her book Upheavals of Thought (2001) and George Lakoff and Mark Johnson's notions of love by their book Philosophy in the Flesh (1999). Part of this article is inspired by Lakoff-Johnsons' notions of love which I overgrown. One of the things I started noticing is that we can change our notions of love by naming it differently, reframing it by using different words as would Lakoff say. I call love a relation instead relationship because love it is not about vehicles and it is not about generating traffic – relations are not ships (cars, airplanes, boats) and incomes, we don't travel and we don't earn salaries, every day we exchange and communicate our thoughts, emotions, attractions and are intimate with the person we share our intimate space, we have common goals and aims we achieve and update them with the person we love. I call love sharing as like-minded people share their world-views (values, opinions, aims) because love is not about competition and hunting, love is not about catching weak prey by a strong hunter to tame and dominate it and getting all for her/himself but it is about equality and sharing. I call love cognitive/intellectual because it is not about chemistry or reproductive chemicals spread through pheromones – relation is not upfront determined as catching upon certain radicals in some formation (even in nature we can't count on that, examples are pandas, penguins, some monkeys, like bonobos and others). The the main point of the 'I' is, as would philosopher Rene Descartes in his Meditations say, our cogito (mind). Regardless of what we think and even if we doubt our existence the proof that we even think of or doubt our existence in our mind is enough that we are (cogito ergo sum). That Archimedes' point of our certainty is quite sufficient – even we are nothing more than a point/dot that has absolutely no dimension, neither physical nor metaphysical; cogito suffices, Descartes taught. In 20th century, in another's philosopher's Cartesian meditations, Edmund Husserl's transcendental phenomenology cogito is no longer a 'point' but a 'field' of certainty into which the world as an intentional correlate of consciousness is drawn. I call love communication and notions because it is not about civil engineering – the relation is not about building(s), bridges, and walls, it is about communication (of the concepts and values), mutual trust, responsibilities, sexuality, and the ability to perform it good and effectively every day. It is also not about bulldozing because true love never works as bringing down a wall or barrier. I believe that courtly/troubadour love missed the real point of love. On some level or at least several times in our lives we probably all experienced that our desire and lust for someone increased while we couldn't attain her/him but after a while, we also realized how irrational that desire was or to desire someone based on the notion to desire (more) just because someone is unattainable is futile (I mean who wants to die because we can't be together with the person we thought we loved? Who really wants to be like Romeo and Juliet or Tristan and Iseult?). Therefore the point is not to desire someone who is on the other side of the wall and we could attain her/him only if we could bring down her/his wall of unattainability. Love is about proximity and creativity where you use your intelligence, cognition, communication, and emotional skills and not about lust and desire. I am going to demonstrate the futility of desire with the Russian film Stalker (1972) by Tarkovsky. Film is about getting to the room in the zone where your wishes and desires are granted but to get there you should go through the zone which is not an ordinary zone – hidden dangers lie everywhere, only an experienced guide ('stalker') can take you safely to the granting wish room. But the main point is that neither the poet nor the scientist who are the main protagonists and argue throughout the film about the 'importance' of their professions don't want their wishes to be granted when they arrive at the room. It is a simple demonstration of what desire is: once your desire is fulfilled there is no more desire, your desire is gone, and with that your noble goals, inspiration, and other self-indulgent things (ideas, motives) are gone too. It took me over a decade to finally realize that you should go for what your heart desires, you should fulfill your desire, not avoiding it because it is the only way to grow as a person, professional and personal upgrade yourself. If someone wishes to grant your desire: go for it. You would never know if someone has been the right choice before you have had an intimate relation with – the only way is that your desire is granted, all other options are deluding yourself. If your choice has been right you would be a happy fulfilled person, if not, well your desire is gone, maybe your inspiration is gone too but at least you live with knowing what you don't desire but you are still happy and fulfilled in a way. Love is about the partner's character and not about the physical beauty per se. I would like to make a statement regarding desire and beauty with another film – I used to fume over Wong Kar-wai's film In the