A Sapphic / Lesbian Movies Crossword

To solve my crossword:

• Download the Crossword and Print it. Please forgive me, that this is not a slick interactive crossword puzzle - it's way beyond my css coding skills and, I couldn't find a cool crossword I could embed for free :( Moreover, please forgive me, if the PDF printing needs tweaking. Throat op recovery - I tried to recreate the crossword in Photoshop, to enlarge the input fields BUT, utterly bizarrely & FFS! my ... squares didn't align while "tracing" it! So, I gave up temporoaily - sorry. Regardless, if it's not yet perfect- it does make a valid point (which seems to be still hushed).
• Use the clues provided to fill the grid's empty white squares with letters of the correct lesbian movie. Each numbered clue corresponds to a specific row (Across) or column (Down) starting at that number. The words must fit perfectly into the provided boxes.
• The Clues: are famous Hollywood actresses who have played a lesbian / bi character or who have kissed another girl (for groansville city male gaze thrills) in a movie.
• The Answers: name the movie in which the actress played a lesbian / bi character.
• Will it be a good fit?

Hugest, GOLDSTARS to you, if you solved it!

To reveal the answers, Download this PDF link which reveals the crossword answers.

FYI:

1. The Hunger [1983]: Susan Sarandon plays a prominent gerontologist (aging specialist) who is seduced by a vampiress (Catherine Deneuve). [V slick movie.]
2. The Color Purple [1985]: Whoopi Goldberg compassionately plays a black Southern American woman during the early 20 century who becomes "friends" with her husband's mistress. [Bang out of order - the novel is explicit about the sexual encounters between Celie and Shug].
3. Basic Instincts (1992): Sharon Stone plays a "sexy", bi crime novelist a murder mystery. [Club scene = utterly Cringeville city!)
4. Poison Ivy (1992): Drew Barrymore plays a seductive teen who befriends an introverted student (Sara Gilbert). [Lame girl-on-girl kiss for the boys.]
5. Chasing Amy (1997): Joey Lauren Adams plays an out lesbian comic book artist, who comic book artist (Ben Affleck) falls in love with. [Bait-and-Switchville city + Fab Guinevere Turner what were you thinking , appearing in this move?
6. Gia (1998): Angelina Jolie portrays 1970s - 1980s lesbian/bi supermodel Gia Carangi who died aged 26 of AIDs contracted via sharing contaminated heroin needles. [The death of supermodel Gia - such a tragic shame. Choose life not drugs.]
7. Boys Don't Cry (1999): Hilary Swank empathetically portrays Brandon Teena, a transgender man, who was first sexually assaulted and later, brutally murdered in Nebraska after his biological gender was exposed. [Heart breaking.]
8. Cruel Intentions (1999): Sarah Michelle Gellar & Selma Blair characters kiss for male-gaze thrills. [Yawnsville city]
9. Friends (2001, Season 7, Episode 20), The One with Rachel's Sapphic Kiss: Winona Ryder plays former sorority sister who Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) claims they shared a tipsy, passionate college kiss. [Yawnsville city.]
10. Best in Show (2002): Jane Lynch plays humorously a hypercompetitive, butch dog handler in a mockumentary about the highly competitive world of dog shows. [Lesbian Tropesville city!]
11. The Hours (2002): In the story of how the novel "Mrs. Dalloway" affects three generations of women, Meryl Streep plays an openly lesbian book editor who lives with her female partner (Allison Janney). [An unbearable lightness of slowness + totally distracted by Nicole Kidman's prosthetic nose.]
12. Gigli (2003): J-Lo / Jennifer Lopez plays a feisty, bi, mob enforcer who, ends up with the man (Ben Affleck - Again!)! [Lesbian Tropesville city!]
