IT IS NOT THE HOMOSEXUAL WHO IS PERVERSE,
BUT THE SOCIETY IN WHICH HE LIVES
It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives (1971) is a queer manifesto by Marxist filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim that makes the call for nothing less than sexual and political revolution. Using the form of the “homosexual panic” public service film, complete with a stern voiceover and voyeuristic camera work, it criticises the West German gays Rosa saw trying to assimilate into a bourgeois society that considered them deviants, or who were otherwise losing themselves in empty hookups, rather than organizing for their collective liberation.
It follows Daniel, the shy new twink in West Berlin who begins and quickly leaves a dull monogamous relationship, finds a sugar daddy, gets a job at a gay bar, and becomes prolific on the city’s hookup scene, growing increasingly bored and alienated cruising in parks and public toilets. Eventually, he meets a group of men who spark his political consciousness when they bring him back to their sumptuously decorated purple apartment and, while lounging naked in a (post-coital?) assembly, advocate for working class solidarity and sexual freedom:
“Let's unite with the Black Panthers and Women's Lib and fight the oppression of minorities! Get out of the toilets and take to the streets!”
It follows Daniel, the shy new twink in West Berlin who begins and quickly leaves a dull monogamous relationship, finds a sugar daddy, gets a job at a gay bar, and becomes prolific on the city’s hookup scene, growing increasingly bored and alienated cruising in parks and public toilets. Eventually, he meets a group of men who spark his political consciousness when they bring him back to their sumptuously decorated purple apartment and, while lounging naked in a (post-coital?) assembly, advocate for working class solidarity and sexual freedom:
“Let's unite with the Black Panthers and Women's Lib and fight the oppression of minorities! Get out of the toilets and take to the streets!”