Call Me By Your Name, Luca Guadagnino’s lush 2017 romance has been lauded as a “gorgeous gay love story” by The Guardian and has received similarly effusive praise across mainstream press, both online and in print. However, most of these reviews seem to make clear reference to the clear theme of homosexuality that runs an electric current throughout the film. The main relationship is undoubtedly the tactile draw that brings the audience in and leaves them hooked until the unforgettable final scene, but is it foolish to continue to refer to the main characters as gay?
Call Me By Your Name centres on a romance between Elio, a 17-year-old who is spending the summer in his family’s summer home in Northern Italy, and Oliver, a graduate student who is studying with Elio’s brilliant father in the subject of Classics. Their relationship takes some time to get going and while they are literally dancing around one another, they are also engaging in sexual relationships with women, a pair of sisters who each become ensnared by one of the men. As Elio and Oliver become bored of Marzia and Chiara respectively and lean into the relationship they have with one another, do they shake off their opposite-sex attraction completely or is the reaction to the film symbolic of a wider problem in today’s society – that of the erasure of bisexual people?
It would be unfair to place the blame of bisexual erasure and biphobia solely at the feet of those who call this film a gay piece. Bisexual erasure and prejudice has long been an issue, both in mainstream and queer societies. A study conducted by the Journal of Bisexuality found that levels of prejudice against bisexuals were at an almost equal level in the heterosexual and homosexual communities. Biphobia infects spaces that are meant to be safe for those whose sexualities lie outside of heterosexuality, meaning that bisexual people are often more isolated than lesbian or gay individuals. Bisexual men and women are more likely to live in poverty than lesbian and gay women and bisexual teens are less likely to graduate high school in the USA than lesbian and gay teens.
In light of these shocking statistics, it is not surprising that cinema does not have a proud history in representing bisexuality. Certain cinematic representations have pandered to tired stereotypes of bisexuals that exist in society. Bisexuals are often portrayed as confused, duplicitous, predatory or unable to maintain a stable relationship. The trope of the predatory bisexual is evident in many films and centres around a bisexual character, usually female, who uses her bisexuality to seduce people of all genders in order to further her agenda. Her bisexuality is usually linked to her duplicity and dangerous sexuality.
52 CinÉireann / February 2018
Love My Way: How Call Me By Your Name and Bisexual Erasure Lends to a Historic and Current Problem of Representation
Words: Bridget Fitzsimons