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Consenting Adults: A Study of Homosexuality

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Synopsis

Once again, Something Weird opens its counterculture vaults for this gay grab-bag of rare and fascinating esoterica – ranging from interviews with real-life homosexuals to gay hippies to naked muscle men – from the days when gay rights were utterly unthinkable.

Consenting Adults A Study of Homosexuality is a 30-minute 16mm film made for British television. Though made in the days when being gay was synonymous with "depravity and vice," it tries for sympathy and understanding as two TV reports hold lengthy interviews with a couple of the Queen's queer subjects who casually discuss their "secret dark existence."

After footage of gay men dancing in a British gay bar – which (unseen) reporter Jeremy James describes as "revolting" - we meet an anonymous hair dresser who politely discusses his life and loves, as well as an older couple, described as "almost a married couple," who have a happy relationship though both wish they were "normal" and claim that neither loves the other.

Similarly, reporter Angela Huth shows us women slow dancing at a lesbian party while explaining that lesbians are "officially better off than men" because there are "no laws to stop them consenting privately to be lovers." Nevertheless, since lesbians "disturb" society, Miss Huth interviews "Steve Rogers" (a very butch young woman who talks about wearing trousers to school, falling in love at 12, and hating being called "she"), a "permanent" and rather charming lesbian couple who really are in love, and a housewife with two sons who doesn't want her face seen on camera.

The Male Nudists is "dedicated to the Concept of Health Achieved through Full Exposure" as demonstrated by two muscle men - one black, one white - who achieve "full exposure" by getting completely naked. They then lounge atop a fancy bed and pose in front of a mirror. In lieu of any actual s-e-x, they arm-wrestle on the bed and play cutesy with their legs. Apparently, no one told these two physically perfect specimens that smoking is not considered healthy.

Gay-In III is color footage of an actual 1969 hippie-style love-in, sponsored by "the Gay Liberation Front," in which an obnoxious reporter speaks to various guys and gals in attendance while music plays and the crowd dances. There's also a ringer in the midst: the buth biker in black nylons is actually Joe Robertson, producer of The Slime People, Touch of Sweden, and The Love Feast with Ed Wood!

Next up is the entire gay sequence from Sex Ritual of the Occult, a 1970 smut fest mixing sex and booga-booga. Claiming homosexuality is some sort of ancient "ritual" ("with gay bars as citadels and park benches as shrines") we see two young men get naked on a bench in the midst of a spookily surreal fog-covered set and perform the "occult" practice of rubbing their faces in each other's privates.

Finally, Caught in the Can shows us what '70s porn actors look like in drag, while the United States Navy's 1967 color short Hygiene for Men shows a variety of hunky sailors exercising, eating right, shaving, and taking showers. Seafood, anyone?

Review

Another wacky tape from the vaults of the Something Weird Video Company. Four short films; quite a variety pack! Consenting Adults reports on the lifestyles of gay men in Great Britain during the sixties. Male Nudists features two nude men flexing their muscles, oiling up and wrestling. Gay-In III is footage from an early gay rights be-in sponsored by the Gay Liberation Front. Caught in the Can wraps this compilation up with two guys in drag.

-- Raymond Murray

Keywords

Beefcake, Camp, Compilation/Collection/Short Film/Shorts/, Drag Queen/King/Cross-dresser, Erotica: Gay Male, Gay Male, Gay/Lesbian, Historical Fiction, Homophobia/Negative Portrayal, Homosexuality, Instructional, Nightlife/Clubbing, Nudity, Sexuality: Gay Male

Genres

Late Night/Cult

Customer Reviews

Before Gay Rights

Amos Lassen wrote on 01/11/2011:

Something Weird is a very strange releasing company and if you go to their web page I am sure you will see what I mean. This short film was originally produced for British television and at a time when homosexuality was considered to be a threat to the nation and was totally abhorrent to many. The film asks for understanding and does so through interviews of queer Brits. We see men dancing in a gay bar and we see a couple who consider their lifestyle to be “normal”. We also see lesbians dancing at a lesbian party and have an interview with lesbian “Steve Rogers” who tells us of her life, a loving lesbian couple and a lesbian housewife/mother.
Another section looks at male nudists as they expose their bodies for all to see and there is a hippie love-in sponsored by the Gay Liberation Front (Gay-In III). “Sex Ritual of the Occult" was a 1970 smut film and we watch two men have sex in a public park and there is a section on drag as well as a short on “Hygiene for Men” which shows sailors taking care of their bodies.
This is a strange compilation but important for us to see how we were thought of and how times have changed. This is a film that belongs in every collector’s library.

Changing the Law

Amos Lassen wrote on 01/11/2011:

“Consenting Adults”
Changing the Law
Amos Lassen
Originally made for British television, “Consenting Adults” (not to be confused with at least two other films of the same name) is a mockumentary about John Wolfenden (Charles Dance) and Jeremy Wolfenden (Pip Torrens) and the committee that looked at prostitution and homosexuality in Great Britain and then the recommended changes that came about. In the late 60’s, the law was changed to allow private activities between consenting adults over 21 years old.
The plot is a bit thin but there is great importance to this film in that it is a look at what really happened and what gay life was like in Great Britain. I think that the younger community should see this so that they know that the freedoms they have today were gained by the hard works of gay activists and militants who were determined not to live as second class citizens. And it was not that long ago.
With the film being set in the 1950’s, homosexuality was a taboo subject and dealt with conservatively. We see the attacks on homosexuality in a way that made me cringe but we rejoice with the changing of the law.