Mood for Love (2001). While I didn't like the story itself from the very beginning (it is an old cliche story of unrequited love we have had seen for centuries and really don't know what the director meant by it other than dragging the story for almost two hours long), however, what I loved was aesthetics, music, and a montage of the film (time frame and pace of the film). The main actress and her numerous outfits are really beautiful and also the music goes really well with the film. What I know today is that while our appearance is the first contact and/or attraction, desire with it, beauty is not the main criteria for loving someone in the long run. Beauty is not a value in moral, intellectual, or creative matters, beauty has nothing to do with the character and morality of a person. Beauty is your actions with whom you prove your worth and morality! Also, beauty doesn't prove your intellectual and creative abilities only your intellectual-art products prove that. Therefore love is about everyday good news by being with the person you love, talk to, cherish, do and give many things for her and enjoy sex with! Fiction Is Not Reality – Traps Of Television Representation Regardless of the importance of the representation I often time found myself getting emotionally invested in some actresses playing lesbian roles despite knowing they might be straight and even if they were potentially lesbian such emotional investment was useless since I was in no position to actually met them. Therefore I gradually became aware of the other side of the representation or mimesis (imitative representation of the real world in art and literature). Representation was invented in ancient Greece, so-called classical period 5. B.C. and it means the imitation of the person or event but at the same time, mimesis not only served as an identification but was also different from the object identified for the imitation. The difference that comes with imitation is twofold – first, the object imitated is the first step of representation (it is representation of the person, event, idea and it is not the actual person, event, idea. Nothing can fully encompass a person, event …); second, those who imitate the person, event, idea are different from the object represented. Therefore it is never a 'perfect' mirroring because what is mirrored is not identical to the object. And when people get so invested in some fictional roles by connecting actresses with the characters they play it is exactly that difference between the object presented and the person presenting it come into play – they are not one and the same, the actress only impersonates someone but it is not actually that person. Sure, everyone understands that and it works on a rational but not emotional level. Therefore I can understand why people, especially fans, get so confused. In my personal example, I can say that it took me some time and work not to confuse the actress with the role she plays. Thus today I can say to myself, this actress is so attractive, mature, her voice is beautiful, her manners and gestures are cute and that is what attracts me not because she plays a lesbian role per se or that she is herself a lesbian. I mean it is great for lesbian representation if she is but if she is not it is okay too because my two ex-lovers and two ex-girlfriends were in straight relationships before we met. What I learned though is that if a woman wasn't in a homosexual relationship before she would want to explore her intimacy, sexuality, and relationship with at least one more woman, therefore I learned that if I was a first girlfriend/lover of a previously straight woman I certainly wasn't her last (partially it was due to my decision for that as well since I broke up with 2 of them). This also proves that if a woman was in a previous straight relationship it really doesn't mean she can't be in a lesbian relationship now! Writers of the show Ici Tout Commence got that right. Today my most important question regarding being invested in an actress is more of a reality check – am I really going to meet this or that actress, is this plausible in reality? Would I want to have all that attention and drama by being with a well-known actress? Thus now I know how to keep the distance, I know which questions to ask myself but before I was searching for clues and facts about actresses current and past relationships to find evidence of her sexual orientation and/or relationship status. In that sense, I used to be like many other lesbian fans invested in finding proofs for actresses' decision to play a lesbian character, like others I thought she chose to play this or that role because she herself was a lesbian or bisexual although she just didn't come out yet. Such behavior was odd because when I met my ex-girlfriends and lovers I wasn't that interested in their past relationships and even odder because I wasn't sure that I was really attracted to an actress (is it really because of her or because of the fictional character she plays which I am aware has no connection to the actress herself?) or that I could be a good match for her. I am pretty realistic, rational, and logical although quite idealistic, creative and altruistic. Let