The 1990s were an incredible time for homoeroticism in films with mostly-female casts, and if you’re anything like me, you saw every single one of them and now you’re gay! But which of them are most responsible for the wildly gay person you are now, today? It’s time to find out!
In the 90s, homoerotic cinema for women thrived like never before — or since. You're gay now, and probably one of these films is to blame, sorry
Riese is the 43-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.
Riese has written 3266 articles for us.
Hahaha. I got Fried Green Tomatoes, which is 100% accurate… but did I only get it because that’s what I chose for the last question?
Update: I took it again — no. Also I need to go watch some of these.
Foxfire which sounds right. Some of these were agonizing choices! I wanted to pick all of the adolescent miscreant behaviors!
I got Set it off, but it was Bound which made me gay
Same and yes! I had a copy of the movie saved to my Ipod.
Definitely Jennifer Tilly made me gayer than I already was.
right out the gate that first question is the hardest decision i’ve made all month. sister act 2 checks out though.
I intentionally got Empire Records my first time around to see the description of it, because it was the most formative for me–though maybe less for sexuality and more for gender expression.
When I took it more honestly I got The Craft, which I’ve never actually seen, but was very much my aesthetic in high school. *shrug*
Fried green tomatoes was really the movie that made me gay but foxfire does come to a close second so this is close enough. I remember almost dying near the tattoo scene.
I got Foxfire, although in truth the movie that made me gay was Desperately Seeking Susan. I was obsessed with Madonna from the age of 7, and I rented it for a sleepover with my BFF when I was 8 or 9. I found an old diary entry from that day that was essentially, “Adrianna slept over and we watched Desperately Seeking Susan. It was okay, but Madonna was in just a bra that was kind of see-through. I watched it again after Adrianna’s mom picked her up and I’m going to watch it one more time before my mom has to take it back to the store.”
Me Too! I watched Desperately Seeking Susan I don’t know how many times. Madonna was everything I was not: incredibly sexy, dangerous, and care-free. Opposites attract kind of thing…….I guess in that scenario I was Roberta!?!
Came across this looking for league of their own coverage, and yes, the combo of now and then, league of their own, and clueless absolutely stood in for actual movies about actual queer people for teenage me. They were all me and my sister watched at sleepovers for a solid few years. Thank you, Cher, for affirming that guys are gross. I want a remake/sequel/2020s answer to that one now! And now and then, while we’re at it. I am totally here for Abbi Jacobson’s take on that one if she’s looking for new projects.
Girl Interrupted! Knew it had to be an Angelina Jolie vehicle – Foxfire the movie wasn’t formative (watched it later) but the book sure was!
As far as Angelina Jolie goes, I think Gia or Hackers should have been included on this! This is my first time hearing of Foxfire tbh.
Wait is that Neate To The Rescue Book real?!!!!
It is…and (looked at your profile)….I am not really young (actually old by AS standards) so you are safely younger than me :)
Well, I was playing for League of Their Own from the get-go but then panicked when baseball was not an option in the first question, so my game plan disintegrated but then I ended up getting League of Their Own anyway and isn’t life amazing!!!!!
This should be which movie did you know was gay even though it wasn’t overtly gay because you were so gay.
Where is Heavenly Creatures? That’s the one that made me gay! 90s Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynsky, swoon
Now and Then. Never saw it, now I will need to watch it! Looked it up and it streams on Amazon Prime.
One of my favorite movies is “the Big Chill” and this sounds like an all female version of that movie with an all star cast.
AGAIN, THE QUIZ NAILED IT.
Here is a summary of the movie that I found (really looks very similar to big chill):
Plot – In the summer of 1970, in the village of Gaslight Addiction, Indiana, four 12-year-old girls live an intense friendship full of adventures. After many years, the women meet up in the house of one of them, who’s about to give birth. They remember the old days together. Roberta now is a doctor, Samantha is a writer, Teeny is an actress and Chrissy is a housewife married to a dentist.
Some of the actors – Christina Ricci, Rosie O’Donnell, Thora Birch, Melanie Griffith
The Craft does very much track with my whole deal in high school, but the real answer is Mulan!
My uncle took me to see Mulan in theaters when I was 6, and even though we didn’t spend much time together after he moved away when I was 8 I’m pretty sure he knew that I was queer way before I came out to my family. I would be willing to bet money that my reaction to Mulan tipped him off.
The Craft which is 100% accurate. I was the goth girl meets skater girl in the 90s. I had my own strange style. I was obsessed with anything witch-centric. I even studied Wicca, the tarot (I did readings for $$ in HS and College and was pretty good at it, still have the decks because they bonded with me, it’s a thing), among other things. So, anyway, yeah totally me. Lol.
I intentionally got Fried Green Tomatoes on my first try because it really is one of my roots (that food fight!).
Took it again answering the questions based on my taste instead and got Now and Then, which I’ve never seen.
I got now and then as well and never seen it. Found it is available for streaming on Amazon Prime ($3.99).
Plot – In the summer of 1970, in the village of Gaslight Addiction, Indiana, four 12-year-old girls live an intense friendship full of adventures. After many years, the women meet up in the house of one of them, who’s about to give birth. They remember the old days together. Roberta now is a doctor, Samantha is a writer, Teeny is an actress and Chrissy is a housewife married to a dentist.
