Abstract
Hollywood romantic comedies are, by and large, an ideologically conservative genre. Based around gender stereotypes and the idealized pursuit, however disguised, of heteropatriarchal monogamy, Hollywood romantic comedies offer countless variations of heteronormative “intimacy.” How, then, does the shift from “boy meets girl” to “girl meets girl” in lesbian romantic comedies—a genre that emerged in 1994 with the release of films like Bar Girls and Go Fish—affect the representation of intimacy? This chapter focuses on Better than Chocolate to investigate how lesbian intimacies, and lesbian sex in particular, occupy space. Where are lesbian intimacies sited and what, if any, negotiations of space are triggered through the embodiment of those intimacies? Ultimately, this chapter argues that through an unusually explicit emphasis on sex, Better than Chocolate draws attention to the limited public mobility of lesbian intimacies through a consistent siting of lesbian sex as a site of spatial negotiation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsBibliography
Ahmed, Sara. Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006.
Allen, Dennis. “Why Things Don’t Add up in The Sum of Us: Sexuality and Genre Crossing in the Romantic Comedy.” Narrative 7.1 (January 1999): 71–88.
Bell, David. “Perverse Dynamics, Sexual Citizenship and the Transformation of Intimacy.” In Mapping Desire: Geographies of Sexualities. Eds. David Bell and Gill Valentine. London and New York: Routledge, 1995. 304–317.
Bernstein, Elizabeth, and Laurie Schaffner. “Introduction. ‘Regulating Sex’.” In Regulating Sex: The Politics of Intimacy and Identity. Eds. Elizabeth Bernstein and Laurie Schaffner. New York: Routledge, 2005. xi–xxiii.
Browne, Kath. “A Party with Politics? (Re)making LGBTQ Pride Spaces in Dublin and Brighton.” Social & Cultural Geography 8.1 (February 2007): 63–87.
Frye, Marilyn. “Lesbian Sex.” Sinister Wisdom 35 (1988): 46–54.
Harris, Hilary. “Failing ‘White Woman’: Interrogating the Performance of Respectability.” Theatre Journal 52.2 (2000): 183–209.
Holmlund, Chris. Impossible Bodies: Femininity and Masculinity at the Movies. London: Routledge, 2002.
Hubbard, Phil. “Desire/Disgust: Mapping the Moral Contours of Heterosexuality.” Progress in Human Geography 24.2 (2000): 191–217.
Hubbard, Phil. “Sex Zones: Intimacy, Citizenship and Public Space.” Sexualities 4.1 (2001): 51–71.
Leap, William. “Introduction.” In Public Sex/Gay Space. Ed. William Leap. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. 1–22.
Lister, Ruth. “Citizenship and Difference: Towards a Differentiated Universalism.” European Journal of Social Theory 1.1 (July 1998): 71–90.
Lister, Ruth. Citizenship: Feminist Perspectives. 2nd edn. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
Mernit, Billy. Writing the Romantic Comedy: The Art and Craft of Writing Screenplays that Sell. New York: HarperResource, 2000.
Moddelmog, Debra A. “Can Romantic Comedy Be Gay?.” Journal of Popular Film and Television 36.4 (2009): 162–172.
Pellegrini, Ann. “Lesbianism Lite.” New York Blade News 1.1 (24 October 1997): 27.
Rubinfeld, Mark D. Bound to Bond: Gender, Genre, and the Hollywood Romantic Comedy. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001.
Straayer, Chris. Deviant Eyes, Deviant Bodies: Sexual Re-orientation in Film and Video. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996.
Valentine, Gill. “(Hetero)sexing Space: Lesbian Perceptions and Experiences of Everyday Spaces.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 11 (1993): 395–413.
Valentine, Gill. “Creating Transgressive Space: The Music of k.d. lang.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 20.4 (1995): 474–85.
Filmography
Bar Girls. Director: Marita Giovanni. Performers: Nancy Allison Wolfe, Liza D’Agostino, and Camila Griffs. Orion Classics, 1994.
Better than Chocolate. Director: Anne Wheeler. Performers: Karyn Dwyer and Christina Cox. Trimark Pictures, 1999.
But I’m a Cheerleader. Director: Jamie Babbit. Performers: Natasha Lyonne and Clea DuValle. Lions Gate Films, 2000.
A Family Affair. Director: Helen Lesnick. Performers: Helen Lesnick, Erica Shaffer, and Arlene Golonka. RGH/Lions Share Pictures, 2001.
Go Fish. Director: Rose Troche. Performers: V.S. Brodie, Guinevere Turner, and T. Wendy McMillan. Samuel Goldwyn Company, 1994.
The Incredibly True Adventure of 2 Girls in Love. Director: Maria Maggenti. Performers: Laurel Holloman and Nicole Ari Parker. Fine Line Features, 1995.
It’s in the Water. Director: Kelli Herd. Performers: Keri Jo Chapman, Teresa Garrett, and Derrik Sanders. Kelli Herd Film Company, 1996.
Late Bloomers. Director: Julia Dyer. Performers: Connie Nelson, Dee Hennigan, and Gary Carter. Strand Releasing, 1996.
Never Been Kissed. Director: Raja Gosnell. Performers: Drew Barrymore, David Arquette, and Michael Vartan. Twentieth Century Fox, 1999.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
McWilliam, K. (2017). Girl Meets Girl: Sexual Sitings in Lesbian Romantic Comedies. In: Padva, G., Buchweitz, N. (eds) Intimate Relationships in Cinema, Literature and Visual Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55281-1_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55281-1_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-55280-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-55281-1
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)