Pulp Fiction for the Straight Man by Emily Weckend

I was inspired to create this project after viewing covers of lesbian pulp fiction novels in the book Strange Sisters: The Art of Lesbian Pulp Fiction by Jaye Zimet, accessed through Toronto’s Arquives. Many of the novels were written by cisgendered, heterosexual men, and featured sexualized images of thin, able-bodied, white, femme-presenting cisgendered women. These novels simultaneously objectify and pathologize lesbian and bisexual displays of intimacy; to elaborate, titles like Sign Here for Sin and Satan Was a Lesbian, are paired with overly sexualized images of women in skimpy clothing, revealing how queer relationships are demonized yet framed to provide pleasure to the heterosexual male spectator.  

To illustrate the continuities between contemporary and historical depictions of lesbianism, bisexuality, and queer relationships, I reimagined the film Blue is the Warmest Colour, t.A.T.u.’s music video for All the Things She Said, and Katy Perry’s music video for I Kissed a Girl, as pulp fiction novel covers. The descriptions for these covers are satirical and emphasize how cisgendered heterosexual men continue to govern how mainstream queer, lesbian, and bisexual relationships are portrayed. These covers also highlight the hegemony of such representations, which feature thin, able-bodied, white, cis-gendered women, posed in a sexual manner. Ultimately, this project aims to expose how queer narratives are shaped by heterosexual cis-gendered men for the purpose of accumulating capital and fulfilling sexual fantasies.  

References 

Capitol Records. (2008, May 21). [Katy Perry in a pink and blue one-piece outfit looks at the camera with her eyes wide and mouth slightly open]. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Kissed_a_Girl#/media/File:I_Kissed_a_Girl.png

Child, B. (2013, May 30). Blue is the warmest colour sex scenes are porn, says author of graphic novel. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/may/30/blue-warmest-colour-porn-julie-maroh 

Interscope Records. (n.d.). Interscope records logo (1990) [Online image]. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interscope_Records#/media/File:Interscope_Records.png

Ivan Shapovalov. (n.d.). IMDb. Retrieved 4 April 2023, from https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1421778/ 

Sorsana, L. (n.d.). T.A.T.u [Online image]. Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.dk/pin/6051780740403424/

[Still from Blue is the Warmest Colour]. (2015, December 10). Screen Daily. https://www.screendaily.com/distribution/french-court-cancels-blue-is-the-warmest-colour-classification/5097868.article