me illustrate by example a behavior of a lesbian fan and how futile that is: I recall frenzy with Katherine Elizabeth McGrath or short Katie McGrath, years of obsessed fans (some even got her telephone numer and home address), assuming her being lesbian while she has had no intention of revealing her sexual orientation to anyone. This should give a clue to her fans that she doesn't give a damn about them and that they can assume whatever they wish but whom she chooses to love and have sex with is her and only her own matter. Most of all, she is probably straight despite playing one lesbian and two bisexual roles. And that is why I think that fans should just leave her and other actresses be or could at least start thinking that playing this or that (lesbian) role is being a job for an actress. Btw, I fumed my admiration for her by writing an actresses' portrait for a Slovenian cinema magazine (December 2020). I can also imagine that if you are not famous you probably can't be choosy and if a lesbian character comes as an offer you take it and that is it! However, as we have on one hand obsessed fans, we have haters about being a lesbian or bisexual actress on the other. I remember derogatory comments of Demi Moore's lesbian romance in the sense, who cares if she suddenly decided to explore sexuality in her 60's or 'oh, she is a lesbian now when she is ugly, old, and with no career'. I recall also derogatory comments about Taylor Schilling's girlfriend Emily Ritz, how ugly and untalented is and therefore she doesn't deserve someone as famous, successful, and beautiful as Schilling is. This is really disrespectful of a woman's choice, affection, and lifestyle. Again, it shows that fans should have no business in actresses' private lives. For all the aforementioned reasons I have never been as obsessed as some fans, at least not to the point to comment on Twitter or Instagram which I don't have anyway, on forums, like L chat or attend events with the actresses (like ClexaCon meetings) or even less searching for their home address or telephone number (I mean who on earth thinks that a famous actress is going to be willing to meet some 'nobody' in her private life? She has her own friends, family, and colleagues, why would she meet her fan in private time?). I also don't like when an actress/-ess are idolized as some sort of godess/-es – she's/they're just a regular human/-s albeit mostly very good-looking, attractive, and with great acting skills. As an atheist, I also think that idolizing someone as a goddess means that instead of acknowledging someone's great knowledge, skills and talent we diminish or omit them by substituting them with an imaginary person. If intellectuals were treated with such idolizations and media would follow and spread the news about them every day people would know, adored, and love them as well. As you can conclude, I am fully aware that actresses are not their characters and they are most certainly different in person. But I am truly happy and proud if I get an actress, intellectual or politician which I really want for an interview. Lately, my focus is on straight French actress Catherine Marchal who plays Claire in Ici tout commence. I already sent an interview inquiry. I am going to be really happy if I get a positive reply. But then again, who am I? 'Nobody'? Perhaps but on the other hand I published (look at bibliography) 9 scientific or professional books, was project leader of 3 scientific researches, published over 30 scientific articles in Slovenia and abroad, published article in the International Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), over 30 professional articles, over 100 popular articles, edited 20 collections of texts, proof-read several books, translated over 40 scientific articles and 2 EU projects, made several documentaries, making a feature film, participated in the multimedia projects, wrote a part of the political programme on educational and social topic for The Slovenian Youth Party – European Greens who was in parliament in 2000, made 25 interviews from 20 countries and more. However, it is not only about my intellectual and professional achievements, it is also about my other activities in the area of ecology, feminism, elderly, animal, worker, LGBT rights, gifts and small donations to the organizations throughout the world. So why would I not assume to get a positive reply from a well-known or famous actress, politician, philosopher or scientist? Again - On the Importance of Representation
