If the woman you’re flirting with coolly explains that the piano music she’s lulling you with is about a princess and her slave, look for fangs.
In The Hunger, Sarah (Susan Sarandon) doesn’t mind the power imbalance. She likens it to a love song. Miriam (Catherine Deneuve) plays along in what may be the ‘80s’ most iconic scene of lesbian seduction.
The sex is tame and perhaps overly directed by Tony Scott. But the whole sequence is shot to be glamorous. And the flirtation leading up to the wine spill stirs me thanks to Sarandon and Deneuve.
If you blink you might miss Mina and Lucy kiss in Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of #Dracula. It happens during a hypnotic frolic under a storm brought on by the titular vampire. Bram Stoker’s novel is said to purposely include homoerotic elements, particularly evident in the desires of protagonist Jonathan Harker and Dracula himself. In fact, the book was written soon after Stoker’s friend Oscar Wilde was imprisoned for homosexuality.
Some also see romance in Mina and Lucy’s friendship. The cancelled 2013 Dracula series explored this potential… only to disappoint us with unrequited love: https://youtu.be/mcbv9cQGH7U
Of course, Bram Stoker’s Dracula was preceded by the sapphic vampire story #Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu.
“hey Laura
yes, Carmilla?
how long would you say you would enjoy holding me
like forever, or still an amount less than that, like should i keep waiting
waiting for what, dear Carmilla?
like for example would you like to braid my hair even after you’re dead
or just until you are dead
I don’t understand
ahh sorry sorry sorry
until we’re BOTH dead i mean”
The novella inspired the lesbian vampire trope, most famously in the exploitation films of the ‘70s. I’ll be making way through the films listed on the Lesbian Vampire Wikipedia page in the years to come.
For now, let's indulge in some wholesomeness with this compilation of smooches from the web series Carmilla: https://youtu.be/7XfQPkF4XMI
A 'lower' tolerance for abuse in Hollywood may explain why Fuller has left many of the shows he's worked on in the last several years.
His TV adaption of Hannibal is probably his most lauded. Though it left fans wanting more from the gay subtext between Hannibal and Will Graham.
A lesbian romance between Dr. Bloom & Margot, on the other hand, was allowed to flourish in the final season, resulting in one of network TV's most striking sex scenes (directed by Vincenzo Natali).
Let us remember the crew and actors who were a large part of the show's success, including the riveting Katherine Isabelle and Caroline Dhavernas.
Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy began as femme fatales created by and for men. But have since grown from friends to lovers, emancipating themselves from the straights of Gotham as DC's most recognizable lesbian couple.
Here's to hoping we see them together on the big screen sometime soon. 🥂 The very gay animated Harley Quinn series is certainly my favorite thing DC studios has produced in recent memory.
art by Jen Bartel, variant cover for DC PRIDE 2023