Screen writer looking for advise from lesbian

Really? Why does the lesbian always have to fall in love with a man in the end? Even worse in your case, your whole movie seems to about denying the experience of lesbians. I would love to see a movie about a lesbian falling in love with another lesbian with no man having to be involved, now those are rare! I can't even think of one, to be honest. This is one of the reasons so many men think that lesbians aren't real, and they just "haven't met the right man yet".

I am sorry, but this is a huge pet peeve for me and I am sure a lot of other lesbians agree. If you want to do something truly groundbreaking, make it a movie all about women and their experience.

 

But people are already not prejudiced against straight relationships.

 

I must concour, as previously stated above. I sort of get a lot of talk from straight guys who want to force me into a relationship with them, most already think they can "change" a lesbian so the message could potentially be rather easily misinterpreted.

One could achieve the same message with say, a strait person sticking with someone of the same sex. That's still a little over my head though, apparently some people are capable of dating outside of their own orientation, of course it is beyond my own understandings.

Then again, I seem to disagree with men on many factors, and it wouldn't exactly be shocking for it to play a significant part.

 

I was just about to say something about your movie along this lines, but this lady here already described perfectly why your idea is bad.

 

I don't know if I'm the best person to answer this, considering I'm not all that familiar with overused lesbian romance tropes and cliches. (Also I'm not a lesbian.)

I know you're going for something unconventional, but writing a love triangle is usually hard to pull off without making one of the characters seem selfish. I guess one way to pull it off would be to make it so that the protagonist starts off in what seems like the perfect relationship, but becomes less and less attracted to her girlfriend, resulting in their relationship ending tragically. She doesn't actually have to end up in a relationship with the guy she finds attractive, since he's mostly just a catalyst. (But don't make him one-dimensional either.)

I don't know if you want to end the story on a downer note, or if you want that to be the protagonist's low point in the third act. (Which is probably better than doing the third act forced misunderstanding cliche.) That also means you'll probably have to make the protagonist choose an unpredictable third option, but still complete her arc and have her grow as a character.

 

^^^

---------- Post added 29th Jun 2016 at 11:22 PM ----------

Personally, I could never fall in love with a guy. Unfortunately I've created a weird pet peeve thing against guys... But I have heard of a lesbian loving a man and not being sexually attracted to him. Sooo yeah, you're story could work oooorrr she could be homo-sexual bi-romantic or something?

 

It is possible, although I think a lot of lesbians would probably find the movie quite offensive seeing as it's a trope that gets used in movies time and time again. A lot of us have been pestered and harassed by straight guys who see our identities as a challenge to overcome rather than an obvious dealbreaker. Guys have told me to give them a chance because they might be the one to change me, and people in my family have claimed that I just haven't found the right man yet. The "lesbian falls for a man" trope is invalidating, especially when representation for lesbians in media is already so poor.

 

I agree with those who said that the story as you seem to envision it is invalidating of lesbian experiences and is mostly harmful and perpetuates myths concerning fluidity. (Most women or men who are homosexual don't have a fluid sexuality and could never fall in love with a person of the opposite sex.)

Here's an alternative way to approach the same idea: First of all, the girl in question is clearly bisexual and you need to keep that in mind, the distinction here is important. The girl should be in conflict about her relationships from the start of the film, not suddenly discover that she is attracted to men. To make it more realistic, use the girl's family as a pressure point, they know that she is bisexual and are pressuring her to 'choose' to be in a relationship with a guy when she is already in a relationship with a girl and loves her girlfriend.

When she meets a guy that she does feel a strong connection with, it creates a painful situation and the focus should shift to the perspective of the girlfriend and her trying to help partner disconnect from the social expectations and remain together with her despite the conflicting feelings. Eventually she does remain with her girlfriend as the guy realizes that the girl is being pressurized by the family and breaks up with her despite the fact that he loves her and she seems to love him. To make it a bit darker you can show the toll the conflict is taking on the girl and maybe the guy realizes that he is hurting her by not letting go and continuing to persue the relationship. People often ignore the psychological toll such a situation can cause as their life and identity become unstable and they go through a form of trauma. The shift in perspective can illustrate this well as does changing the personality of the bisexual girl from being full of life and energetic to that of someone who suffers from depersonalization and the resulting numbness and seeming helplessness. It would give it a bittersweet feeling to it and how complex human love and relationships can be and the sacrifices that sometimes people must make to stay together and for those that they love and how society perceives same sex relationships and the lack of acceptance. Once the conflict is solved you can bring her back to life and make her vibrant and loving again as the stress that she was under lifts.

 

Another option is to take it in a darker direction, you can follow the romantic trope, that the girl suddenly 'discovers' that she is attracted to guys (Having her family and society pressurize her to believe that narrative.) It goes along as you expect it with the girl accepting that she must leave her girlfriend for the guy. However, what you do is slowly change the character of the girl, making her more lifeless and disconnected as the film goes on, you trick the audience into believing that the couple will live happily ever after, maybe the girl can give fake smiles and put on an act as if everything is ok and then you turn it all around when the girl becomes suicidal and maybe even succeeds, The suicide attempt should not be done in tears, she should stare lifelessly into space, already dead inside and end it, cut to credits...

 

Oh I just read this reply. Keep in mind that if someone is attracted to both women and men they are technically bisexual, some choose to identify as homosexual if they have a stronger attraction in one direction or another or because they feel more comfortable with the identity. Their sexual identity can change over their lifetime. Trying to show that bisexual people don't cheat by creating a film about a lesbian person who cheats on her girlfriend with a guy doesn't really sound effective as people will just perceive her as bi even if she says otherwise and rhen the film will have the opposite effect. My first example works well in thia case as the girl never cheats on her girlfriend, despite the social pressures to do so and the prospect of cheating takes a psychological toll on her. This is closer to how sexuality actually works, a bisexual person won't choose to cheat on their partner if they love them and are in a relationship in the same way that a straight person wouldn't cheat just because they found another person that they love . Doing so is borderline traumatic as they lose the part of themselves that they invested in their partner.

In fact even homosexual people who are in a relationship with a person of the opposite sex feel a sense of loss if they break their connection with their partner despite the fact that they aren't sexually attracted to then and have never been.

 

Ever seen Chasing Amy? Same concept if you want to see a way it's done.

Though, I agree with what everyone here is saying, totally and completely. There is literally nothing more anticlimactic than a lesbian falling for a guy in the end.

 

just putting my two cents in.. Anything is possible in my book honestly. You really can't help on who you fall in love with..

Like, I know a lesbian who is dating a FTM and He looks very much like a guy because of the medicine he takes. They look really happy together. so anything can happen.

 

Thread is locked pending staff discussion.