»… When the film Aimée & Jaguar came out in the 90s, I took the train to the cinema and absorbed it with all my soul. To tell these stories, but also to have role models like Maren Kroymann, Ulrike Folkerts or Hape Kerkeling - that is incredibly important so that you can feel for yourself: Who can I be in this world? Who I want to be in this world? Many people will understand that you need role models from whom you can grow. That's why we are convinced that visibility is very important … «. Eva Mechbach (»I noticed that people see me different« 5.2.2021) »One of the first things Harvey Weinstein ever said to me was, ‘You will never make it in this industry as a gay woman – get a beard,’ Cara Delevigne (»Cara Delevingne Says Harvey Weinstein Told Her to "Get a Beard« 14.9.2019) Time and again I have said that representation of the most under-represented group of women, lesbian, is of at most importance. Representation matters, a proper representation even more and not only from the story wise point of view but also by actresses playing lesbian and bisexual roles. Let me point out how important latter is by saying: can you imagine the situation when straight actresses could be told not to tell they are straight because they would not get roles playing lesbian and bisexual woman? And why wouldn't get the roles? Because the producer and/or director would assume that straight women can't play lesbian women. Both above citations prove my point. Therefore let us look once more which well-known actresses are lesbian or bisexual women. Recently I was taken by complete surprise when I discovered that someone I fancied as an actress is in fact a lesbian. This weekend I learnt that UK/USA actress Catherine Bell (1968-) has been in a lesbian relationship with Brooke Daniels for almost a decade (2012-). Bell played in numerious well-known TV series, such as JAG (1995-2005), Army Views (2007-2014), Good Witch (2015-). In March 2021 a young actress Ella Hunt came out as queer, explaining her love for women with the twit 'I love women'. Hunt plays in TV series Dickinson (2019-), Cold Feet (2016-2020). Actress and writer Maria Bello has been engaged to Dominique Crenn since 2020. Bello is most known for The Coyote Ugly, 2000 and many other film roles. She also played bisexual in Goliatah (2016-) and NCIS (2016-2021). In March 2021 Jen Atkin, Miss Great Britain 2020 winner came out as a bisexual and English actress Erin Doherty (playing princess Anna in Crown, 2016-) has a girlfriend Sophia Melville. German actress Karin Hanczewski (known for her role in Tatort and many others) has girlfriend Cornelia Groeschel and Germans actress Ulrike Folkerts has been in long-term relationship with Katharina Schnitzler. And last but not least, Eva Meckbach (known for her roles Rampensau, 2019– , Der König von Köln 2019, Tanze Tango mit mir 2021) is single. Let me conclude this brief article again on the importance of the representation with saying that casting of the actresses is very important and casting certain actresses for the roles is also a matter of awareness and political correctness. LIST OF AUTHORS From Philosophy, History, Science to Art... (regardless of the sex and sexual orientation) PHILOSOPHY 1. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson: Philosophy in the Flesh, the Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought 2. Pierre Hadot: Philosophy as a Way of Life 3. Mary Warnock: An Intelligent Persons Guide to Ethics 4. Martha Nussbaum: The Therapy of Desire, Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics 5. Ed. Adrienne Leigh McEvoy: Sex, Love and Friendship 6. Igor Primoratz: Ethics and Sex 7. Aristotle: Selected Works 8. Plato: Selected Works 9. Michel Foucault: Life and Praxis of Freedom 10. Grimsley: The Philosophy of Rousseau 11. Katarina Majerhold: History of Love (Ljubezen skozi zgodovino) 12. Katarina Majerhold: Living (Živeti) 13. Martha Nussbaum: Why Democracy Needs Humanities (Not for profit) 14. Jean Jacques Rousseau: Social Contract 15. Michel de Montagine: On Friendship 16. Michel de Montaigne: Essays 17. Adam Phillips & Barbara Taylor: On Kindness 18. Todorov Tzvetan: Frail Happiness 19. Francois Lytorad: Postmodern Condition 20. Frederic Jameson: Postmodernism 21. Michail Mihajlovič Bachtin: Towards a Philosophy of the Act 22. Germain Greer: The Whole Woman 22. Andrew Sullivan: Virtually Normal 23. Michel Hardt and Antiono Negri: Common-wealth 24. Roland Barthes: Fragments of Loving Discourse 25. Michel Foucault: History of Sexuality 1,2,3 26. Ed. Sharon M. Kaye: What Philosophy Can Tell you about Your Lover (Katarina Majerhold, The Gift) 27. Gilles Deleuze: 1000 Plateaus 28. Denis de Rougemont: Love in the Western World 29. Martha Nussbuam: Uppheavals of Thought, The Intelligence of Emotions 30. Martha Nussbaum: The Fragility of Goodness 31. Immanuel Kant: What is Enlighment 32. Immanuel Kant: Metaphysics of Morals 33. Immanuel Kant: Critique of Practical Reason 34. Immanuel Kant: Critique of Judgement 35. Karl Marx: Selected works 37. St. Agustine: Selected works 38. Marquis de Condorcet: Sketch for A Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Spirit 39. Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari: What is Philosophy 40. Simone de Beauvoir: Second Sex 41. Elizabeth Grozs: Volatile Bodies 42. Empedocles: Purification 43. Empedocles: On Nature 44. Martin Heidegger: Being and Time SPIRITUALITY 44. Lao Tse: Tao the Ching 46. Shinichi Hisamatsu: Die fulle des nichts (vom wessen des zen), Satori and Atheism 47. Shinichi Hisamatsu: Zen Talks on The Record of Linji 48. Maja Milčinski: Four Books: Confucious, Menacius, Great Teaching, Teaching about Middle Way 49. Francois Jullien: L'Eloge de la Fadeur (Praise of Blandness, Proceeding from Chinese Thought and Aesthetics) 50. Francois Jullien: The Great Image Has no Shape or On the Non-Object Through Painting 52. Carl Sagan: The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A personal view of the search of God 53. Shintou 54. Rumi's Poetry 55. Hafiz Poetry 56. Krishnamurti SCIENCE & COSMOLOGY 56. Alan Whiteside: HIV/AIDS, A Very Short Introduction 57. Thomas S. Kuhn: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions 58. Nassim N. Taleb: The Black Swan 59. Evan Thompson: Mind in Life, Biology, Phenomenology and the Sciences of Mind 60. Geoffrey Miller: The Mating Mind, How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature 61. John H. Gillespie: Population Genetics 62. Rudi Ocepek: Upbringing For a Responsible Attitude Towards the Nature, overcoming the Prejudices Towards Animals 63. Luc Ferry: New Ecological Order 64. Stephen W. Hawking: A Brief History of Time, from the Big Bang to Black Holes 65. Brian Green: The Fabric of the Cosmos 66. Andreas Weber: Emotional Evolution (Nature) 67. David Bohm: Holographic Universe 68. George Church, Ed Regis: Regenesis: How Synthecic Biology will Reeinvent Nature and Ourselves 69. David Bohm: On Dialogue 70. Darwin: Natural and Sexual Selection 71. Stephen J. Gould: Mismeasure of Man 72. Stephen J. Gould: Punctuated Equilibrium 73. Stephen J. Gould: Evolution as Fact and Theory 74. Arvid Kappas & Nicole C. Kramer: Face-to-Face Communication over Internet (Emotions in Webculture, Language and Technology) HISTORY 75. Albert O. Hirschman: The Passions and the Interests. Political Arguments for Capitalism Before Its Triumph 76. Paul Johnson: Intellectuals 78. Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of The Rights of the Women 79. Georges Duby and Michelle Perrot: A History fo Women 1,2,3 80. Georges Duby: The orders, Feudal Society Imagined 81. Georges Duby: The Knight, The Lady and the Priest 82. Philippe Aries: Infant and Family life in the Old Regime 83. Fernand Brudel: Civilisation and Capitalism (15-18th century) 84. Fernand Brudel: The Structures of Everyday life 85. Francois Furet: Interpreting the French Revolution 86. Peter Gay: The Enlightenment: The Science of Freedom 87. Pierre Hadot: Excersises Spirituales et Philosophie antique 88. Jacques Le Geoff: Intelectualls in the Middle Ages 89. Jacques Le Geoff: Time, Work and Culture in the Middle Ages 90. Robert Graves: Greek Myths ARTS 91. Julia Buckroyd: The Student Dancer: Emotional Aspects of the Teaching and Learning of Dance 92. Mark Rothko: The Artist's Reality 93. Arthur C. Danto: The Philosophical Disenfranchisment of Art 94. Boris Groys: Antiphilosophy 95. Boris Groys: Theory of (post)Modern Art 96. Aleš Erjavec: Love at Last Sight 97. David Raizman: History of Modern Design 98. Ed. Charlotte and Peter Fiell: Designing the 21. st century 99. Guliana Bruno: Atlas of Emotion, Journey in Art, Architecture and Film 100. Nathan Dunne: Tarkovsky 101. Dorothy Schefer: What is Beauty? 102. Object Lessons, Beauty and Meaning in Art 103. Valerie Mender & Amy De la Haye: 20th Century Fashion 104. Phaidon: Fruits 1,2 105. John Berger: Ways of Seeing 106. John Berger: Selected Essays of John Berger 107. Eh Gombrich: The Story of Art 108. Eh Gombrich: Art and Illusion 109. Hugh Honor: A world history of Art 110. Erwin Panofsky: Meaning in the Visual Arts 111. Martin Heidegger: The Origin of the Work of Art LITERATURE AND POETRY 112. Marcel Proust: Swan's Way 113. Thomass Mann: Magic Mountain 114. Thomas Mann: Death in Venice 115. Srečko Kosovel: Integrals 116. Frans Emil Sillannpaa: Life and Sun 117. Margerit Duras: Lovers 118. Elfried Jelinek: Women as Lovers 119. Robert Musil: Confusions of Young Torless 120. Robert Musil: Man Without Qualites 121. Samuel Beckett: Novels and Texts for Nothing 122. Raymond Carver: Selected Stories 123. Jeannete Winterson: Written on the Body 124. Shakespeare: Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet 125. Vergil: Eneid 126. Sovre: About Poetry (Homer, Plato, Hesiod, Horatius, Aristotle) 127. James Joyce: A Portrait of The Young Man as an Artist 128. James Joyce: Ulysses 129. Ovid: Metamorphoses 130. Hallador Laxness: Islandic Bell 131. Friederich Holderlin: Hyperion 132. Simone de Beuvoir: The Coming of Age 133. Guy de Maupassant: Our Hearts 134. Voltaire: Candid 135. Octavio Paz: Selected Essays 136. Rene Char: Selected Poems 137. Daglarca: Selected Poems 138. Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Poems 139. Rainer Maria Rilke: Selected Poems (Divine Ellegies) 140. Octavio Paz: Selected Poems 141. Rene Breton: Selected Poems 142. Selected Poems 143. Walt Whitman: Selected Poems 144. William Wordsworth: Selected Poems 145. Lord Byron: Selected Poems 146. Williman Blake: Selected Poems 147. Percy Shelley: Selected Poems 148. Thomas S. Elliot: Selected Poems 149. Lewis Carrol: Alice in Wonderland 150. Henrik Ibsen: Selected Dramas 151. August Strindberg: Selected Dramas 152. Henry Miller: Selected Dramas 153. Nikolaj Gogolj: Dead Souls 154. Federico Garcia Lorca: Selected Poems and Dramas 155. Guillaume Appolinaire: Selected Poems and Dramas EMOTIONS & LOVE 156. Scherer, Klaus R., A Schorr and T. Johnstone: Appraisal Processes in Emotions 157. Wollheim, R.: On the Emotions 158. Oakley, Justin: Morality and the Emotions 159. Greenspan, Patricia: Emotions and Reasons: An Inquiry into Emotional Justification 160. Chapman and