Some of the actors – Christina Ricci, Rosie O’Donnell, Thora Birch, Melanie Griffith
I’m pretty sure all of these movies made me gay. I just couldn’t remember which made me gay first. Maybe it was Now and Then. But I think Fried Green Tomatoes got there first.
Girl Interrupted which is fair because it reminds me of my senior year of high school. I’m pretty sure I got my queerness from Prince and Apollonia in Purple Rain. And it was solidified with the video for Cream. Thanks Prince. I miss you buddy.
Fried Green Tomatoes which is 100% absolutely correct.
This is Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain erasure!! But I will concede that Fried Green Tomatoes is probably number 2.
The Craft. Which is pretty much who I was in the late 90s, although there was plenty of flannel and high-waisted denim before that.
I got empire records (which I had never heard of??) but I used to watch Now and Again SO MUCH, I think mostly to watch one of the characters put pudding in her bra to make her boobs bigger (idk I haven’t watched it in years) so that and
But I think the actual 90s movie that made me gay was the Kenneth Branagh version of Much Ado About Nothing. Emma Thompson in a white dress and no bra being witty was candy to my 8-11 year old self.
I got Clueless, which is 100% accurate! 90s era Alicia Silverstone hits different
Got Craft, but where was FOXFIRE Angelina?
Where is Matilda? Miss Honey made me gayer than any of these others!
I got “Now and Then”. Which I watched after “Fried Green Tomatoes” had already made me gay. “Daydream Believer” became my “I’m wide awake it’s morning, mom, bring me coffee, please”-song.
“Pick an Angelina Jolie”. Yes.
This poll is so accurate: Foxfire did indeed make me gay.
I was trying so hard to get Empire Records but I acknowledge that the truest answer probably is indeed The Craft, which was my root for fancying people I am slightly terrified of (hiiii Fairuza Balk)
I got Now and Then- one of my favorite movies of all time! Which I truly wasn’t intentionally going for other than “knock three times” and the last question.
And to be clear, Now and Then made me very, very bisexual. All of the themes of budding teen hormones in all of the directions!
(Also the commenters above who got it and haven’t seen it yet def give it a watch!!)
Ha! Empire Records – knew it! Although honestly it was Star Trek that made me gay. First Tasha Yar, then Jadzia Dax. Sigh…🫠
DAMN THE MAN, SAVE THE EMPIRE
Thinking about how Britney Spears is probably one of those people who loves Fried Green Tomatoes and the gay stuff just goes over their heads 🤔
I had some insomnia, so watched Now and Then (hence the 3:40 am time stamp and probably grammar and spelling errors).
LOVED IT!! Loved everything about it, the sweet friendship of the girls, the attention to detail, the soundtrack, the amazing treehouse and getting back at those bratty boys by stealing their clothes….pretty much the whole package.
Can’t believe I had never seen it before!!…clearly do not hang around enough with people who have such good taste in movies as here…..
It’s one of my favorites now! Thanks everyone for recommending it and to Riese for including it in the quiz. Now I need to check out the other ones I have not seen….to see what else I am missing…..
Well Goodnight…..see if I can get a few hours of sleep…….
Set it off made me gay… Haven’t even seen that movie😅🤣
Does that mean that I would have been gay no matter what movie I saw😅😂
I was hoping for Girl, Interrupted because I was obsessed with it, but I got The Craft, and now that I think about it that IS more accurate because as a 12-year-old I was fascinated by the girls in the poster for this movie I was terrified to watch. I thought I wanted to be them, but we all know how that goes.
Up until now, all I have read on this article is extremely boring, and seems to be written by writers that lack education. You’ve done a very good job conveying your passion with accurate information.
Growing up in a Christian-fundamentalist household in the 90s, I wasn’t allowed to watch many “worldly” movies, so the films in the quiz didn’t make me gay. But I’m sure that Aleta and other queens and princesses in the comics “Prince Valiant” are my root, unbeknownst to me or my “homosexuality means hell”-parents at the time. The comics by Hal Foster are garbage content-wise (especially around issues of race and gender), but I could look at the drawings of beautiful women for hours, and started drawing them as well. Going through my childhood drawings now, it is very clear to me that I was very GAAAYYYYYY as a kid/teenager, even though I had no clue until I was 22 and didn’t come out until the age of 25.
I wouldn’t have thought The Craft would be the movie that made me gay until I remembered Robin Tunney was in it…
I saw Robin Tunney in a TV show the other day and couldn’t stop thinking about how attractive she is. Then I remembered how she demanded my undivided attention whenever I watched The Craft and now it makes aaaaallll kinds of sense.
I didn’t figure out that I am queer until my late 30s (I’m now 46). When I look back at my teens and 20s, I remember how captivating I found some women. Now that I’m unpacking the effects that compulsory heterosexuality has had on me, I can find so many instances where I was attracted to women and didn’t recognize it and had no idea I was gay. (The early 90s were not a time where there were a lot of positive gay representation or really any gay representation of any kind at all.)
Even as a kid in the 80s, I already knew that girls were my thing, even if I didn’t realize what that really meant. Then a lot of these 90s movies really drove it home for me as an teenager. The films I remember influencing me the most were Now & Then, Clueless, and A League of Their Own. In all 3, I remember seeing women (especially ones I had crushes on) talking about/hooking up with/dating dudes, and I would just be like, What? Why would they want to do that? Why would anyone? Like, it really didn’t compute for me. And that’s when I realized what it all meant. That I was very, very gay.