The Washington Times has jumped on the “Notes on a Scandal is homophobic” bandwagon started by our own Malinda Lo. In a recent article in the Times, writer Kelly Jane Torrance compares Notes to the old acorn The Killing of Sister George and wonders why the obvious characterization of one of the women in it as a creepy, straight girl-stalking lesbian hasn’t impacted its reviews.Torrance writes, “Miss Blanchett and Miss Dench are actresses at the top of their game, and their performances in Notes are receiving raves. So is the film itself — 85 percent of its reviews are positive, according to compiler RottenTomatoes.com, 92 percent among the “top” critics.”
Torrance singles out the article written by our own Malinda (aka “Miss Lo”) for AfterEllen.com as one of the few that calls the film out for being blatantly homophobic. Torrance raises the question of whether or not the film would have even been made in the U.S. (it was filmed in the UK ) with the likely scrutiny and opposition filmmakers would have faced from organizations like GLAAD. I haven’t seen the movie yet, as I read Miss Lo’s review and was inspired to skip Notes altogether. If you’ve seen it, did you think it was homophobic?