Hall and Rorty A. ed.: Explaining Emotions 161. Salomon, Robert: The Passions 162. Anthony Giddens: The Transformation of Intimacy, Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies 163. Denis de Rougemont: Love in the Western World 164. Simone de Beauvoir: Second Sex 165. Alan Soble: The Philosophy of Love and Sex The Portrayal of Elder Lesbians on Film3/19/2021 The Portrayal of Elder Lesbians on Film I understand that stories serve as models for how to live, act, behave and emotion. In ancient Greece the stories show that the actions, thoughts and emotions were mediated by deities. In the medieval period emotions, actions, thoughts were modified according to deity, in the Enlighten period man for the first time tried to rely only on its will, power, capabilities. And when we write about stories they should lead with examples of how to deal with life. Since the beginning of times stories have been about the moral guidelines, how to lead either a good or bad life, happy or unhappy lives, it is about character's choices that lead to either side. Oedipus (Sophocles), Antigone (Sophocles), Medea (Euripides), Agamemnon (Aeschylus) are all standard tales about providence and moral choices. Tristan and Isolde (unknown), Juliet and Romeo (Shakespeare), Julie; or, The New Heloise (Rousseau), Black and white (Stendhal), Dangerous Liaisons (de Laclos) are all standard tales about desire and not love. Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility (Austen), Clarissa (Richardson), Gone with the Wind (Mitchell) are romantic novels in which love is seen as unity of two souls and where love leads to marriage. Ulysses (Joyce), In Search of Lost Time (Proust), Lover (Duras), Lovers (Jelinek) are about the notion of the self, time and search for the self, while love is represented through different historical notions (as liberation of woman's passion, woman's freedom). There is no classical lesbian love story or even a happy lesbian love story. If there are not great classical tales of lesbian love in literature, there are some good lesbian love stories in films. There has been progress in the direction of a happy ending in recent years. I am not talking about great but good and decent lesbian films, like Imagine Me and You (Parker), Kiss me (Keining), Carol (Haynes). In the article Future of Lesbian Films (2019), I argued that we should watch more films about elder lesbians. I was pleasantly surprised that we finally got not one but two films about elderly lesbians, i.e. elder lesbian couples in the last couple of years. It has been about time that someone tackled this issue. First I watched Two of Us (2019) by Filippo Meneghetti. Despite starring an impressive actress Barbara Sukowa, the film is nothing extraordinary, but it is a decent drama. I like the fact that the director showed a European film about love without borders, a French-German old lesbian couple and how two women managed to stay together all their lives. We are presented with flash memories into the childhood of both protagonists, German Nina Dorn (Barbara Sukowa) and French Madeliene Girard (Martine Chevallier) – how they met, fell in love and stayed in touch throughout their adult lives into retirement. With the retirement Nina bought an apartment to Madeliene's next door in order that they could be together almost every time they wished and eventually move in together when Madeliene's husband died. The film opens at the point when Nina and Madeliene discuss Madeliene's coming out to their grown-up children, Anne (Léa Drucker) and Frédéric (Jérôme Varanfrain) and selling her apartment. Madeliene puts the flat on the market with the estate agent making an estimated worth and preparing for the meeting with the children. As it happens, Madeliene couldn't come out to her children and called off selling the flat. We are faced with an emotional confrontation between Nina and Madeliene when Nina loudly asked the estate agent if he minded them being old dykes on the street. Madeliene ashamed tried to shut off Nina who angrily left, telling Madeliene to leave her alone. Madeliene surprised by Nina's anger and 'absence' is pushed into inner turmoil which caused her sudden stroke that leaves her paralyzed on one side and unable to talk. When Nina hears about what happened to Madeliene she tries to visit her in the hospital and later is at home but Madeliene's children don't allow her frequent visitation since they don't know about their relationship. Madeliene's daughter Anne becomes especially suspicious of Nina's invasive behaviour and suddenly finds out that Nina was always present in Madeliene's life when browsing through family photo album. At that point we realize that Madeliene was right about being cautious regarding revealing the relationship to her children as we realize Anne's homophobia that causes to prevent Nina's visits even more. Nina falls into despair not being able to see and help Madeliene to the point of kidnapping her from the retirement home and also being robbed. In this film we see what can happen to an old lesbian couple if they are not both out and proud. We can also see what can happen if one of the women has an internalized homophobia. This can be transferred to