wellesley magazine
SHELF LIFE
FALL 2013
17
Bibliofiles Cinephile Maria San Filippo ’98 has parlayed her critical interest in film fi and TV representations of sexuality into a scholarly study of bromance, lesbian vampire sexploitation, and beloved cult films such as Chasing Amy. Her monograph, The B Word: Bisexuality in Contemporary Film and Television, culls upon a halfcentury of moviemaking to examine the tendency of fi filmmakers to avoid representing bisexuality save as a way station on the road to “compulsory monosexuality.” San Filippo is an assistant professor of gender studies at Indiana University.
Bi Pics
What was the genesis of The B Word?
Maria San Filippo ’98 The B Word: Bisexuality in Contemporary Film and Television Indiana University Press, 281 pages, $25
Believe it or not, the origin was in female vampire “sexploitation” fi films of the 1970s. Existing scholarship characterized the vampires only as lesbian, while I found that their indefi finable nature (neither alive nor dead) and sexual voracity (anyone warm blooded will do!) resonated with cultural associations about bisexuals. Once I began
noticing other character tropes and plot devices signaling our cultural fascination with and anxiety about bisexuality, the project coalesced. Of the feedback you’ve received, what’s been the most rewarding or surprising?
Surprisingly, the chapter that seems to draw the most positive response is the one on male bisexuality in the contemporary Hollywood bromance. It was the last chapter I conceived and one that I wrote in a bit of a fugue state, driven by the debates around marriage equality going on at that time. It was surprising because I had not originally planned to cover male bisexuality, and because my reading of Brokeback Mountain n alongside films like Wedding Crashers seemed rather provocative. Is there anything in particular you’re watching now, for pleasure or study?
ity in female institution narratives. At last, there’s a TV series featuring a bisexual protagonist whose sexuality is explored realistically but without defi fining her exclusively, and still “the B word” goes all but unmentioned. What do you imagine exploring next, in fi film studies or more broadly?
Thanks to the support of Wellesley’s Mary Elvira Stevens Fellowship, my next project is to document 21stcentury independent filmmaking in Europe. Despite the common wisdom that the digital revolution is precipitating “the death of cinema,” indie filmmaking is flourishing in certain places of socioeconomic turmoil, like Greece and Romania. I’ll be blogging and tweeting about my journeys and findings at The Itinerant Cinephile (www.mariasanfi filippo.net) and @cinemariasf.
I regret not being able to include Netfl flix original series Orange Is the New Black in my chapter on bisexual-
By Lynn Sternberger ’07 | Sternberger graduated from Vancouver Film School’s Writing for Film and Television program and recently moved to Los Angeles to pursue television writing.
Freshink
Y CLAUDIA FONTAINE
Y CAROLINE GILES BANKS
Y JANET WYMAN COLEMAN
’65 —The Clay Jar: Haiku,
CE/DS ’88 —Eight Dolphins of
Senryu, and Haibun Poems, Wellington-Giles Press
Katrina: A True Tale of Survival, HMH Books for Young Readers
Y KATHERINE R. BROAD ’06,
Y Trevor Crow (TREVOR
Carrie Hintz, and Balaka Basu, editors—Contemporary Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults: Brave New Teenagers, Routledge
CHIDESTER ’78, editor—Work
Standing Up: The Life and Art of Paul Fontaine, Fontaine Archive
MAHONY CROW ’85 ) and
Maryann Karinch—Forging Healthy Connections: How Relationships Fight Illness, Aging, and Depression, New Horizon Press
Y DONNA DICKENSON ’67—Me Medicine vs. We Medicine: Reclaiming Biotechnology for the Common Good, Columbia University Press
Y CAROL R. JOHNSON ’51
Y MARIANNE MONTGOMERY ’99
—A Life in the Landscape, Daybreak Press
—Europe’s Languages on England’s Stages, 1590–1620, Ashgate
Y Karen L. Kilcup ( KAREN KILCUP OAKES ’75 ) —Fallen
Y ANNE TEWS SCHWAB ’92
and Bill Nesto—The World of Sicilian Wine, University of California Press
Forests: Emotion, Embodiment, and Ethics in American Women’s Environmental Writing, 1781–1924, The University of Georgia Press
Y BETTIJANE LONG
Y Carol Meyers (CAROL
EISENPREIS ’57—From
Generation to Generation: The Longs of Wilkes-Barre, Bettijane Long Eisenpreis
LYONS MEYERS ’64) — Rediscovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context, Oxford University Press
Y MONA DEKOVEN
Y Laurie Mobilio ( LAURIE
FISHBANE ’69 —Loving With
FOLLANSBEE MOBILIO ’66 ) ,
the Brain in Mind: Neurobiology and Couple Therapy, W. W. Norton & Company
Jan Eby, Lynne Noel, and Cindy Summers—The Grammie Guide: Activities and Answers for Grandparenting Today, Tell-A-Gram Publishing
Y FRANCES DI SAVINO ’81
Y ANNE HENDREN ’73— Project Runaway, Ring of Fire Books
—Capsized: A Novel in Verse, piratepoems.com
Y ELLIN STEIN ’74—That’s Not Funny, That’s Sick: The National Lampoon and the Comedy Insurgents Who Captured the Mainstream, W. W. Norton
SEND US YOUR BOOKS
If you’ve published a book and you’d like to have it listed in “Fresh Ink” and considered for review, please send two copies to Lisa Scanlon ’99, Wellesley magazine, 106 Central St., Wellesley, MA 02481-8203.