{"id":2993,"date":"2015-06-30T18:52:56","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T17:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bisexualblogs.wordpress.com\/?p=197"},"modified":"2015-06-30T18:52:56","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T17:52:56","slug":"appropriate-behaviour-film-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/2015\/06\/appropriate-behaviour-film-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Appropriate Behaviour (Film)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month I went to\u00a0a screening of Appropriate Behaviour held by the Reel Equality Film Club<\/a> at The Broadway Cinema in Nottingham. The film is very unique in a number of ways. It’s written and directed by a woman (Desiree Akhavan).\u00a0The lead character (Shirin) is a woman. In fact most of the main characters\u00a0are women, whilst the male characters are sidelined in the way that female roles\u00a0normally are.\u00a0The men have few words to speak\u00a0and play the bit parts of father, brother, person Shirin\u00a0has sex with that one time etc. rather than being fully rounded characters in their own right.<\/p>\n

All of the above are very rare in the film industry.<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s also a movie about a bisexual who happens to be Persian which makes the film\u00a0even rarer. How wonderful it is to have a British movie\u00a0where the main character is not white and\u00a0gay\/straight! Also whilst being\u00a0an American-Iranian bisexual is certainly a major part of Shirin’s identity, I never felt that these things were all her character amounted to or were completely defined by.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rarer still is the fact that this portrayal is bisexuality is a positive one: the main character doesn’t cheat on anyone<\/strong>!
\n*gasp*<\/em>
\nShe\u00a0doesn’t kill\u00a0anyone!<\/strong>
\n*double gasp*<\/em>
\nShe\u00a0isn’t hypersexual!<\/strong>
\n*triple gasp*<\/em>
\nShe’s a cool, complex, fully rounded character in her own right. She’s not a plot device for the main character’s story!<\/strong>
\n*more gasps of shock*<\/em>
\nShe doesn’t have a threesome!<\/strong>
\nOh. Wait. Well she does. But it’s her first ever one and there is nothing wrong with showing a young women exploring something new sexually.<\/p>\n

\"Desiree<\/a><\/p>\n

Desiree Akhavan as Shirin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Shirin has recently broken up with her girlfriend when the film starts. There’s not really a plot or storyline as such, it’s\u00a0more about how she’s dealing with the break up and how she’s trying to figure out what direction to take her life in next. How she fits and misfits (to reference the name of a well known BiCon workshop) with the various different cultures and\u00a0identities in her life. The film does this in a\u00a0warm, witty, funny, sarcastic and very endearing way. It’s the most realistic portrayal of bisexuality I’ve ever seen on screen. I wish there were more films like this.<\/p>\n

Appropriate Behaviour portrays the biphobia Shirin faces, but it doesn’t do it in a depressing or negative way. It portrays how her\u00a0Iranian family\u00a0reacts to her sexuality when she decides to come\u00a0out to her brother and her parents.\u00a0Whilst this isn’t resolved\u00a0by the end of the film, I certainly left sharing Shirin’s realistic but positive &\u00a0hopeful attitude towards the situation.<\/p>\n

Another thing I like about this movie is the title. I find it very positive and affirming. It’s a nice play on words and the prejudiced beliefs surrounding bisexuality. It’s a nice way of subverting\u00a0the negative attitudes\u00a0some people might have towards\u00a0Shirin’s behaviour in the film too.<\/p>\n

I don’t want to write too much\u00a0here, as I think it’s best to see the film knowing a little as possible about it. However if you’ve seen it I’d love to know what you thought. Did you like it? Did you like Shirin? What did you think about the way bisexuality was portrayed? Let me know and we can discuss it in the comments!<\/p>\n

I’ve been tweeting and writing about the film to\u00a0raise awareness of it\u00a0and I’ve just bought it on DVD<\/a>. Appropriate Behaviour is\u00a0Akhavan’s directorial debut so I’m looking forward to seeing what she does next.<\/p>\n

Perhaps we can arrange a screening of it at this year’s BiCon?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last month I went to a screening of Appropriate Behaviour held by the Reel Equality Film Club at The Broadway Cinema in Nottingham. The film is very unique in a number of ways. It’s written and directed by a woman (Desiree Akhavan). The lead character (Shirin) is a woman. In fact most of the main characters are women, … Continue reading Appropriate Behaviour (Film)<\/span> →<\/span><\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":1211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[397],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bisexuality-in-the-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}