their children too and last but not least, it can be emotional and physical devastating for both partners. Madeliene always excused her being in the closet by living in the small 'south' town where people have prejudices and make vicious gossip but as Nina's pointed out it is just a matter a personal approach and braveness to live an openly lesbian life. If a person did not mind what others think and gossip then people would be more accepting and friendly. And that is exactly what happens with a brave couple of elder lesbians in their 70s, Sofia (Verónica Forqué) and Celia (Rosa María Sardà), living in a small town in film So My Grandma's a Lesbian (2019) by Ángeles Reiné. Celia and Sofia are not afraid to show their family and friends that they are in love and announce their plan to get married, ultimately deciding to be who they are regardless of what others think. Or as Sofia says: »You have to live life fearlessly. It’s the only way to be happy« . However, if Cecilia and Sofia are free and happy about being themselves most of those close to the women react to their news in a melodramatic, puerile and frankly homophobic way. This is particularly seen in the character Eva (Ingrid García-Jonsson), Sophia's granddaughter who tries to break up the wedding due to her ultra conservative in laws, and also seen in Jorge (David Verdaguar), Celia’s son, who thinks his mother needs to see a neurologist. Watching the story and characters' opinions unfold in these contemporary, slightly more progressive time, serves only to evoke annoyance and anger in the viewer. It is non progressive and unoriginal. Notably, though, something I appreciated in the film was its use of religion as the problem and the solution. Religion in the film is a big reason why characters take the unaccepting positions that they do, it is also the solution for the two women: as Celia often expresses, God made her the way she is and so God has to accept her for being lesbian. It is quite refreshing to see religion being used for open rather than just narrow mindedness, especially in a lesbian film. Film My Grandmother is a Lesbian is a positive and light film filled with humour and a happy ending. Despite trying to be all-inclusive with different story-lines, which films sometimes confuses instead of clarifies, the humour makes it light and without complaining that it wishes to be overly political correct. Most of all, it breaks the taboo about elder people and their proclamation of love. It also shows that true love is a long-lasting despite the fact there may be some obstacles, but people truly in love find ways to overcome it. What both films have in common is how times have changed in favor of lesbian women. Nowadays lesbians can marry, have a family, work and live together without complying to any man, whereas films show how elder lesbians had or thought that they had to marry men, had families with them while loving a woman of her life. They became strong and brave to come out only in old age when their husbands died and children grew up. Only then or now they insist on the importance of marrying and coming out of the closet or 'wardrobe' as claims one of the protagonists in the film My Grandma is a Lesbian. She claims that even saying 'coming out of the closet' sounds so masculine and that lesbians should insist on saying 'coming out of the wardrobe' because this sounds more feminine. What a nice comparison of the use of language. However, as both films also point out despite some social progression homophobia regarding elder lesbians is still present. P.S. Soon I am going to watch a short film Time & Again (UK, 2019) about elder lesbians as well. On the Importance of the Lesbian Screenwriters » ... if I only encountered really, really amazing scripts about lesbian women for the rest of my career, I’d be perfectly happy. I’m just looking for the best material.« Katherine Waterston, main actress of the World to Come, Pride Source interview, February 22nd, 2021 You would be surprised how film crew (directors, screenwriters, producers, programme editors, actors, scenographers, costumographers etc.) are narrow-minded and downright homophobic and misogynists. I was rather shocked about that when started writing screenplays and shooting documentaries for national television. I was even more surprised because they are supposedly artists who want to 'enlighten' the world by presenting the world as it is. Or is that in fact a work of philosophers? I started writing screenplays for television because I found out that people were obsessed with watching TV instead of reading books and nowadays are obsessed with You Tube influencers and Tik Tok 15-60 seconds clips. I also started writing screenplays because philosophy tackles issues of emotions and sexuality within reason and sometimes action but it always involves on one hand logic as much as possible and what is a wrong or right feeling or action, respectively. Also nowadays, only rare people know that that the condemnation of homosexuality and homosexuals originated with philosophers, precisely with one of the most dominant and influential philosophers of all time, Plato. That was rather strange in a time of ancient Greece where male homosexuality