13. Monster (2003): Charlize Theron portrays real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos who was executed in 2002, at the Florida State Prison. [Kudos to Charlize for her empathetic performance and physical transformation].
14. Head in the Clouds (2004): Penelope Cruz plays a 1920s Spanish refugee who becomes entwined in a ménage à trois with a wealthy Parisian photographer (Charlize Theron) and her hetty lover. [No way, Jose, is it in my sapphic movie watchlist]
15. Black Swan (2010): Natalie Portman plays a talented ballerina on the verge of stardom, whose life spirals and becomes obsessed with her rival. [Turned my stomach.]
16. The Kids Are All Right (2010): Annette Bening plays a obstetrician with a female partner (Julianne Moore) and two teens, who ... [I ... H.A.T.E this movie!]
17. Albert Nobbs (2011): Glenn Close empathetically plays a woman who lives as a man to try to survive and secure employment, in 19th-century Dublin.
18. American Hustle (2013): Amy Adams & Jennifer Lawrence characters kiss for male-gaze thrills. [Yawnsville city.]
19. Grandma (2015): Lily Tomlin plays a sharp-tongued yet compassionate lesbian Grandma who drives her pregnant teenage granddaughter across LA to help her raise money for an abortion.[Sweet road move.]
20. Freeheld (2015): Julianne Moore portrays a closeted police detective who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and then fights a landmark legal battle, to transfer her pension benefits to her domestic female partner. [True story.]
21. Battle of the Sexes (2017): Emma Stone empathetically plays legendary Billie Jean King (now an OUT lesbian) for the 1973 tennis match against American tennis champion, Bobby Riggs.
22. Disobedience (2017): Rachel McAdams plays a closeted Orthodox Jew whose first love (Rachel Weisz) returns, following her (Rachel McAdams) father's passing. [Forgive me? I quite liked it.]
23. Colette (2018): Keira Knightley portrays the life of bi French author, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette of the "Claudine" novels.
24. Booksmart (2019): Kaitlyn Dever: plays an openly gay school superstar ,who on the eve of her high-school graduation, with her bestie (Beanie Feldstein), try to cram 4 years of wild fun into one night. [Fun film but ironically Kaitlyn Dever is hetty while Beanie Feldstein is OUT.]
25. Ammonite (2020): Kate Winslet portrays legendary 19th-century British paleontologist Mary Anning. [No evidence that Mary Anning played on our team & I'm ex-paleontologist.]
26. Happiest Season (2020): Kristen Stewart: plays a lesbian Ph.D. student who plans to propose to her girlfriend (Mackenzie Davis), during Christmas break but she's not OUT to her parents. [Absolutely, no desire to watch it + Shock! Cool Clea DuVall co-wrote and directed it.]
27. Tar (2022): Cate Blanchett plays a OUT egomaniacal music conductor. [A truly SHITE endorsement for female conductors.]
28. Eileen (2023): Anne Hathaway plays a glamourous prison psychologist who mesmerises one of her female colleagues (Thomasin McKenzie) and they share a ... kiss. [Hmm? But, I have a crush on Anne Hathaway!]
29. My Mother's Wedding (2023): Scarlett Johansson plays a lesbian Captain in the Royal Navy who returns home, with her sisters, for the third wedding of their twice-widowed mother. [Haven't watched]
30. Nyad (2023): Jodie Foster portrays lesbian best friend to famous marathon swimmer Diana Nyad (Annette Bening). [Annette Bening AGAIN!]

Out of the 30 sapphic movies featured in this crossword - how many ...

• Starred one of our LGTBQ+ sisters? Drum roll ... 4! Beanie Feldstein, Jodie Foster, Kristen Stewart and Lily Tomlin - our courageously out lesbian actresses.
• Were directed by men? Drum roll ... 29! Only one of the 30 movies in the crossword which featured sapphic / lesbian characters was directed by a gay women - Clea DuVall co-wrote and directed Happiest Season (2020) (Having read reviews - oops, I'm not enamored to watch it).

