When Lesbians Marry Gay Men
Director：He Xiaopei, Yuan Yuan
Screenwriter：He Xiaopei
Cast：Xiaoxiong, Jingjing, Kele, Shanshan
Producer：He Xiaopei
Cinematographer：He Xiaopei, Yuan Yuan
Running Time：42mins
Region：China
Year：2012
Language：Mandarin Chinese
Production Company：PINK SPACE
SYNOPSIS
Under different cultural backgrounds, homosexual people take different life styles. In China, where family and social traditions have strong marital pressures, many lesbians have resorted to unusual forms of marriage to defuse the pressures. They consult with gay to commit to a marriage agreement together, and then hold a wedding ceremony. After the wedding, unlike in heterosexual marriages, they continue to live with their same-sex partners and do not share the home, property, sex life, or birth plan with their husbands in formal marriages. Over the course of two years, When Lesbians Marry Gay Men not only portrays the desire to be both a lesbian and a dutiful daughter, but also gradually uncovers the true essence of marriage through the process of their negotiated unions.
Director Biography
Xiaopei He holds a Ph.D. degree in cultural studies and is an independent director. His works include: Our Marriages: Lesbians Marry Gay Men in China (42 min) which tells the story of four lesbian women’s marriage of convenience with gay men; The Lucky One (36 min) which shows female AIDS patients tell their personal stories of desire; Gay Cats (3 min), a sex story of two gay cats; Polyamorous Family (26 min), a multiracial, multinational, multigender family story; Love You Too (16 min) which documents the art project of discussing sexual desire with intellectually challenged people; Yvo and Chrissy (64 min), a story of two Britons giving up their inheritance as well as their birth gender and looking for an alternative life; Playmates (46 min) shows the childhood of two boys—one in rural Sichuan and the other in England—from the age of 2 to 10 and observes how they understand differences in class, race, nationality, sex, and gender; Happily Ever After (37 min) which revisits the four lesbian women in Our Marriages in northeast China to see how they build a queer family with their lesbian partner, gay husband, and the parents of two sides after their marriage of convenience. These innovative and deliberate family forms suggest a reflection on the mainstream concept of the family.
Director's Statement
Contract marriages encounter a lot of discrimination and prejudice. Some say that homosexual people should come out of the closet, some say that they are “cheating” their parents, and some say that they are giving in to the patriarchal hegemony of marriage. When we heard the stories about their experiences, negotiations and practices, we began to reflect on what marriage is all about. What is left of a marriage if it doesn’t have sex, property, a home, a birth plan, caretaking responsibilities? This movie helps us understand the essence of marriage.
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