Turning the page on celluloid sexuality

A FIRST-time author has married her psychology background and teenage moviegoing nostalgia to showcase the depiction of sexuality in the films of the 1990s and 2000s.

The resulting nearly 200-page book, called Apple Pies and Other Lies has been five years in the making for Vanessa Bowen.

She said it’s about comparing how sexuality shown in some of the era’s iconic movies with that of real life.

“The idea was to really examine the depictions of sexuality in those movies,” she said.

“I’ve always loved movies, and I didn’t have a great deal of sex education back then so I kind of filled the gaps with things I’d seen in movies.

“I was interested to see how things measured up to what I saw compared to reality. There were some things I definitely had the wrong end of the stick on.

“Things that fascinated me were around the sociological concepts, the culture of sexuality, and even some biological things that I had so deeply wrong.”

In researching the book, Bowen watched around 200 movies with films like Clueless, American Pie, and 10 Things I Hate About You featured in the work.

She also studied academic papers on sexuality and teenagers, both contemporary and from the topical era.

The book is something of an evolution for Bowen, who has written for magazines and penned a blog during the 2000s where she touched on similar subject matter to the recent work.

Working in psychology and counselling, Bowen received her qualifications at La Trobe University in Bundoora in 2012.

She said in researching the media of the era, the depiction of sexuality in media has definitely changed.

“It’s different now because there’s such a wealth of information available. It’s very easy to find accurate information quickly,” she said.

“When I was a teenager, maybe there was a book in the library that dealt with it. I’m bisexual and this book talks a lot about that and for me figuring that out as a teenager.

“I feel like bisexuality doesn’t get covered a lot in this type of media so it was exciting to jump into that and explore it, and the LGBT community were so supportive.”