Circa 1985, Alison Bechdel's witty weekly comic strip "Dykes to Watch Out For", which appeared in LGBTQ and feminist papers, featured a strip titled "The Rule", about two lesbians going to the movies, and how one of them won't see a movie unless it meets three criteria, which has now become known as "The Bechdel Test". Do click this, to view the actual slick "The Rule" carton strip.

The Three Rules Of The Bechdel Test

To pass the Bechdel Test, a movie or TV episode must meet the following criteria:

• Two Women: it has to have at least two women in it.
• They Talk: The women must talk to each other.
• No Men: The conversation must be about something other than a man.
• (Respect: though they were lesbians, "The Rule" perhaps reflects how very, very few movies featured lesbian / bi characters?)

Originally, the "three rules" were Alison Bechdel's tongue-in-cheek joke to highlight the lack of female presence in 1980s cinema and how often female characters' stories were defined by their relationships with men. Years on, The Bechdel Test has become a popular and simple way to gauge the active presence of female characters in movies or TV series and, how well rounded and complete their roles are. Many critically acclaimed films fail the test (like Gladiator II (2024)), while some problematic movies pass The Bechdel Test. Take a browse of the The Bechdel Test Movie List which lists 10K+ movies. Also, do check out Alison Bechdel's very cool "Dykes to Watch Out For" website and read her confession, that she "ripped this idea off from a karate buddy [Liz Wallace?] one day when I couldn't come up with an idea for my strip, but I've been unsuccessful at disconnecting my name from it..." - source: "Dykes to Watch Out For".

Thereafter, Alison Bechdel's & Liz Wallace's "three rules" / The Bechdel Test has inspired other "movie tests" - see below.

Cambridge Dictionary's definition of "Trope" = "something such as an idea, phrase, or image that is often used in a particular artist's work, in a particular type of art, in the media, etc". "Lesbian trope" has become a recent popular term to describe a recurring plot theme and or stereotype used when depicting LGTBQ+ women in literature, movie (film) and television. Examples of gripesville city Lesbian Movie Tropes include Bury Your Gays / Dead Lesbian Syndrome , coming out (I find not offensive), bait-and-switch bis ...

When considering lesbian tropes, though lesbianism in many countries like America and the UK, has never been a crime but was taboo. From circa 1930 to 1968, lesbian characters fell under the American Motion Picture Production Code (aka The Hays Code, named after its creator Will H. Hays), when movie content was censored. The three general principles of the Hays Code included the rule: "No movie shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin." Under the Hays Code not only was same-sex relationships, or romance considered "a sin" - any sexual act was considered perverted. No French kissing in the USA (and for worldwide distribution), so even hetty (straight) kissing scenes were limited to 3 seconds! Yet homosexual characters (male and females) still appeared in movies, circumventing the Hays code, by mostly painting homosexuals and lesbians as villains and, that they always paid for their "crimes" (i.e. for being homosexual). Why then include homosexual characters (male and females)? Due to the Hays Code, lesbian characters were often portrayed as obsessive, older and "mannish" who lechered over a young femme woman and were consequently doomed to punishment.

Yeh, some lesbian coded movies of the way-distant past were bluesville city. By the 1980s, some lesbian movies were brave with their storylines. Disappointingly, however, some of those past LGBTQ tropes in movies are still prevalent in 2020s. Are you too, still sometimes aghast of some continuing lesbian movie clichés? And then there is the recent "Cancel Your Gays" TV series trend. Why does a TV network abruptly axe a show which is very popular but featured prominent LGBTQ+ leads or storylines e.g. Batwoman (2019–2022), A League of Their Own (2022) ...

While making the heart-felt documentary "Franco Stevens: Ahead Of The Curve" (2020), legendary American "Curve" (LGBTQ+ women's) magazine was inspired the Bechdel Test. Consequently, "Curve" came up with their own test for LGBTQ+ female, trans and nonbinary characters in movies and TV Series. The Curve Test identifies two simple questions for films that feature lesbian, trans, and/or queer women and/or nonbinary people.