was the most predominant and desirable relationship for men, wasn't it? However, if there wasn't Plato with his platonic (asexual, asensual) love with its telos to procreate either in body or preferably in mind/soul as he wrote in Symposium (1989, 206b) and his condemnation of homosexuality in Laws1 and Republic2 Christianity wouldn't have its base for condemnation of homosexuality and having sex only when/to procreate. Therefore as a philosopher I wanted to have more freedom to express myself when I started writing screenplays. I didn't want having the philosopher's moralistic/Socratic daemon speaking to me in the form of superego how we should live and love while wanting to present a genuine human love in everyday life, especially if it is a love between two women. I also did not want to use a system of (either tragic or comic) storytelling from another philosopher, Aristotle as he wrote about it in Poetics. As an amateur self-taught screenwriter I worked many years to finally understand how to write documentary screenplays and even more to write film screenplays. Even more time I spend thinking how to write and what to write about if I didn't wish to either kill my main character of mock her as Aristotle suggested. At the same time I was thinking how to make such story still appealing and emotionally or socially engaging. It took me almost ten years – three different stories and three versions of each – and many negative commentaries by mostly straight female directors, some television programme editors and colleagues to finally get positive reviews for the latest version of my third screenplay. Since screenplay it is still not great I am doing my final revision. But the fact is if I didn't wish to tell a bit of different lesbian story I would never learn about so many prejudices and stereotypes regarding lesbian love stories by film artists and television programme editors. And then people wonder and complain why there are so little lesbian films and even less great lesbian films and the least films having a happy ending. First, there is a small number of lesbian screenwriters and great lesbian screenplays are even rarer. Second, there is a great deal of prejudices and reluctance from the producers and straight directors and/or television editors to finance such projects. They always find some excuses not to finance a film or lesbian TV series. Last year a producer from one of the local private Slovenian television replied to my screenplay for lesbian series that he doesn't know any screenwriter in Slovenia who could write a great screenplay according to my idea/concept. Third, speaking from my own experience each good quality film takes a lot of hard work, lots of finance and time to make. Like I said, and then people wonder why there are so little lesbian films. And last but not least, one of the lesbians from L chat said what it should be said about making more lesbian films: »If you want to see more films made and promoted by lesbian ... women, why don’t you petition big-shot producers bankrolling the 17th Avengers’ sequel? Rather than complain all over an indie women love women (wlw) production that wasn’t to your personal taste, why don’t you go and champion for Hollywood to expand the pie and feature more wlw stories in general, so viewers can each find a film or two that represents what they wanted to see? ... The solution should be, 'Make more wlw films — so many, that everyone can find films and actors they like in them. Like straight audiences do.'« This is certainly the right way to go but my response to this is again: from my experiences with film producers and TV editor programmes it is the hardest because we have just been watching the boys stories for a really, really long time and they are the most reluctant to turn that trend around to finance more lesbian films despite there are countless proofs of neglected past and present presenting women love women and that there is loads to explore. And finally how am I to become a good and great screenwriter if my screenplays are frequently not accepted since one's masters her 'craft' by practical demonstration? Perhaps by continue being stubborn and working and working ... References 1. »That was exactly my own meaning when I said I knew of a device for establishing this law of restricting procreative intercourse to its natural function by abstention from congress with our own sex, with its deliberate murder of the race and its wasting of the seed of life on a stony and rocky soil, where it will never take root and bear its natural fruit, and equal abstention from any female field whence you would desire no harvest« (Laws VIII 838e-839a). 2. »Socrates: Thus, then, as it seems, you will lay down the law in the city that we are founding, that the lover may kiss and pass the time with and touch the beloved as a father would a son, for honorable ends, if he persuade him. But otherwise he must so associate with the objects of his care that there should never be any suspicion of anything further, on penalty of being stigmatized for want of taste ...« (Republic III 403a-c). Katarina Majerholdphilsopher, lesbian, editor Archives
May 2023
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