The Two Questions Of The Curve Test:

• Coming out: is the movie focused on more than coming out?
• Stereotyping: are LGBTQ+ Women, Trans, & Nonbinary characters reduced to stereotypes?
• (Gold Star: A film also scores a Gold Star, if the people in front of and behind the camera are LGBTQ+.)

Straight from the horses mouth, "Curve": "Films and TV series that don't pass [The Curve Test] are not to be condemned. Rather, the test is intended as a tool for conversation, a barometer to help us see which films and series are pushing the movement forward and where we need to put more attention". Browse The Curve Test Movie List for LGBTQ+ Women, Trans, & Nonbinary People in Films and TV Series.

Also, taking inspiration from the Bechdel Test, American GLAAD (The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) developed its own set of criteria to analyse how LGBTQ characters are included in a film. Named after stellar historian (author of iconic book "The Celluloid Closet" which inspired the utterly amazing doc, of the same title) and GLAAD co-founder, Vito Russo, GLAAD developed - The Vito Russo Test.

The Vito Russo Test

For a film to pass the Vito Russo Test, the following must be true:

• "The film contains a character that is identifiably lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer."
• "That character must not be solely or predominantly defined by their sexual orientation or gender identity (i.e. they are comprised of the same sort of unique character traits commonly used to differentiate straight/cisgender characters from one another)."
• "The LGBTQ character must be tied to the plot in such a way that the character's removal would have a significant effect, meaning the character is not there to simply provide colorful commentary, paint urban authenticity, or set up a punchline. The character must matter."
• "The LGBTQ character's story must not be outwardly offensive (avoids defaulting to well-known tropes or stereotypes with no further development). In films with multiple LGBTQ characters, at least one character must pass this point for the film to pass the test."

Interestingly, GLAAD publish the percentage of LGBTQ-Inclusive Films that Passed the Vito Russo Test, by Year - in foresight, very sorry, this link may eventually break.

Regardless, of how cute I think the actress portraying a lezzy character (shoot me ;), here's my gripe list of sapphic movie tropes, which is my criteria when rating a hopefully slick sapphic movie:

Girl Friends Of Dorothy's Sapphic Movie No-Nos

Very simply, my Sapphic Movies Test comprises NO-NO-NOS!

1. No Lesbian Stereotyping: The lesbian character must not be clichéd e.g. a Butch / Unhinged / Obsessed / Predatory / Murderous Lesbian, like during the Hays Code awful era e.g. Rebecca (1940), Walk on the Wild Side (1962), then after the Hays Code on TV e.g Dark Willow on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2002?) and on Orange Is the New Black (2013) with hugely loved Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" (Uzo Aduba). Some unempathetic lesbian stereotyping still lingers in movies and TV.
2. No "Burying" The Lesbian Romance: The lesbian character adheres to the original source e.g. the original gay theatre play and novel that featured un-coded LGB characters. Due to the Hays Code, the gay / sapphic romance was buried / coded in stellar movie versions e.g. between Audrey Hepburn & Shirley MacLaine in The Children's Hour (1961), between Whoopi Goldberg & Margaret Avery in The Colour Purple (1985), between Mary Stuart Masterson & Mary-Louise Parker in Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (1991) ...
3. No Queer-baiting / "Will They, Won't They Kiss", Tedious Lesbian Teasing: the lesbian character is not dragged into sapphic romantic tension without a passionate kiss for an unethical marketing ploy e.g. Anna Kendrick and Brittany Snow in Pitch Perfect 1 (2012) bizarre college shower room scene, and then left on the cutting room floor of Pitch Perfect 3 (2017), (see YouTube); Florence Pugh and Scarlett Johansson in Black Widow (2021) ...
4. No Quasi Lesbian Porn - The lesbian character is featured in cringeville lesbian sexual scenes e.g. bury-your-head-in-the-popcorn Duke of Burgundy (2014), Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2013) (the infamous bedroom, spanking scene).
5. No Bury Your Gay / Dead Lesbian Syndrome: The lesbian character must NOT be killed off. It's no longer acceptable that a popular lesbian character is killed off e.g. in 2022, the assassination of Villanelle in Killing Eve caused, quite rightly, an an internet outrage! Not only does Villanelle LIVE in Luke Jennings fab "Villanelle" novellas - Villanelle ends up living anonymously together with Eve (Hazzah!) in the suburbs of St. Petersburg, where Villanelle goes on to ... study linguistics and get her degree! WTF - TV writers, what were you thinking when YOU changed the end of the original novella series?!!!
6. No Bait-and-Switch Lesbians: the lesbian/bi character shouldn't go off, into the sunset with her leading ... MAN e.g. Joey Lauren Adams ends up with Ben Affleck + in Chasing Amy (1997), Jennifer Lopez ends up with ... Ben Affleck (AGAIN!) in Gigli (2003). Can Ben Affleck convert lesbians to being hetty (straight)?
7. No Faux Sapphic Kisses for male gazes / marketing hype - so passé and euch to MANY as people are e.g. Denise Richards & Neve Campbell in Wild Things (1998), Sarah Michelle Gellar & Selma Blair in Cruel Intentions (1999) ... so passé AND, so lame
8. Lesbian Movie Production Inclusivity - Has the lesbian movie been written / Directed by a man? Please, can we get more LGBTQ+ people in front of and behind the camera to reflect authentic LGBTQ+ stories?

Regarding Coming Out - I'm not adverse to coming out stories, indeed I still think they are important stories to tell if done well as every Coming Out experience is different. Moreover, in the 2020s there are still some countries where being LGBTQ+ is criminal or taboo and LGBTQ+ prejudice is rife. Some think, however, that there are now, far more interesting lesbian/ LGBTQ+ stories to be told than coming out stories.

I hold my hands-up high! Having seen many lesbian / sapphic movies - yep, I'm demanding and have a long list of Sapphic Movie No-Nos. So my personal, "Girl Friends Of Dorothy's Movie & TV Series No-Nos" will never be referenced, but may be "adopted" in this time of click-bait shafting (i.e no referencing) :(

Conversely, The "Girl Friends Of Dorothy's Movie & TV Series No-Nos", if flipped to "Yeses", it could become a Sapphic Movie bingo naughty drinking game - see below.

Conversely, "The Girl Friends Of Dorothy's Movie & TV Series No-Nos", if flipped to "Yeses", could make a fun "Bad Sapphic Movie Bingo" drinking game while watching a sapphic movie.

Bad Sapphic Movie Bingo

Down a shot (drink, or create your own rules) if, the sapphic movie features:

• Hetty (Straight) Actresses
• Bury The Lesbian Romance
• Age Gap
• Girl Pals
• Queer-baiting
• Lesbian Stereotyping
• Coming Out
• Will They, Won't They Kiss?
• Male Gaze Sapphic Kiss / SMUT
• Bait & Switch Lesbian
• Didn't Get the Girl
• Bury The Lesbian

Again apologies, that this is not a slick interactive crossword puzzle - it's way beyond my css coding skills and, I couldn't find a good interactive crossword I could embed for free. If by chance you are coding whizz / are adept in using Free, online crossword generation tools, please do contact me and let's try and make this slickly, interactive.

Some more fun Sapphic quizzes & games for you to test your knowledge:

• Lesbian Movie Quiz
• LGBT Trivia Quiz
• Lesbians Who Made History Quiz
• Lesbian Visibility Week Word Scramble
• Anne Lister Inspired Cryptogram Puzzle
• Lesbian Fruit Machine - you will learn something, really quite shocking ... The Real Fruit Machine "Homo" Test!
• UK Women's Rights Quiz